Giulia Cortellesi and Jessica Harpley presented a paper titled ‘Together Old and Young reinventing community’ at the 2017 AAGE Conference “Culture, Commitment and Care across the Life Course” organized at the Oxford Brookes University located in the beautiful and historic city of Oxford, England. An audience of about 40 researchers from around the world enthusiastically attended the presentation.
The paper drew on both anthropological and pedagogical perspectives. It demonstrates that intergenerational activities provide both young children and older people the opportunity to express and experience different selves, to be active learners and to be playful and spontaneous and where the children and older people can co-construct knowledge.
A particular point of discussion was how young children and older adults jointly experience cultural heritage and how this fosters collective identity and social cohesion in community settings.
The purpose of ICDI’s TOY Programme is to promote intergenerational learning and create new possibilities for senior citizens and young children to learn together and benefit from each others’ company.
