“Without the grandmas, there is no revolution”

Catalan emotions ran high in September and October 2017. On October 1st, the population was called to an independence referendum. The pro-independence movement is a bottom-up movement that transverses across age groups. Of interest is the strong commitment of the older generations. While it might be too early for an in-depth analysis, three elements should be considered to justify this particularity. First, the willingness of the older people to get involved in the protests – a must in grassroots movements. Second, the public recognition of the role of older people now and during the dictatorship. And third, older people’s active participation in the digital spaces that articulate and support the movement.

Our Fitbits, our (aging)selves? Digital self-tracking and embodied aging

At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung surprised business-watchers with a shift in market development plans. Expected to focus on robots, they instead announced a focus on wearable health devices, such as fitness trackers, believing that (according to their CEO) “an aging society will help this market segment grow more quickly”. This article explores the different ways that self-tracking technologies depending on age. For older adults, conversations ten toward mitigating risks, and identifying onsets of, age-related decline.

An Update from WAM Summer School

The Centre for Women, Ageing and Media (WAM) celebrated its ten year anniversary at its sixth international summer school in June this year. This took place in Gloucestershire in England. WAM2017 took ‘Noisy Women’ as its theme and the summer school lived up to the promise.

Keep Calm and Reboot: Older Adults’ Experiences of Technostress

While the manifestation of technostress is common across age, gender and cultural contexts, older adults have very specific challenges. Older adults, despite being the fastest growing segment of ICT users, are often ignored in technostress research, thus very little is known about how they experience and cope with it.

Notes on the Aging Graz 2017 ENAS & NANAS Conference

From April 27 to 30, 2017, the conference AgingGraz2017: Cultural Narratives, Processes & Strategies in Representations of Age and Aging took place at the the Medical University of Graz in Austria. AgingGraz2017 was the third conference of the European Network in Ageing Studies (ENAS), and also the first conference to be jointly organized by ENAS and its counterpart the North American Network in Aging Studies (NANAS).

Skyping with Grandma: the role of ICTs in everyday family life

Tricia Toso met with Shannon Hebblethwaite to discuss her most recent research and to learn a little more about the complexities of family communications, in particular the challenges grandparents experience.

Walking with Locals

A look at the impact of gentrification on older residents in Vancouver's Chinatown.

A Recipe for Activism: The Politics and Joy of Cooking

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What do you get when you mix equal parts of social activism and a love of food within a group of older adults?

Spotlight on Technology and Dementia Research

This month’s In Focus piece brings an overview of an EU-funded research project on ageing and technology; one that approaches the topic from a health perspective, with a specific focus on dementia.