Ageing Playfully: Play and Games in Old Age

A pan Grand Challenges project funded by a special initiative.

Games and play are important aspects of older adult lives but have not received much attention from researchers. In the West, play and games are often seen as ‘mere frivolity’. However, recent scholarship argues that such activities are ‘serious’ contribution to ageing well. UCL’s Grand Challenges Special Initiative panel has funded the ‘Ageing Playfully’ project led by Dr Carrie Ryan (Anthropology) and Professor Paul Higgs (Psychiatry). This project will take playful ageing seriously and convene researchers, non-profit organisations, and corporate actors to discuss and develop interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches analysing the place of play and games in ageing health. ‘Ageing Playfully’ challenges ageist perceptions of older adults, and instead calls attention to how older adults remain playful, inventive, creative, dynamic, and lively as they age.

After conducting a scoping study and analysing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, the China Health and Retirement Survey, and the CLS-LHA COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies to explore the social and biopsychosocial impact of game-playing on older adults, the project team held a symposium in June 2021 to congregate all interested parties together to discuss the place of play and games in old age from diverse disciplinary perspectives. 

Additional collaborators

Dr JD Carpentieri (IOE)
Professor Helen Chatterjee (Biosciences)
Professor Andrew Steptoe (Behavioural Science and Health)
Dr Naaheed Mukadam (Psychiatry)
Professor Nick Fox (Neurology)
Moïse Roche (Doctoral Student in Psychiatry)
Pamela Almedia Meza (Doctoral Student in Epidemiology and Health Care)