EURAGE: Research on Ageism in Europe

When reviewing a manuscript for a friend, I learned about EURAGE. Their landing page explains their mission and work

EURAGE is an international project investigating attitudes to age across Europe. Our team designed the attitudes to age module in the European Social Survey and we are currently analysing the findings from 28 countries and over 50,000 respondents. One of our main goals is to disseminate our findings and to inform policy-makers, stakeholders and end-users from different countries about ageism, age attitudes and their relationships to the societal context. We are already working closely with a number of organizations, such as the Department of Work and Pensions (UK), Age UK (formerly Age Concern & Help the Aged) and the Institute of Ageing in Portugal. …

We are an international team of researchers specialised in ageism, attitudes to age and cross-cultural comparisons…. Our research includes surveys, experiments and qualitative approaches to answer important societal questions and to test social and psychological theory….

Our primary aim is to extend current knowledge on ageism which has previously only been investigated within particular countries. By comparing different countries and cultures, we are able to examine differing attitudes toward both older and younger adults, and how differences between countries, cultures and other socioeconomic factors may lie behind these attitudes. This allows us to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what shapes individuals’ attitudes to age.

EURAGE operates the Everyday Ageism project blog which allows individuals to submit their experiences.  The blog’s page explains the reason for this blog

The Everyday Ageism Project aims to capture people’s everyday experiences of ageism. Research by EURAGE shows that across the European region, ageism is the most commonly experienced form of prejudice, yet relatively little is known about how it is experienced, who experiences it and the situations which may leave people vulnerable to age discrimination.

By providing a safe forum for people to anonymously share their experiences, the project aims to understand the consequences of ageism and the ways that age discrimination can affect people’s everyday lives. We also wish to encourage people to share their stories to show that ageism does exist and that it is a valid problem worth discussing.