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Short abstract

This paper discusses questions like: How do older adults themselves perceive academic concepts and theories? What are their critiques, and how can we work together to co.create new concepts and theories addressing the experiences world of ageing adults? Those theories can be a less ageist backdrop for policy-making and practice intervention designs.

Long abstract

This contribution is based on a seminar at the University of the Third Age in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), which was part of the Franco-German project 'Space, Age and Social Exclusion. A French-German Dialogue. (SPAGE)'. In the seminar we conducted participatory research with older students on issues related to age and space. We discussed existing concepts and theories, but also develop them further on the basis of empirical co-research using photovoice and logbooks. The seminar concluded with an excursion to Strasbourg, where the German participants meet a group of French participants taking part in a parallel seminar at the University Grenoble and explore the city together.

The paper analyses the experiences of this international, participatory seminar and discusses the challenges and limitations identified. For example, it became clear that participants relate to space less in terms of age and more in terms of life course, describing how their relationships to places have changed in different phases of life and the role played by intersectionalities. Finally, we present common developments of theoretical concepts such as 'agency' and 'belonging'.

Against this background, general questions will be addressed, such as: How do older people themselves perceive academic concepts and theories? What are their critiques, and how can we work together to create new concepts and spatial theories addressing the experiences world of ageing adults? And what challenges and perspective boundaries arise and shift when we explore, reinterpret and reinterpret such scientific concepts in a participatory way?

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Short abstract

Challenging ageist, heteronormative, and ableist discourses about who has a stake in the future, my contribution discusses participatory methods for co-creating new narratives of the future together with older people living in places that have been labelled ‘abandoned’.

Long abstract

How do older people living in places that have been labelled ‘abandoned’, characterized by depopulation, an aging population, and post-industrial decline, feel about the future? How do communities within these ‘abandoned’ places tell stories about the past, present, and future of the place they live? How is an (utopian) future imagined in later life?

Challenging ageist, heteronormative, and ableist discourses about who has a stake in the future, my contribution discusses participatory methods for co-creating new narratives of the future together with older people. Based on the ongoing research process of the European project “Waste/Land/Futures: Intergenerational relations in places of abandonment and renewal across Europe”, this contribution explores how older adults imagine the future(s) of their community in the face of post-industrial, climate, and demographic change.

To make locally produced utopian visions of the future visible and give a voice to those who are often ignored by mainstream policy decisions about the future, we use co-creative participatory methods informed by ethnographic field work, which by itself contains participatory elements. This approach allows for an ‘unwriting’ and ‘restorying’ of existing imaginative visions of the future that may be discriminatory or exclusive.

Rather than conceptualizing generations and aging as straightforward, linear concepts rooted in narratives of progress or decline, this contribution interrogates these assumptions and suggests alternatives that are not rooted in normative discourses that value youth, (re)productivity, and positivity.

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Short abstract

Using GenAI can help us co-produce, rewrite, or “unwrite” with participants the dominant AgeTech futures that these tools tend to perpetuate, often rooted in ageist visions. Drawing on futures-oriented fieldwork using GenAI images with older adults in Melbourne, we moved through the images rewriting and unwriting different future meanings, going beyond static and ageist representations of the images and our hyper-realistic presents.

Long abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) is reproducing biased and normative visions of the worlds we inhabit ─including ageist perspectives─ by extracting existing information and rewriting our lived experiences. While such practices raise unethical concerns, I argue that anthropologists who draw on participatory methodological innovation should not be discouraged from engaging critically with this tool. Using GenAI can help us co-produce, rewrite, or “unwrite” with participants the dominant futures that these tools perpetuate. Rooted in a futures-anthropology agenda, I used GenAI images during household visits with older adults in Melbourne, Australia, to reimagine what possible futures we want to live. These engagements were preceded by a research on industry visions through a review of reports and interviews with experts that informed my fieldwork with older adults and generation of GenAI images. The GenAI images generated looked and felt deeply ageist, portraying later life as technologically mediated, frail, and dependent. However, their disconnection from the participants’ everyday future realities created a space to foreground shared priorities and concerns. Together, we reworked these representations, co-producing alternative futures that challenge and transcend the normative visions ingrained in GenAI visions. Far from fixed or static representations, these images became sites of dynamic negotiation ─we moved through the images rewriting and unwriting different meanings, going beyond our hyper-realistic presents.

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Short abstract

This paper presents the qualitative segment of a mixed-methods study on sexuality in later life. While previous research on sexual aging has predominantly focused on losses, such as declines in sexual functioning and diminished sexual activity, this study aims to explore the underlying processes like adaptation and acceptance, empower older adults, and challenge these narratives by reframing aging and sexuality beyond conventional scientific paradigms.

Long abstract

This paper presents the qualitative segment of a mixed-methods study on sexuality in later life. While previous research on sexual aging has predominantly focused on losses, such as declines in sexual functioning and diminished sexual activity, this study aims to explore the underlying processes like adaptation and acceptance, empower older adults, and challenge these narratives by reframing aging and sexuality beyond conventional scientific paradigms.

Drawing on qualitative research conducted with older adults in elderly people’s homes in Croatia, this study explores how participants perceive and articulate changes in their sexuality. Through open-ended questions in focus groups, older adults shared their personal visions and experiences, offering a counter-narrative to the framing of sexual changes as markers of “unsuccessful” aging. Instead, their accounts reveal acceptance, adaptation, change of focus on closeness and intimacy, and, sometimes, active sexuality despite physical declines. The study also examines gender differences and individual interpretations of sexual aging.

By unwriting entrenched hierarchies and positionalities, we aim to highlight alternative narratives of aging that center agency, resilience, and advocacy. Co-creative methodologies emerge as a way to challenge systemic ageism, and to engage older adults ethically in knowledge production, while enabling us to address complex issues such as later-life sexuality. Reflecting on processes of acceptance, adaptation, and growth, this paper proposes flexible and inclusive models of sexual aging that resonate with older adults’ realities. It advocates for unwriting methodological, theoretical, and social boundaries, positioning research as a collaborative and transformative endeavor.

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Short abstract

While participatory research is praised for challenging ageism, empirical evidence remains limited. The paper reviews studies on its impact on older adults’ self-conceptions and societal status, focusing on "unwriting" ageism. We also reflect on involving older adults in shaping our research process.

Long abstract

Participatory research is frequently praised for its emancipatory potential in age studies and related fields. However, these claims often lean more on hopeful assertions than empirical proof. Despite widespread declarations about the positive effects of participatory research, systematic empirical evidence remains limited and fragmented.

This paper critically reviews existing works on how participatory research influences older adults’ self-conceptions and societal standing. It explores how participatory methodologies are linked to reducing ageism, drawing on Butler's (1969) foundational work on age discrimination. Our analysis focuses on the conceptual frameworks employed to assess the social impact of participatory research, particularly concerning age-related stigma and stereotyping.

We examine two key impact levels: the individual level, framed as personal empowerment and emancipation, and the socio-economic level, conceptualised as countering structural age discrimination. The paper dissects the criteria and metrics commonly used to evaluate these impacts, highlighting strengths, limitations, and gaps in current empirical approaches.

Additionally, we reflect on the process of involving older adults in our scoping review’s design (Munn et al., 2018; Westphaln et al., 2021). We discuss how older participants were involved and shaped the study by suggesting relevant questions, selecting focus areas, and commenting on findings. This participatory element not only informed the research process but also provided a practical test case for assessing the potential of co-research to challenge ageist narratives.

By bridging theory and practice, this paper aims to advance understanding of how participatory research can help “unwrite” ageism in academic and societal contexts.