Seminar: Population Ageing Affects All Age Groups

Photograph of Paula Devine, Pearl Dykstra and Gemma Carney, at a seminar on 17 September 2015.
From left: Paula Devine (ARK Ageing Programme), Pearl Dykstra, Gemma Carney (ARK Ageing Programme)

The seminar took place on Thursday 17 September 2015, in Queen’s University Belfast

Debates on ageing societies mainly focus on the circumstances of older people. However, this seminar highlighted how population ageing affects everyone.

Gemma Carney  (ARK Ageing Programme) presented findings from the 2014 Kids’ Life and Times survey, exploring children’s attitudes to age and ageing.

View slides; View Research Update: What do children think about old age?

Professor Pearl Dykstra (Erasmus University Rotterdam) discussed how demographic changes have strongly altered the social worlds of children, and are creating new opportunities for intergenerational connections. She also highlighted how age segregation deprives the young of a proper view of mid-life and old age, and produces adults who have little understanding of the young.

View slides

 

 

Pearl Dykstra is Professor of Empirical Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and is an internationally renowned specialist in family change, ageing societies and the life course. She is currently working on Families in Context project, which focuses on the ways in which policy, economy and cultural contexts structure intergenerational and gendered dependencies in families.

Logo of Improving Children's Lives Initiative, Queen's University BelfastThis event was funded by the Improving Children’s Lives initiative within Queen’s University Belfast.