The global population is ageing. According to UNESCO projections, the proportion of people who are 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group. Between 1970 and 2025, a growth in older persons of some 694 million or 223 percent is expected, with 80 percent living in developing countries. What are our communicational needs and desires as we age? How does the processes of ageing affect our network of social relations, our communicational practices, or our media choices and uses of technologies?
Active Ageing, Mobile Technologies brings together a team of researchers from Malaysia, Catalunya (Spain), Canada and Quebec whose goal is to better understand the intersections between communications, ageing and mobility. In discussions of active ageing the areas of health, education and participation typically are named as key elements to living a qualitatively better life. What is absent from much of the literature, is a consideration of the key role of communications, media or new technologies, as components of this strategy. Likewise, within industry documents and academic writings on media and technology, those who are 60+ are typically missing. The goal of our research partnership is to identify, understand, and to see what steps might be taken to rectify this double absence. After all, we are all ageing.
Project participants
Kim Sawchuk, Communication Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Barbara Crow, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, IN3, Open University, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Chui Yin Wong, Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Line Grenier, Department of Communications, University of Montreal, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Sue Levesque, York-TD Community Engagement Centre, Yorkgate Mall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Project Manager and Research Assistants
Mariam Esseghaier, PhD Candidate, Communication Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada