This one-day online event was organized, on September 9, 2025, by the EASA Age and Generations Network (AGENET), the IUAES Commission of Aging and the Life Course, and the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Dedicated to exploring participatory approaches in ageing studies, it gathered qualitative researchers and practitioners working with older adults who are interested in shaping (research) realities in a way that is responsive to the diverse possibilities and desires of ageing collaborators.
The event consisted of the introduction to the key issues and possibilities of participatory approaches in ageing research as well as a practice-oriented workshop. The attendess were encouraged to experiment with – and critically probe the potential of participatory approaches to bring possibilities and desires of ageing collaborators to life.
WEBINAR Introduction to the Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Approaches in Ageing Research and discussion with the editors, Anna Urbaniak and Anna Wanka
ABSTRACT
How can ageing research move beyond studying older adults as “subjects” to meaningfully engaging them as co-creators of knowledge? The “International Handbook of Participatory Approaches in Ageing Research” explores this question and presents innovative participatory approaches that reshape the way researchers, practitioners, and policymakers work with and alongside older adults. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical insights and real-world projects, the talk highlights how methodologies such as inclusive research, participatory action research, co-research, and citizen science open new possibilities for amplifying the voices and lived experiences of older adults across cultural, social, and disciplinary boundaries.
The session introduced the foundations of participatory approaches in ageing research, outlining both their promise and complexity. Through examples from projects in diverse contexts, we saw how older adults have contributed as active participants at different stages of the research cycle—from framing questions to analysing findings and shaping outcomes. Emphasis will be placed on methodological lessons, the ethics of co-creation, and the potential for participatory approaches to transform not only individual studies but the broader research and policy landscape.
By reorienting research practices toward collaborative knowledge-making, participatory approaches challenge assumptions about ageing and promote more inclusive, responsive, and empowering designs. Attendees will gain inspiration and practical insights into how such models can inform their own work—whether in academia, policy, or community practice. Ultimately, this talk showcases how involving older adults as partners rather than subjects enriches research outcomes and ensures that ageing research reflects the voices, needs, and aspirations of those most directly concerned.
BIO
Dr. hab. Anna Urbaniak is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Jagiellonian University. Anna has extensive experience in aging research and public policy, conducting interdisciplinary studies in social gerontology. Additionally, Anna is Chair of the PAAR-Net COST Action (CA22167) on participatory approaches with older adults, which connects over 300 members from 40 different countries.
Dr. Anna Wanka co-leads the COST-Action PAARNet together with Anna Urbaniak. She is a sociologist and critical gerontologist interested in un/doing difference and the material-discursive construction of age across the life course. Anna did her PhD in Sociology at the University of Vienna, Austria, and is currently a research group leader at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her areas of expertise comprise life course transitions and the re/production of intersectional inequalities across the life course, ageing and technologies, age-friendly cities and communities, ageing migrants, and lifelong learning. She has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods and has developed reflexive approaches to mixed-methods research.
WORKSHOP: Field Realities: Reflexivity, Time-Use, and Positionality in Community-Based Research by Neetu Batra and Ashwin Tripathi
ABSTRACT
The workshop Field Realities: Reflexivity, Time-Use, and Positionality in Community-Based Researchprimarily explores the techniques, methods, and ethics that researchers need to consider. For those engaged in community and field-based research, it emphasised the importance of empathy and reflexivity in qualitative observation. Interactive sessions included sharing experiences and exploring real-life scenarios through role-plays that simulate participant and quasi-participant roles, along with field challenges, while collectively analysing these situations using sociological and anthropological theories. A key theme of the workshop is the experience of time—its social construction, emotional aspects, and structural determinants—explored through time-use methods and participatory tools. Particular attention was given to how reflexivity and positionality influence the researcher’s relationship with time, both in the field and within the broader academic context. Ethical considerations and the positionality of the observer were also discussed.
The workshop ended with a collaborative reflection, encouraging participants to feel more confident in applying these methods across different contexts, reflect on their time-use patterns, and consider how gender, class, and age influence their temporal experience. It concluded with shared reflections and resource exchange to equip researchers with nuanced, ethically sound practices.
BIO
Dr. Neetu Batra, a Senior Fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), is affiliated with the Giri Institute of Development Studies in Lucknow. Trained in Sociology and Research with a specialisation in Social Gerontology, her academic journey over the past fifteen years has extensively explored the lived realities, vulnerabilities, and resilience of India’s ageing population through sociological and anthropological lenses. Her current research project, “Mental Health Matters: A Holistic Approach to Older Adults in Uttar Pradesh,” employs ethnographic methods and participatory rural appraisal to examine how mental health intersects with caste, gender, family structures, and local ecology. This aligns closely with the anthropological commitment to contextual and immersive fieldwork. She has also explored institutional care, intergenerational transfers, elder isolation, and age-related stigma, which are evident in her works published in The Eastern Anthropologist, the Indian Journal of Gerontology, and the Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems.
Dr. Ashwin Tripathi is a Teach@Tuebingen Fellow in the Methods Centre, Faculty of Economics and Social Science (University of Tuebingen). She has completed her post-doctoral research from FLAME University, Pune and her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (India). Her research lies at the intersection of ageing studies, leisure and time-use, where she has explored the blurring of productive and unproductive boundaries. She holds expertise in mixed methods and continues to explore LASI and NSSO-TUS datasets from India. Her current project explores the everyday experiences of ageing among older immigrant Indians in Germany through ethnographic methods.