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| Having left Finnish Lapland at the age of 16, I completed my schooling at Atlantic College, Wales and went on to study at the University of Heidelberg, Durham University (BA, St Mary's College) and Oxford University (MPhil and DPhil, Magdalen College). My doctoral thesis and early publications analysed welfare state restructuring in the Nordic context. I started lecturing in social policy in Trinity in 2003 and founded the Social Policy and Ageing Research programme in 2005. My research examines intergenerational relationships and organisation of care for ageing populations. These two pillars of my research agenda complement each other as one is micro-, the other macro-focused. This sensitivity to individual and family level experiences in the context of social policies and welfare state structures invests my work with the ability to illuminate the inter-relationship of policy structures and individual agency in ageing societies. I also have extensive experience of working in highly inter-disciplinary contexts, most recently with health sciences researchers in a project trained at mapping out optimal care for people with motor neurone disease. I have published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in international journals and books including, for instance, Ageing & Society, Family Relations, Journal of Aging Studies, Social Politics, Research on Aging, Health and Social Care in the Community, the Journal of Family Issues, the Journal of Social Policy and several other leading journals; I have authored or co-authored five books including a major introductory textbook titled Ageing Societies: A Comparative Introduction (Open University Press, 2008); co-edited (with Prof. Sara Arber) the first book on grandparenting in global contexts (Policy Press, 2012); and authored or edited numerous policy reports. I am one of the co-investigators in the Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA), with a focus on the social engagement, contributions and care of older adults. I have undertaken policy-relevant research for several government bodies, been a visiting researcher at the University of Turku, Finland and at the Australian National University, and participate actively in the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee 11 (Ageing) and the Network for European Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet). I was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD) in May 2009 in recognition of achievements in research and teaching. |
| Details |
Date |
| Adjunct Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland |
2012- |
| Board member, Board of St James's Hospital, Dublin |
2013-2016 |
| Executive Committee member, Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (www.tilda.tcd.ie) |
2005 - |
| Co-Chairperson, Research Committee on Sociology of Ageing (RC11), International Sociological Association (ISA) conference, Yokohama, Japan. |
July 2014 |
| Chairperson of the Translational Research and Policy Implementation sub-committee of TILDA |
2009- |
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| Project title |
Living and dying with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Population based Analysis of Palliative Needs, Services and Outcomes in non-malignant terminal illness |
| Summary |
Lead-PI Prof Hardiman, Co-PIs Dr McQuillan, Profs Normand, Perry, Staines, Timonen |
| Funding Agency |
Health Research Board (HRB), Ireland |
| Programme |
Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) award |
| Type of Project |
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| Date from |
2012 |
| Date to |
2015 |
| Person Months |
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| Project title |
Intergenerational Solidarity and Justice in Ireland |
| Summary |
This project interrogates understandings of intergenerational solidarity and justice among four different cohorts in Ireland (1. those emerging into the labour market at present; 2. people at mid-career/family formation stage; 3. recently retired or about to retire; 4. octogenarians), using a qualitative longitudinal design. The project will also communicate the key contours of these understandings to relevant stakeholder organisations and facilitate discourse between them and among the wider public. The emphasis is on eliciting understandings of societal intergenerational justice as shaped by social policies, but perceptions of intergeneratinal justice within families will also be studied. The Principal Investigators are Dr Virpi Timonen (TCD) and Prof Thomas Scharf (NUIG).
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| Funding Agency |
Atlantic Philanthropies |
| Programme |
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| Type of Project |
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| Date from |
June 2011 |
| Date to |
June 2013 |
| Person Months |
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| Project title |
Living Independently at Home: Reforms in Organisation and Governance of European Home Care for Elderly and Disabled People |
| Summary |
The project will identify how 9 European countries have reformed their home help systems, by identifying the drivers of changes and responses in the organisation, provision, regulation and quality of home care/help.
Hypotheses are that cross-national variation in reforms in home care policies 1) influence the involvement of different care sectors and the use of services vs. cash benefits, 2) shape the degree of formalisation/informalisation and the degree of professionalization, and 3) contribute to the quality of care.
The study will be based on national legislation and statistics, national and international literature reviews, and on comparable OECD health data. The following countries participate: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Austria, UK and Ireland.
The study will provide a timely overview of recent reforms in the organisation and governance of home care systems in 9 European countries, and will elucidate what are the intended and unintended results of the reforms, in particular how reforms have affected quality of care.
This project is co-ordinated by Dr Tine Rostgaard, SFI, Denmark. PI for Irish strand of the study is Virpi Timonen, Co-Investigators Martha Doyle & Ciara O'Dwyer, Trinity College Dublin. |
| Funding Agency |
Ministère de la santé, de la jeunesse, des sports et de la vie associative (France) |
| Programme |
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| Type of Project |
European collaborative research project led by The Danish National Centre for Social Research. |
| Date from |
2010 |
| Date to |
2011 |
| Person Months |
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| Project title |
TILDA - the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing - Social engagement, intergenerational transfers & informal care provided and received by older people |
| Summary |
TILDA is a longitudinal study of the older adult(50+) population of Ireland. Using a large nationally representative random sample (8,000) of the older population, TILDA provides a comprehensive picture of the health, social and economic charactertistics of the ageing population in Ireland, and serves as an important resource for the scientific community and policy makers. The Principal Investigator of TILDA is Prof RA Kenny, Medical Gerontology, TCD. Co-Investigator for the Social Strand (Social engagement, social care and intergenerational transfers) is Virpi Timonen, working with Research Fellow Dr Yumiko Kamiya. See www.tilda.tcd.ie |
| Funding Agency |
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| Programme |
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| Type of Project |
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| Date from |
2006 |
| Date to |
ongoing |
| Person Months |
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| Project title |
Theories of Ageing and Approaches to Welfare in Ireland, North and South |
| Summary |
The overall aim of this project is to prepare a discussion paper on theories of ageing and approaches to welfare in Ireland, North and South, consisting of: (1) an overview of the most relevant theories of ageing; (2) an analysis of the construction of ageing in Ireland, North and South; and (3) an analysis of approaches to the welfare of older people in Ireland, North and South. The resulting paper is intended to encourage discussion amongst key stakeholders on the evidence base required for developing appropriate policy and services for the ageing population in Ireland, North and South.
The Researcher and Co-Investigator in this project is Dr. Maria Pierce.
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| Funding Agency |
CARDI (Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland) |
| Programme |
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| Type of Project |
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| Date from |
2010 |
| Date to |
2010 |
| Person Months |
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| More Research Projects>>> |
| Timonen, Virpi, Conlon, Catherine, Scharf, Thomas and Carney, Gemma, Family, state, class and solidarity: Re-conceptualising intergenerational solidarity through the Grounded Theory approach, European Journal of Ageing, 2013 |
| Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds), Contemporary grandparenting: changing family relationships in global contexts, Bristol, Policy Press, 2012, 270pp |
| 'Introduction: A new look at grandparenting' in, editor(s)Arber, S. and Timonen, V. , Contemporary grandparenting: changing family relationships in global contexts, Bristol, Policy Press, 2012, pp1 - 24, [Timonen, V. and Arber, S.] |
| 'Grandparenting in the twenty-first century: New directions' in, Arber, S. and Timonen, V. , Contemporary grandparenting: changing family relationships in global contexts, Bristol, Policy Press, 2012, pp247 - 264, [Arber, S. and Timonen, V.] |
| 'Grandparental agency after adult children's divorce in, editor(s)Arber, S. and Timonen, V. , Contemporary grandparenting: changing family relationships in global contexts, Bristol, Policy Press, 2012, pp159 - 180, [Timonen, V. and Doyle, M.] |
| More Publications>>> |
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Last Updated:25-MAY-2013 |