IOS Annual Conference: "Getting Old in Eastern Europe. Social, Political and Economic Dimensions of Ageing in the Past and Present"
11th IOS Annual Conference 2024
East and Southeast Europe present, a unique situation when it comes to ageing: fertility has declined rapidly to very low levels; emigration rates are high, whereas immigration levels are low; mortality is relatively high, healthcare systems are weak, and unhealthy lifestyles widespread. High COVID-19 mortality rates and low life expectancy are obvious consequences. At the same time, pension systems face huge challenges and poverty rates among older persons are high. Observers often frame ageing in terms of “decline” or “crisis”, instead of highlighting its potential and tackling the root causes of the social predicament of old people. How did old people in East and Southeast Europe end up in such a difficult situation? What dilemmas does the region face today? And what are the likely scenarios for the future? The 2024 Annual Conference of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies will investigate ageing today and the historical dimensions of this process from multiple perspectives.
Registration to the reception is closed.
The keynotes can be attended online via Zoom: Link
Program
Opening Remarks
Ulf Brunnbauer, Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS)
Vladimir Kozlov, Research associate, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS)
Keynote Lectures | Hybrid via Zoom
Eduard Jongstra (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Istanbul): From Demographic Security to Demographic Resilience
Alissa Klots (University of Pittsburgh): The Restless Generation: Soviet Retirees and the Meanings of Active Old Age
Join via Zoom: Link
Reception
Demography and Population Development
Chair: Vladimir Kozlov (IOS)
Shifts in the age-sex structure of Serbia’s population: From the late 19th to the early 21st century, Aleksandra Vuletić (Institute of History, Belgrade) and Ivan Marinković (Demographic Research Center, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade)
Child benefits and fertility behaviour in Europe: Do child age and birth order matter?, Kristijan Fidanovski (University of Oxford)
Coffee Break
Economic Dimensions of Ageing
Chair: Olga Popova (IOS)
How ageing will affect the pension system in Turkey? An analysis of public transfers for the elderly in Turkey, Nazlı Şahanoğulları (Istanbul Kültür University)
Fiscal implications of ageing in Moldova, Valeriu Prohniţchi (National Institute for Economic Research, Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Chișinău)
How serious is the problem of population ageing?, Róbert Iván Gál (Corvinus University of Budapest)
Lunch Break
Expert Discourses and Policy Making
Chair: Ulf Brunnbauer (IOS)
Constructing old age in communist Bulgaria: Ideology, policy, science, Daniela Koleva (Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
Population aging in late socialist Romania: Knowledge production and policy making, Corina Doboș (National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, Romanian Academy, Bucharest)
Tending to a crisis in the making: Scientific and philosophical research on aging in socialist Romania, Adela Hîncu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca)
Childhood’s circumstances and the old-age health in the Baltic’s post-communist welfare state, Nita Handastya (University of Padua)
Coffee Break
Inequalities of Ageing
Chair: Sinem Ayhan (IOS)
Rural-urban economic inequality of elderly: Evidence from national transfer accounts for Moldova, Olga Gagauz and Valeriu Prohniţchi (National Institute for Economic Research, Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Chișinău)
Family breakdown, survival strategies and post-soviet Nostalgia: Aging homeless in Moldova, Petru Negură (Moldova State University, Chișinău, based in Regensburg)
The paradox of Eastern and Southeastern Europe’s disappearing elderly – The role of the built environment in the process of ageing, Radoslava Guirguinova (State Department of Building Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart)
The evolution of (post) pandemic labour market outcomes of older workers in Europe, Raluca Elena Buia (University Ca’ Foscari of Venice)
Perceptions and Representations of Ageing
Chair: Daniela Koleva (Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
"I can see that I do not fit into the present times" - (Re-)negotiating one’s place in society after retirement in Czechoslovakia, Judith Brehmer (Collegium Carolinum, Munich)
Ageing in socialist Czechoslovakia: From prolonging productivity to sexual activity in older age, Andrea Bělehradová (University of Hradec Králové)
Victims, villains and heroes: Ageing narratives intertwined between agency, vulnerability and "burden" representations in North Macedonia, Ivana Spirovska (Karl-Franzens University of Graz)
Analysing demographic nationalism and ageing within population discourses in the Hungarian context, Orsolya Udvari (Corvinus University, Budapest)
Coffee Break
Care for Older People (1): Historical Perspectives
Chair: Andi Balla (IOS)
Jewish elderly homes (moshav zkenim) in Eastern Europe as markers of modernity, Marek Tuszewicki (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
Eldercare in socialist Albania: An institutional analysis during the consolidation of the regime, Inxhi Brisku (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia)
Lunch Break
Care for Older People (2): Recent Trends
Chair: Kathleen Beger (IOS)
Home care and day care: An important long-term care alternative of institutional care, Aurelia Borzin (Regensburg), Kristiyan Hristov (Sofia)
The informal eldercare market in Hungary: Negotiations between households and care workers in the informal market, Noémi Katona, Dóra Gábriel (HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Corvinus University Budapest)
The role of informal caregivers in the long-term care (LTC) systems in the Western Balkans, Natasa Todorovic, Milutin Vracevic (Gerontological Society of Serbia, Belgrade)
Concluding Remarks
Contact person
Dr. Kathleen Beger
Research Associate