Ageing in Southeast Europe: Ivana Spirovska at the Max Weber Program Summer Academy in Ljubljana
What does it mean to grow older in a rapidly changing society? How do people experience ageing in their everyday lives, and how are these experiences shaped by the social, political, and demographic contexts around them?
These questions are central to the research of Ivana Spirovska, researcher within the project “Transforming Anxieties of Ageing in Southeast Europe,” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
At the Max Weber Program Summer Academy in Ljubljana, held from 22–29 August 2026, Spirovska brought these questions into the classroom, combining insights from the project with hands-on research training. Together with Andi Balla, project researcher at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), she co-facilitated and co-mentored a student working group.
As part of the working group, Spirovska delivered lectures exploring demographic change, demographic nationalism, and media representations of ageing in Southeast Europe, and a qualitative case study examining ageing in North Macedonia within its broader social, demographic, and political context.
A central part of the working group was development of participants' own applied research projects. Students were guided through research design, data collection, and qualitative analysis, and supported in presenting and critically discussing their preliminary findings.
