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Imagined communities: initiatives around LGBTQ ageing in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Charlotte Ross
Charlotte Ross*
Affiliation:
Italian Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
*
∗Email: c.e.ross@bham.ac.uk
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Abstract

LGBTQ ageing is an under-researched but vital issue, given the cultural invisibility of older LGBTQ individuals and Italy's ageing population. This article explores initiatives around LGBTQ ageing, considered in relation to the hypothesis that LGBTQ populations may develop effective strategies for ‘successful ageing’, by establishing queer cultural spaces and support networks. After a brief contextualisation of key issues the author focuses on a case study of a lesbian community in Bari which is planning a residential arrangement for ‘older lesbians’. Drawing on interviews conducted in January 2011, the coping strategies or forms of ‘resilience’ developed by this community are identified and analysed. It is argued that while plans for a residential facility remain unrealised, this community demonstrates a degree of ‘resilience across the life course’, through reciprocal support, and socio-cultural and political innovation. However, interviews also reveal the difficulties of progressing from an ‘imagined community’ to its concrete realisation.

Keywords

communitylesbiansageingresiliencenetworks
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 17 , Issue 4: Special Issue: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy , November 2012 , pp. 449 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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