EWS Exploring life transitions in old age through a Visual Matrix

The situation of elderly Nordic communities is challenging basic premises of Nordic welfare systems while the question of how elderly communities experience the transitions of old age remains under-researched. Yet these communities live within a highly vi sual culture which mediates psycho-social transitions and calls for image based methods, especially where discursive methods are insufficient to capture the complexity of unarticulated experience. This proposal establishes a Nordic research group in partn ership with the UK to explore three psycho-social transitions of old age: 1) working life to retirement, 2) mental health to various forms of dementia, 3) life to death. Three workshops will explore related personal and societal issues through the appli cation of an innovative visual method: the Visual Matrix (VM). Each of three 2-day workshops will correspond to a transition of old age. The first day will convene, record and discuss a VM on the transition in question. The second will be a seminar guided by a distinguished international scholar chosen for methodological expertise. Through images and associative thinking, the workshops will engage participants (professionals and academics) in an expression of the complex dilemmas of old age. This will te st the method for use with older people, relatives and carers in a later application by the academic partnership for funding under Horizon 2020. Outcomes will benefit research, policy and practice communities and include: a tested and refined visual rese arch methodology for academic publication, training guidelines and materials for teaching, policy and practice briefings. Symposia will be organized and advertised in the participating countries along with dissemination to an international research netwo rk and through web-sites of participating institutions.