Center for Aging Science Seminar: Reconfiguring Individual Responsibility in Ageing Society

Center for Aging Science Seminar: Reconfiguring Individual Responsibility in Ageing Society. A Longitudinal Study of Public Discourse about Ageing and Health in Italian Newspapers

Speakers: Dr Federico Neresini and Dr Francesco Miele (University of Padova)
Date: Wednesday 12th May 2021
Time: 3 PM (Hong Kong Time) /9 AM (Italy Time)
Venue: via Zoom (meeting ID and passcode will be sent upon successful registration before the seminar)
Registration: https://ust.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9tBjPUTsU2kNqK2
For more details: http://aging.ust.hk/news 

Abstract:
From the beginning of 2000’s, social scientists have been underlining how western countries are currently characterised by concepts such as active ageing or positive ageing strictly connected with neo-liberal ideology. Most of the previous studies on this topic analyse a limited amount of data and limit their attention to Anglo-Saxon countries. In order to fill this gap, we conducted a longitudinal analysis from 1985 until now selecting a corpus of articles retrieved from the public archive of La Repubblica (one of the most important Italian newspapers), considering an initial dataset of 44,075 articles. Relying upon the TIPS web-platform - developed by our research unit at the University of Padua – we will address two research questions: i) To what extent does media coverage show that the management of frailty in elderly people is an individual matter? ii) To what extent does coronavirus supported or slowed down the diffusion of individualizing discourses?

About the speakers:
Federico Neresini is a full professor of Sociology at University of Padova, where he is teaching Sociology of Innovation and Science, Technology, Media and Society. He is the coordinator of the PaSTIS research group at University of Padova. His research interests are focused on Science & Technology Studies, in particular on the construction processes of scientific knowledge and analyzing technoscience in the public sphere.

Francesco Miele is a research fellow at University of Padova and member of the PaSTIS research group. He is also adjunct professor at University of Trento and at University of Verona. His main research interests regard the relationship between technology, care practices and organization.