AGORAge: Ageing in a Caring Community is a Citizens Science project led by Rovira i Virgili University (Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work) in partnership with ISRAA (Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani) and MARC (Medical Anthropology Research Center) which aim is to promote a process of social intervention to encourage the inclusion in their neighbourhoods of older people who live in care facilities.

By levering relationships and actions of mutual aid and support as a vehicle of reciprocal responsibility and social safeness (Gilbert, 2009), which seems to play a significant role in favouring psychological well-being, the focus will be on creating a sense of belonging to the neighbourhood. Therefore, emphasis will be placed on relationships as privileged channels for building a community that is not only inclusive but also caring. 

Fieldwork will be carried out in the cohousing and nursing home managed by ISRAA in Treviso (Italy). The project will rely on seniors’ active contribution throughout the entire process, starting from the research phase, during which the topic of social safeness will be analysed and discussed. The expected outcome is the co-creation of a toolkit containing theoretical information on the concept of social safeness, methodological indications to analyse what social safeness means and how it is created in the target community, and, finally, operational tools for generating a caring community. 

Bibliography

Gilbert, P. (2009). The compassionate mind: Coping with the Challenges of living. London: Constable Robinson.