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Ageing in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Two-thirds of global population aged over 60 now live in Africa, Asia and Latin America yet they remain under researched.  While most issues facing people as they age are broadly similar across the world the contexts in which they play out can differ significantly, radically changing the opportunities and challenges older people face.
This SIG will focus on low and middle income countries in order to strengthen gerontology’s ability to develop and promote rigorous, comparative and cross-cultural research that comprehends the impact of rapidly changing economies, different cultural contexts, policy making and policy implementation on later life.

Aims & Objectives:

The SIG aims to facilitate the building of a stronger empirical base and the development of new theories on ageing that are attuned to the specific policy, economic, demographic and cultural contexts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The SIG will:

  • Provide a space and intellectual community to foreground the political, social, economic, demographic, policy, cultural and historical contexts that impact on ageing in Asia, Africa and Latin America
  • Draw together academics, research students and NGO personnel
  • Hold meetings primarily in central London, hosted by Age International and HelpAgeInternational, the key NGO organisations working on ageing in low and middle income settings.
  • Organise meetings around themed sessions
  • Hold an annual SIG panel at the BSG conference
  • Promote doctoral students and early career researchers in this area of gerontology

Members:

Steering committee members:

Joining the SIG:

Membership of the Ageing in Africa Asia and Latin America SIG is open to all.

If you would like to be part of this SIG please contact the SIG Steering Committee

BSGglobalsouthSIG@britishgerontology.org

Events:

 

British Society of Gerontology 54th Annual Conference

25th-27th June 2025, University of Surrey

Special Interest Group on Ageing in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Panels 5 and 6: Date and Time to be confirmed

Panel 5: Integrating Critical Disability Studies With Ageing Research: Insights from South Asia

Chair: Tannistha Samanta - FLAME University, Pune, India, tannistha.samanta@flame.edu.in

Symposium Abstract*

This symposium is premised on the contention that for the most part, critical disability studies and gerontology have followed parallel paths. This non-dialogue becomes acute, especially in the Global South where due to disciplinary and structural barriers, the understanding of ageing with and into disability remains outside the scope of scientific inquiry. The symposium will explore the possibility of “greying” disability studies by critically questioning the ontological burden of the Western gerontological tradition that has long shaped the field and associated neglect of embodied subjectivities of (dis)abled bodies. This symposium includes 4 papers that undergird new modes of thinking in disability studies while forging a South-South dialogue that has escaped much of decolonial scholarship.

Papers

Cripping Ageing Studies: What can gerontology learn from disability studies

Dr Vinay Suhalka, FLAME University, Pune, India, vinay.suhalka@flame.edu.in

Ageing With Disabilities And Ageing Into Disabilities: An Intersectional Analysis

Prof Renu Addlakha, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, India, addlakhar@gmail.com

Collaborative Care: On Ageing and Caregiving for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in India

DR MEGHANA RAO, Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India, meghana.rao@apu.edu.in

Urban heat stress and the mental health of older adults in Dhaka: Adaptation pathways in the context of climate change

Dr Md Shanawez Hossain1, Dr Selim Jahangir2, Dr Tanita Noor3

1Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies & Governance, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), Dhaka, Bangladesh, shanawez@iub.edu.bd

Panel 6: Gender and Caregiving for Older People in Brazil

Chairs: Peter Lloyd Sherlock/Penny Vera-Sanso – Northumbria University/Birkbeck, University of London, p.vera-sanso@bbk.ac.uk

Symposium Abstract*

These papers are derived from a connected set of research studies funded by the Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute, the Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo and the Brazilian Ministry of Health. These studies share a focus on family caregiving for highly dependent older people in poor urban neighbourhoods.

Papers

The Pros And Cons Of Framing Care For Older People As A Primarily Feminist Issue. Brazilian Policy Experiences.

Karla Giacomin, Brazil Care Association (Cuidadosa) kcgiacomin@hotmail.com

"I Don't Want Her To See My Thing". Gender Dynamics Of Bathing Older People In Poor Brazilian Neighbourhoods".

Roberta Goés, Federal University of Salvador robertapg@ufba.br  and Renan Amaral Oliveira, University of São Paulo renan_aceber@hotmail.com

Gender Norms And Caregiving For Older People. The Views Of Paid Caregivers In Brazil.

Wanderson Bonfim, Federal University of Minas Gerais. wandersoncb10@gmail.com

The effects of Programa Maior Cuidado on the experiences of male and female family caregivers in poor Brazilian urban neighbourhoods.

Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Northumbria University peter.lloyd-sherlock@northumbria.ac.uk

Paper Abstracts- to follow
Further information

These are hybrid events. Links will be sent to SIG Members nearer the date.   To join the SIG send an email to: BSGglobalsouthSIG@britishgerontology.org

On-line attendance at these BSG Conference panels is free/no registration needed.