This online lunchtime seminar will be presented by Dr Bethany Simmonds (Aberystwyth University).
The pandemic exposed the loss of human rights of older and disabled people and illustrated the critical commonalities these two groups have. As sociologists with personal and professional experience of ageing and disability, myself and my co-editor, Dr Maria Berghs (de Montfort University) were concerned with the proliferation of such ‘care-less’ spaces (Rogers, 2017) and wanted to explore what could be learnt. Considering the general population positive trajectory in increased life expectancy, not enough has been written about experiences of ageing with, and into, disability. This seminar paper reports on the findings of a new collection of five papers published on this topic, which brings together a range of epistemological and methodological perspectives to understand how to situate a better future of care (Simmonds and Berghs, 2024). The collection illustrates how easily ‘care-ethics’ can be suspended, allowing for care-less spaces (and times) to proliferate (Rogers, 2017). Demonstrating that vulnerability is fluid and existential, for instance, pandemic political decision making produced precarious groups who were then failed in care (Simmonds, 2021). These papers offer in-depth original epistemological and methodological insights, evidencing the need for an ‘anti-ableist and anti-ageist ethics of care’ to ensure human rights and dignity in society.
If you would like to receive an invite for this seminar, please email WISERD.events@cardiff.ac.uk