The Ageing and the Lifecourse research group (Faculty of Social Sciences and Law), University of Bristol invites you to a keynote speech on Negotiating Intergenerational Relations in a Changing Demographic Landscape by Simon Biggs, Professor of Gerontology & Social Policy, Melbourne University, Australia, with discussants Ann-Kristin Boström (Jönköping University) and Gregory Mannion (University of Stirling).

The demographics of population ageing are well known, yet cultural adaptation has been slow to gain momentum, beyond notions of continuing to stay as one is. Current narratives include extended working, mid-lifestyle consumption or resisting changing lifecourse priorities. It is suggested that cultural adaptation contains at least two principal challenges: finding novel purpose and contribution from a long life that are connected to changing lifecourse priorities, plus negotiating a situation where generational groups are becoming approximately the same size.

A key element in understanding intergenerational relations would be the relative capacity to put oneself in the place of the age-other and this talk will examine the idea of generational intelligence in this context. A number of tensions will be examined as a means of interrogating this increasingly contested landscape, each of which have implications on how age relations can be negotiated and new forms of active engagement might be created: between positive and negative forms of discontinuity, positive forms of othering, within-age and between-age thinking, and, present and lifecourse centred perspectives. Each would contribute toward the conceptual tools we need to make generationally informed judgements about age-related interventions and to future-proof policy and other initiatives from an intergenerational perspective.

Registration will take place from 15:45 with the talk beginning at 16:00. Drinks and nibbles will be served following the talk and Q&A session from 17:30.

This is a FREE event but places should be booked. When registering please let us know if you have any access requirements.

For more information or to register over the phone please contact: Dr Wenjing Zhang. Email: wenjing.zhang@bristol.ac.uk Telephone: 0117 331 0732.