Exhibitions

The Images of Care exhibition critically explores what care looks like in later life. It is comprised of 170 photographs taken by older adults of moments of care in their daily life. Co-produced with older adults, the exhibition aims to redefine visual narratives of aging and care. This exhibition is part of a project that conducted research on images from the news media on care and later life. We found that media narratives often approach both ageing and care as a problem and reproduce ageist stereotypes. The Images of Care project aims to reframe these topics through participatory photography to share moments of care in daily life that are often overlooked.

The exhibition features four double-sided fabric panels displaying participant-taken photographs alongside their own written experiences. Accompanied by quotes, stories, and interactive reflection, these images highlight the beauty in everyday acts of care and reflect the collaborative work of the exhibition. The Images of Care exhibition is intended to be a visual dialogue challenging our assumptions around care and ageing. By placing the camera in the hands of older adults it makes visible the often invisible perspectives of older adults and encourages the viewer to draw parallels with care in their own life.

A person in full time employment spends around 90,000 hours at work over their life span. The care they receive and provide during this time is shaped by a range of factors, including organisational practices and policies, trade unions, managers, and colleagues. Good or bad, it will reverberate across their lives – and the lives of those they come into contact with.                                                                    

This short recording recounts a day in the life of a Royal Mail ‘postie’, a role I took on during ethnographic fieldwork on a remote Scottish island. Originally intended as a means of earning some extra cash while getting to know the local community, becoming a postie provided unexpected glimpses into influences over care – and its absences – at a variety of scales. Through the recording, I point to the importance of the workplace as a multifaceted and interconnected site of care.           

There has been increasing recognition of the role that informal networks and social relations can play in the provision of care for older people. Yet, few studies have explored informal care relations within the context of broader changing sociopolitical contexts and the temporalities of the lifecourse as we age. Such an approach is needed to understand the complexity and nuances of informal care, working to provide a deeper understanding of relational approaches that could inform policy and practice. Our study involved conducting one-on-one interviews with 37 people aged 50+, utilizing a visual method of elicitation in the interviews called ‘life maps’ and applying ‘narrative portraiture’ techniques in our analysis. This audio experience explores select ‘portraits’ from our data set in the form of ‘data poems’. We share key portraits that problematise norms in care and care stereotypes, offering the opportunity for listeners to feel ‘close’ to our participants. Please note that, to preserve the anonymity of participants, the voices you hear are not those of participants themselves and pseudonyms have been used.                 

Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work (SHAW) was a 3-year, large scale interdisciplinary project funded by UKRI Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme. The project aims and outcomes address an increasingly urgent need to find ways to support work in mid-to-later life in response to significant demographic shifts in the UK and globally. Research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, interviews were conducted with 158 participants over 50 from four sectors - finance, manufacturing, social care and self-employment. The focus of the interviews was on less visible (or at least less commonly discussed) health considerations, including menopause, cognitive health, financial wellbeing, and health considerations in relation to informal care. In the second stage, a group of 48 participants were included in year-long co-design process which incorporated design activities, probes and workshops, as well as data collection using a wearable device.

The findings emphasised a central role of organisational practices and culture in supporting healthy ageing at work. Disclosure and communication about health in the workplace was particularly affected by a sense of psychological safety, and the related ability and willingness of line managers to support their employees. These findings contributed to the development of a new line manager training offering by Age Scotland, delivered to 1300 line managers in Scotland.

One overarching aspect of ‘hidden’ health manifested itself in difficulties with sleep. Many participants experienced significant disruptions in sleep duration and sleep quality. Crucially this sleep disruption was severe enough to have ongoing impacts on work performance. These insights fed into a collaboration with Sleep Action on a new accreditation model for organisations, to regard sleep as an organisational issue which can be supported as part of employees’ health and well-being needs.

Finally, we are developing our own bespoke web application  - the SHAW App - which enables workers in mid-later life to Reflect on their own health, review how their health and work intersect over time, and guide them to take Action in accessing appropriate organisational health supports.