AGEING SOCIETY IN ITALY AND JAPAN: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP

"DISTANCES IN THE COVID-19 ERA"

Online event - November 13-14, 2020

Under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Japan and the University of Milano-Bicocca
https://iseas-kyoto.org/eventi/workshops


In the past decade, the crucial issue of the dynamic social andeconomic impact of an aging society (namely, the increase inlongevity versus the fall in fertility in a population) has been theso-called digital divide, or the uneven distribution in the access to,use of, or impact of Information and Communication Technologies(ICT). Most research on this topic has addressed reducing theintergenerational gap, influencing the growth of educationalprograms for the elderly and the production of dedicated userinterfaces. However, the recent g lobal Covid-19 pandemic hasshown an acceleration in the reduction of the digital divide, allowingfor the mitigation of imposed physical distances through anincrease in the use of ICT. Within this scenario, the dynamicinterplay between physical and virtual distances has assumed newforms, forcing innovative cross-disciplinary attitudes to develop aswell as the design of new perspectives for the future of research.

This workshop, which focuses on Japan and Italy, the two countriesthat top the list of aging populations, combines multidisciplinaryresearch to discuss the notion of "distance" due to the recentexperience of the pandemic. The workshop gathers schol ars andexperts from different disciplines and aims to converge theirknowledge on the common discussion platform of how theperception of "distance"i s addressing new research trends inscientific and humanistic studies.

Steering Committee

Stefania Bandini (University of Milano-Bicocca and RCAST – The University of Tokyo)

Paolo Calvetti (Italian Cultural Institute, Tokyo)

Silvio Vita (Italian School of East Asian Studies, Kyoto and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies)