Our group

The University of Bristol Ageing Futures Research Group is a collective of researchers from the Faculties of Social Sciences and Law, Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Life Sciences. We investigate theoretically informed, empirical, and creative research on the ageing futures of humanity. Our team of researchers work closely with partners from creative and technology industries, health and social care providers, housing associations, government, civil service, charities, and individuals with lived experience to create joint visions for ageing futures with translatable, ‘real world’ impacts.  

Our motives

We are all by now familiar with the rhetoric of demographic ageing – the age of longevity, the 100-year life, the ‘contagion’ of loneliness and the ‘problem’ of adult social care. We counter the deficit and instrumental focus on meeting needs in much of this discourse and instead adopt an asset based and relational approach to consider questions about later life.

Our research areas

We are interested in the broad areas listed below but are open to any contributions on other themes related to Ageing Futures:

• Pleasure, play and desire
• Creative ageing
• Digital technologies
• Diversity and inequality
• ‘Healthy’ ageing
• Age friendly communities and housing
• Intergenerational collectives
• Death, dying and bereavement
• Care, relationships, and ethics