Interdisciplinary Expert Committee on Critical Gerontology
What are the objectives of this interdisciplinary expert committee?
The Interdisciplinary Expert Committee on Critical Gerontology provides a forum for interdisciplinary exchange. Our collaboration focuses on the critical examination of gerontology and geriatrics, as well as the current political and scientific discourses on age and ageing in their social context. Our aim is to engage in constructive dialogue on questions of social and scientific theory and methodology. According to our understanding of critique, it is important to:
- Reflect on our roles in science and practice as well as on our normative basis,
- Analyse and question power relations and inequalities, and
- Reveal scope for thought and action towards emancipatory transformations.
Who can participate in this expert committee?
All members of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics who wish to critically examine gerontology and geriatrics as sciences in society in the above-mentioned sense are welcome to participate in the Expert Committee on Critical Gerontology. Other topics include care and support for older adults as professional fields and political measures relating to age and ageing. The expert committee welcomes the participation of colleagues from all scientific disciplines that focus on age and ageing, as well as from various practical fields. We would particularly like to invite early-career researchers to get involved.
How do we work?
The so-called ‘spring conferences’ are central to the work of the expert committee, at which thematic priorities are jointly decided and intensively discussed. The expert committee then regularly introduces these topics at the various conferences of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics, or drafts related position papers and statements. For example, the expert committee repeatedly and intensively discusses the topic of participation of old and very old adults in society, addresses the topic of age and technology, and examines issues relating to the care of old and very old adults.
The following publications provide an insight into the work of the expert committee:
- Aner, Kirsten and Schroeter, Klaus R. (eds.): Critical Gerontology. An Introduction. [https://elibrary.kohlhammer.de/book/10.17433/978-3-17-031924-0]
- Position paper on participation [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00391-015-1016-7]
- Podcast with Prof. Dr Hermann Brandenburg on critical gerontology
- Press release on the Max Bürger Prize