Innovating Aging – Practices, discourses, policies
Call for papers, Special Issue of «Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia», edited by FRANCESCO MIELE (University of Padova) and SILVIA FORNASINI (Fondazione Bruno Kessler and University of Trento)
Demographic aging is a typical phenomenon of Western modern societies, often defined at the same time as a grand challenge (Östlund 2004) and an opportunity for the development of scientific and technological innovations aimed at ensuring the health and the well-being of older people (Peine et al. 2015). Over the last years several innovations have emerged with the aim of improving the health and well-being of senior citizens, these include complex remote monitoring systems; self tracking devices; service robot platforms; ambient assisted living environments; social gaming apps; regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. The recent COVID-19 outbreak has enhanced research and development processes in various fields (e.g. diagnostic, vaccines and therapeutics), paying particular attention to older people’s health with the aim of containing the effects of the epidemic on this target population.