CALL FOR PAPERS AND SESSIONS
4th Mid-Term Conference of the ESA Research Network (RN01) on Ageing in Europe
“AGEING IN EUROPE: AGENCY, CITIZENSHIP AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER”
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 5 – 7 September 2018
Conference website: http://esaageing-conf.fss.
Conference email: esaageing.conf@gmail.com
Conference Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/
The major conference theme ‘Agency, Citizenship and the Dynamics of Power’ brings together topics that have traditionally stood at the core of sociological thinking, but that have not been necessarily at the heart of gerontological theory and research. Many authors now point to the contemporary struggles over the representation of older age within and beyond the realm of the social sciences. Later life and older people are represented on one hand as a quiescent minority bearing multiple disadvantages within a social status of limited agency and increasing dependency, experiencing a loss of autonomy and the need to redefine one´s role in the community and society. On the other hand, older people are also seen as a source of new political, economic, and cultural ‘grey’ power, as an influential actor in contemporary societies, shaping the contours of new policies and welfare regimes. These debates reflect the diversity of the experiences of ageing selves and the pluralities of life courses as well as of the institutional, political, and social changes with which the personal and individual experience is inseparably interlinked. These struggles lead also to the reformulation of the concepts of agency, autonomy, or power themselves and to the calling for their even more reflexive application in academic accounts of the human experience in later life.
The organizers welcome individual and team contributions from the sociology of ageing, social gerontology, and related academic fields, as well as submissions for thematic session proposals. We would like to particularly invite papers and sessions that will discuss ageing-related issues within (but not limited to) the following topics:
Contemporary theories of power and citizenship in later life
(In)dependency, interdependency, and personhood in older age
Homes, communities and power in the context of migration
Structural changes and existential challenges in later life
Older persons as (political) actors in contemporary societies
Research methodologies and power relationships within research (in the field)
Roles of various stakeholders in ageing related agendas and policies as well as in influencing individual ageing conditions
Important dates:
January 15:Call for Abstracts & Sessions Opens
February 28: Call for Abstracts & Sessions Closes
March 31: Notification of Paper or Session Acceptance
May 15: Registration Fee Payment Deadline for Presenters
May 30: Conference Programme Launch
We are looking forward to meeting you in Brno!
