Abstract:  This article examines how German metropolitan municipalities plan and allocate social infrastructure for youth and older adults in large newly built urban quarters. Focusing on projects in the outskirts, it combines governance analysis with mobile spatial methods in a multi-sited study of Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. The findings reveal a structural asymmetry in socio-spatial governance: Youth-related infrastructure is institutionally embedded in welfare legislation and planning routines, while senior-related provision remains fragmented and weakly anchored. Across the cases, the everyday functioning of social infrastructure is shaped less by formal planning standards than by access to space, sectoral routines, and governance arrangements. The article argues that understanding social infrastructure as a relational and processual resource is essential for explaining divergent social outcomes in similarly-built environments.

Keywords:  ageing; Germany; social infrastructure; socio-spatial governance; suburbanisation; youth

Published:   1 October 2026

Issue:   Vol 11 (2026): Suburban Development and City Extensions (In Progress)