Linking Ages: A Dialogue Between Childhood and Ageing Research

When we ponder about whether it is time to finish a degree, start a family, or retire, we often draw on age to make an assessment: When are we too young, or too old, to do something - and what age is the right one? Age, thereby, is a central social category for Western societies: more than gender, ethnicity or social status age affects our social position, networks, lifestyles and aspirations.

By asking what childhood and ageing research can learn from each other, this edited volume brings both fields into a fruitful dialogue. It touches upon topics like theories and method(olog)ies, space and time, health and care, technologies and digitalization, play, work and consumption, as well as violence, well-being and childrens’ and older peoples’ rights.

This volume will appeal to scholars and students interested in childhood studies and ageing studies/gerontology located in a range of disciplines, from sociology to social work, social and cultural anthropology, educational sciences, human geography, architecture, urban planning, architecture, health and disability studies, nursing studies, political sciences and law.

Anna Wanka leads a DFG-funded Emmy-No ether research group on ＂Linking Ages - The Socio-Material Practices of Un/Doing Age across the Life-Course＂ at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Tabea Freutel-Funke, MA, is a researcher at the University of Stuttgart specialized in childhood and qualitative research methods and a first moment Linking Ages funding member and enthusiast.

Sabine Andresen is Professor of Social Pedagogy and Family Research at the Department of Educational Sciences at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main.

Frank Oswald, PhD, is Professor for Interdisciplinary Ageing Research (IAW), Chair of the Frankfurt Forum for interdisciplinary Ageing Research (FFIA) at the Goethe University, Germany and Director of the Center AGING for Early Career Researcher at the Goethe Graduate Academy (GRADE).