The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth, 1880 to the present day

The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth (SAACY) is a project funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship. It will offer a conceptual framework with which to overcome cultural pessimism about ageing and influence policy change.

Cultural pessimism about ageing endangers all facets of intergenerational solidarity; it shapes perceptions of the worth and value of human beings and directs decisions about care, research and funding priorities. SAACY will inform practices and policy development in these areas.

The research is driven by two questions: how does culture frame the questions and paradigms of leading researchers in ageing and diseases of old age? And how do scientific research developments act as cultural force; specifically, how do they influence societal approaches to dementia?

To address these questions, SAACY takes a multipronged approach that reaches across disciplines and sectors. An archive-based study will closely attend the dialogue between cultural discourses and scientific models of ageing. Sociological interventions will explore meanings and anticipations of ageing with our project partners from the third sector, and in collaboration with the King’s Policy Institute and older people SAACY aims to develop policy change for the ageing population

Members

Laura Hughes

Postdoctoral researcher associate

Joe Wood

Research Associate (Policy and Engagement – Ageing Studies)

Martina Zimmermann

Lecturer in Health Humanities and Health Sciences

An archive-based exploration

This literature-based study will closely attend to the state of scientific knowledge about the ageing brain and nervous system and to the dialogue that was set up between cultural discourses and scientific models of ageing after the cell was identified as the single fundamental unit of life in the 1880s.

A social scientific inquiry

Ageing is often discussed in a negative manner, being described in terms of loss, illness, and disease. These views may have significant impacts on people’s perceptions of their own and others’ ageing, making ageing a negative experience for individuals. This social scientific inquiry will explore these perceptions, along with people’s experiences, and expectations of ageing. We will invite adults aged 50-80 years old with different backgrounds and experiences to take part in interviews where we will explore and discuss a wide range of topics related to the experiences of ageing. We will also work with our charity partners to understand what services people need and want as they age, and in what way they can be delivered appropriately.

A policy approach

Cultural pessimism about ageing shapes perceptions of the worth and value of human beings and directs decisions about care, research and funding priorities. SAACY aims to inform policy development in these areas. In collaboration with the Policy Institute at King’s, we are running policy laboratories to explore perspectives on ageing, including their implications for care. If you want to learn more about policy laboratories run via King’s, see the below article from the Policy Institute, published in Humanities & Social Science Communications (open access).

Using Policy Labs as a process to bring evidence closer to public policymaking: a guide to one approach

A vision for informal dementia care

Since 2018, Martina has been working with Tony Britton, Founder and Trustee of the Pam Britton Trust for Dementia, to influence how caregiver support is delivered on a local and countywide level. Funding from UKRI for SAACY has formalised this interaction and given them space and time to discuss root and branch changes in how support for dementia care is organised and accessed.

The Pam Britton Trust for Dementia

Martina Zimmermann, ‘From a ‘care-free’ distance? Adult sons about their parents with dementia: A cross-cultural enquiry’, in: Heike Hartung, Rüdiger Kunow and Matthew Sweney (eds.), Ageing Masculinities, Alzheimer's and Dementia Narratives (London: Bloomsbury, 2022), 19–36; open access.
Martina Zimmermann, ‘Dementia and the politics of memory in fiction: from the condition as narrative experiment to the patient as plot device’, in: Irmela M. Krüger-Fürhoff, Nina Schmidt and Sue Vice (eds.), in The Politics of Dementia: Forgetting and Remembering the Violent Past in Literature, Film and Graphic Narratives (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2022), 55–70; open access.
Anthony Britton and Martina Zimmermann*, ‘Informal dementia care: The carer’s lived experience at the divides between policy and practice’, Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice (in press); open access.

SAACY Events

SAACY will engage with researchers from a range of fields, including history, gerontology and neuroscience.

View SAACY events

Blog posts

In a guest post for the Science and Policy Blog of the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy, Martina reflects on diverging perspectives on ageing, motivations behind SAACY and recent work with third sector project partners. 2 August 2022.
About the origins of SAACY: read here on how the project idea developed and what motivates the research programme. 4 July 2022.

Press releases

Dr Martina Zimmermann awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. 8 July 2020.

Our partners

Tony Britton, The Pam Britton Trust for Dementia

“The Pam Britton Trust For Dementia very much welcomes this opportunity to work with Dr. Zimmermann on this most valuable research project focusing on dementia. This is important for us as it enhances our work locally to achieve change for those directly concerned. This most complex illness which is currently without a cure, has long required more factual knowledge and understanding.”

Aideen Young, The Centre for Ageing Better

"Ageing Better’s recent report showed that attitudes to ageing and to older people in the UK are mostly negative, with older people seen as incompetent, hostile or a burden on society. As our population ages, it’s vital that we dismantle the insidious ageism in society. We look forward to the outcomes of Martina’s work looking at the genesis of this damaging narrative."