Ageing places. March 26-29th 2012

EMAPS workshop, Digital Methods Initiative, University of Amsterdam
Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT Amsterdam
Room 0.12

Program

Improvements in healthcare, early diagnosis of diseases as well as better housing, sanitary and dietary conditions have lead to the dramatic doubling of the life expectancy of the population in most areas of the world. This shift in demographics is creating new challenges for diverse sectors of society and opening the debate on how to cope with the advantages and/or distribute the burdens of a population that is living longer. For instance, in the past years different entities have prioritized the issue of aging in their agendas, each emphasizing what they considered as urgent on relation to it. For example, the European Union designated 2012 as the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations with the overall objective “to facilitate the creation of an active ageing culture in Europe based on a society for all ages” (European Parliament, 2011). According to the European Commission at the beginning of 2010 there were 87 million people aged 65 and over in the EU, more than 17 % of the total population" (Eurostat, 2011). Somewhat differently, organizations such as the Young Foundation in the UK are focusing on the prevention (instead of a future management) of a social crisis associated with the care of an elderly population. They encourage new equilibriums between sick and healthy and a longer participation of the elderly in their communities. According to the Young Foundation in the UK life expectancy “is increasing at more than five hours a day, every day.” (Rogers, 2012)

The consequences of this new demographic (un)-balance are topic of public debate: when are people considered to be old and according to which sectors? How will society cope with greater numbers living with chronic illness at the same time that the working force is dwindling? How should individual and state responsibilities be balanced? Will privileged nations drain age-friendly resources? How will this motivate migration across countries?

The heterogeneity of the questions associated with ageing makes ageing a special kind of distributed issue, both in terms that it crosses a number of broad sectors but also that it moves across cultural and geographical borders at the same time that it is mobilizing large sets of resources and people across the globe. In other words, what it “means to grow old” is tied intensely to local, international and transnational agendas, to market interests and policy making: ageing is defined by place at the same time that it is producing new geographies. How to begin mapping and visualizing these differences, points of encounters and disagreements will be the challenge of this week’s workshop.

We suggest three potential projects to be advanced during the workshop week. A first project (1) would examine and analyze the issue of ageing cross-culturally, in other words, how ageing is being issuefied in different European countries. This task acquires special relevance when, as was mentioned earlier, the European Union designated 2012 as the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations resulting in a framing of ageing as a concern across nations. However, do European countries currently share similar concerns with respect to ageing? May one read alignments between countries through shared issue language or matters of concern? A suggested entry point for mapping national issues could be the ongoing pension debates taking place across Europe.

A second project would respond to the need for a more fine-grained analysis and would suggest comparing in detail how ageing is being framed in the Polish and the British contexts. It is an invitation to have both Polish and British aging issues trade places and test their relevance for each other by employing a dialogic process.

A third project would focus on ageing and the change of place. It would seek to explore possible methodologies to map worker and pensioner migration connected with ageing. The map would show the dynamics of the European working markets, bringing together the multiple narratives related to the migration of the care-workers and the creation of new aging places (retirement destinations gaining popularity).

Projects

• EmapsAgeingAsCrossCulturalIssue
• EmapsTradingPlaces
• EmapsAgeingAsMigration

About

The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is dedicated to reworking method for Internet-related research. DMI is one of the participants in EMAPS (Electronic Maps for Public Science) a collaborative research project that aims to get a better understanding of whether the web can provide an meaningful equipment to produce an enhanced interest of a wider public in science and technology issues, not as receivers of information about end results of science, but as potential participants in science in the making.

Schedule

Monday, 26 March 2012

9.30 Opening session (Natalia Sanchez and Richard Rogers) Ageing Places

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Late morning session Presentation by Sciences Po, Paris (Tommaso Venturini)

• AgingURLs_startingPoint_extended.REVIEWED.xls: URLs related to ageing (mostly institutional), starting points by YF, extended by SP.
• AGEING__THEMATIC_ANALYSIS_OF_AGEING_DATABASE.ver02.docx: Keywords related to ageing, identified by the YF.

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Afternoon session Presentation by DesignDensity Lab, Milan (Donato Ricci and Michele Mauri)

• The videos: http://www.densitydesign.org/course_projects/climate-change-visualizing-controversies-on-climate-change/
• The reports: http://www.densitydesign.org/course_projects/climate-change-controversy-report/

15.00 Tea

15.15 Amsterdam Issue Mapping Presentations Ageing projects (Demet Dagdelen, Chris Mead, Aleksandra Kil)

17.00 ends

Tuesday, 27 March

9.30 Morning session Ageing Places project group formation

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Late morning session Presentation by Young Foundation, London (Wil Norman, Lucy Kimball and Jacques Mizan)

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Afternoon session Ageing Places project groups

15.00 Tea

15.15 Late afternoon session Ageing Places project groups

17.00 ends

Wednesday, 28 March

9.30 Morning session

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Late morning session

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Afternoon session

15.00 Tea

15.15 Late afternoon session

17.00 ends

Thursday, 28 March

9.30 Morning session

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Late morning session

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Afternoon session

15.00 Tea

15.15 Late afternoon session

17.00 ends

Friday, 29 March

9.30 Morning session

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Late morning session

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Afternoon session

15.00 Tea

15.15 Late afternoon session

17.00 ends

Schedule subject to change.

References

European Parliament (2011). European legislative resolution of 7 July 2011 on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Year for Active Ageing, COM(2010)0462 – C7-0253/2010 – 2010/0242(COD).

Eurostat (2011). Active aging and solidarity between generations. Luxembourg: Office of the European Union.

Rogers Yvonne (2012). One Hundred NotOut: resilience and active ageing. London:The Young Foundation. Refering also to The Academy of Medical Sciences (2009). Rejuvenating Ageing Research. London.