Abstract

NAGEL, Maria Macedo; CONTARELLO, Alberta  and  WACHELKE, João. Social representations and stakes across borders: studying ageing in times of change. Temas psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.19, n.1, pp. 59-73. ISSN 1413-389X.

After a brief overview of recent approaches to the study of ageing between stereotypes and representations, a study is presented in order to explore the social representations of the elderly in three contexts differing for age structure of the population and for main institutional stakes. Brazilian, German and Italian data were collected via a free association task to the stimulus-word "the elderly" and analysed through content and correspondence analysis. The results bring partial support to the expectations as the three national groups present some differences, both in the content of the representation and in positions taken along the detected underlying dimensions, which appear to reflect and re-launch differences in political and public agendas. Methodological issues concerning cross- and inter-cultural research are also raised and discussed

Keywords : Social representations; Ageing; Stake value; Geopolitical contexts.

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