Abstract:

This presentation introduces “ageing in networks” as a perspective for understanding how older adults’ social connections reach beyond their immediate residential neighbourhoods into extra-local and transnational contexts. “Ageing in networks” draws attention to the social infrastructures, actors, and diverse forms of care that are essential to older adults’ wellbeing. It also recognises the role of digital technologies and virtual networks in supporting both face-to-face and long-distance interactions. Adopting an ageing-in-networks perspective means also looking into what older non-migrants, who are often assumed to age in one place, may share with migrants who have moved across national borders. This perspective offers a way to examine how migrant and non-migrants age together across local and transnational settings. The presentation draws on mixed-methods research on ageing and migration in Singapore to illustrate the arguments above, signalling how the findings have wider implications for the fields of ageing and migration too.

Speaker’s Bio:

Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho is Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Geography and Research Leader of the Migration and Mobilities Cluster at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore. Her research examines the geographies of citizenship through studying various transnational migration streams, as well as the ageing and the wellbeing of non-migrant and migrant older adults. She is Editor of the journal, Social and Cultural Geography, and the Routledge Series on Asian Migration. She also serves on the editorial boards of geography, citizenship, migration and area studies journals. For details: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/3057-lynnee-elaine-ho