Project Workshop in Graz
19 to 20 October 2023
From 19 to 20 October 2023, the second workshop of our project “Transforming Anxieties of Ageing in Southeastern Europe”, financed by the VolkswagenStiftung, took place in Graz.
The aim of our workshop was twofold: On the first day, our teams from Budapest, Graz, Regensburg and Sofia presented the state of their research, especially their ongoing fieldwork and their media discourse analysis.
On the second day, we held a special workshop for our doctoral students on interdisciplinary and participatory Ageing Studies. For this purpose, we invited Mgr. Ľubica Voľanská, PhD. from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava who gave a lecture on “Doing age? The relationship between interviewee and interviewer in ethnological research on ageing”. In her talk, she focussed on the ongoing discussion about the potential ageism that might occur when “younger” persons conduct research on “older” persons. Thus, she explained how interviews are affected by the identities that we bring into the interview context, and how our positions can be related to age. In particular, she addressed the vulnerability of interview partners and made clear that it is the interviewer’s task to maintain the dignity of older interviewees. Ľubica Voľanská provided insights into challenges and pitfalls but also chances and advantages of interviewing older adults. After her lecture, we turned to practice and let our doctoral students train their interview skills.
Workshop participants listen to the lecture of Ľubica Voľanská
Copyright: CIRAC
In the afternoon, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) at the University of Graz presented the project Caring-Living-Labs Graz. This project aims to strengthen social participation and promotes health opportunities for older and very old people in precarious living situations in the city of Graz. Its focus is on socio-economically disadvantaged groups and people with migration biographies. Over the course of our project, we will try to find out to what extent the experience with these living labs could be transferred to countries in Southeastern Europe.
Project members at the workshop in Graz
Copyright: CIRAC
