AGEING IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC

Resumen

The Covid-19 pandemic is causing an unprecedented global crisis which impacts all
spheres of individual and social life. Multidisciplinary and comparative research on the
pandemic impact deserves more attention because of significant country variations in
outbreaks, anti-epidemic policy response and population reactions. The necessity of highquality survey data in comparative and cross national perspective in times of a pandemic is
addressed by Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)1
. SHARE is the
largest pan-European social panel study of health, social, economic and environmental
policies over the life-course. From 2004 until today SHARE includes 380,000 in-depth
interviews with 140,000 people aged 50 or older from 28 European countries and Israel. In
the beginning of June 2020 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe started data
collection of special “SHARE Corona Survey”, providing high-quality cross-national
comparative data on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. SHARE based research of the
pandemic impact benefits also with its longitudinal design, and multidisciplinary content,
combining social, economic and health variables.
Special issue ‘Ageing in times of a pandemic’ of Revista Inclusiones is initiated by
Ekaterina Markova and Gabriela Yordanova from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IPS-BAS), coordinating the Bulgarian research
infrastructure SHARE-ERIC Bulgaria2 and with the support of Bulgarian Ministry of
Education and Science within National Roadmap for Research infrastructures3
. Guest
editorial board of this special issue includes experienced researchers from Bulgaria and
Croatia: Dr. Alexander Katrandzhiev (SWU “Neofit Rilski, Blagoevgrad), Prof. Gabriela
Yordanova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Ekaterina Markova (Bulgarian Academy
of Sciences), Prof. Alexey Pamporov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Prof. Ekaterina
Tosheva (UNWE - Sofia), Prof. Šime Smolić (University of Zagreb), Prof. Ivan Čipin
(University of Zagreb).
The focus of special issue ‘Ageing in times of a pandemic’ is on recent developments
in South-East European countries within the global pandemic. This research effort brings
together scholars with an interest in multidisciplinary (social, economic and health) analyses
in crisis development, based on SHARE data in cross-national and European perspective.
Special interest is focused on impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on population aged 50 years
and older and the volume includes 7 original SHARE based research articles, distributed in
two thematic areas: