Ageing and Civic Participation: A Dialogue Between France and Hong Kong
Event Website
Ageing and Civic Participation: A Dialogue Between France and Hong Kong
The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC), the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Center for Aging Science are thrilled to announce the upcoming conference themed “Ageing and Civic Participation: A Dialogue Between France and Hong Kong”, the third event organized as part of the Nuit des Idées debate series 2025, which will take place on October 23rd, 2025 at HKUST.
Ageing and civic participation in France and Hong Kong
It has now been 20 years since the World Health Organization first launched its Global Age-friendly Cities (AFC) Project in 2005. Part of a broader effort to address the challenges and opportunities presented by global population ageing, this initiative has aimed to encourage cities worldwide to become more accommodating to their older citizens and optimize their opportunities for health, participation, and security. Within this framework, participation holds a special place as both a goal and a method for inclusion. Against common representations which depict ageing as a retreat from social and civic life, the AFC framework considers older citizens as “the ultimate experts on their own lives,” and aims at empowering them to actively participate in society, may it be through paid employment, voluntary work, or civic inclusion in decision-making.
This one-day conference will bring together and foster exchanges between French and Hong Kong scholars and actors engaged in initiatives and works related to older citizens’ participation. France and Hong Kong, both ageing societies, have indeed actively developed age-friendly cities projects and nurtured reflections about the implementation of participatory frameworks in the context of their own institutional environment and social fabric, as testified by the establishment of the Francophone Network of Age-Friendly Cities (RFVAA) in 2012 in France, and of the Jockey Club Age-Friendly City Project in Hong Kong in 2015. Through their sharing of experiences and expertise, speakers at this conference will dig into a variety of issues related to older citizens’ participation: how has participation been understood and promoted in French and Hong Kong contexts? How can public policies foster older citizens’ participation and inclusion, and what challenges do they face in this regard? How can participatory designs and methods enhance the inclusion of and empower older citizens?
Co-organizers
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The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC)
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The Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau
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The Center for Aging Science, HKUST
Partners and Sponsors
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Institut Français
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Strobomotion
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HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study
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SIÂGE
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The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
