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Workshop Week AGEING PLACES. Digital Methodologies for Mapping the Issue of an Ageing Europe.
Design Brief
We began our work with the following statement: the status and role of older people in contemporary Europe is in flux; ageing is at the center of a controversy; there is debate and conflict. For the first �me in history there will be more old people than young people. However, with longer lifespans, when is a person “officially” old? If there are not enough young working people, who will pay for the pensions of those who can no longer work? AGEING AS AN ISSUE Ageing in itself is unstable, ungraspable, controversial and urgent. There is a need to addressed and stabilized it. This has lead to the forma�on of compe�ng age-‐related issues. ISSUE
A ma�er of public concern, something that needs to be se�led, circulated, shared, packaged, forma�ed, becomes visible and inscribed.
EUROPEAN YEAR FOR ACTIVE AGEING AND SOLIDARITY BETWEEN GENERATIONS In the past few years different en��es have priori�zed the issue of ageing in their agendas, each emphasizing what they consider as urgent. In the event, the European Union designated 2012 as the European Year for Ac�ve Ageing and Solidarity between Genera�ons with the overall objec�ve to reverse the idea that older persons are a burden on society. As Europeans live longer and healthier lives, governments are looking for ways to involve older persons more in society and to keep them ac�ve; these changes could result in economic benefits for society as a whole . The scenario is complex. We want to describe it. We want to map the state of affairs of the debate on ageing.
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SOCIAL CARTOGRAPHY
RISK CARTOGRAPHY
CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY
AGEING PLACES
THEORIES
OPERATIONALIZATIONS + DIGITAL METHODS
METHODOLOGIES
Opera�onalizing theore�cal frameworks
into methodologies for issue mapping by using digital methods.
REASSEMBlING TH
E SO
CIAL
BRUNO LAT
OUR
About the social: (what we study) The social is produced by associa�ons between actors. The social is performed by the agency of the actors. The social, therefore, happens via actor-‐networks: nobody acts alone. The social is in the making; if its not moving it is not social. The social is always changing. It is not a substance, it is a movement. Actors can be non-‐human. An actor is anything that can affect the state of affairs of the social. Things are constructed, ar�ficial and very real and powerful. The social is never a pre-‐given: the social is the ques�on not the answer. There are no groups, only group forma�ons.
The sociologist of associa�on (the mappers): Describe the complexity of the social, don't try to simplify. Follow the actors involved in a controversy. Follow the traces the actors leave by their ac�ons. Deploys, not organize. Be Slow, detailed and search for event the small connec�ons. Un-‐black box, reveal and render visible. Second-‐degree objec�vity: your process should be traceable. Ac�on is overtaken: What makes act and what make all of us do the same thing at the same �me?
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The social is in a magma�c state: the process of binding this collec�ve life becomes o�en a complex disagreement, in which the actors proliferate claims and concerns when the most crucial beliefs are ques�oned. To find the discourse, or to map the arguments the researcher must move from statements to literatures, from literatures to actors, from actors to networks, from networks to cosmoses (ideologies) and from cosmoses to cosmo-‐poli�cs. Venturini further advices: Avoid cold controversies. Avoid boundless controversies. Avoid underground controversies. Favor techno-‐scien�fic controversies.
REASSEMBlING TH
E SO
CIAL
BRUNO LAT
OUR
CAR
TOGR
APHY
OF CO
NTROVE
RSIES
TOMMASO VEN
TURINI
CAR
TOGR
APHY
OF CO
NTROVE
RSIES
TOMMASO VEN
TURINI
REASSEMBlING TH
E SO
CIAL
BRUNO LAT
OUR
DIGITA
L METHO
DS
RICH
ARD RO
GERS
The ubiquity of digital technologies are affec�ng how a social issue is staged and communicated. The web has opened new channels for ac�on, communica�on and par�cipa�on for the actors involved in a controversy; as a consequence it has rendered visible the importance of these channels or mediators (human or not human) in the evolu�on for a debate. How to take advantage of the crucial role and agency that technology has in the unfolding of current controversies? For this reason, we believe it is urgent to con�nue the development of methodologies for issue mapping that are compa�ble with, and plugged into, the complexity of the staging of their controversy online . Following traces/ reversibility/ naviga�onal: digital behaviors such as visi�ng a website, sending a text message, buying a book in Amazon, and iden�fying your loca�on leaves addi�onal traces and documenta�on, and are data in play. Latour’s famous commandments, following the actor and describing the associa�ons, could become opera�onalized, at least in part by detec�ng actors’ presence (as well as absence) in media spaces over �me, and observing the variegated alignments the substance of the presences cons�tute .
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Mapping of ageing as a social controversy. We aim to map how the issue of ageing comes into being by the interac�on of the actors that find themselves concerned with it, together with their posi�ons and opinions. We are interested in the formats by which ageing becomes a tangible issue, the vocabularies that are being used to talk about ageing, the literatures, and the sources of authority used to reference ageing. Ul�mately, we are concerned with how ageing becomes an issue (the isssuefica�on of ageing).
AGEING AS A SOCIAL CONTROVE
RSY
An entry point: The EU Year of Ac�ve Age ing and So l i da r i t y be tween Genera�ons. Ageing was framed by the EU as a regional and European concern. However, how has ageing been forma�ed into an issue and entered the agenda? And, do the ins�tu�ons that are members of the UE Year actually share this regional agenda? Or, do they have their own local agendas? And if so, which are these local agendas and how do they relate to each other? Are there issue leaders driving their concerns to the regional spotlight while others remain in the less visible peripheries? This ini�a�ve became the point of departure for our mappings.
AGEING AS A EUROPEAN ISSUE: THE EU AND LOCAL AGENDAS. We used the AGE pla�orm (an official portal for The EU Year of Ac�ve Ageing) l as a departure point. From the ins�tu�ons listed under the “Partners” Sec�on we chose one (the least specialist) per country, for a total of 14: France [FNG], Greece [50 plus], Italy [ADA], Portugal [Projecto TIO], Spain [CEOMA], Latvia [associa�on Balta Maja], Poland [Founda�on for Women’s Issues/Founda�on Samaritanus (Joint NGOs -‐ named Forum 50)], Czech Republic [zivot 90], Slovakia [Forum Pre Pomoc Starsim], Slovenia [Slovenia Federa�on of Pensioners], Bulgaria [Charity Associa�on donka Paprikova/ Tulip Founda�on], United Kingdom [AGE UK], Ireland [Age Ac�on] and Sweden [Senior I Tiden]. We visited each of the 14 ins�tu�on’s websites and collected all news reports dated from 2011. From the news reports we manually extracted the issue that was being addressed per news entry, along with the primary actors. We did this on a monthly basis.
We proceeded to visualize these data. First, using the lists of issues and actors we created a total of 14 issue clouds, one per country. Second, compiling the 14 lists we created one master cloud (image 1), which gave relevance to the terms that were more frequently used and repeated amongst the totality of the news collec�on. We called this the general agenda for these organiza�ons. Third, we clustered the countries according to the number of actors that per country were men�oning and suppor�ng the most relevant 8 issues, according to the cloud (image 2). Via the clustering is possible to see how certain countries come closer together and are grouped on terms of their support of specific issues. Fourth, we created an issue �meline (image 3), which allowed us to visualize which issues peaked on a monthly basis. We did this by visualizing the five most frequently men�oned issues for each month, by all the 14 ins�tu�ons.
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Our findings: Using the news sec�ons of 14 organiza�ons we iden�fied a total of 165 issues. The top issues in the general agenda were: Pension with a total of 75 men�ons, Alzheimer (74), Ac�ve ageing (56), IT-‐skills (52), Health (49), Care homes (48), Healthcare (43), Demen�a (39), NHS reform (31) and Technology (23). We also iden�fied some more local or disagreeing voices: in Nordic countries crea�vity (with only one 1 men�on), wri�ng (2), emo�on in the elderly (2), table tennis (2), and recrea�on (4). In the Southern and Eastern regions, violence (3), world day to combat violence against elderly (3) and emergency care and assistance (4). Furthermore, the clustering showed how the issues of Alzheimer and Demen�a were common to the language of Nordic/North European countries. Ac�ve Ageing is common issues for Central and Eastern states like: The Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland or Latvia.
Healthcare is prevalent to developed countries: Sweden, UK, Spain, France and Italy. Finally, using the �meline we saw peeks on the issue trends related to calendar formats for specific issues. For example Loneliness, absent throughout the year, became visible on December, close to Christmas. The issue of care homes peeked from May to July, possible as a result of the cases of abuse at Rostrevor House (nursing home) in Dublin announced in May and the financial difficul�es faced by the central Bri�sh care home provider Southern Cross in June 2011. Stable issues include pensions, which is a top-‐five topic for all but four months, peaking with twelve men�ons in April and maintaining topical importance through to June. Other prevalent topics include the related Alzheimer’s and demen�a issues.
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Via the former mappings we described differences between the old Europe and the new-‐coming EU members, not only in terms of the issues that are associated with ageing in each country, but also with the level of influence they have on shaping the general agenda. For example, the issues that are relevant for certain individual countries tend to determine which the top issues in the general agenda are. The UK is a sugges�ve example in that it introduces nearly by itself one of the most representa�ve issues in the top ten: the NHS Reforms and Care Homes, which are issues discussed exclusively in the UK NGO space. Also, the issue of “ac�ve ageing” as such was most commonly behind newcomer countries, that seemed to be adap�ng the EU agenda more than pushing for their local concerns.
About the actors men�oned in the news reports, we can say that there is a strong reliance on local actors and a focus on na�onal concerns, except for regional concerns such as the north Europe-‐ Alzheimer’s. Finally, these three mappings allowed us to: trace how local or how general were the issues that each country deemed as relevant in comparison to the general agenda, and therefore if there were country alignments and issue leaders. By means of clustering we saw which countries could be considered the drivers behind specific issue and, third, via the issue �me line we were able to see the changes in terms of visibility for specific issues (image 3).
Project 2. Poland NGOs, issue formats and the local varia�on of Europeaniza�on. In order to study the extent in which newcomer country agendas are being Europeanized we took as case study Poland. Again we used as point of departure the Age pla�orm. We searched on the member sec�on for Polish NGOs. We found two: the Founda�on Samaritanus and Fundacja na rzecz Kobiet JA KOBIETA (I AM A WOMAN, the Founda�on for Women’s Issues). While the first one had a website, the other one lead to the website of “Forum 50+” an umbrella organiza�on with 22 polish NGOs. From these 22 websites 10 had a website, including the Founda�on Samaritanus. Using the link ripper we gathered outlinks coming from the 10 men�oned websites. The results showed that Polish NGOs link to non-‐polish organiza�ons, both in and outside of Europe. However, they don’t link to each other and they do not share links, meaning that 2 NGO don’t link to the same external des�na�on (image 4).
Next, we compared the issues deemed as relevant by the 10 polish NGOs with the general agenda of the Year of Ac�ve Ageing. To determined the NGO’s agendas we selected key words from the “About” sec�ons of the 10 polish NGOs. To determined the general EU agenda we looked at the website of the Year of Ac�ve Ageing. The results were two separate lists. We queried using the Lipmann Device the list of keywords from the NGO on the 10 websites. The output indicates which words are most frequently used in the general group of websites and therefore a general agenda of the group. The results were namely: health, women, sport; volunteering, caring, ac�va�on and ac�vity promo�on. On the other hand, for the Year of Ac�ve Ageing the top key words were: accessibility, health, social protec�on, social inclusion; an�discrimina�on, solidarity between genera�on and ac�ve ageing and employment. The Polish emphasis on ageing as a women issue stands out as a local issue. (image 5)
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We wanted to go further into the local. We looked for the key words in the slogans and names of the 10 Polish NGOs. Then using the Lipmann Device we queried the new list of keywords on the 10 websites. The most popular words according to the device were: seniors, third age and fullness of life. The use of these words described an actor’s cluster around share vocabularies and shared expressions. The only website that did not share any type of language with the others was the one dedicated to the study of Alzheimer’s, loca�ng it in a marginal space on contrast to how Alzheimer’s had previously been central in a European level (image 6).
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IMAGE # 6
Project 3. Local-‐local. Which issue formats lend themselves to domes�c debates on pension reform? The cases of UK and Poland. We traced how certain countries shared issues, however are these issues forma�ed differently in each specific country? We decided to trace and compare how the UK and Poland forma�ed the issue of “pension reform” (a dominant issue in the general agenda cloud). The poten�al rising of the re�rement age and the poten�al priva�on of pension schemes are issues on the UK debate on ageing. Some argue in pro of rising the re�rement age, some warn of the possible priva�za�on of the pension system, and specific sectors, such as teachers, are organizing themselves. A defining moment on the debate took place the in late November 2011, when approximately 2 million members of U.K. unions staged a strike. Because of the issue ac�vity, the mapping of the public sector pension reform is a �mely exercise. We decided use the strike as an entry point.
We followed Venturinni’s pathway-‐method (statements-‐actors-‐networks-‐cosmoses). We explored the web, especially news websites, looking for statements and literatures related to the strike. With them we built a list of key words: ”re�rement age” ”public sector re�rement” ”public sector strike” ”public sector pension” ”social security pension” ”teachers’ pension” “pension debate” “university pension” ”NHS pension” ”police pension” ”armed forces pension”, ”firefighters’ pension” ”career-‐average salary” ”emergency services pensions” ”final salary pension” ”pension strike” ”pension” ”life expectancy” ”re�rement age” ”defined benefit scheme” ”defined contr ibu�on scheme” ” local government pension scheme” ”Universi�es superannua�on scheme” ”funded scheme” ”unfunded scheme” ”PSP” (Public Service Pensions) “re�rement saving plan” “pension crisis” “Health pension” “care home” “wheelchair” “medicine” “zimmer frame” “walker” “classroom” “women’s pensions” “Picket line” “protest board” “pay more” “work longer” “cost of living” “tea” “pens” “bills”
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From the literatures we iden�fied a list of actors (or the ones being men�oned in the news content). The list took the shape of poli�cal par�es and unions and associa�ons represen�ng the strikers. We wanted to trace associa�on between the actors involved in the public pension debate. We followed to query using the Lipmann device the websites of the par�es we found associated with the strike with the keywords we made before.
We visualize the data as tag clouds: image 7 shows the general vocabulary for all actors. The cloud visualizes the frequency in which all the keywords appear on the totality of party websites.
IMAGE # 10
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Some of keywords shared by the par�es can further be described as cosmo-‐objects or objects that symbolize an ideology. Notable elements were the use of tea and pens as related to those who do not experience the consequences of the pension reform, but are instead are bureaucrats. Also, healthcare related expensive materials, such as wheelchairs and bills, were frequent in the par�es’ websites. We mapped an object-‐oriented debate in which non-‐human actors are important and ideological. We followed to query the keywords, only this �me separa�ng conserva�ve from the labor par�es . Image 8 shows the conserva�ve’s display of viewpoints with frequency of objects such as classroom, tea, medicine and care-‐home. Labor Party with bills, “pay more” and cost of living (image 9).
On the other hand, the term “public sector strike” (notably strike in the search term) has only brought results in smaller par�es such as the Sco�sh Na�onal Party, SDLP and the Green Party visible in (image 10). Union are associa�ve by their use of strike-‐language: picket line, public sector strike and pension strike. Project 4. Staging the pension reform controversy in Poland. Which formats could empower ac�on? We wanted to map the state of the pension reform debate on the polish media as a chronological dispute. We wanted to test the issue blending of pension reform debate with women issues, a topic unique to Poland on rela�on to ageing. We decided to construct and issue �meline with key actors and their claims, and flags moments of increased media interest (the highest number of results from Google News)
We used the Polish version of Google News to capture news ar�cle containing the following search terms: emerytura” [re�rement], “emerytury [pensions], “wiek emerytalny” [re�rement age], “reforma emerytalna” [pension reform] and “starzenie się” [ageing]. We did this during 45 days. Issue ac�vity was high as there was an an�cipated strike on the 28th of March and Women’s day on March 8th. Data and number of ar�cles recollected: February 22: 42 results; March 8: 42 results; March 9: 29 results; March 28: 63 results; April 1: 26 results; April 3: 20 results; April 8: 19 results. On both the 8th and 28th is possible to see a media peek. In order to give the issue or controversy �meline a beginning we used Google Insights to iden�fy a first peek on the issue ac�vity: November 2011 when the Polish Prime Minister gave his inaugural speech and launched governmental proposals to raise the re�rement age from 62 for women and 65 for men to 67 for all. From the same set of news reports we iden�fied claims and actors.
Interes�ngly, poli�cal leaders make opposing statements on the re�rement age, while deploying the same formats in doing so: delivering Women’s Day wishes and bunches of red tulips. Women’s spoke person are in disagreement with the raising of the re�rement age (peek one woman’s day)An actor is the Associa�on of Universi�es of the Third Age, dedicated to older people’s learning (and well-‐being). Trade unions, previously back grounded, become pivotal protagonists, par�cularly Solidarity (NSZZ Solidarność). Unions are against rising the re�rement age, but are in favor of par�al pensions (or half pensions). The issue cloud is shaped in the numerals 67 (the re�rement age as the key issue), and two phrases stand out, namely agreement on re�rement (a phrase used o�en to describe the coali�on compromise) and referendum on re�rement (a contradictory mode of dealing with the ageing controversy).
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According to the unions, the debate is dominated with experts and policymakers and the people’s voice is missing. Polish debate on ageing-‐related controversies is o�en phrased in terms of domes�c poli�cs (alliances, deals, nego�a�ons). Notably, Europe appears as a benchmark in those situa�ons where Polish policies require addi�onal legi�miza�on by EU ins�tu�ons; decisions are explained with reference to European standards and recommenda�ons. In this sense, the congress of Universi�es of the Third Age was a place to merge na�onal and suprana�onal points of reference, and the Polish prime minister seized the occasion to associate the legisla�ve proposals with the concept of ac�ve ageing. Whilst the idea is endorsed by the European Union, it serves na�onal goals. Woman’s issues in associa�on with ageing were a central topic in Poland, while not appearing anywhere in the EU agenda. Also we found out there is constant referring to 50 as the old age and not to 60 or 70.
We also found the walking s�cks as associated to sports another issue ageing in Poland. We wanted to ask how that was done in Poland? How do they NGO format the issue of women’s ageing. Among the links “ripped” from the Polish NGOs’ sites are to women’s organiza�ons, especially concerned with older women’s issues and on integra�on of women of all ages
IMAGE # 12
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Risks: Risks are the present thema�za�on of future threats or catastrophes. Risks are the outcomes of our impossibility to fully know the consequences that our present ac�ons will have on the future, and of the urgency we have to predict and control these unknowns. Risks are a type of controversy; there is debate around what is a risk and what is not; which risks can we take and which ones we cannot afford. Risks exist as the an�cipa�on of an event. They are staged on the media; they exist as a mul�ple and o�en contradictory staged versions of the future and as a consequence their reality can be drama�zed or denied. Modern risks : Modern risks put forward an existence that depends en�rely on the consequence of modernity. They can be contained by the na�on state, an industry or an actor (ex: the insurance system).
WORLD RISK
ULRICH BECK
World Risks: They cannot be insured or predicted; they affect the en�re world from a period of �me that we cannot predict (ex: g lobal warming) . They are transna�onal and involved many, if not all, areas of human existence. World risks are not only global in scale of their consequences, but also in the sense that they unfold as a shared experience of an�cipa�on. They exist as collec�ve social construc�ons, rather than as a shared reac�ons. World risks func�on with the idea of inequality, compe��on and complex sub-‐poli�cs; the clash of risk cultures as seen in the division between risk winners (profi�ng from risk) and risk losers.
Ulrich Beck described world risks as a special type of perceptual and cogni�ve schema, in which society as a whole is forced to react and act collec�ve, as it is confronted with the openness, uncertainty and the obstruc�on of its self-‐created future. A global risk, Beck argues, is an opportunity to include poten�ally affected non-‐na�onals in decision-‐making processes that normally would remain in the borders of a single state. In the face of a world risk there would be no more ‘proud na�ons’ but rather cosmopolitans na�ons; sharing a trauma�c experience will make all global neighbors. Global risks are not only ‘side-‐effects’ of moderniza�on, but also awareness-‐raising for how to cope with moderniza�on.
WORLD RISK
ULRICH BECK
Beck explains that there are three possible types of assemblages in reac�on to a world risk: First, methodological na�onalism (na�ons addressed a global issue as a na�onal issue) Second, a transna�onal or regional assemblages (the us vs. them shape) Third, a cosmopolitan moment of enlightenment, a assemblage based on solidarity and collabora�on, where usually ignore or silenced voices gain agency.
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Risks are fluid and complex landscapes of manufactured uncertain�es, with up-‐to-‐now unseen risk mo�li�es; they are full of unexpected and irreversible �me-‐space movements, which we treat under the concept of risk infrastructures. Risks are embedded in networks of manufactured interdependence. Global assemblages are no longer in the hands of experts or (na�onal) authori�es alone. Risky things are not risky by themselves but are so when in par�cular assemblages. Especially useful for risk mapping is the idea of mediators or actors making others do unexpected things: these [mediators] are o�en enough iden�fied retrospec�vely as the risk-‐producing rela�ons of en��es. Risks many �mes are black-‐boxed or the connec�ons are hard to see. It is important for risk management to map them.
WORLD RISK
ULRICH BECK
RISK CAR
TOGR
APHY
GE
RALD BECK AN
D CO
RDULA KRO
PP
“[g]ather the various risk claims coming from different protagonists in the controversy and link them to the related posi�ons, engaged statements and arguments in order to render visible the otherwise invisible network of risk and risk-‐related opera�ons and nego�a�ons.” The protagonists (who is involved?), the ma�ers of concern (what is at stake?), the statements (what are the knowledge claims, and what are we afraid of?) and things (what can be done?). In this prac�ce we are not mapping the risk infrastructures as it is staged in the media, but media analysis is useful because the aim is to trace who is allowed to speak The tracing of the ‘cut-‐down of speaking subjects’
AGEING AS A W
ORLD RISK
AGEING AS A RISK Thinking about ageing as a type of world risk is an invita�on to think about how it triggers different actors to connect with each other (or not), in response to a situa�on in which they are all involved, even if unequally affected. Ageing is a coming crisis; it is staged virtuality and it sets in mo�on numerous measures of preven�on and an�cipa�on which are distributed in the market, policy making, humanitarian work, etc. In this respect, using risk as a framework for an issue mapping of ageing raises ques�ons such as: how is the “globe” responding and organizing itself in the face of an ageing crisis yet to come? What kinds of alliances are being formed and what kinds of risk infrastructures are they giving shape to? And, what kind of equali�es are being put forward by an�cipa�ng an ageing crisis?
Can we iden�fy ageing risks donors and ageing risks receivers? What are the d i s ce rn ing vo i ces and h idden infrastructures? Which actors are performing as mediators and are more responsibly than others for inducing ac�on and movements regarding an ageing world? And, finally, Beck opens the way for a crucial ques�on: is the ageing crisis promo�ng a shared reac�on of solidarity? And can we trace and map such a “cosmopolitan moment”?
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Project 1. Mapping actors and claims in the European age-‐risk scenario. In order to map the state of affair of the ageing-‐crisis debate we married two techniques: debate mapping (capturing data from the source that “do” the issue) and risk cartography (breaking down a risk into its protagonists, ma�ers of concern, statements and things). We use as a star�ng datasets the News Sec�on of the Ageing Pla�orm Europe and a special issue of the European Parliament Magazine, focused on the topic of ageing. We read each news entry from June 2008 to February 2012 and manually iden�fied (when possible) the protagonists, ma�ers of concern, statements and things in each one of them. We visualized these data by plo�ng all the risk elements (claims (divided in problems and solu�ons), actors and loca�ons) and their associa�ons in a network. This allowed us to plot graphically actors’ �es and shared or contras�ng concep�ons of risks concerning the elderly, together with the solu�ons the par�es put forward. To this end, we employed the mind-‐mapping tool Mindomo, which results in an interac�ve cartographical representa�on of the data (image 13).
Findings Clustered issues: The most prevalent risk iden�fied was “ageing straining the welfare state” (this was men�oned in 45 percent of the news). The two most interconnected concerns were: “ageing affects welfare state” and “ageing affects employment”. Popula�on predic�ons were o�en cited. In terms of protagonists: Anne-‐Sophie Parent (secretary general of the AGE), is as expected, over-‐represented. Thomas Mann (Vice-‐chair of Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Commi�ee), Mar�n Kastler (Parliament’s Rapporteur on the European Year for Ac�ve Ageing) and Lásló Andor (European Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner) are the other most connected protagonists organizing the debate around welfare and employment, showing a transna�onal, ins�tu�onalized dominance of the central ma�ers of concern.
Solu�ons to mi�gate the risk posed on the welfare state are: rising the working age, greater training and engagement of the elderly to sustain their working life naturally, as well as to encourage their volunteering, and organiza�ons to accept older volunteers. These type of solu�ons link to another ma�er of concern: technology. For example, the statements made by protagonists, including the sole private one Vodafone (albeit through its Founda�on), highlights restric�ons such as the inability of the elderly to use smartphones,
thereby disconnec�ng themselves from contemporary social contact, and also making daily life more expensive, given that cheaper goods are available online (and may be delivered to the door). Isolated issues: Elder discrimina�on in the labor market (specially for older women), a need for healthy ageing, the impact of ageing on family policies, the difficul�es of implemen�ng local approaches to policies on ageing, and the absence of collec�ve redress legisla�on within the EU.
IMAGE # 13
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What is common to these issues is the nature of the ma�ers of concern, that do not focus on the actual effects of ageing on the ins�tu�ons of modernity, but rather on the failure of European ins�tu�ons and policies to address the problem, both na�onally and transna�onally. AGE UK’s Hyperlinking Behavior: isolated actor-‐networks? On the previous risk cartography the actor “AGE UK” was linked to marginal (or very local) concerns, while at the same �me the UK appeals for interna�onal coopera�on to help cope with these concerns. Then, to what extent does the UK organizes a cross-‐European network? Or, does the UK remains isolated regarding these specific concerns? Where does the UK debate extent beyond its borders? In order to map this network we went back to the Age Pla�orm Europe, we iden�fied the UK members with a websites, for a total of 14. We used Navicrawler to perform a hyperlink analysis. The 14 UK websites outpu�ed a total of 376 outlinks.
We took the IP addresses of the 376 websites and converted them to geo-‐loca�ons, using the GeoIP tool, developed by the Digital Methods Ini�a�ve. We visualize this data using Gephi (image 14). It is possible to see that the majority of outlinks come from the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland. In this sense, the majority of the debate has na�onal references. Out of the picture, so to speak, is the rest of the world, in the sense that large swaths of territory remain vacant. The UK’s hyperlink behavior is neither as regional (EU-‐wide only) nor a cosmopolitan one. Image 15-‐18 shows these data in terms of percentages and in terms of a heat map.
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IMAGE # 14
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IMAGE # 15, 16, 17, 18
3. Care work migra�ons: UK In an interconnected risk scenario other countries are affected by the ageing of the UK. We saw this in the previous mapping, in which interna�onal sources are commonly referred to and therefore involved in the UK ageing debate. Their associa�on is neither regional nor cosmopolitan, however they are all developed countries. Now we wish to explore how other less developed countries are drawn to par�cipate in the UK ageing debate. The general scenario: Already exis�ng studies describe how care workers, usually from North African, Asian and Eastern European countries migrate to the UK. A percentage of these migrants are mo�vated by the ageing crisis. The Migra�on Observatory at Oxford also relates that there is a difficulty in a�rac�ng Bri�sh workers to the social care sector, given especially the low pay, making the sector reliant on foreign-‐born workers from both within the EU and outside of it. In London some 60% of social care workers is foreign, including many from Poland, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, India and Nigeria (Shutes, 2011).
One scenario could be that social care sector shortages could be considered a worldwide phenomenon, where there is a need for training home-‐grow carers everywhere. Another scenario is that careworkers are being recruited in those countries with the greatest shortages, no ma�er the consequences for the source lands. This has been referred to as the care worker drain and it is currently being addressed by different transna�onal organiza�on that seek to regulate it.
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For example, the UK government has placed a limit on workers entering the country, especially lesser skilled ones. In contrast to healthcare workers, social care workers are considered lesser skilled, thereby limi�ng their recruitment (Shutes, 2011). However, rules variate depending on the source country. Na�on-‐states’ efforts to redraw the dis�nc�on between decision-‐maker and vic�m state may be highlighted in making bilateral agreements, promo�ng training through short-‐term visas (as opposed to work visas), compensa�ng source countries for losses associated with health care worker migra�on, and facilita�ng the migra�on of health care professional to countries with health worker shortages such as Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (Hamilton and Yau, 2004; Shutes, 2011; Bach, 2003).
The UK-‐Sub-‐Sahara case We saw how interna�onal regula�on put pressure on governments, however where is the private sector in terms of this discussion? And, is there a sense of awareness of the care worker drain in these private sectors? Here we turned to sub-‐Saharan African countries, and the recruitment of their workers. To gain a sense of con�nued awareness of the careworker migra�on issue, this sub-‐study looks into the specific sectors within the network of organiza�ons concerning the UK’s ageing popula�on, and studies whether various sectors within this network acknowledge and men�on the sub-‐Saharan African countries that are struggling with a crippling health system. In other words is the UK private sector acknowledge publicly the struggle of Sub-‐Saharan countries? Is this prominent on their online presence? Is this informa�on distributed or does it remain in academic circles and will not reach more direct clients, mediators and companies?
Ge�ng the data We come back to the to 14 websites (members of the UK AGE) and the 376 network of outlinks we previously harvest. We categorized the 376 websites into : NGO, Academia/Research, Government, Business, Service, Social media and Media. The distribu�on of the data set per category was: NGO 36.2 %, Academia 21.2 %, Business 12.1 %, Governmental 18.2 %, Media 2% and Service 10.3 %. We curated a list with 22 sub-‐Saharan countries that had English listed as one of their official languages. We selected three key terms: migra�on, recruitment and interna�onally recruited nurses. We compile them for a total list of 25 terms We crawled using the Lippmannian Device this 376 websites with the 25 terms (countries + key words). The device looks up the number of �mes a par�cular term appears in a website. For example, the term “migra�on” in the UK’s NHS website (www.nhs.gov.uk), the tool turns this into a Google query:
[“migra�on” site:nhs.gov.uk] and returns the number of es�mated results as indicated by Google as well as up to 1000 results returned by Google. Organizing the results: In the results file, we kept only the queries made for each term within each site and the number of results indicated by Google. We provided general categories to the websites queried (see Appendix 2., Sheet 1.) The final spreadsheet has 7857 rows and four columns. The first column indicates the query that was made to Google through the Lippmannian Device (e.g. Botswana or migra�on); the second column shows the site that the term was queried for (e.g. Site:bbclearning.co.uk); the third column depicts the category to which the website belongs; and the final column shows the number of results that Google found for these specific terms on the websites (see Appendix 2., Sheet 2.)
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We created separate files for each of the country names, with the name of the websites that the term was queried in, the category that the website belongs to and the number of Google results found. We then added up all the number of Google results that were found for each specific country, which resulted in a table that showed six categories for each term and the number of Google results that each term had within these categories (see Appendix 2., Sheets 3-‐27).
We visualize the data Image 2 show the results from the Lippmannian Device as a bubble line chart, it shows the number of �mes the three terms (migra�on, recruitment, interna�onally recruited nurses) appeared in websites that were categorized under (star�ng from the le�most bubble and going to the right): NGO, academia, business, government, media, service.
IMAGE # 19
The government’s efforts at recognizing migra�on and recruitment are apparent; the image provides a coarse picture of the UK government’s recogni�on and communica�on of the careworker issue, at least in terms of its men�oning of the issue together with the sub-‐Saharan countries. The business and service sectors granted the migra�on and recruitment issue the least amount of a�en�on.
Whilst the former is not all that surprising (since many of the businesses that showed up in the network are interna�onal pharmaceu�cal companies, which are tangen�ally involved in this issue), the fact that the service sector websites have not recognized either of the terms as an issue to be men�oned stands out, especially considering the fact that care homes employing foreign-‐born nurses is one of the protagonists in the controversy.
IMAGE # 20
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NGOs (which make up a large por�on of the ini�al dataset) ranked behind governmental and academia/research websites when it comes to recognizing migra�on and recruitment as an issue to be discussed. Thus, fanning out from AGE Pla�orm Europe groups, it appears that government and academia/research drive the recruitment and migra�on issue. Figure 3 visualizes the frequency in which a specific sub-‐Saharan country was men�oned according to each one of the sectors we iden�fied. Ex: the maps shows how many �mes is each one of the22 countries men�oned in websites that fall under the category of NGO or Academia (7 maps) and a central map that shows which countries have the most men�ons in all the data set. On the aggregated map, we see that Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa have the greatest prominence. This is mainly due to the fact that out of all the sectors queried, governmental websites were once again those that placed the most emphasis on the issue and they also had the same four countries at the tops of their lists.
The NGO category, accoun�ng for over a third of the links in the dataset, was responsible for only ¼ of the results in the Lipmannian Device. It is once again apparent that the service industry has not done the same, implying the previously discussed phenomenon of the tension between the private and public health sector when it comes to the issue of interna�onally recruited health workers from sub-‐Saharan African countries. The service sector is the only one amongst the categories that seem to view the sub-‐Saharan African countries as a region, rather than as individual countries. Since each bubble represen�ng the 22 countries are more or less sized and colored in the same way, it seems like the service sector does not put a greater emphasis in any of the countries in par�cular.
Figure 4 shows which percentage of the dataset when queried with the country names belong sot which category, or in other words, which sector is dedica�ng more a�en�on to sub-‐Saharan countries in general. The two issue maps (Figure 33 and Figure 34) both point to the same conclusion: whilst the public sector in the UK is making a real effort to treat it as a cosmopolitan issue, other sectors generally leave out of reference the vic�m states. However, it is important to note that the mapping builds upon previous findings in only a coarse manner, providing an invita�on (as we soon come to) to survey further the recruitment prac�ces of ageing places, such as the UK.
65+
65+65+
65+
65+
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CRITICAL CAR
TOGR
APHY
JEREMY CR
AMPTON
Cri�cal Cartography a�ends to both a cri�que and to a prac�ce of spa�al and place making ac�vi�es, especially, that of maps. The map is approached as a social product, instead of a factual reality; maps are technologies used to produce and not to mirror space, and ul�mately, are tools for governing, which have tangible effects and power. On the one hand, the cri�cal cartographer is responsible for analyzing exis�ng cartographies and producing accounts that describe their mechanisms and, on the other hand, the cri�cal cartographer is also responsible for producing alterna�ve cartographies that oppose or react or differen�ate from other cartographies. GIS are not objec�ve data collectors or strictly quan�ta�ve tools, instead they also have posi�onality and par�cipate in shaping ideologies.
The prac�ce of cri�cal cartography can be described as that of examining the (o�en-‐unexamined) grounds of our decision-‐making knowledge(s), situate knowledge in specific historical periods and geographic spaces (rather than being universal), seek to uncover the rela�onship between power and knowledge and resist, challenge, and some�mes overthrow our categories of thought Cri�que, as described by Crampton, also puts forward another type of verbs, such as “resist”, “challenge” and “overthrow”. In other words, the map understood as a tool for poli�cs: to create maps also has an ontological power to contest, re-‐work, resist, repurpose and re-‐organize.
CRITICAL CAR
TOGR
APHY
JEREMY CR
AMPTON
NEO
-‐CAR
TOGR
PAHY
Neo-‐cartography enables a more widespread and reinvigorated prac�ce of cri�cal cartography and of counter mapping: it allows to move from an abstract idea of mapping to the produc�on of maps. In other words, neo-‐cartography helps issue mappers opera�onalize Crampton’s r-‐words (re-‐work, re-‐organized, re-‐purpose) or perform counter-‐mapping strategies. Neo-‐cartography includes a set of amateur mapping tools, the geoweb and the new spa�al media and the ways in which they are used. They provide accessibi l ity to geographical informa�on and place making tools The map mashup is the technical possibility that allows the user to annotate and augment a map with h is/her own informa�on: “[m]ap mash-‐ups were a significant advancement in people-‐powered mapping”.
A widespread place-‐making prac�ce allow also for a poten�al distribu�on and mul�plica�on of cartographies and counter-‐mappings. Neo cartography allows the user to perform the following tasks: (a) select a map and give it a ��le and a descrip�on, (b) include layers with informa�on about a loca�on and annotate (c) Highlight a route (d) save the map and decide if he/she wants to share it with others users or invite them to collaborate by giving them authoriza�on to modify the map. Also, the user can decide if the map is made public or unlisted and therefore invisible or visible to search engines
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CRITICAL CAR
TOGR
APHY
JEREMY CR
AMPTON
NEO
-‐CAR
TOGR
PAHY
LAYER CR
ITIQUE
LISA PAR
K
Lisa Parks wrote a cri�cal response to Google Corpora�on and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s joint project “Crisis in Darfur” (2007). The project took the shape of a Google Earth layer, in the already exis�ng category of Google’s Global Awareness layers that allowed users to navigate through an annotated disgital map of Darfur, Sudan. Photographs were superimposed on specific geographical loca�ons. They were the images of burned villages, wounded women, starving children and other tropes that corresponded to the devasta�on suffered by the vic�ms of armed conflict Parks states, that the Crisis in Darfur project diminishes the poten�al for a literacy of satellite images, conver�ng them into an entry point for zooming in on individual and personal narra�ves of the Darfur vic�ms.
The second cri�que put forward b y P a r k s r e f e r s t o “ t h e temporality of the interface”. For Parks �me is a determining element in the type of scenario that will be deployed via a layer: the when is as important as the where. The third point raised by Parks is “the prac�ce of conflict branding and digital capitalism”. This is an important point for the issue mapper as it directly addresses the ques�on of who are the desired viewers of the mapping or the layer and its poten�al for using informa�on a type of interven�on
CRITICAL CAR
TOGR
APHY
JEREMY CR
AMPTON
NEO
-‐CAR
TOGR
PAHY
LAYER CR
ITIQUE
LISA PAR
K
ISSU
E LAYERS
DIGITLA METHO
DS
Once accessing and customizing geographical imagery is possible (ex: Google MyMaps), the second challenge the issue mapper must face is, bluntly speaking, what data should he/she use to annotate a map and construct the mashup? With these ques�ons in mind, we proposed the concept of issue-‐layers, a specific form of augmenta�on, as opposed to a legend / gaze�eer, that come from a combina�on of digital methodologies (used to trace associa�ons) and the possibility of visualizing these rela�onships spa�ally.
A CR
ITICAL CAR
TOGR
APHY
OF AG
EING
We are presently concerned with iden�fying and tracing how loca�ons across Europe are being cra�ed into ageing places. We had have seen briefly how places are also in the category of “things that are in the making” and being cra�ed around controversial issues concerning ageing in terms of borders, isola�on, communi�es, regions.
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The Polish migra�on layer Care workers are migra�ng from African countries into the UK. Are there similar migra�ons occurring, not in an interna�onal level, but on the EU-‐ageing regions? How are members of the Year of Ac�ve Ageing distribu�ng age-‐resources? What types of flows of migra�ons are occurring internally? We chose Poland as our point of departure. We used google.pl and queried [“job offers”]. From the websites outpu�ed we chose the top five job portals that offered vacancies for Polish na�onals. We manually search them and iden�fied the offers for care worker posi�ons, took note of the des�na�on (or employee country) of the offers, the name of the agency ac�ng as mediator and their loca�on.
We found that on the 10th of April 2012 (day the query was performed) there were: 27 offers for Polish na�onals to work in Poland, to work in Germany a total of 266 open posi�ons, for the United Kingdom 56, Belgium 19, Netherlands 17, Switzerland 17 and Austria 4. Also, on the day the query was performed twelve employment agencies were ac�ve, namely: Promedica Care based on Poland and Germany, The caring Crew and Pro Care based in the Netherlands, Private Care 24, Plfegeengel 24h, Senior Care,
IMAGE # 21
Germanicus Plfegeldienst and Europa Care Interna�onal based in Germany, Global Service M&A, Senior Invest based in Poland, Pflege mit herz based in Austria and Pro Senior. Image 21 shows this process of media�on. We used Google Maps to visualize the data (image 22). The map describes which countries require Polish workers according to the offers posted on job portals, and visualizes this rela�onship in terms of the direc�on of migra�on and the amounts of job offered. We created landmarks in the European countries that offer the majority of the job posi�ons: Germany, UK, Austria, France and The Netherlands . Addi�onally, this map includes the links to the job portals, which will allow the user to retrace the source of informa�on and possibly update the number of d isplacements, countr ies and employment agencies. Finally, is worth clarifying that because we were working on the basis of offerings our maps speaks of poten�al displacements, rather than on actual displacements.
IMAGE # 22
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Ageing Centers and Peripheries: NGO, Events and Authority The second layer is concern with mapping a spa�aliza�on of the issue network in terms of a center and periphery. How are these spa�al connota�ons being formed by ageing issues? By which strategies or associa�on is the center formed? How does domina�on and power takes place in terms of space? We use the AGE pla�orm. We approach it as an official map of the ini�a�ve and as a public database. We followed to reorganized it and counter-‐map it. We chose three sec�ons/ac�on formats: the Events Sec�on, Member’s Sec�on and News Sec�on. They are all presented in the Age pla�orm in a non-‐geographical visualiza�on, but rather as lists, calendar or collec�ons organized by date. We followed to iden�fy all individual elements on the sec�ons and geo-‐locate them using Google maps.
IMAGE # 23
First we geo-‐located the complete list of NGO that are affiliated with the AGE Pla�orm (image 23). There was a larger number of NGOs based in North-‐Western Europe than in the Southeast and Eastern na�ons. For example, France has a representa�on of 28 members; Italy, 26; the United Kingdom, 25; Belgium, 15; Spain, 10; Ireland and the Netherlands, 9 each; and Germany, 7. All other EU na�ons have three or fewer members, some with no organiza�ons registered at all. As an addi�onal step we decided to visualize these data using a heat map. This �me we took as reference the na�onal affilia�on, rather than exact loca�on of the collected organiza�on; the darker the color, the more NGOs a country has. Second, we collected the names and loca�ons of 77 events taking place during 2012 and we followed to geo-‐locate them using Google MyMaps, including key words regarding what the event is concerned with (image 24). There is again a concentra�on of events in North and Western Europe with an under representa�on of Eastern European and Scandinavian member na�ons.
Furthermore, there is a par�cularly strong representa�on of member states Belgium, with 15 events, the United Kingdom, with 8, France with 6 and the 5 events in Germany. Most eastern countries show only one event, that being, in their majority, the launch of the 2012 European Year for Ac�ve Ageing and Solidarity between Genera�ons. The only Eastern European na�on with more than 2 events is Czech Republic, who is hos�ng 3 in 2012. Many Eastern European na�ons are only hos�ng one event. We visualized this with a heat map (figure 4) Third, went back to the previously gathered list of NGO from the Ageing Pla�orm Europe; we manually visited their websites and chose the most ac�ve NGO per country and from each one of them we proceeded to collect the news reports from the year 2011. The news sec�ons of each na�onal AGE Pla�orm member’s websites was read and the issue and actors and their loca�on in each ar�cle in 2011 recorded.
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IMAGE # 24
IMAGE # 25
We were par�cularly interested in iden�fying when a par�cular source used the cita�on an actor from another EU country that was not its own. The node represents the country from which the ar�cle is produced and the line ends with the na�onality of the actor within the ar�cle. Image 25 isolates the actors referenced in each na�onal website by source of na�onality when within EU member na�ons only. It displays a stronger concentra�on of actors in North-‐Western Europe. The United Kingdom is referenced 5 �mes, Switzerland 4, Germany 2 �mes and France once. The United Kingdom also draws on actors from Sweden and Denmark. There were no referenced actors in rela�on to ageing issues in any na�on in Eastern Europe.
This follows the trend found by geo-‐loca�ng NGOs and events through the AGE Pla�orm EU website Ul�mately, looking at the three maps produced so far it is possible to see a clear trend in where the concentra�on of events, NGOs and referenced actors are and so in a sense exposes influence of na�onal actors within the AGE Pla�orm network and an over-‐representa�veness. Indeed, all three fit within the same trend of being based in North-‐Western Europe and par�cularly in UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium and less overtly Spain, Switzerland and Italy. The graphics in image 26 illustrates this trend, with a concentra�on of nodes west of the red line, which fits for all three maps and a dearth to the east.
IMAGE # 26
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Disagree Minori�es: Cross-‐Cultural Analysis of Issues we have achieved to be�er understand how influence and domina�on from northern European ageing na�ons is taking place. However at this point we s�ll know li�le about the peripheries or about the disagreeing voices that belong to this general scenario of ageing and that find no representa�on in the formerly men�oned formats. We performed a cross-‐cultural comparison using local Google search engines. We queried in 27 na�onal Google search engines the standard term [ageing problems] translated into the specific languages of each country. Namely: (1) Germany, (2) France, (3) Ireland, (5) The Netherlands, (6) Luxemburg, (7) Romania, (8) United Kingdom, (9) Belgium, (10) Italy, (11) Czech Republic, (12) Portugal, (13) Denmark, (14) Cyprus, (15) Bulgaria, (16) Finland, (17) Italy, (18) Lithuania, (19) Sweden, (20) Greece, (21) Poland, (22) Estonia, (23) Malta, (24) Slovakia, (25) Slovenia, (26) Latvia and (27) Spain
Addi�onally, is worth clarifying that we chose this term because it belongs to the language normally used in the official statements found within the site of the European Year for Ac�ve Ageing and Solidarity between Genera�ons 2012. Also, that before each query the browser's history was cleared and the user-‐se�ngs were changed to reflect the na�onality at hand. The query was made on March 2012 From the totality of results outpu�ed by the search engines we manually accessed the top five results per country and collected the issues that where men�oned in them (Figure 50). We found a total of 18 issues distributed amongst the top 5 results of all 27 retrieved searches and grouped them under the following categories: (1) Immigra�on Integra�on, (2) Financial Issues, (3) Mental Health Issues, (4) Loneliness, (5) Alcohol and Drug Abuse, (6) Dietary Shortage, (7) Local Issue Solu�ons, (8) Elderly Rights and Equality, (9) Transport and Mobility Issues, (10) Physical Health Issues, (11) Technology and Communica�on Issues, (12) Government Welfare Provision Shortage, (13) Longer and Changing Role in the Workplace, (14) Nursing
Home Provision Issues, (15) Medica�on Issues, (16) Elder Abuse and Discrimina�on, (17) Ac�ve and Social Ageing and (18) Disease Control in the Elderly. We follow to visualize each one of the 18 issues using icons available online at the "Noun project". Ul�mately, using Google’s search engine and it’s algorithm based on ‘reputa�on’ helped us to iden�fy a na�onal order of concerns regarding ageing by outpu�ng a series of list that can be later compared. Generally, using this method we can find three types of results: first, the issues that are more popular amongst the totality of the countries (or a “general agenda” according to search engines results)
second, the most relevant issue for each country and therefore associa�on between countries according to their priori�es, and third, the issues that where unique to certain countries and that standout as disagreeing minori�es or peripheral issues. Once the most popular issues have being established, the rest of the results appear as an assortment of ‘disagreeing minori�es’. For instance, this includes public transport concerns as second most important issue in just the geographically �ed Ireland and the UK; human rights issues that only appeared in Greece and Hungary or the isolated issues of IT skills for the elderly in Spain and the issues surrounding the administra�on of medicine en�rely isolated to Finland.
IMAGE # 27
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In other words, the general agenda is to some extent made of the issues that are top for dominant countries clusters formed around the issue of elder abuse and discrimina�on, that albeit not playing a high visibility role on the ac�vity grid of European ins�tu�ons or organiza�ons in other spaces, it is present in the top five results for queries in an significant spread of European states: first and second result in Poland, first results in Greece, but also in Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
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CROSS CULTURAL ANALYSIS: The term ageing was queried in each of the dominant languages of localized Google search engines of twenty-‐three countries members of the European Union. The first hundred results outpu�ed by the search engine, set to return only websites and documents from the countries in ques�on, were used to iden�fy and synthesize the top ten unique issues per country Once the issue lists were localized the researchers began iden�fying similari�es and differences amongst countries. For example, issues such as “ac�ve ageing” (and references to the EU agenda on ac�ve ageing), “health and ageing” and “an�-‐ageing” were mostly shared amongst countries, poin�ng towards some resonance of the European agenda. The research focused further on exploring the issues that appeared as unique cases. For example, the sugges�on of pumpkin as an an�-‐ageing food was a topic unique to Bulgaria, while in Czech Republic an an�-‐ageing cooking class was adver�sed. A founda�on with the mission statement to help people decide what they want to be when they grow old appeared as issue-‐language unique to Spain, at least among the more prominent ones.
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