Paper 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.

Paper 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?