We are delighted to announce the following distinguished keynote speakers.

Professor Tom Shakespeare

Preliminary title of the keynote: Who cares? Disability rights and other rights 

Tom Shakespeare is Professor of Disability Research at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was formerly at UEA Medical School, and before that at WHO, where he was part of the team who wrote the World Report on Disability (2011). His books include Disability Rights and Wrongs (2006) and The Sexual Politics of Disability (1996). 

Professor Håkan Jönson & Associate Professor Tove Harnett 

Preliminary title of the keynote: The rights of older people in eldercare – a matter of comparisons 

Professor Håkan Jönson

Håkan Jönson is Professor in Social Work at Lund University. His main areas of research concern eldercare, ageism, user involvement and social problems of older adults. Together with Tove Harnett he is currently heading research on user perspectives in home care and on care for older adults with substance use and complex needs. Jönson has published extensively on the problem of ageism and on comparisons between disability policies and eldercare. Recent publications include: ‘Being an older person or a person with disability: Are supportive policies ageism?’ (Jönson & Norberg, 2023), ‘Age-based entitlement: An ageist practice or a tool for combatting ageism?’ (Jönson, Carlstedt & Harnett, 2023) and ‘Age logics in social work’ (Jönson & Harnett, 2024). Together with Harnett, Jönson is currently editing an upcoming Handbook on Ageing and Social Work (Elgar). 

Associate Professor Tove Harnett

Tove Harnett is Associate Professor in Social Work at Lund University, Sweden, and holds a PhD in Gerontology. She has headed projects comparing rights in disability services and eldercare and has an interest in age-based rights and ageism. Together with Håkan Jönson she is currently heading research on user perspectives in home care and on care for older adults with substance use and complex needs. Recent publications include: ‘Rethinking the concept of successful ageing: A disability studies approach’ (Harnett, Taghizadeh Larsson & Jönson, 2021), ’”Wet” eldercare facilities: three strategies on the use of alcohol and illicit substances’ (Harnett & Jönson, 2022) and ‘The logic of “home care time”’ (Jönson & Harnett, 2024). Together with Jönson, Harnett is currently editing an upcoming Handbook on Ageing and Social Work (Elgar). 

Professor Margarita León

Preliminary title of the keynote: Children’s rights and welfare paradigms? 

Margarita León (BA, MA, PhD London School of Economics) is Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Previously she held a lectureship in European social policy at the University of Kent (2003-2010) and a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowhsip at the European University Institute in Florence (2001-2003). In 2018 she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at University of Berkeley, California. Her main areas of research are comparative social policy and welfare state reform. She has published in numerous international peer-reviewed scientific journals; co-edited with A. Guillén The Spanish Welfare State in European Context (2011, Routledge) and edited The Transformation of Care in European Societies (2014, Palgrave). She is also the author of The Social Contract: Inequality, social pact and the welfare state published in Spanish in 2023.