LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course aims to provide students with the fundamental notions of the sociology of aging in the various theoretical perspectives in a post-structuralist, post-modernist, socio-structural and cultural sense.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- understand the concepts relating to the issue of population aging, with a specific focus on the Italian and Ligurian contexts;
- understand the various generational differences in terms of identity, values, and lifestyle among the senior population;
- classify, segment and profile seniors according to their different health, socioeconomic and lifestyle conditions, with a focus on the relationship between clinical frailty and social vulnerability, while analyzing their available cultural and social activation processes;
- understand, through lab simulations, the physical frailty of vulnerable seniors;
- apply cluster analysis techniques to segment the senior population as a specific target for marketing and service purposes.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students will be expected to:

• know the main sociological theories on the topic of aging;
• relate the above theories to the issues and concepts covered throughout the course;
• critically analyze the phenomenon of aging in contemporary society.

TEACHING METHODS

Face-to-face lessons, with the possibility of participating in practical-guided experiences on the topics covered, Aulaweb.

In the event of a continuing COVID-19 emergency, lessons will be held online on the Teams platform. In this case, the laboratory experiences in presence will be replaced with practical-guided experiences at a distance and in asynchronous form.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

- Demographic aging: the different perspectives at an international, Italian and local level
- Generational differentiation: from the elderly to the emerging profile of baby boomers
- Physical and cognitive decline, fragility in the aging process and social vulnerability.
- The social construction of old age: body, gender, roles in the aging process
- The socio-economic factors associated with inequalities in the trajectories of active and healthy aging.
- The attitudes and lifestyles of the elderly and their impact on aging differentials.
- How the physical aspects of society (environment, buildings, spaces and transport) and technology influence the experience of aging.
- The theme of ageism and its various connotations
- Experiences of simulation of the physical conditions of the frail elderly (compatibly with the conditions of the Covid-19 social and health emergency)
- Methodological elements for the application of cluster techniques

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poli. S (2021), in press, Gli anziani che verranno. La generazione dei Baby Boomer tra impegno, identità e disincanto. FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Moreover, reading the following articles is advised for a better understanding of the discipline

Stefano Poli, Claudio Torrigiani e Alberto Pilotto (2021), in press, Anziani in bilico: fragilità e resilienza al tempo del Covid-19 Il Progetto PRESTIGE, Genua University Press, Genova

For foreign students it is available the following material

• Poli, S., con Pandolfini V. e Torrigiani, G. (2020) Frailty and Its Social Predictors Among Older People: Some Empirical Evidence and a Lesson From Covid-19 for Revising Public Health and Social Policies, Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 12, pp. 151-176, ISSN:2035-4983 vol. 12, DOI:10.14658/pupj-ijse-2020-3-8.
• Poli, S. (2018), Attitudes Toward Active Voluntary Euthanasia Among Community-Dwelling Older Subjects, SAGE Open, January-March 2018: 1–11, DOI: 10.1177/2158244017753868, in press.
• Palumbo, M., Poli, S. (2017), Aging in the Contemporary Urban Context: The Mortality Rates of Older Residents in Genoa, Italy. In A. Karakitsiou et al. (eds.), City Networks, Springer Optimization and Its Applications 128, Springer International Publishing AG 2017, 10.1007/978-3-319-65338-9_9.
• Poli, S., Cella, A., Puntoni, M., Musacchio, C., Pomata, M., Torriglia, D., Vello, N., Molinari, B., Pandolfini, V., Torrigiani, C., Pilotto, A. (2016) Frailty is associated with socioeconomic and lifestyle factors in community-dwelling older subjects, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, pp. 1-8, published online 27 August 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. DOI: 10.1007/s40520-016-0623-5.
• Poli S. (2014, July). Beyond Stereotypes: Talent, Resources and Social Activity among the Postmodern Elderly. Research on Ageing and Social Policies, 2 (1), July, pp. 58-86, doi: 10.4471/rasp.2014.03.