Inclusive Communication Observatories: A Model for Participatory Evaluation and Age‐Friendly Governance

Abstract

The twin green and digital transition is reshaping municipal governance through increasingly complex communication environments that mediate access to public services, policy interpretation, and citizen participation. The existing research on digital governance, age-friendly cities, accessibility, and participatory governance has made significant advances in understanding the challenges older adults face in digitized institutional contexts. However, municipal communication remains insufficiently conceptualized as an object of participatory evaluation. This article develops a theoretical framework, grounded in a critical review, to examine communicative exclusion as a specific form of institutional inequality that affects older adults in contexts of accelerated socio-technical transformation. The analysis argues that communication exclusion cannot be reduced to individual deficits in digital skills; rather, it must also be understood in relation to how municipalities design and organize their communication systems, information architectures, and digital infrastructures. Drawing on the literature on citizen observatories and participatory governance, this article sets forth the model of inclusive communication observatories as a participatory evaluation infrastructure through which older adults can contribute to the co-definition, auditing, interpretation, and institutional review of municipal communication processes. The work shifts communication from a secondary administrative function to a procedural requirement that determines the intelligibility and accessibility of, and participation in, public policies. The article conceptualizes inclusive communication observatories as an infrastructure for shared governance and participatory evaluation. This contribution expands the conversation on procedural justice, digital ageism, age-friendly governance, and democratic inclusion within the context of the twin green and digital transition.