Anna Urbaniak

Biography

Dr. Anna Urbaniak is a social sciences researcher with expertise in spatial aspects of ageing, life-course transitions, age-friendly cities and communities, the reproduction of social inequalities across the life course, ageing migrants and people living with dementia. She graduated from Jagellonian University and worked at Cracow University of Economics, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology and Vienna University. Her current work, funded within the framework of the GENDER-NET Plus Joint Call on Gender and UN Sustainable Development Goals, explores the origin of gender differences in the prevalence and generation of exclusion from social relations across European countries, and consequences of this exclusion for health and wellbeing in older age. Anna is renowned for her work on ageing, mixed-method application and caregiving in rural communities, and has delivered presentations at a number of international invited symposiums on these topics. She is also a certified project manager and academic tutor.

Research Interests

Life Course Transitions (focus on retirement, bereavement, onset of ill-health and migration)
Mixed-Methods Research
Reproduction of Social Inequalities across the Life Course
Age-Friendly Cities and Communities
Spatial Aspects of Ageing
Gender Aspects of Ageing
Formal and Informal Infrastructures of Care for Older People

Projects

2020 - Current: GENPATH: A life course perspective on the GENdered PATHways of exclusion from social relations in later life, and its consequences for health and wellbeing

2018 - 2020: PLACED-Lives: Investigating the interrelationship between life-course ruptures and place in old-age social exclusion

2018 - 2020: OTOH: Life-course and structural determinants of positive subjective health amongst older adult Travellers and homeless people: A voice-led approach to addressing health inequalities in community care

2017: Informal caregivers in Łódź Voivodeship

2017: Mix- method approach in analysing the local perspective on ageing processes

2014 - 2015: JWR: Unity of variety – the variety of unity. Strengthening social dialogue for the development of the Cracow Powiat

2013 - 2014: WiP: Cooperation and participation of NGOs in the area of the Municipality of Krakow

2012 - 2015: NAWIKUS: Innovative Method of Monitoring Contracted Social Services for older adults

2012: Too old to work, too young to retire. Young pensioners in Polish and Western European cultures of ageing

2011- 2014: Early-stage retirees in the urban environment. Investigating transitions, social relations and activity patterns

Publications

Urbaniak A. (in press). Understanding and performing care in rural contexts in Central Europe. [in:] Skinner M., Winterton R., and Walsh K., eds , Rural Gerontology: Towards Critical Perspectives on Rural Ageing, Routledge: London

Urbaniak A. & Falk K., Heusinger J. (2020). Navigating care in rural areas: Strategies employed by older adults with continuing care needs and their impact on social exclusion. Health & Place, 102423

Urbaniak A. & Walsh K. (2019). The interrelationship between place and critical life transitions in later life social exclusion: A scoping review. Health & Place, 60, 102234

Urbaniak A. (2019). Wykorzystanie podejścia mix-methods w analizowaniu procesów starzenia się w perspektywie lokalnej” (Mix methods approach in ageing research).[in:] Herudzińska M.H (ed.). Znane i nieznane oblicza starości jako obszar wyzwań dla społeczeństw XXI wieku (II edycja). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo SGGW, 303-314

Urbaniak A. (2019).Retirement-friendly City? Kraków jako środowisko życia początkujących emerytów (Retirement-friendly city? Cracow as a living environment for early stages retirees). [in:] Kisiel P., Urbaniak A., Warmińska-Zygmunt K. (eds.). Miasto, ekonomia, kultura. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 149-166

Ćwiklicki M. & Urbaniak A. (2019). Studium przypadku w naukach o zarządzaniu (Case study approach in management studies), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego, Kraków

Urbaniak A. (2017). Procesy starzenia się w środowisku wielkomiejskim w Polsce na początku XXI wieku. Wymiar demograficzny i społeczny (Ageing in urban environment at the beginning of XXI century in Poland. social & demographical aspects), Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Krakowie, nr 3 (963), 103-122

Urbaniak A. (2017). Patterns of activities among Cracow’s young retirees in an urban environment (an example of cluster analysis) Space-Society-Economy nr 20/2017, 63-85

Urbaniak A., Mielczarek P. & Szczerbik A. (2017). Sytuacja opiekunów rodzinnych w kontekście sprawowania opieki nad osobami w wieku 60+ z terenu województwa łódzkiego (Informal caregivers of older adults in łódzkie voivodship)