Professor Thomas Scharf
Phone:
091-495459
Email:
Job Title:
Professor of Social Gerontology and Director, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology
Biography:
Tom Scharf is Professor of Social Gerontology and Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at NUI Galway, Ireland. With a first degree in German and Politics from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and a doctorate in political science from Aston University, his research encompasses the fields of social gerontology, social policy and political science. Tom moved to NUI Galway in 2010 having previously been Director of the Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University, UK. Tom was elected to the UK Academy of Social Sciences in 2009 in recognition of his work on ageing.
While at Keele University, Tom worked with colleagues to develop a programme of research on aspects of disadvantage faced by older people. This included an influential project addressing issues relating to social exclusion and quality of life of older people living in some of England's most deprived urban neighbourhoods. At NUI Galway, Tom is leading a major programme of work addressing issues relating to ageing in rural communities. He is also engaged in a variety of projects on issues relating to poverty in later life, aspects of intergenerational solidarity, and the experiences of people ageing in disadvantaged communities. With colleagues from the Centre for Family and Child Research and Centre for Disability Law and Policy, Tom is also playing a key role in shaping the development of NUI Galway’s new Lifecourse Institute.
Qualifications:
Professor, BA (Hons) (Newcastle Upon Tyne), PhD (Aston), AcSS
Research Interests:
The social policy of later life; social inclusion and exclusion in later life; ageing in urban and rural communities; poverty and disadvantage; loneliness and social isolation; cross-national comparative research on ageing; intergenerational issues affecting older and younger people. Tom’s research adopts a broad range of methods, depending on the nature of the research questions being addressed. He has expertise in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches.
Research Projects:
Director of the Rural Ageing Observatory (2010-2012) which seeks to generate new knowledge about the experience of ageing in rural communities in Ireland and to influence public policy in relation to rural ageing issues.
Linked to the Observatory, Tom is working on a project, supported by the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI), which examines issues around the inclusion and exclusion of older people in diverse rural communities in Ireland and Northern Ireland (http://www.harcresearch.com/).
Principal Investigator on a project supported by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Social Inclusion Division, Department of Social Protection, which is exploring material deprivation indicators for older people in Ireland.
With colleagues at Trinity College Dublin and in NUI Galway’s Lifecourse Institute, he is joint lead on a project that is examining the status of the intergenerational contract in Ireland.
Tom continues to work on a range of outputs arising from other recently completed empirical projects based at Keele University, including the Longitudinal study of Ageing in a Retirement Community (LARC; www.keele.ac.uk/larc/), and Community Action in Later Life – Manchester Engagement (CALL-ME; www.keele.ac.uk/callme/index.htm).
Links to selected research:
Bernard, M., Liddle, J., Bartlam, B., Scharf, T. & Sim, J. (2011) Then and now: evolving community in the context of a retirement village, Ageing and Society http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=8143519 [article]
Bernard, M. & Scharf, T. (eds) (2007) Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies, Bristol, Policy Press http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781861348906 [edited book]
Scharf, T., Bartlam, B., Hislop, J., Bernard, M., Dunning, A. & Sim, J. (2006) Necessities of Life: Older People’s Experiences of Poverty, London, Help the Aged http://www.keele.ac.uk/csg/downloads/Necessities%20of%20life.pdf [report]