Abstract

MARTINS, Teresa Alves; NUNES, João Arriscado; DIAS, Isabel  and  MENEZES, Isabel. Online Ethnography on a Retired People’s Association in Portugal - Facebook as a Vehicle for Political Participation at a Time of Pandemic. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais [online]. 2022, n.128, pp.135-158.  Epub Sep 30, 2022. ISSN 2182-7435.  https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.13503.

The pandemic brought significant ruptures in several dimensions of life, implying intense adaptations and unveiling old and new inequalities and exclusions, such as those associated with ageism. Through an online ethnography we analyse the strategies developed by a Portuguese association composed by retired people in response to the limitations brought by COVID-19. Most of the organisational communication went online and they developed new initiatives for the pursuit of their mission. The publications on the public Facebook page reflected tensions with which older people were confronted, recurrently related with ageism, often denounced and problematised by the association. In this study we found that also in older adult’s organisations, there was transition to online tools during the pandemic, with the use of Facebook as a communication platform and as a resource for political action.

Keywords : ageism; COVID-19; inequalities; online ethnography; pandemic.

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