Leader: Manuela Stranges (UNICAL); Other collaborator(s): Bocconi, UNIBA, UNIBO
The very fabric of societies is based on cultural scripts about how the timing of life should be organized. When are adults considered to be “old”? When should crucial events in life, such as becoming parents and retiring happen? What are the differences between genders and socioeconomic groups in these cultural scripts. The interdisciplinary life course approach deals with these crucial cultural issues around age and ageing. This task will deal with these issues studying Italy in comparison to European societies, analysing data from the European Social Survey (“Timing of life” module).
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
The work of our task is going ahead on several fronts.
Our main research focuses on social age at oldness. We are working on a first paper (authors: Francesco C. Billari, Manuela Stranges and Gessica Vella) which explores the existence on a double (by gender) and triple (by gender and education) standard of ageing in Europe. Using the European Social Survey (and, in particular, the Modules on the Timing of Life carried on in 2006/2007 and 2018/2019), we are analyzing the time changes, the differences across countries, the covariates positively or negatively related to the social age at oldness, focusing in particular on the role of education.
During this period, we have started an interlocutory phase with the Research Group of Task 6, WP3, Spoke 7 (Bocconi University) for the preparation of a joint field survey relating to age norms, with particular reference to social age at old age.
We have completed the first work, which is going to be submitted to a scientific journal within the end of 2024.
We are currently working on a second paper about the social age at retirement (authors: Francesco C. Billari, Manuela Stranges and Gessica Vella), which focuses on the temporal evolution and, in particular, on the differences between countries. We have carried on the bibliographic research and we are now starting the empirical analysis.
During this period, we have continued the coordination activity with Bocconi University for the preparation of a joint field survey relating to age norms, with particular reference to social age at old age. We have worked on the questionnaire, we have individualized and contacted the survey company, and we are currently starting with the test phase of the survey.
We have submitted the first work to a scientific journal.
We are currently working on the second paper about the social age at retirement (authors: Francesco C. Billari, Manuela Stranges and Gessica Vella), which focuses on the temporal evolution and, in particular, on the differences between countries. We have carried on the empirical analysis and we are finalising the manuscript.
During this period, we have continued the coordination activity with Bocconi University for the preparation of a joint field survey relating to age norms, with particular reference to social age at old age. We have worked on the questionnaire, we have individualized and contacted the survey company, and we are currently starting with the test phase of the survey.
Conferences
The first empirical research has been presented twice:
We will also present the results at the following conferences:
Publications
The first results of the work on the social age at oldness are going to be published in an article in the journal “Il Mulino”.
We are going to submit the full article to a scientific journal within the end of 2024.
We are working on the draft of the second paper about social age at retirement.
Other activities
We are planning to organize a meeting to present the results of our WP at University of Calabria (may 2025).