“Valuation and Valorization of Older People: A Political Economy of Human Worth” it’s a seminar that took place at the Graduate Institute Geneva in November 16th, 2021. The speaker was Susana Narotzky, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

The talk addresses how different kinds of value have defined and categorized older people during the ten years of crisis following 2008 and in the recent practices of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the valuation frameworks that have defined them are multiple and shifting. My aim is to present how different valuation scales of older citizens in Spain are connected to capital valorization processes and austerity policies. To this effect I will unravel the valuation/valorization articulations in four domains referring to: the public pension system; home as use value and asset; caring practices and infrastructures; and calculations of the value of life during the pandemic of COVID-19. These four domains together will help us understand how the production of different human values enables particular forms of capital accumulation.

Narotzky, Susana. November 16, 2021, Invited Seminar, “Valuation and Valorization of Older People: A Political Economy of Human Worth”, ASO Seminar, Graduate Institute Geneva.

https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/events/valuation-and-valorization-older-people-political-economy-human-worth