ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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Vive la Différence! How Different Survey Designs Broaden Our Understanding of Ageing in Europe |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Stefan Stuth (German Centre of Gerontology (DZA)) |
| Coordinator 2 | Mrs Nicole Hameister (German Centre of Gerontology (DZA)) |
Session Details
Comparative ageing research has benefited enormously from harmonised cross-national survey programmes. Harmonisation enables cumulative knowledge by providing standardised measures for cross-national comparison. Yet it is not the only source of scientific progress. National ageing studies often retain distinctive populations, longitudinal designs, measurement strategies, and data linkages, giving them greater scope to examine country-specific and emerging issues in breadth or depth. This flexibility can help identify previously underexplored phenomena of ageing and develop ways to measure them. Harmonised programmes can subsequently build on such exploratory work by translating new concepts into standardised instruments for comparative research. Diversity can therefore generate the concepts and measures that later make new comparative questions possible.
This session focuses on the scientific value of such diversity within comparative ageing research. It brings together major European ageing studies developed outside the SHARE/HRS survey family, for example the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), the Danish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (DLSA), the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation Study (NorLAG), and the Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies (CFAS) in the United Kingdom, etc.
These studies differ in the populations and age ranges they cover, their longitudinal and cohort designs, refreshment strategies, timing and intensity of panel waves, balance between measurement breadth and depth, and use of linked external data. The session asks how these differences generate substantive insights and methodological innovation that can, in turn, strengthen comparative ageing research.
Contributions are invited that show how particular design choices make different dimensions and processes of ageing observable, whether through target populations, cohort structures, observation periods, measurement depth, data-collection modes, or linkages to register, health, and other external data. The session thus treats heterogeneity across ageing studies as a scientific resource within a broader cumulative research infrastructure.
