Ageing 'Well'

In this week’s episode, host Laura Haapio-Kirk is joined by  Dr Matthew Lariviere (University of Sheffield), Dr Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University), and Dr Iza Kavedžija (University of Exeter) to discuss ageing - from the opportunities that come with later life, to the often negative imagination of ageing in popular discourse. What does it mean to age well, and how is this culturally constructed in different parts of the world?

• Matthew Lariviere is a UKRI Innovation Fellow at the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities at The University of Sheffield where he explores challenges and opportunities for technologies to support older adults, families, communities and the care workforce. He is the Chair and representative for the European Union in the European Commission-funded IDIH Global Expert Group on Inclusive Living. Matthew is also a convenor of the Age and Generations Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists and a member of the Executive Committee of the British Society of Gerontology.
• Jason Danely is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University who has been conducting research on aging and care in Japan for about 15 years. He is past-president of the Association for Anthropology, Gerontology and the Life Course and co-founder and convenor of the Age and Generations Network of the European Association for Social Anthropology. He currently chairs the Commission on Aging and Life Course for the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.
• Iza Kavedžija is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Exeter. Her research interests include meaning in life, motivation, life choices, wellbeing, ageing and the life course. She specializes in the anthropology of Japan, and her doctoral research, at the University of Oxford, examined the construction of meaning in life and the experience of aging among older people in Osaka. A book based on this work, entitled 'Making Meaningful Lives: Tales from an Aging Japan', has been published recently by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

To subscribe to the Being Human Show, search for ‘Being Human’ in your preferred podcast player, or find us over on our RSS feed. This podcast is produced by Dr Jennifer Cearns and Laura Haapio-Kirk, and edited by Dr Antónia Gama and Deanna Mitchell, in partnership with the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. All rights reserved.