Report
Book about capable elderly “Capability” is a key concept within UGOT AgeCap, the Centre for Ageing and Health. But what does it really mean? A recent anthology shows that the answers can vary quite a lot depending on your discipline and scientific perspective. As many as 60 authors have contributed to the book, which was already downloaded 4,800 times in the week following publication. Work on the anthology, A multidis-
ciplinary approach to capability in age and ageing began in 2017 during one of AgeCap's steering group meetings. – We discussed how the term “capability” is sometimes used quite carelessly, and to achieve a more precise definition, we wanted to get the centre's research-
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ers to think about how they define and apply the term in their research. During the discussions that followed, it emerged that different disciplines define capability in different ways. This led to the idea of an anthology, and we canvassed widely throughout AgeCap to get as many perspectives as possible, Hanna Falk Erhag tells us. Together with Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson, Ingmar Skoog and Therese Rydberg Sterner, she is one of the editors of the anthology. – The more we examined the concept of “capability”, the more interesting it became, Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson continues. And for me, it was something of a revelation when I realized that “capability” is exactly what we historians have always dealt with, examining how people during different periods of history handled opportunities and limitations. The book is like a kaleidoscope of how different disciplines view the concept, says Ingmar Skoog.
– It provides a picture both of the multidisciplinary diversity that characterizes AgeCap, and of what a university with a broad scope can achieve when researchers from different fields work together.
The anthology also goes against the publishing tradition that exists in research to some extent, where interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary researchers have a difficult time finding a place, says Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson. – Even in the humanities, short articles in niche journals have become increasingly common. But with this publication, we have struck a blow for the book, which is a much older way of publishing. In order to make the book widely available, it can be downloaded for free from the website of the publisher, Springer. The book consists of 16 chapters and as many as 60 researchers contributed. The topics covered include health, cognition and well-being, functional ability,
