GLOBAL SOCIAL ISSUES ON AGING (GSIA)
Global Social Initiative on Aging (GSIA) concerned by fostering collaborative, trans-national approaches to the creation and transfer of knowledge at the intersections of global trends and population ageing.
The GSIA will address critical challenges arising from these global trends including:
The sustainability of older rural populations who face increased poverty and out-migration of young people arising from the impact of climate change.
The ability of families to sustain intergenerational support in the face of poverty, pandemics, and changing family structures and beliefs.
Global shifts in world economies toward the individualization of risk that have led to increasing income disparities, older adults who are left behind in migratory transitions, and widening north-south divides.
The erosion or absence of social welfare provisions that have resulted in increasing social and economic costs of care.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Position IAGG as a responsive, insightful and visible voice of global issues on ageing.
Create global evidence of how key contexts of ageing (people, place and policy) influence well-being of older people.
Solidify the master class program, underpinned by the principle of inclusion of scholars from all Regions.
Create outlets for timely, ongoing, widespread and active knowledge mobilization with key regional and international organizations and governments
Important Issues for Early Career Researchers. 27th Nordic Congress of Gerontology. Stockholm, Sweden. 11th June, 2024.
This preconference workshop was organized by SAIN (SWEAH Alumni Interdisciplinary research Network); British Society of Gerontology; UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge and the Swedish Gerontological Society, with support from the IAGG Global Social Issues on Ageing. Its purpose was to provide an opportunity for early career researchers to interact with senior researchers about career choices and pathways. 125 early career researchers from 20 countries attended the session which was described as “a panel discussion with highly accomplished senior researchers in gerontology with informal conversations about career choices”.
The session was coordinated by Dr Charlotta Nilsen, Institute of Gerontology at Jönköping University and coordinator of the SAIN network. Panel moderators were early career researchers, all of whom have university appointments and are involved in their national professional societies. They are Dr. Rebecca Baxter, Umeå University, Sweden; Dr Amy Prescott, Brunel University UK; and Dr Junjie Huang, University of Stirling UK.
Panel members were Luigi Ferrucci, National Institute on Aging, USA; Merril Silverstein, Syracuse University, USA; Nancy Pedersen, Karolinska Institute, Sweden; and Norah Keating, Global Social Issues on Ageing, IAGG. In response to questions developed from Early Career Researchers panel members spoke of several issues. They discussed the early stages of their careers and their strategies for finding opportunities to collaborate and develop networks. They talked about the high demands of an academic career and how you can thrive if you love what you are doing. Their vision of gerontology in the future included more cross-disciplinary research and emphasising contexts of ageing.
A reception after the workshop provided an opportunity for networking among participants and panel members.
For information on SAIN see https://www.sweah.lu.se/en/about-sweah/sain-sweah-alumni-interdisciplinary-network
EMPOWERING FUTURES: Shaping a Dignified Long-Term Care Ecosystem for Healthy Ageing and Well-being of Carers and Older Persons in the Middle East and North Africa. Cairo, Egypt https://menarah.org/join-our-regional-symposium-empowering-futures-cairo-29-30-april-2024/
This 2-day workshop was sponsored jointly by the Middle East and North Africa ResearchNetwork and the GSIA, hosted by the American University in Cairo and coordinated by Professor Shereen Hussein https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/hussein.sheree
Norah Keating (IAGG GSIA), Patricia Conboy (HelpAge International), Susan Reinhard (AARP), Claire Champeix (Eurocarers). Taking part in a network meeting and seminar of the ROSEnet COST Action program, Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy. Meetings were held at the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium in Brussels, February 19-21. Claire Champeix, Susan Reinhard and Patricia Conboy took part in a policy panel, Stakeholder Perspectives on Old-age Exclusion and Policy. Norah Keating presented a workshop on “Identifying Policy Messages toward Making a Difference”.
Norah Keating, Director of the IAGG Global Social Issues on Aging (GSIA), met with members of the Sustainable Care program. The program aims to improve how care is planned, resourced, organized, delivered and experienced, by providing evidence to inform the decisions, policies and actions of governments, employers, families, older people and care sector stakeholders. The Sustainable Care program comprises 20 scholars in 7 universities, linked to an international network spanning 15 countries.
Norah Keating, Director, IAGG Global Social Issues on Ageing, was an invited speaker at a consultation with the Canadian Minister of Families, Children and Social Development in Ottawa. The topic of the consultation was Social Exclusion of Older Persons in Canada. Participants in the consultation were representatives of groups of older persons in Canada at risk of social exclusion including: First Nations, Aboriginal and Metis; LGBTQ, and Persons with Disabilities, Immigrants and Refugees. Social Exclusion is an important theme in the work of the GSIA.