International Journal of Ageing and Later Life

Ageism and Sexism in Films with Older People as the Lead

2023-12-11T10:42:59+01:00

Examination of ageism and sexism in films can reveal aspects of cultural norms and values. Utilizing content analysis, representations of older people who were the lead in a film were analyzed from a 20-year time frame. Forty-six characters from 28 US and UK films were evaluated employing a screening tool based on five ageism scales. Results indicated that positive stereotypes were found more often, particularly for female leads. Portrayals largely represented a model of “successful aging;” that is, active and without significant health issues. Consistent with past research, women were underrepresented, and people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community were nearly absent, substantiating continued marginalization in film. This study also adds to the substantiative literature by demonstrating that while films perpetuate the neoliberal pressure to maintain middle-age health standards, some shifts toward a more balanced portrayal of older adulthood are occurring. As many countries experience an aging of the population, pressure from the “silver economy” may challenge ageist presentations in film, including the double standard of aging.

Adventures in ageing: the gender-ageing nexus and older North American women’s engagement with communities of care through lifestyle migration

2024-02-05T08:47:19+01:00

Drawing from ethnographic research and interviews with older North American women who migrated alone to retire in Ecuador, this article grows the body of literature on gender and ageing, examining how these women position themselves within a gender-ageing nexus, contradicting certain gender norms in their attempt to obtain later-life self-fulfilment. Particularly, we examine how this group positions the third age as a time of individual adventure and self-actualisation, challenging normative gender ideals about femininity and care but meeting (many) social expectations to “age well.” We argue that the lifestyles of these women demonstrate new experiments with gendered ageing, facilitated by global inequalities but challenging some normative ideals around femininity and old(er) age.

Contextual barriers to artistic practices among older people: How do older artists perceive them?

2024-02-01T20:16:16+01:00

Research on older people’s artistic participation has mainly focused on its benefits. Fewer studies have addressed the antecedents of older people’s artistic participation, especially the barriers to artistic practices, and particularly those related with contextual factors. In this study, we examined from a socioecological perspective which contextual barriers older artists perceive when they are carrying out their artistic practices. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 30 older visual artists and craftspeople. We found six themes relating to contextual barriers to the artistic practice: changes in cultural context; value of arts and crafts; dissemination of artistic work; financial difficulties; discrimination against women; and the covid-19 pandemic. Our study expands on previous research on antecedents of artistic participation among older people, and specifically on barriers. Finally, our study suggests the need to decrease these barriers by implementing programmes aimed at older artists maintaining their artistic practices for as long as possible.

What do the papers say? The role of older adults in 20 years of digital inclusion debate in Dutch and Flemish newspapers

2023-12-19T10:11:46+01:00

Adoption of digital technology by older adults has become an important topic in academia and the public sphere within the debate on digital inclusion. Likewise, this topic has gained traction in the print media also. This paper assesses the representation of older adults in print media in the past 20 years in The Netherlands and Flanders. A total of 281 articles in the Dutch language were analysed to determine the representation of older adults and their level of agency. We found that they were represented in three manners: a) ambassadors of digital skill acquisition; b) naturally lacking in digital skills; or c) not alone in being helpless. These representations clearly increased during the COVIS-19 crisis. Some representations can be problematic, as the relationship between older adults and digital inclusion is not envisioned positively. Furthermore, they receive no agency to participate actively in the discussion surrounding their own digital inclusion and are too often used as the automatic example of the digitally illiterate – which is not particularly encouraging older adults towards digital skills acquisition.

Fostering collective impact in arts-based interventions and cultural programs for creative well-being of older adults

2023-12-07T12:52:04+01:00

Despite growing interest in research into how the arts impact older adults’ health and well-being, there are many related complexities that are yet to be fully understood. This is partly due to the fact that documentation and analysis of arts-based interventions and cultural programmes for older adults in the public service domain are relatively new and uncommon. Furthermore, the effective implementation and the delivery of such interventions to ageing people generally involve many stakeholders, often with divergent interests and priorities. This article presents an interview-based study that explores the diverse experiences of professionals from different sectors who have been involved in delivery of arts-based interventions and cultural programmes for older adults in South Korea and Finland. The study maps out similarities and differences in the approaches taken and the challenges faced in such interventions, using the five themes of the narrative interviews that have been conducted. The study findings highlight the need for supporting collective efforts among the diverse stakeholders to provide effective arts-based interventions and cultural programmes for ageing people. We argue that such efforts will ultimately become catalysts for synergetic actions that address the interconnected and encompassing challenges of an ageing society.

Life events and the experience of quality of life among residents of senior housing in Finland

2024-05-18T13:06:24+02:00

A more holistic view is needed regarding the impact of life events on the quality of life of older adults. We explored how senior housing residents perceive the influence of life events on their current quality of life, from a life course perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 residents aged 68 to 97 years from three senior houses. The thematic analysis suggested that events related to social relationships and human agency may influence quality of life in old age. Experiences that contribute to personal development, feeling safe, social connectedness, and a strong sense of human agency were perceived to add quality to life. Events that cause anxiety, reduces one’s sense of autonomy, and involve loss of social closeness were perceived to detract from quality of life. Life events can also sometimes evoke conflicting feelings. The study implies that the influence of life events depends on whether human needs are met.

Vital involvement versus ultimate confusion: two contrasting portrayals of dementia in the movies The Father and Floride

2023-07-06T12:15:43+02:00

This paper addresses the possibility and importance of cinematographic representations of dementia that offer an alternative to its popular medicalized stigma. This is explored by comparing two film adaptations of the same theatrical play by Florian Zeller, The Father. While The Father’s (2020) film version by Zeller himself does not depart from the notion of dementia as a story of decline, Le Guay’s Floride (2015) focuses on the main character’s ability for imaginative storytelling. Through narrative analysis, we demonstrate that while Anthony’s confusion in The Father is an utterly despairing sign of cognitive decline, that very confusion is a vehicle for playful imagination in Floride. The vitality underlying such acts of unbridled imagination, along with a matter-of-fact approach to the interruptions of dementia, challenges the negative, deeply seated stigmas of persons living with dementia. Juxtaposed in this manner, these two adaptations provide a unique opportunity to re-examine the role of popular culture in dementia discourse.

Social exclusion in service settings amongst Swedish-speaking older adults in Finland: Language incongruency or identity discrimination, or both?

2023-09-25T15:20:41+02:00

Previous studies suggest that older adults from minority linguistic groups are at a higher risk of experiencing social exclusion, with service exclusion being a highly evident form. This article explores how Swedish- speaking older adults in Finland experience the availability and adequacy of services in their first language and how their experiences are linked to social exclusion. Anchored in the intersection between two dimensions of social exclusion, service exclusion and identity exclusion, this study presents findings from 14 semi-structured interviews with uni- and bilingual Swedish-speaking older adults. The results indicate that inequitable access to services and facing language discordant services can shape experiences of exclusion. The inability to receive everyday services in Swedish further fosters feelings of inferiority and identity discrimination. This study findings contribute to the social gerontological
literature on social exclusion and demonstrate how identity intersections with service exclusion.

Exploring co-research interviews with older adults: Reflections on research practices and building connections

2023-04-05T14:27:20+02:00

Previous research has not only shown the potential of co-research with older adults but also pointed out the need for further study, for example on evaluation and how connections are forged between participants. To this end, this paper (1) describes and reflects on the development and implementation of a co-research interview methodology in the NGO sector and (2) analyses the experiences of the participants and the role of shared age group and locality. The results show that the structure of having several interviews and training and reflection sessions was the strength of the method. The co-researchers found the project interesting and even empowering. Expressions of shared age group and local knowledge were common in the interviews and helped build connections. The interviewees
valued their participation in knowledge-production on issues related to ageing. Recruitment, resourcing and support for co-researchers when faced with difficult situations are some of the themes that require further attention.

Editorial

2022-11-04T01:43:12+01:00

Ageing with digital technologies: From theory to agency and practice

2022-04-11T11:39:20+02:00

Andrew King, Kathryn Almack, & Rebecca L. Jones (eds.) (2019). Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities: Multidisciplinary International Perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press 264 pp. ISBN 978-1447343370 (paperback)

2021-08-10T17:16:02+02:00

Alison Milne (2020). Mental Health in Later Life: Taking a Lifecourse Approach. Bristol: Policy Press, 360 pp. ISBN 9781447305712 (paperback)

2021-08-10T17:16:03+02:00

The internet multiple: How internet practices are valued in later life

2021-11-16T14:26:06+01:00

Internet practices of older adults are multifaceted and go beyond a “use” and “non-use” binary. In this article, we suggest a valuation approach towards Internet practices in later life that explores Internet practices not as “use” or “non-use,” but rather asks which forms of Internet practices are valued in later life, and which ones are de-valued. For this valuography, we draw upon different data sources, including interviews with older adults, to explore the multiple “goods” and “bads” through which Internet use in later life gets valued. The findings suggest two registers of value: autonomy and innovation. Valued Internet practices in later life are therefore done by an autonomous, older individual and include innovative technologies. We conclude that a performative, reflexive, and value-oriented understanding of Internet practices sheds light on the “Internet Multiple,” or the many different shapes the Internet takes in older people’s lives that go beyond a “use” and “non-use” binary.

Infrastructuring ageing: Theorizing non-human agency in ageing and technology studies

2021-08-23T11:34:41+02:00

Scholars of ageing and technology are becoming increasingly interested in how technology and ageing can be seen as mutually constitutive, an interest that is beginning to form new research agendas, alliances and fields of their own. Different concepts have been used to theorise and analyse this relationship of mutual construction. This article explores a concept from Science and technology studies, which has not previously been put in direct relation to ageing, namely the concept of infrastructure. It proposes the notion of “infrastructuring ageing” as a theoretical-analytical approach for studying the mutual constitution of ageing and technology. This approach implies slightly new versions of, or attentions to, the non-human actor, agency and socio-technical transformation, and opens up to fresh ethnographic views on the social, material and techno-political transformations of ageing.

Window work: Screen-based eldercare and professional precarity at the welfare frontier

2021-08-26T15:58:27+02:00

Digital technologies have become essential components in the organisation and delivery of elder care. With this article, we want to contribute to the study and discussion of the role and effects of monitors and telecare solutions in situated care practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among elderly citizens and healthcare workers in Denmark during the early phases of the corona crisis, we explore the introduction of screen-based technologies in eldercare and their implications. Our focus is particularly on what health professionals must do, to accomplish meaningful encounters through screens. In this context, we introduce the concept of “window work” to highlight how screens are active participants in care and how they frame and delimit what health practitioners can see, do and achieve in everyday care practices in significant and often unpredictable ways.

A home, an institution and a community – frames of social relationships and interaction in assisted living

2023-02-22T16:28:42+01:00

Assisted living facilities are presented as the older person’s home but, at the same time, defined by institutional and communal characteristics. Using Goffman’s (1974/1986) concept of frame, we aim to find out how home, institution and community frames define social roles and shape social relationships and interaction in assisted living facilities. Directed content analysis was used to analyse the data consisting of observations, one group discussion and ten individual interviews with residents in an assisted living facility. We found that the home frame was characterised by meaningfulness, spontaneousness and informality of social relationships and interaction, whereas the institution frame by indifference and formality of them. Acknowledging and tolerating other people was not only central in the community frame but also dissociating oneself from some people. Frames can shed light on how different interpretations of the multifaceted social environment of assisted living affect homeliness of the facility and well-being of the residents.

The psychological and social impacts of museum-based programmes for people with a mild-to-moderate dementia: a systematic review

2023-02-22T16:28:37+01:00

The importance of museum-based interventions for people with dementia has been increasingly appreciated. Yet, there is relatively little known about the psychological and social impacts of these interventions. To address this, the authors undertook a systematic review to elucidate these aspects of museum-based programmes for people with mild-to-moderate dementia. Four electronic databases were searched systematically, and eleven studies were included. Key findings were synthesised thematically, and six themes were identified: mood and enjoyment, subjective wellbeing, personhood, cognition, engagement, and social outcomes. These positive findings suggest that museum-based interventions for people with a mild-to-moderate dementia can offer a range of valuable benefits. This review also clarified that further mixed-methods studies and wait-list controlled studies, to clarify the factors that benefits may be attributed to, will contribute towards a more robust evidence base. In turn, this would positively impact funding and guide policy in this area.

Considering the role of material gerontology in reimagining technology design for ageing populations

2021-11-18T15:38:25+01:00

The promise of technology to provide solutions to the global concern of ageing populations has largely been unfulfilled. We argue that this is, in part, related to design processes that fail to take account of the rich material lives of older people, and that often adopt stereotypical views of older people as frail, vulnerable and unskilled. We draw on empirical data from two co-design projects, to suggest the contributions that material gerontologists could make to design teams creating technologies for ageing populations. We suggest material gerontologists bring three key elements to interdisciplinary design teams: (1) making visible the intra-action of humans and non-humans in co-design processes; (2) reconfiguring co-design response-ably with older adults; and (3) reimagining possible outcomes of technology design. We believe that this approach can result in the design of products, services and innovations that respond better to the heterogeneous needs and life-worlds of older adults.

Beyond the silver gamer: The compromises and strategies of older video game players

2021-08-24T11:29:09+02:00

The experience of older adults who play video games illustrates the contemporary challenges of ageing and the strategies that ageing individuals set up to navigate them. The ethnography of a video game workshop dedicated to older adults in a French cultural centre offers an opportunity to examine how a group of 15 women aged 60–82 years exert their agency as technogenarians (Joyce & Loe 2011). In order to fully engage in their play, the workshop’s participants have to manage complex and sometimes contradictory expectations concerning who counts as a player and what is an acceptable way to play. They cobble together available discursive resources to manoeuvre around notions that interfere with their practice. The result is a distinctive play style through which the participants reclaim a right to subvert expectations and, at long last, play.

Orchestrating Ageing - A Field Approach Towards Cultural Disengagement in Later Life

2022-11-18T12:09:56+01:00

Despite gerontology’s growing interest in culture, relatively little attention has been given to older adults’ participation in theater. This paper addresses this gap by developing field theory as an analytical tool to conceptualize processes of cultural disengagement in later life. Ten older individuals (60+ years) were invited to investigate their access to three different theater spaces in Vienna. The investigation was documented through participatory observations, qualitative interviews, and photo diaries. The results highlight three specific sets of rules that are relevant in theater: Rules about 1) the ageing body, 2) mobility, and 3) subjectivities. Furthermore, these rules are age-coded, which means that many of the rules visitors in theaters have to follow to be able to participate in theater are not easily followed by older adults. Finally, this article outlines the potential of field theory for gerontology and highlights the importance of studying processes of cultural disengagement in later life.

Transcending borders and stereotypes: Older parents’ intergenerational contacts and social networking through digital platforms

2021-11-09T14:37:42+01:00

Older adults are often portrayed as incompetent digital citizens, mostly stemming from the popular perception of older adults as “digital immigrants.” The purpose of this research study was to study how older adults can effectively engage in digital platforms. Following a qualitative approach, 30 older parents who have emigrated children (15 males and 15 females) from Kerala, India, were interviewed who were active users of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The findings show how the respondents embraced digital technologies stemming from perceived emotional benefits associated with intergenerational contact, without which they would not have ventured into the digital space. From seeking emotional goals initially, the respondents gradually started pursuing intellectual goals in the digital world. The varying degrees of expertise of older adults in the digital space indicate that they cannot arbitrarily be categorised as digital immigrants. Instead, they are “digital citizens” who gradually better themselves in social networks, information literacy and social participation online.

Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies

2021-08-23T10:26:30+02:00

As a growing body of work has documented, digital technologies are central to the imagining of aging futures. In this study, we offer a critical, theoretical framework for exploring the dynamics of power related to the technological tracking, measuring, and managing of aging bodies at the heart of these imaginaries. Drawing on critical gerontology, feminist technoscience, sociology of the body, and socio-gerontechnology, we identify three dimensions of power relations where the designs, operations, scripts, and materialities of technological innovation implicate asymmetrical relationships of control and intervention: (1) aging bodies and the power of numbers, (2) aging spaces and the power of surveillance, and (3) age care economies and gendered power relations. While technological care for older individuals has been promoted as a cost-effective way to enhance independence, security, and health, we argue that such optimistic perspectives may obscure the realities of social inequality, agist bias, and exploitative gendered care labour.

On Age, Authenticity, and the Ageing Subject

2022-11-18T12:09:53+01:00

This paper is concerned with the relationship between selves as subject positions and the experience of aging. The existing psychological literature on “subjective” and “objective” age, it argues, has failed fully to engage with the idea of subjectivity, focusing instead upon what are ascribed and attributed identities. In contrast to treating age and ageing as some object-like characteristic potentially applicable to both things and persons, this inquiry explores the internal experience of ageing and whether such experience can realise an authentic subject position. In begins with an outline of De Beauvoir’s views of the “unrealisability” of such a subject position and proceeds to consider whether her views are the necessary consequence of the phenomenological existentialism of Sartre and Heidegger that frames her thesis. Such foreclosure on De Beauvoir’s part, I conclude, is not inevitable, and, ultimately, there is a choice between what may be termed a Sartrean or a De Beauvoir position on the possibility of realising an authentic subjectivity of age.

Perceptions of a good life for the oldest old living at home

2023-02-22T16:32:20+01:00

An increasing number of people are growing older and living longer in their homes. This study aims to describe key stakeholders’ (politicians, managers, and professionals) perceptions of a good life for single-living oldest old persons living at home with extensive needs for support. Interviews with stakeholders were analysed with content analysis. The analysis resulted in the theme: An incongruence between intentions and actions in promoting a good life for the oldest old. Our findings show a gap between intentions and actions, which caused feelings of powerlessness in the key stakeholders. To promote a good life for the oldest old persons, a congruence is needed between individual awareness and the prerequisite of promoting a good life. Developing methods that identify and bridge gaps between intentions and actions could support the abilities of organisations to promote a good life for the oldest old persons with extensive needs for support.

“For us, Alibaba was just a story”: Despite the power of habit older people are gradually adopting the digital discourse

2021-08-25T17:12:01+02:00

Information technology (IT) can help older people continue to live independently and actively for many years, yet many of them express fear of it, perceive it as a threat, and find it difficult to navigate the digital arena and enjoy the benefits of IT. The purpose of this study is to examine the technology discourse of older people in Israel, and what it reflects. In addition, the study seeks to understand the extent to which IT is present in their lives, how they experience it, and the changes it brought to their lives.

To that end, we interviewed 40 older people aged 65–93 who were attending day centers. The findings, which were examined in light of the continuity theory, reveal different levels of resistance to IT, which reflect the full spectrum, from rejection to acceptance. Moreover, the continuity strategy and adherence to familiar patterns do not necessarily prevent adaptation to change. The findings reveal an ambivalent technology discourse, incoherent, and laden with
internal contradictions.

Acknowledgements

2021-02-02T16:42:11+01:00

Gemma Carney & Paul Nash (2020). Critical questions for Ageing Societies. Bristol: Policy Press, 234 pp. ISBN 978-1447351580 (paperback)

2021-02-02T16:42:11+01:00

Expectations regarding aging among ethnically diverse undergraduates in Japan: a life course perspective on anticipated health and meaning in later life

2021-09-07T09:44:12+02:00

This study explored expectations regarding aging among a diverse cohort of undergraduates in Japan. A concurrent mixed methods design was employed with online administration of the Expectations Regarding Aging scale (ERA-12), and open-format and demographic questions among 133 culturally diverse undergraduates in Tokyo. Independent samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis were used to explore the data. ERA-12 scores and physical and cognitive function subscale results revealed negative perceptions about the aging process, while scores on the mental health subscale were significantly higher and positive. No significant differences emerged based on gender or cultural background. Qualitative data analysis revealed student awareness of lifestyle influences on health in later life, concerns about current health and risk factors, and potential to transcend negative physical changes by finding meaning in other aspects of life. Understanding expectations regarding aging among younger cohorts may inform gerontological education and public health promotion to support a life course approach to healthy aging.

‘I still want to be part of the world...where I belong’. A case study of the experiences of a man with Alzheimer’s of dementia-friendly guided tours at an art museum

2021-06-23T09:25:10+02:00

There is a growing interest in the role art museums might play in enriching the lives of persons with dementia. The literature has started incorporating the views of persons with dementia in the knowledge production, but in-depth explorations of their art experiences are still rare in the literature. This article adds to the research with a case study of a man with Alzheimer’s who regularly takes part in dementia-friendly guided tours at his local art museum. The article examines through a narrative analysis the role his visits to the art museum might play in the way he navigates life with Alzheimer’s. The authors argue that the art experiences are important cultural resources in the man’s effort to ‘hold his own’ faced with Alzheimer’s. The study is bound to a Norwegian context, but the art programme has similarities with related programmes at art museums in other countries.

Using a life course perspective to understand early labor market exits for people in their late 50s living in the UK

2020-12-14T07:51:27+01:00

This paper explores the reasons why people exit the UK labor market early and some of the barriers working against them returning. The specific focus is a qualitative exploration of three out of work individuals, approaching the age of 60, each of whom had experienced poverty and periods of worklessness during their lifetime. The fieldwork took place in 2016 and was part of a wider mixed methods study about retirement, which used data from the 1958 birth cohort study. Researchers used narrative interviews to uncover the lived experiences and realities of these three people’s lives, and applied a life course perspective to understand how the accumulation of advantages and disadvantages during their lives shapes their attitudes and expectations. The data also show the effects of money, health, and previous employment on their decision making, and how structures such as social class, gender, and poverty are represented in and through the stories they tell.

Tensions in intergenerational practice guidance: intergroup contact versus community development

2020-12-14T07:51:26+01:00

Intergenerational practice (IP) is an approach within community health promotion which aims to bring older and younger community members together in collaborative activity. Little research has critically examined the assumptions and values within IP and their implications for these communities. A sample of 15 IP planning documents were analysed using a social constructionist thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke2006) guided by Prior’s (2008) concept of documents as active agents. Three tensions were identified: a community-led model versus a contact model; old and young as targets versus older people as targets; and process-focused versus outcome-focused evaluation. IP has relied on contact theory as a mechanism of change, which has rooted IP to an overly individualistic practice targeted at older people (rather than all ages). In contrast, the community-led ethos of IP was also evident alongside values of mutual benefit for old and young, and a desire for more process-focused evaluation.

Andrzej Klimczuk (2015). Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy. Context and Considerations. Volume 1. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 232 pp. ISBN 978 1 137 46533 7 (hardcover)

2020-08-24T07:16:40+02:00

Alan Walker (ed.) (2018). The New Dynamics of Ageing. Volume 1. Great Britain: Policy Press, 368 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 1473 8 (paperback) Alan Walker (ed.) (2018). The New Dynamics of Ageing. Volume 2. Great Britain: Policy Press, 331 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 14

2020-08-24T07:15:06+02:00

Migrant care workers in elderly care: what a study of media representations suggests about Sweden as a caring democracy

2020-12-14T07:51:25+01:00

This article sheds light on the ways in which migrant care workers in the elderly care sector were represented in Swedish daily newspaper articles published between 1995 and 2017 (n = 370); it uses the notions of the “ethics of care” and “caring democracy” as a prism through which the findings can be made sense of. By bringing attention to the fact that they are often described as the solution par excellence to the staffing crisis Swedish elderly care is experiencing, this article draws attention to portrayals of these workers as people who are both particularly good at caring and capable of providing culture-appropriate care. Thus, although depicted as “particular Others,” these workers are represented as an asset to the sector – a sector that is thought to offer much needed but highly undervalued services. By bringing attention to both of these representations, and using the theoretical and conceptual framework “ethics of care” formulated by Tronto, the article questions whether Sweden – a country often described as the epitome of an egalitarian society – can be regarded as a caring democracy.

Raquel Medina. (2018). Cinematic Representations of Alzheimer’s Disease. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 224 pp. ISBN 978-1137533708 (hardback)

2020-12-14T07:51:27+01:00

UK magazine advertising portrayals of older adults: a longitudinal, content analytic, and a social semiotic lens

2021-05-04T16:59:03+02:00

The focus of this article is the depiction of older adults in UK magazine advertising. Theoretically located in the broad area of cultural gerontology, with its central focus on culturally constitutive meaning of age(ing) (e.g. Twigg & Martin 2015), it applies social semiotic categories (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996, 2004) and draws on critical discourse analytic insights in investigating persistent trends in advertising images of older adults. These are linked with the role of advertising media in constructing and contributing to specific social “imaginary” or “imagination” of later life. A content analytic comparison between two corpora of adverts (221 ads from 1999 to 2004 and 313 ads from 2011 to 2016) reveals only minor changes over time. These include relative consistency in the product categories linked with older models, the adverts predominantly targeting older adults, but a decline in humorous portrayals. A semiotically oriented analysis of a subset of adverts further examines their compositional and affective dimensions, in addition to representational qualities. This uncovers strategies that are in line with aspirational third age discourse and imagery, but which also contribute to the marginalisation of older adults via a restricted portrayal of later life(styles) and can also be seen to problematise “ageless” depictions.

Opposite Ends: widows' narratives of contemporary late life

2020-12-14T07:51:25+01:00

The life course perspective frames this study of contemporary late life. Thematic narrative analysis is employed to analyse the stories of 16 Finnish widows aged 79–89 years (Moving in Old Age: Transitions in Housing and Care research project) in order to explore the experiences related to growing old. The results indicate two kinds of narratives: nostalgic reminiscences about a happy past are typical of the retiring to solitude story, characterised by experiences of life nearing its end and of letting go; and those inclined towards the keeping up narrative are still seeking new experiences and playing active roles in everyday life. Both kinds of stories encompass well-being, in spite of their apparent differences in outcome. These results indicate that there is no single description of ageing well. Individual experiences of growing old are unique, and are interpreted within the frame of past experiences and understandings acquired over the life course. Therefore, leeway should be given for individual considerations regarding the particularities of life arrangements in advanced age.

Queering generativity and futurity: LGBTQ2IA+ stories of resistance, resurgence, and resilience

2021-08-18T08:26:10+02:00

A preoccupation with heteronormative metrics of success in aging leaves many studies of “LGBT aging” focused on the needs, failings, and vulnerabilities of older LGBTQ2IA+ people (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, two-spirit, intersex, asexual, and people of other nonnormative sexual and gender expressions). As a result, LGBTQ2IA+ olders are frequently depicted as isolated, re-closeted, or simply nonexistent. Heeding calls to intervene into such bleak and pathologizing portrayals of queer/ trans aging (e.g. Ramirez-Valles 2016; Sandberg & Marshall 2017), this article explores diverse subjectivities, nonnormative aging experiences, and their potential intergenerational implications. It draws on stories of queerness, gender, aging, futurity, and social change from 13 LGBTQ2IA+ people ranging in age from 23 to 74, recorded in an intergenerational research-generation workshop held in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough, Canada) in 2018. This article argues that queer and trans stories are crucial to confronting the erasure of LGBTQ2IA+ aging, aiming to extend ongoing efforts within aging studies to queer concepts of successful aging, aging futures, generativity, and intergenerationality. Ultimately, this article aims to complicate constricted understandings of queer/trans aging, instead by depicting LGBTQ2IA+ people aging with connection, pride, learning, and purpose, as well as with struggle and vulnerability.

Misunderstanding home: Exploring depictions of home in old age policy decision-making

2020-08-21T12:37:58+02:00

Living at home is a core value in old age policies worldwide. This study examines how members of parliament (MP) depict the home in two parliamentary discussions related to a law on older people’s care and living arrangements in Finland. The data contained 110 speeches from 42 MPs in the first discussion and 17 in the second and was examined using thematic analysis. The extracts with the word “home” were coded and grouped as potential themes. These themes were reviewed further and reflected using relevant literature. As a result, the overarching theme ‘home as a restricted space’ was formulated with three subthemes: home as a space in which old people ‘manage to live’, ‘are treated’ and ‘live without contacts’. The findings suggest that policymakers misrecognised the valued attributes related to older persons’ homes, and in doing so, they hamper the potential for success in home-centred old age policies.

Moving residence in later life: actively shaping place and wellbeing

2021-06-09T15:12:32+02:00

Policy discourse favours the idea of “ageing in place” but many older people move home and into different kinds of residential settings. This article extends the understanding of how relocation can promote as well as diminish older people’s well-being. Using relational understandings of place and capabilities (people’s freedoms and opportunities to be and to do what they value) we explored well-being across the relocation trajectories of 21 people aged 65–91 years living in diverse residential settings in Scotland. We found that a diverse array of capabilities mattered for well-being and that relocation was often motivated by concerns to secure “at-risk” capabilities for valued activities and relationships. Moving residence impacted several other capabilities, in addition to these, both, positively and negatively. We suggest that a capability approach offers a valuable lens for understanding and supporting well-being through behavioural models of late-life relocation.

Retirement transitions in the 21st century: A scoping review of the changing nature of retirement in Europe

2021-06-10T17:01:47+02:00

There are important transformations taking place regarding the ways to transition from work-life to retirement. The timing and pathways are changing and many individuals undergo long periods of being in-between working and retirement life. Yet, our cultural understandings of retirement tend to maintain a clear distinction between pre- and post-retirement life. While the changes in retirement trajectories is not new, the trend seems to have accelerated in recent decades. We focus on what is known from the literature about the tendencies in alternative retirement trajectories of healthy seniors in Europe since 2000.

We review some conceptual and political transitions in the societal understandings of retirement, followed by a scoping review in three sections: 1) Employment after retirement, 2) Self-employment, and 3) Unretirement. We conclude that while 21^st century retirement trajectories are complex and understudied, there are some clear tendencies regarding who engages in such practices and why.

The healthcare experience of prostate cancer patients: exploring the intersection of age and gender

2020-10-28T09:07:04+01:00

Although researchers have conducted extensive studies of the psychosocial impacts of prostate cancer and its treatment on men’s bodies, masculinity and sexuality, little attention has been devoted to the intersection of gender and age in the healthcare experience of this illness. Based on data collected through direct observation in four French public hospitals, and 65 semi-directive interviews with prostate cancer patients, their relatives and healthcare professionals, this article aims to examine how age and gender shape care pathways. We argue that combining the concept of hegemonic masculinity with an intersectional approach may provide an adequate theoretical framework for analysing the plurality of men’s prostate cancer healthcare experience. Four steps of the patient care process are successively analysed to assess how the patient experience of illness may be influenced by power relations that interact with individual characteristics: screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care.

The final stage of human development? Erikson's view of integrity and old age

2020-12-14T07:51:27+01:00

This paper considers the significance for ageing studies of Erikson’s theory of adult development, particularly his last stage the crisis of ‘integrity’ versus ‘despair’. Because his model assumes a clear pattern of lifelong upward development, culminating with the ‘achievement’ of integrity and wisdom, it can be seen as helping underpin gerontology’s moral imperative to confer meaning and value upon old age. Despite the difficulties in empirically demonstrating the stage-like nature of adult development, and the dubious evidence that integrity is an essential feature of a successful old age, the inherent directionality of Erikson’s model supplies ageing with a purposive quality in contradistinction to alternative ‘decline’ narratives. Rather than continue a potentially fruitless search for proof , it might be better to conceptualise his adult ‘stages’ of identity, intimacy, generativity and integrity as key narrative themes running through the development of adult character, articulated, expressed and struggled over in various ways throughout adulthood including late life.

Age-Friendly Approaches and Old-Age Exclusion: A Cross-City Analysis

2020-12-14T07:51:25+01:00

Developing ‘Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC)’ has become a key part of policies aimed at improving the quality of life of older people in urban areas. Despite this development, there is evidence of rising inequalities among urban elders, and little known about the potential and limitations of the age-friendly model to reduce old-age exclusion. This article addresses this research gap by comparing how Brussels, Dublin, and Manchester, as three members of the Global Network of AFCC, have responded to social exclusion in later life. The article combines data from document analysis and stakeholder interviews to examine: first, the age-friendly approach and the goal of reducing social exclusion; and second, barriers to developing age-friendly policies as a means of addressing exclusion. The paper suggests that there are reciprocal benefits in linking age-friendly and social exclusion agendas for producing new ways of combatting unequal experiences of ageing in cities.

Meaning in life and the experience of older people

2020-08-20T09:59:51+02:00

In this article, we introduce a general theory about meaning in life developed by our first author, and apply it to the context of ageing. The seven components of meaning distinguished by this theory – purpose, moral worth, selfworth, control, coherence, excitement and connectedness – are discussed in turn. After presenting the theory, we confront the seven components with extensive life narratives of two older men – in a first empirical qualitative exploration of how meaning dimensions appear in the life experiences of older people. This dialogue between theory and narrative is used to provide concretisation and clarification of the seven components, thereby enhancing the understanding of the theory, while at the same time suggesting possible refinements and directions for future exploration of meaning in life in the context of ageing.

Stephen Katz (ed.) (2018). Ageing in Everyday Life. Materialities and Embodiments. Bristol: Policy Press, 208 pp. ISBN 978-1447335917 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:17+01:00

No abstract available.

Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard (2016). Personhood, Identity and Care in Advanced Old Age. Bristol: Policy Press. ISBN 978-1-4473-1906-1 (Paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:17+01:00

No abstract available

Mark Schweda, Larissa Pfaller, Kai Brauer, Frank Adloff and Silke Schicktanz (eds.) (2017). Planning Later Life. Bioethics and Public Health in Ageing Societies. Abingdon/ New York: Taylor & Francis [Routledge Advances in Health and Social Policy], 263 pp

2019-12-16T08:55:18+01:00

No abstract available.

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:55:20+01:00

No abstract available.

Care facilities for Germans in Thailand and Poland: making old age care abroad legitimate

2019-12-16T08:55:18+01:00

This article looks at old age care facilities abroad that target people who live in Germany. Such facilities have been established in Southeast Asia (mainly Thailand) and in Eastern Europe (mainly Poland). Given that they challenge central guiding orientations for old age care in Germany, considerable criticisms are levelled at them, and their use is viewed with distinct scepticism. Nevertheless, some of these facilities succeed in sustaining considerable demand from Germany over quite a few years. In this article, we therefore ask what strategies and arguments they use to make them a legitimate option for people in Germany and to be established on the German market. Based on two case studies of an old age facility in Thailand
and Poland, we will show how they skilfully position themselves as “better” options for residential care even though their strategies considerably vary and result in very different models of old age care. Drawing on neo-institutional organisation theories, we will show how these strategies are essential for the facilities’ emergence as new players in the care market for older people from Germany.

Live-in migrant care worker arrangements in Germany and the Netherlands: motivations and justifications in family decision-making

2019-12-16T08:55:19+01:00

Private households in ageing societies increasingly employ live-in migrant carers (LIMCs) to care for relatives in need of 24/7 care and supervision. Whilst LIMC arrangements are a common practice in Germany, they are only recently emerging in the Netherlands. Taking this development as a starting point, this study uses the countries’ different long-term care (LTC) regimes as the analytical framework to explore and compare the motivations and justifications of German and Dutch family carers who opt for an LIMC arrangment. Findings show that Dutch and German LTC regimes impact differently the decision-making processes of families, as well as on patterns of justification, through a combination of policies and social norms and their related expectations towards care and care work in old age.

Fragile familiarity in transnational home care arrangements for older people

2019-12-16T08:55:19+01:00

This paper examines the notion of familiarity in live-in elder care settings and how it is challenged, changed, and reestablished. Live-in care is a strategy to prevent disruptions and preserve familiarity in enabling older persons in need of extensive care to stay at home – and thus, to enable ageing in place. This paper problematizes this strategy based on interviews with family caregivers who engaged a migrant live-in care worker in Switzerland. The key argument is that live-in care arrangements constitute an all-embracing form of inserting formal, paid-for care service delivery into the informal, private, intimate space of home. The live-in care arrangement not only challenges the familiarity of the home space, but also seems to ask for strategies of adaptation to familiarize the unfamiliar. Therefore, the introduction of live-in care is consequential for all involved parties and requires largely underestimated efforts to adapt to the new home space.

Producing (im)mobilities in home care for the elderly: the role of home care agencies in Switzerland

2019-12-16T08:55:20+01:00

The Free Movement of Persons Agreement has fostered the emergence of a new market for live-in care in Switzerland. Private care agencies recruit women from the European Union (EU) accession states and place them as live-in carers for the elderly in private households. This paper focuses on how these agencies organise these live-in care arrangements. Drawing on concepts of the politics of mobility, I analyse the production of (im)mobilities through the placement and recruitment practices of care agencies and the power relations that underlie live-in care arrangements. The findings show that live-in care is constituted both by mobilities, exemplified by care workers’ circular movements and need to be highly mobile, and by care workers’ immobilities once they start working in a household. The care workers’ mobility is in turn enabled by the agencies’ placement practices and by infrastructures specialised in their movements, which serve as moorings.

Transnational mobilities of care in old age

2019-12-16T08:55:20+01:00

No abstract available

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:55:52+01:00

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:55:42+01:00

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:55:32+01:00

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:55:24+01:00

Ageing, ageism, and lost honor: Narratives of Arab elders in Israel

2020-08-20T12:43:19+02:00

This study examines how Arab elders in Israel experience old age and speak about ageism, old age, and loss of honor. Interviews were conducted with 25 Arab men and women, both Muslims and Christians, between the ages of 63 and 86. The findings indicate that despite Arab society being a familial and traditional society, informants experience ageism and feelings of loss of respect and status in both the public and private spheres. The findings reveal a multilayered discourse, inconsistent and incoherent, riddled with internal contradictions about honor, exclusion, ageism, and its absence. This discourse reflects Arab society’s ambivalence about the ongoing processes of modernization on the one hand, and the desire to preserve traditional family values and the status of older populations on the other. The issue of ageism within Arab society in Israel has not thus far drawn much attention in the field of gerontological research, and this study therefore aims to fill this gap.

Unsettling aging futures: Challenging colonial-normativity in social gerontology

2020-08-21T12:36:55+02:00

This article explores the stories of two women activists, both in their mid to later lives, both grandmothers, and both Indigenous to what is now Canada. Both women participated in intergenerational storytelling research in 2017, as part of a multiyear (2016–2020) oral history project. The article brings their stories into dialogue with critical writings on “successful aging” discourse and notions of “happy aging futures” while also reaching beyond gerontology to examine related work by Indigenous scholars in other fields. In doing so, it challenges the ongoing colonial-normativity of interrelated gerontological conceptualizations of generativity and futurity, building on existing efforts to queer and crip these concepts. It ultimately contributes to efforts to understand complexity among multiple aging experiences, opening possibilities of livable and positive futures among those who do not identify with dominant images of wealthy, physically fit older couples with grandchildren.

Ageing, old age and media: Critical appraisal of knowledge practices in academic research

2020-08-21T12:37:32+02:00

This interpretative literature review discusses research published between 2000 and 2015 that focuses on the media representation of older adults. The key objective is to offer a critical discussion on the knowledge and assumptions underlying such studies. Specifically, the review examines how old age and media, respectively, are conceptualised in the research and the consequence this has for further research in the fields of ageing and media studies. The main finding from this review is that a large part of the research appears to say nothing about what old age and media are, as it either entirely fails to discuss what is meant by these terms or relies on common sense notions. The review concludes that research on older age and media suffers from a lack of dialogue over disciplinary borders and that this issue needs to be remedied. Likewise, for research to move on, it is imperative to take a more reflexive stance on the topics in order to avoid simplistic notions of both ageing and media.

“It used to be called an old man’s game”: Masculinity, ageing embodiment and senior curling participation

2020-12-14T07:51:24+01:00

The sport of curling, popular among older populations in Canada and conventionally imagined as a sport for older people, offers an important window into what it means to be an older man participating in sport. While researchers have extensively studied expressions of youthful masculinity in sport culture, scholarship about the confluence of gender expression and old age in sport is much rarer. Using Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) reconfiguration of hegemonic masculinity, and drawing on 19 interviews with older men who curl in mid-sized Canadian towns, we argue that later-life men negotiate complex models of appropriate masculinity that borrow from hegemonic exemplars available in earlier life, deploying certain forms of intellectual, class and gender privilege to do so. At the same time, they disrupt these hegemonies through an emphasis on interdependence, caring relationships and the acceptance of bodily limitations.

Nancy Worth and Irene Hardill (eds.) (2015). Researching the Lifecourse. Critical Reflections from the Social Sciences. Bristol: Policy Press, 254 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 1752 4 (hardcover)

2019-12-16T08:55:23+01:00

Social policy and the production of age norms for later life: The case of ageing policies in Chile

2019-12-16T08:55:24+01:00

Social policies have been recognised as guiding narratives that promote and legitimise certain models of ageing. This finding, however, has been achieved by studies focussed on the reality of developed countries. Furthermore, little is known about how social policies promote age norms for later life in the context of developing countries. This research addresses this knowledge gap and focusses on the Chilean case, paying particular attention to what age norms are promoted by the two national ageing policies implemented by this country in 1996 and 2012. A critical discourse analysis method was used to identify the ways in which each policy conceptualises ageing as a social problem and the prescriptive behaviours and expectations that each policy promotes regarding old age. Results indicate that a rhetorical evolution can be observed in the analysed period, as each policy promotes different later life depictions and social norms.

Social exclusion in old age: domain-specific contributions to a debate

2019-12-16T08:55:25+01:00

Finding a suitable way to write an introduction to a Special Issue would seem to be a relatively easy task – at first glance. But when the Special Issue is dealing with a notion that is in the very midst of receiving momentum, the question arises of how one should begin, because although some potential readers may be acquainted with the topic at hand, others may have yet to understand that the topic is now in the process of conquering intellectual space. This Special Issue happens to be about such a topic. The topic of social exclusion in old age does not yet seem to be on the radar of North American scholars, for example, but has certainly become a topic to reckon with in Europe. Understanding how “the no tion of social exclusion has found its way into the lexicon of all major global governance institutions” (O’Brien & Penna 2008: 1) is what this introduction is all about. This Special Issue was, after all, first conceived as part of the series of special issues that the COST-action known as ROSENet (an acronym that stands for Reducing Old Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy; www.rosenet.com) would put together to raise awareness about old-age social exclusion – a phenomenon that deserves attention as populations around the world grow older and live longer….

Sue Westwood (ed.) (2019). Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social Justice Perspectives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 376 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-78669-0 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:25+01:00

This edited collection brings a comprehensive insight into inequality and diversity of ageing, exploring the concept of social justice in gender; sexualities; culture, ethnicity and religion; disabilities, long-term conditions and care; and spatiality. The understanding of ageing diversity in social gerontology scholarship is underdeveloped and information about minority groups in the older population is often placed in retrofitted sections. Therefore, the aim of this book is to make an important contribution to fill this gap. It consists of five parts, in which inequalities associated with ageing and diversity are centred within Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice (2013). In Chapter 1, Sue Westwood, the editor of this volume, introduces the book and presents a deeper notion of the concept of intersectionality in the field of socio-gerontology. She recognizes the importance to employ this concept, which refers to intertwined inequality in people’s experiences of disadvantage and discrimination, in order to understand the heterogeneity and diversity of ageing, enabling to clarify the complexity of inequality in old age.

Marta Cerezo Moreno and Nieves Pascual Soler (eds.) (2016). Traces of Aging. Old Age and Memory in Contemporary Narrative. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 191 pp. ISBN 978 3 8376 3439 6 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:25+01:00

“Who would take a 90-year-old?” Community-dwelling nonagenarians’ perceptions of social relationships

2019-12-16T08:55:26+01:00

This article aims to deepen understanding of the informal social relationships of the oldest old by applying qualitative methods. It considers ideas of the fourth age, socioemotional selectivity theory, and gerotranscendence theory from the viewpoint of Finnish community-dwelling nonagenarians. Qualitative life-story interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Nonagenarians described the significance of social relationships but also social restrictions and loneliness. In addition, the interviewees described the company and help their social relationships provided, and the pleasant and unpleasant emotions they experienced in their existing and past relationships. Our findings indicate that social relationships can contribute to the ability of nonagenarians to live a good life in old age, and that nonagenarians’ successful aging is not necessarily related to voluntary disengagement from social relationships, as suggested by some theories. Rather, our findings indicate a pursuit of engagement with other people to be important for the good aging of the oldest old.

Negotiating informal elder care, migration and exclusion: the case of a Turkish immigrant community in Belgium

2019-12-16T08:55:26+01:00

In this article, we analyse the role exclusion plays in three theories explaining the provision of informal care for the elderly: norms and roles (sociological institutionalism), the availability and accessibility of formal care (rational choice institutionalism) and concerns about balancing time and money (rational choice theory). Feeding into the discussion on agency in old-age exclusion literature, we argue that exclusion shapes informal care provision in all three theories: social exclusion enforces norms, civic exclusion hinders appropriate formal care provision and economic exclusion reduces the opportunity costs of informal care. Hence, exclusion structures positions and power relations in care negotiation processes. The study shows that exclusion should not only be analysed as an outcome but also as a force shaping the life conditions of older people. The argument is supported using data from qualitative interviews with stakeholders in informal elder care in a Turkish immigrant community in Belgium. Intersections of gender, generation and migration status are taken into account.

Exploring teacher–student communication in senior-education contexts in Taiwan: A communication accommodation approach

2019-12-16T08:55:27+01:00

This study investigated the language-accommodation strategies used by Taiwanese teachers when communicating with older adults in senior-education contexts. First, the interview phase identified various communication strategies and their underlying rationales; second, the survey phase verified the degree to which the identified communication strategies were used, as well as their associations with teachers’ age differences. The identified communication strategies were divided into four broad categories: secondary baby talk, mitigation of references to death or illness, politeness strategies and code selection (use of the dialect preferred by older students). The underlying considerations included older students’ perceived age-related physical or cognitive decrements, their social backgrounds and socio-psychological needs, as well as the teachers’ self-determined relational positioning or priority in the communication process. Young and middle-aged teachers were more likely to experience a deep-rooted conflict and power struggle arising from the fact that a teacher in Taiwan is traditionally endowed with greater power than his or her students, whereas younger people are expected to show respect to their elders. Hence, they frequently chose to address older students using forms that implied intergenerational relationships and to use code-switching to converge their own communication with their older students’ preferred dialects. Implications for older-adult education and possible directions for further research are discussed in the conclusion.

Making ends meet in financial scarcity in old age

2019-12-16T08:55:27+01:00

The purpose of this paper is to explore qualitatively how older people (aged 69–85 years) living in relative poverty experience their daily life and how they make ends meet (N = 16). The empirical analysis shows that despite deprivations, the interviewees are mostly satisfied, and in order to analytically understand this satisfaction I draw on three individual and structural aspects: (1) The Danish welfare state ensures the interviewees’ basic ontological safety. (2) As the interviewees lived in financial scarcity during other phases of their lives, they are familiar with being thrifty, and they have a practical sense of making ends meet. (3) Although none of the interviewees had saved up for their retirement, some had saved up social capital, which enables them to modify or take a break from financial scarcity. Thus, although the interviewees’ financial capabilities are similar, their actual daily lives are very different from each other.

From environmental stress to spatial expulsion - rethinking concepts of socio-spatial exclusion in later life

2019-12-16T08:55:28+01:00

Gerontology has a longstanding tradition of researching the relationship between older adults and their socio-spatial environments. However, environmental gerontology often shares a positivistic understanding of space as either a “prosthetic” or a stressor and consequently searches for the “best fit” between a person and their environment. In this article, we argue for a stronger theoretical corpus on social and territorial exclusion in later life by exploring concepts from urban and environmental sociology, as well as examining the usefulness of these concepts for gerontological thinking. In doing so, we discuss trans-European research traditions beyond the hegemonic body of Anglo-Saxon literature. In conclusion, we discuss how gerontology and sociology might exchange ideas in order to build a stronger theoretical background on the relations between age, space and exclusion.

The welsh Welsh - Y Cymry cymreig: A study of cultural exclusion among ruraldwelling older people using a critical human ecological framework

2019-12-16T08:55:28+01:00

Research on cultural exclusion has not kept apace with transformations to rural populations, economy, family structures and community relationships. Cultural exclusion refers to the extent to which people are able or willing to conform to cultural norms and values. We theorise cultural exclusion using the critical human ecological framework and social comparison theory, taking into account period effects, area effects and cohort and/or lifecourse effects. Qualitative case studies in three rural areas of South Wales (United Kingdom) synthesise data from life-history interviews, life-history calendars, documentary sources and focus groups (n = 56). Our findings suggest that cultural exclusion is an issue for rural-dwelling older people, which they describe by temporal self-comparison and group comparisons. The critical human ecological framework provides new insight into the drivers (industrial decline, policy and population change, a shift from collectivism to individualism), and outcomes (sense of belonging, community cohesion) of cultural exclusion experienced by rural-dwelling older people.

Political participation and social exclusion in later life: What politically active seniors can teach us about barriers to inclusion and retention

2019-12-16T08:55:29+01:00

Addressing older people’s social exclusion is a major challenge for contemporary societies. However, policies designed to address it have tended to focus on poverty and unemployment. This paper explores the relationship between social exclusion and political participation from the perspective of those already holding responsible roles within seniors’ organisations. We aim to highlight the impact of later-life social exclusion in relation to politically active older individuals from two diverse socio-political contexts, Australia and Spain. Participants perceived a range of potential barriers for the inclusion of new members and their own continued involvement. These related to practical and resource ssues, beliefs and attitudes towards participation, and organisational and contextual issues. Members’ views of retention of existing members as well as the recruitment of new members highlight the complexity associated with building the diversity and representativeness that organisations need if they are to represent seniors’ views in the policy process.

Dementia in a regional hospital setting: contextual challenges and barriers to effective care

2019-12-16T08:55:30+01:00

Dementia is a growing public health problem, which may be under-recognised and poorly managed in regional hospitals. With projections of increasing dementia among older adults in regional and rural areas, knowledge about dementia and capacity of professionals to provide best-evidence care is paramount. This research investigates the challenges of dementia care in a publicly funded regional hospital in Australia. The study elucidates prevalence of dementia-related admissions, costs of treatment, length of stay and capacity for dementia care. A mixed methodology was employed in this study, including analysis of hospital records (N = 2405), dementia knowledge surveys (n = 50) and semi-structured interviews with clinical staff (n = 13). Hospital records showed that dementia-related admissions were lower than population prevalence reported in regional Australia. Dementia patients, however, attracted significantly higher treatment costs and greater length of stay than age-matched admissions who did not have a diagnosis of dementia. Clinicians reported several obstacles to effective dementia care, including staff knowledge deficits, environmental challenges, resource constraints and organisational factors.

Men and older persons also care, but how much? Assessing amounts of caregiving in Spain and Sweden

2019-12-16T08:55:31+01:00

We estimate how much caregiving men and women respectively do, and how much of the caregiving is done by older (65+) and younger persons, inside their household and for other households, in Spain and in Sweden. To assess this, we use self-reported hours of caregiving from two national surveys about caregiving, performed in 2014 (Spain, N = 2003; Sweden, N = 1193). Spain and Sweden have dissimilar household structures, and different social services for older (65+) persons. Caregivers, on average, provide many more hours of care in Spain than in Sweden. Women provide about 58% of all hours of caregiving, in Spain in all age groups, in Sweden only among younger caregivers. The reason is the dominance of partner caregivers among older Swedes, with older men and women providing equal hours of care. Family caregiving inside the household is more extensive in the more complex Spanish households than in Swedish households. Family care between households prevails in Sweden, where the large majority of older persons live with a partner only, or alone. This is increasingly common in Spain, although it remains at a lower level. We estimate that older persons provide between 22% and 33% of all hours of caregiving in Spain, and between 41% and 49% in Sweden. Patterns of caregiving appear to be determined mainly by demography and household structure.

Tine Buffel, Sophie Handler and Chris Phillipson (eds.) (2018). Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. A Global Perspective. Great Britain: Policy Press, 300 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 3131 5 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:30+01:00

Not Available.

Torbjörn Bildtgård and Peter Öberg (2017). Intimacy and Ageing: New Relationships in Later Life. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 212 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 2649 6 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:29+01:00

Not Available.

Doing gender and age: The case of informal elderly care in the Czech Republic

2019-12-16T08:55:31+01:00

This article seeks to describe and explain some of the factors behind the prevalence of women in informal care for seniors. It presents a qualitative study of women who are caring for a frail elderly parent in the Czech Republic. Care is seen as a space where gender and other intersecting identities are performed and this has specific subjective, structural and material consequences. The author draws on biographical interviews with women caregivers and shows how they “do gender and age” in their narratives of how and why they made the decision to provide care and how they actually provide care. The author identifies situations and circumstances in which gender categories and gender relations shift and are destabilised by changes in society. The Czech Republic is a country with a history of state socialism and with traditionally large numbers of women in the workforce, but it also has a highly traditional gender culture.

Reverse retirement — a mixed methods study of returning to work in England, Italy and the United States: propensities, predictors and preferences

2019-12-16T08:55:32+01:00

Using methodological triangulation the study examines reverse retirement in Italy, the United States and England to explore the salience of cultural and structural factors and to consider the extent to which returning to work is a constrained choice. Analysis of harmonised panel data (HRS, ELSA and SHARE) indicates that reverse retirement is most common in the United States and extremely rare in Italy. In the liberal economies of the United States and England, financial factors are key determinants, including retirement income, having more children, children under 30 and mortgage debt. However, a certain degree of advantage is a prerequisite for returning to work, including higher education, good health, younger age, and free from caring responsibilities – opportunity structures and capacity to work therefore remain barriers for some older groups. Despite international convergence in the policy landscape, “retirement” continues to hold different meanings in the three distinct national contexts with implications for later life working.

Determinants of resilience for people ageing in remote places: a case study in northern Australia

2019-12-16T08:55:33+01:00

The purpose of this study was to investigate how people managed to stay resilient as they aged in remote places. In Western developed countries, “successful ageing” is associated with older people’s right to age in their chosen place. To remain resilient, older people require support to supplement diminishing self-reliance associated with increasing frailty. Such support services do not extend to remote communities, making it difficult to age in place. This article reports on a case study of ageing in remote places, from the perspective of seniors within a small community in remote northern Australia. The study found how older people attempt through volunteer efforts, to supplement the gaps in aged support services. This collective effort to achieve ageing in place demonstrated greater integration with place and social resilience within the community. However, seniors’ social resilience was seen as tenuous, given collective self-reliance is based on volunteer efforts of older people.

Educational needs of Japan’s dementia care workforce: results of a national online survey

2019-12-16T08:55:33+01:00

Dementia prevalence is increasing in Japan commensurate with population ageing. This study addresses the paucity of research concerning the dementia education needs of Japanese health workers who care for older adults. A random sample of 117 aged care workers was generated from government lists of institutions and services across eight regions of Japan. Volunteer respondents completed an online survey concerning perceptions of dementia, professional educational needs and demographic information. Japanese aged care workers identified a high prevalence of dementia among their clients and acknowledged the value of professional education; however, they only reported moderate levels of dementia knowledge and confidence with care provision. Educational preferences included learning about non-pharmacological treatments for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, workshop and mentor-based programmes, and incentivising education through formal certification and targeting content to professions. This research may inform the development of educational interventions for aged care workers, which may ultimately affect care for people with dementia.

Number of roles and well-being among older adults in the Czech Republic

2019-12-16T08:55:34+01:00

This article aims to analyze the relationship between number of roles, stress, and overall well-being among 50- to 70-year-olds in the Czech Republic and to assess whether this link can be at least partially attributed to other role-related factors, namely individual role types, role overload, and role strain. Using OLS regression, the number of roles was found to be positively related to both stress and overall well-being. The link between multiple roles and well-being among elderly Czechs was mostly irreducible to other role-related factors. However, some of the positive association between number of roles and stress was likely due to occupying a worker role, experiencing role overload and experiencing one role as particularly concerning or difficult, while some of the positive association between multiple roles and overall well-being was partially attributable to occupying grandparental and “active ager” roles.

Kieran Walsh, Gemma M. Carney and Áine Ní Léime (eds.) (2015). Ageing through Austerity: Critical Perspectives from Ireland. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 196 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 1623 7 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:36+01:00

Melissa Ames and Sarah Burcon (2016). How Pop Culture Shapes the Stages of a Woman’s Life. From Toddlers-In-Tiaras To Cougars-On-The Prowl. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137566171 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:36+01:00

Jaco Hoffman and Katrien Pype (eds.) (2016). Ageing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Spaces and Practices of Care. Bristol: Policy Press, 248 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 2525 3 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:35+01:00

Not Available.

Anya Ahmed (2015). Retiring to Spain. Women’s Narratives of Nostalgia, Belonging and Community. Bristol: Policy Press, 208 pp. ISBN 978 1 44731 330 4 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:34+01:00

Not Available.

Virpi Timonen (2016). Beyond Successful and Active Ageing: A Theory of Model Ageing. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 119 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 3017 2 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:35+01:00

On leaving work as a calling: retirement as an existential imperative

2019-12-16T08:55:38+01:00

In this article, we argue that we will reach a deepened understanding of what the retirement process means for individuals if existential meaning is the centre of attention. The data consist of qualitative interviews conducted in Sweden. A selected type of employee - whose work we define as a ‘‘calling’’ is examined to analyse the existential meaning of work and how it is formed and challenged in relation to the retirement process. Before their retirement, the interviewees had developed three main strategies for handling the process of de-calling: developing a ‘‘calling on standby,’’ - exploring self-improvement activities and listening to callings from other social spheres. After their retirement, three main strategies arose for dealing with being de-called: conserving the calling, learning to become a self-oriented subject and redefining the calling. In the case of conserving the calling, we show how this may result in experiences of economic exploitation and existential frustration.

Partner care, gender equality, and ageing in Spain and Sweden

2019-12-16T08:55:37+01:00

We used national surveys to study how older persons’ changing household patterns influence the gender balance of caregiving in two countries with distinct household structures and cultures, Spain and Sweden. In both countries, men and women provide care equally often for their partner in couple-only households. This has become the most common household type among older persons in Spain and prevails altogether in Sweden. This challenges the traditional dominance of young or middle-aged women as primary caregivers in Spain. In Sweden, many caregivers are old themselves. We focus attention to partners as caregivers and the consequences of changing household structures for caregiving, which may be on the way to gender equality in both countries, with implications for families and for the public services.

Fine Lines: cosmetic advertising and the perception of ageing female beauty

2019-12-16T08:55:38+01:00

Fine Lines is a study investigating the language used in adverts for female facial cosmetics (excluding makeup) in UK Vogue magazine. The study queries whether this has been affected by the introduction and rise in popularity of minimally invasive aesthetic procedures to alleviate the signs of facial ageing. The contemporary cultural landscape is explored: this includes the ubiquitous nature of advertising as well as the growth of the skincare market. Emergent thematic analysis of selected advertisements showed a change in the language used before the introduction of the aesthetic procedures (1992 and 1993) compared with later years (2006 and 2007). We have noted a decline in numbers of advertisements within some themes (nourishing in particular showed a marked fall in number of mentions) while others have shown increases (those offering protection against UV radiation and pollution increased by 50% in the later data set). The remaining thematic categories were relatively constant over the period of study, though the emphasis shifted within the themes over time. This article concludes by asserting that the language has changed, that the vocabulary has become more inventive and that skincare products appear to be marketed as complementary to cosmetic procedures. In addition, some of the products appear to be being marketed as luxury items, something to be bought because owning and using it gives you pleasure and bestows prestige on the owner.

Keith Whitfield and Tamara Baker (eds.) (2014). Handbook of Minority Aging. New York: Springer Publishing, 592 pp. ISBN 978 0 82610 963 7 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:41+01:00

Cristiano Gori, Jose-Luis Fernandez and Raphael Wittenberg (eds.) (2016). Long-term Care Reforms in OECD Countries. Bristol: Policy Press, 316 pp. ISBN 978 1 4473 0505 7 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:40+01:00

Ricca Edmondson (2015). Ageing, Insight and Wisdom: Meaning and Practice across the Life Course. Bristol: Policy Press and Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 224 pp. ISBN 978 1 84742 559 1 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:39+01:00

Not Available.

The burgeoning interest in young onset dementia: redressing the balance or reinforcing ageism?

2019-12-16T08:55:43+01:00

Critical evaluation is undertaken of social scientific conceptualisations of dementia in relation to ageing. In response to the societal tendency to associate dementia with old age, there is a growing body of literature that seeks to explicate the particular challenges faced by younger people with the condition. While recognition of the distinctive impacts presented by dementia at different ages is crucial, an age-related conceptual model that focuses on a lifecourse divide at age 65 is problematic: it promulgates a sense that younger people with dementia have ‘‘unique’’ experiences, while dementia for older people is typical. This also reflects a societal ageism, under which concerns are focused on those situated within ‘‘productive adulthood.’’ Moreover, a straightforward chronological marker cannot adequately represent a social world shaped by significant demographic changes. A more textured appreciation of ageing and dementia is required to help articulate how distinctive experiences emerge across the lifecourse.

Comparative analysis of national and regional models of the silver economy in the European Union

2019-12-16T08:55:43+01:00

The approach to analysing population ageing and its impacts on the economy has evolved in recent years. There is increasing interest in the development and use of products and services related to gerontechnology as well as other social innovations that may be considered as central parts of the ‘‘silver economy.’’ However, the concept of silver economy is still being formed and requires detailed research. This article proposes a typology of models of the silver economy in the European Union (EU) at the national and regional levels. This typology was created by comparing the Active Ageing Index to the typology of varieties and cultures of capitalism and typology of the welfare states. Practical recommendations for institutions of the EU and directions for further research are discussed.

Kathrin Komp & Stina Johansson (eds.) (2015). Population Ageing from a Lifecourse Perspective. Critical and International Approaches. Bristol: Policy Press, 258 pp. ISBN 978 1 44731 071 6 (hardcover)

2019-12-16T08:55:44+01:00

Anne Leonora Blaakilde and Gabriella Nilsson (eds.) (2013). Nordic Seniors on the Move. Mobility and Migration in Later Life. Lund: Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences 4, 225 pp. ISBN 978 91 981458 0 9 (paperback), ISSN 2001 7510 (online)

2019-12-16T08:55:45+01:00

Not Available.

Ulla Kriebernegg, Roberta Maierhofer, Barabara Ratzenböck (eds.) (2014). Alive and Kicking at All Ages: Cultural Constructions of Health and Life Course Identity. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag, 324 pp. ISBN 978 3 8376 2582 0 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:45+01:00

Vern L. Bengtson, with Norella M. Putney and Susan Harris (2015). Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down across Generations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 267 pp. ISBN 978 0199 9486 59 (hardcover)

2019-12-16T08:55:46+01:00

“Equally mixed”: artistic representations of old love

2019-12-16T08:55:46+01:00

Michael Haneke’s (2012) film Amour is used as a point of departure for discussing a spectrum of artistic representations of ‘‘old love,’’ a phenomenon that is still little understood. While most critics have focused on euthanasia when referring to the film’s dramatic climax, its late-life perspective of love has been marginalized. Analyzing Amour, as well as other recent cinematic and poetic texts, we challenge the widespread midlife and ageist perception of ‘‘April love,’’ contrasting it with different views from within old love. Our reading of Amour illustrates the effects of intense, all-encompassing, and sealed intimacy in advanced old age and sheds light on potential consequences it may have on the decisions and lives of the people involved. We conclude by discussing how certain forms of love, seen from within, unfold in tandem with age or life phases that affect the pace, emotional, and interpersonal nature of the partnership.

Jason Danely (2014). Aging and Loss: Mourning and Maturity in Contemporary Japan. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 246 pp. ISBN 978 0 8135 6516 3 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:47+01:00

Dress and age: the intersection of life and work

2019-12-16T08:55:48+01:00

In this article I outline the influences, intellectual and personal, that have led me to the subject of dress and age, a topic that I have explored with great enjoyment over the last decade. These have their roots in earlier academic and personal interests, and one of the aims of the article is to show how these different spheres of life and work intersect. I discuss this under three broad headings: intellectual and academic influences; longterm personal interests, particularly in history and the aesthetics of dress; and the impact of becoming an older woman.

Aging worlds in contradiction: gerontological observations in the Mediterranean region

2019-12-16T08:55:48+01:00

This article discusses the existing and developing aging regimes in the Northern and Southern rim countries of the whole Mediterranean region which are all undergoing considerable social and political transformation processes. It is argued that several eye-opening theoretical interventions for such a gerontological project may lead to some methodological problems and pitfalls, which have to be dealt with productively. Central collective concepts of such an analysis (as the change-oriented “modernization effects” of societal aging and the continuity-oriented gaze at the “unity of the region”) have to be reconsidered and ought to be more differentiated in order to allow smaller social entities (such as kinship and community systems and their connectivity) to be central orientations for analyzing poverty and care management in old age in the Mediterranean region. How to reconnect such a rather micro-political agenda with large processes and big structures of aging policies in the region however still remains an open question.

Parting Editorial

2019-12-16T08:55:49+01:00

Spatial pattern of structural ageing in eastern Croatia: evolution and explanations

2019-12-16T08:55:49+01:00

This article aims to examine the ageing situation and social policy issues in the Osijek-Baranja County of eastern Croatia. Using historical evidence from census data, research suggests that the evolution of the ageing pattern has been mainly determined by such factors as development of the transport system, changes in political-territorial organisation, supply of jobs in the cities, deagrarianisation and a domestic war in the 1990s. The increased importance of urban centres, through planned industrialisation and administrative centralisation, has accelerated and intensified rural-tourban migration. Consequently, the spatial pattern of structural ageing has been substantially affected. A significant variation was found in urban and rural areas and also within sub-regional units. The findings suggest that the evolution of spatial disparities in the ageing pattern is because of unplanned migration; spatial differences in the level of socio-economic development; the influence of tradition, such as higher fertility rates historically in some areas; and suburbanisation, notably around the city of Osijek. The article concludes that ageing is affecting the country’s economic growth and the formal and informal social support systems, including the provision of resources for older citizens in the endangered areas.

Theorising ageing and the question of a long life: eye openings

2019-12-16T08:55:50+01:00

A life course perspective, drawing on historical and personal experiences, is used to identify eye-opening concepts that can be used to make sense of the world in terms of personal and social ageing, in the context of intergenerational relationships. Two issues have been identified that characterise a challenge to cultural adaptation: that of generations increasingly becoming approximately the same size as they move from demographic triangles to columns, and that of finding an age-specific purpose for a long life. An analysis of contemporary problems facing gerontology and social policy is given, drawing on the need for complementary life priorities and enhanced generational intelligence. Implications for work, generational rivalry and precarity are examined along with some conclusions on the role of eyeopening conceptual development.

Material inheritances: an affective story in the history of elderly persons

2019-12-16T08:55:50+01:00

Material inheritance is an important theme in old age, tied up to the life story and with shaping the manner in which one will be remembered. This study adopts the self-confrontation method to explore the meanings and affects that elderly persons attach to the material inheritance, taking into consideration their experiences both as heirs and donors. The sample comprises five participants (80-95 years). Main findings suggest a process of transmitting material inheritance characterized by the creation of a material legacy throughout life and from both positions (donor and heir); resolution related to receiving inheritances (heir position); and transferral as a donor later on in life. This process seems to play an affective role at individual (self-autonomy vs. lost love) and familial (union vs. isolation) levels. The transmission of material inheritance represents a lifelong task that connects past, present, and future and links generations.

Five eye-openers in my life of critical gerontology

2019-12-16T08:55:51+01:00

This paper is a personal account of five “eye-opening” career experiences in the author’s life that illustrate how biographical events shape opportunities and inspire knowledge- making in critical gerontology. Borrowing from Pierre Bourdieu’s methodological concept of “fieldwork in philosophy,” this account suggests that critical thinking only becomes eaningful in the lived contexts in which it is grounded, negotiated, transformed, and shared. Thus theoretical ideas about ageing, despite their abstract nature, have historical and unpredictable stories of their own that are worthy of a “fieldwork” approach. The paper also emphasises that the “critical” in critical gerontology includes a strong reflexive and self-critical dimension about the subjective conditions of doing gerontological research, especially in the face of gerontology’s claim to be an objective science.

Beyond health and well-being: transformation, memory and the virtual in older people’s music and dance

2019-12-16T08:55:52+01:00

Research exploring older people and the participatory arts has tended to focus on notions of biomedical impact, often coupled with appeals to evasive notions of “well-being.” Rather than suggesting such approaches are invalid, this article proposes the need for their extension and proposes an alternative, critical approach to analysing older people’s experience of arts participation. Based on ethnographic participant observation and intensive consultation with a cohort of older people engaged in a programme of creative music and dance, we explore the complex processes and possibilities of transformation that the participatory arts can initiate, examining how performance can create intriguing linkages between past, present and future experiences. Taking a phenomenological approach to the study of memory, recollection, reminiscence and future anticipation, we discuss how arts participation can “actualise” potential memories in older participants, examining how and why this kind of expressive activity animates the idea of “virtual” selves (after Bergson).

Julia Twigg (2013). Fashion and Age. Dress, the Body and Later Life. London: Bloomsbury, 174 pp. ISBN 978 1 8748 8696 5 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:53+01:00

Abstract not Available.

Judith A. Sugar, Robert J. Riekse, Henry Holstege and Michael A. Faber (eds.) (2014). Introduction to Aging. A Positive, Interdisciplinary Approach. New York: Springer, 317 pp. ISBN 978 0 8261 0880 7 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:53+01:00

Liz Lloyd (2012). Health and Care in Ageing Societies: A New International Approach. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 169 pp. ISBN: 978 1 86134 918 7. (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:54+01:00

Pamela Gravagne (2013). The Becoming of Age. Cinematic Visions of Mind, Body and Identity in Later Life. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: MacFarland, 216 pp. ISBN 978 0 7864 7260 4 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:55+01:00

Chris Gilleard and Paul Higgs (2013). Ageing, Corporeality and Embodiment. London and New York: Anthem Press, 198 pp. ISBN 978 0 85728 329 0 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:56+01:00

Harry R. Moody and Jennifer R. Sasser (2012). Aging: Concepts and Controversies (7th edition). Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington, DC: Sage Publications, 576 pp. ISBN 978 1 4522 0309 6 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:56+01:00

This book is an unconventional introduction to basic gerontological issues. It is authored by Harry R. Moody and Jennifer R. Sasser, who are developing a theory of critical gerontology. Moody is well known for, among other things, his work with older adult education. He also recently retired as Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC. In the seventh edition of Aging: Concepts and Controversies, he extended opportunity to work on the book as a co-author to Sasser, who works as a Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Human Sciences at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon.

Garimella Giridhar, K. M. Sathyanarayana, Sanjay Kumar, K. S. James and Moneer Alam (eds.) (2014). Population Ageing in India. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 250 pp. ISBN 978 1 1070 7332 6 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:55+01:00

The level of development of nursing assistants’ value system predicts their views on paternalistic care and personal autonomy

2019-12-16T08:55:58+01:00

The quality of care is substantially influenced by the staff‘s value priorities. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize value systems among nursing assistants and nurses’ aides, and to assess relations between their value systems and views on good care. A cross-sectional, quantitative study in a Swedish municipality was performed (N=226). Three distinct value systems were identified, and they corresponded to early (n=121), middle (n=88), and late (n=17) conventional stages ofego development. Early conventional value systems emphasized strict rules, routines and working conditions of staff, while middle and, in particularly, late conventional value systems stressed individualization and autonomy of older people. Assessment of value system, socio-demographic, and occupational variables showed that the value systems had a stronger predictive impact on views on care ethics, participation, and autonomy. The results indicate that staff with late conventional value systems prioritized older persons’ exercise of autonomy, while paternalism held priority in staff with early conventional value systems.

Lars Bovenberg, Casper van Ewijk and Ed Westerhout (eds.) (2012). The Future of Multi-Pillar Pensions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 434 pp. ISBN 978 1 1070 2226 3 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:57+01:00

Looking “out of place”: analysing the spatial and symbolic meanings of dementia care settings through dress

2019-12-16T08:55:58+01:00

The article explores how clothing exposes – and troubles – the ambiguous location of care homes on the boundaries of public/private, home/institutional space. It deploys a material analysis of the symbolic uses and meanings of dress, extending the remit of the new cultural gerontology to encompass the “fourth age,” and the lives of older people with dementia. The article draws on an ESRC-funded study “Dementia and Dress,” conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), which explored everyday experiences of clothing for people with dementia, carers and careworkers, using ethnographic and qualitative methods. Careworkers and managers were keen to emphasise the “homely” nature of care homes, yet this was sometimes at odds with the desire to maintain presentable and orderly bodies, and with institutional routines of bodywork. Residents’ use of clothing could disrupt boundaries of public/private space, materialising a sense of not being “at home,” and a desire to return there.

Eva Jeppsson Grassman and Anna Whitaker (eds.) (2013). Ageing with Disability. A Lifecourse Perspective. Bristol: Policy Press, 142 pp. ISBN 978 1 44730 522 4 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:55:59+01:00

Not Available.

Rune Ervik and Tord Skogedal Lindén (eds.) (2013). The Making of Ageing Policy: Theory and Practice in Europe. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 304 pp. ISBN 978 1 78195 247 4 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:01+01:00

Not Available.

Suzanne R. Kunkel, J. Scott Brown and Frank J. Whittington. (2014). Global Aging: Comparative Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course. New York: Springer, 311 pp. ISBN: 978 0 8261 0546 2 (pbk)

2019-12-16T08:56:00+01:00

Not Available

Anita Wohlmann (2014). Aged Young Adults. Age Readings of Contemporary American Novels and Films. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 261 pp. ISBN 978 3 8376 2483 0 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:55:59+01:00

Not Available.

The participative arts for people living with a dementia: a critical review

2019-12-16T08:56:02+01:00

In the last decade, interest has increased in the role of the participative arts for people who are living with a dementia. The flourishing of this area can be partly understood because of an awareness of the potential for art to deliver health care outcomes. In addition, there is widespread agreement that non-pharmacological interventions are important for people living with a dementia. Therefore, participative arts activities have attracted attention as representing beneficial interventions. This critical review which involved the careful mining of academic and grey literature using replicable search strategies contextualises the participatory arts for people living with a dementia and provides an overview of some of the art orms that are most widely used. The review also highlights some of the extant gaps in the knowledge base. The focus is on the UK context but the role of the participative arts for those with a dementia is equally relevant to practitioners in Europe and the US, and therefore some attention was also given to international literature.

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:56:02+01:00

Eugène Loos, Leslie Haddon and Enid Mante-Meijer (eds.) (2012). Generational Use of New Media. Farnham: Ashgate, 236 pp. ISBN 978 1 4094 2657 8 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:03+01:00

Abstract not Available.

Hello pension, goodbye tension? The impact of work and institutions on older workers’ labor market participation in Europe

2019-12-16T08:56:04+01:00

To sustain the welfare state, several EU countries agreed to take measures aimed at increasing the labor market participation of older workers (European Commission 2001). In this study, we developed a framework integrating individual, work, and institutional characteristics in order to explain the labor market participation of older workers. While prior studies focused mainly on individual characteristics, the present analysis investigated the impact of work and institutions more closely using the European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses across 21 countries showed that work characteristics increased the benefits from work, hence increasing the likelihood of participation among older workers, and that the generosity of institutions discouraged older workers to remain in the labor market.

Merita V. Xhumari (2011). Pension Trajectories in Western Balkans. Three case studies: Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo 1990-2010. ERSTE Stiftung & UNFPA, 158 pp. ISBN 973 9928 124 24 1 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:04+01:00

Not Available

Social cohesion as perceived by community-dwelling older people: the role of individual and neighbourhood characteristics

2019-12-16T08:56:05+01:00

Social cohesion in neighbourhoods is critical to supporting the rising number of community-dwelling older people. Our aim was thus to identify individual and neighbourhood characteristics influencing social cohesion among older people. We employed a cross-sectional study of 945 (66% response rate) community-dwelling older residents (70+ ) in Rotterdam. To account for the hierarchical structure of the study design, we fitted a hierarchical random-effects model comprising 804 older people (level 1) nested in 72 neighbourhoods (level 2). Multilevel analyses showed that both individual (age, ethnic background, years of residence, income and self-rated health) and neighbourhood characteristics (neighbourhood security) affect social cohesion among community-dwelling older people. Results suggest that policy makers should consider such factors in promoting social cohesion among community-dwelling older people. Policies aimed at improving neighbourhood security may lead to higher levels of social cohesion.

Susan McDaniel and Zachary Zimmer (eds) (2013). Global Ageing in the 21st Century. Challenges, Opportunities and Implications. Farnham, UK & Burlington, USA: Ashgate, 324 pp. ISBN 978 1 4094 32708 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:05+01:00

Abstract not Available.

Sara Arber and Virpi Timonen (eds.) (2012). Contemporary Grandparenting. Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press, 270 pp. ISBN 978 1 84742 967 4 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:06+01:00

Not Available.

Chris Phillipson (ed.) (2013). Ageing. Cambridge: Polity Press, 218 pp. ISBN 978 0 7456 3084 7 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:06+01:00

Ageing is one in a series of books published by Polity Press under the general rubric of “key concepts.” Written by one of the leading figures in social gerontology, the book consists of ten chapters divided into three sections. The first section outlines the socio-demographic nature of ageing, the second social divisions and inequalities in later life, while the third section addresses “new” pathways for later life. The aim is to outline the major characteristics and consequences of contemporary ageing societies and the changes in the institutions that once secured a place for old age.

Ageing embodiment and the search for social change

2019-12-16T08:56:08+01:00

Negotiating a healthy body in old age: preventive home visits and biopolitics

2019-12-16T08:56:07+01:00

The study discussed in this article sheds light on how a specific publichealth policy, the preventive home visit (PHV) aimed at senior citizens, is implemented at the local level in Denmark. Empirically the article calls attention to what is actually going on in a preventive practice, based on participant observations, interviews and ten years#&8217; worth of visitation records. Theoretically, the article applies a Foucauldian biopolitical approach that understands the visits as an implementation of the active ageing scheme, as the notion of prevention is practised as a continuous process, which is utilised to train people#&8217;s gazes and sensitivity, and teach them to recognise ‘activity’ as closely linked to future well-being and longevity. An important finding is that the intervention is not normalising in a deterministic way but rather negotiable. Even though the home visitors represent a health regimen where activity is interpreted as bodily exercise, they try to avoid the tendency to prescribe for older people. Rather than prevention in the strict sense, it seems to be a health promotion strategy that encourages older people to articulate their needs. The meeting between the health visitor and the older person is characterised by conversations and negotiations about health, autonomy and bodily experiences.

The magic of cinema: time as becoming in Strangers in Good Company

2019-12-16T08:56:08+01:00

This article examines the ability of cinema to alter our perception and experience of time and ageing by analysing the film, Strangers in Good Company, as an example of what Gilles Deleuze called a time-image film in his philosophy of cinema. By looking at the cinematic representation of time as culturally contingent and open to change, and the boundary between representation and reality as thin, Deleuze’s theorisation of time-image cinema presents us with a way of understanding time as a kind of magic that can free us to live and become rather than as a succession of equally metered, linear moments. The experience of the older women who ’’act’’ in this movie confirms Deleuze’s thinking, when their brief filmic reprieve from the exigencies of chronological and linear time spills over into their ’’real’’ lives, allowing them to move beyond static representations of old age that tie them to deteriorating bodies and negative identities into an open future of becoming.

Affirmative old age - the ageing body and feminist theories on difference

2019-12-16T08:56:09+01:00

Discourses on old age and ageing are framed in narrow and binary ways, either as a decline narrative or through discourses of positive and successful ageing. The decline narrative, on the one hand, is highly centred on the decline of the ageing body as frail, leaky and unbounded, and on how old age is characterised by non-productivity, increasing passivity and dependency. Discourses on successful ageing, on the other hand, rely heavily on neo-liberal imperatives of activity, autonomy and responsibility. In successful ageing, the specificities of ageing bodies are largely overlooked while the capacity of the old person to retain a youthful body, for example, with the aid of sexuopharmaceuticals, is celebrated. This article argues for the need of a theorising of old age that goes beyond the binaries of decline and success. Drawing on the work of feminist corpomaterialists Rosi Braidotti and Elisabeth Grosz, the article proposes affirmative old age as an alternative conceptualisation of old age.

As a theoretical project, affirmative old age aims to acknowledge the material specificities of the ageing body and is an attempt to theorise the ageing body in terms of difference but without understanding it as a body marked by decline, lack or negation.

Making judgments about other people: impression formation and attributional processing in older adults

2019-12-16T08:56:10+01:00

Older adults face changing relationships with family members and friends with aging. Social cognition researchers investigate how individuals think about these social situations. The results of this research suggest that older adults are effective at accurately judging social partners when they are motivated to do so and can apply their accumulated knowledge to the situation. However, when cognitive resources are required in social situations, older adults may not perform as well as young adults. We review evidence supporting the importance of cognition, motivation, and knowledge for older adults’ impression formation and attributional reasoning. This research is important because it can lead to interventions to help older adults avoid scams and improve their interpersonal relationships.

Josephine Dolan & Estella Tincknell (eds.) (2012). Aging Femininities: Troubling Representations. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 248 pp. ISBN 1 4438 3883 7 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:10+01:00

Not Available.

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:56:11+01:00

Aging, narrative, and performance: essays from the humanities

2019-12-16T08:56:51+01:00

A public secret: assisted living, caregivers, globalization

2019-12-16T08:56:51+01:00

Frail elderly and their caregivers are virtually invisible in representational circuits (film, the novel, photography, television, the web, newspapers), with the elderly habitually dismissed as non-citizens and their caregivers often literally not citizens of the nation-states in which they work. How can we bring what is a scandalous public secret of everyday life into visibility as care of the elderly increasingly becomes a matter of the global market in our neoliberal economies? This essay explores the representation of caregivers and elders, together, in photographs, the memoir, news and feature stories, and documentary film, suggesting that one of the most effective modes of advocating for changes in public policy is engaging people’s understanding through stories and images. In this study, I consider stories of assisted living, which involve elders, who are white, and paid caregivers, who are people of color, gendered female, and part of global care chains; these stories include American writer Ted Conover’s New York Times Magazine feature story ’’The Last Best Friends Money Can Buy’’ (1997) and Israeli Tomer Heymann’s documentary film ’’Paper Dolls’’ (2006). Of key importance is a feeling of kinship as new forms of the family take shape.

Reimagining care: images of aging and creativity in House Calls and Year at Sherbrooke

2019-12-16T08:56:50+01:00

This article looks at the relationship between the esthetic and documentary commentaries offered by two National Film Board of Canada (NFB) productions, chosen because they use the documentary form to interpret aging and care in Canada for Canadians, offering a Canadian example of an issue that is of international importance. The first film, House Calls (Ian McLeod 2004), follows the work of Mark Nowaczynski, a physician who photographs his elderly patients to illustrate their dignity amidst what he perceives to be their fragility and vulnerability. The second, A Year at Sherbrooke (Thomas Hale 2009), follows artists Thelma Pepper and Jeff Nachtigall who work with residents of a Saskatoon long-term care facility - Pepper continues her longer term practice of photographing the residents and Nachtigall takes on a new role of artist-in-residence in which he mentors them in their own creative development. Analyzing the role of photography in each film, the article shows that, together, the films demonstrate that images of aging beyond mere decline may play a role in reimagining how care for older adults takes place.

An insider’s view of Alzheimer: cinematic portrayals of the struggle for personhood

2019-12-16T08:56:50+01:00

This article looks at three recent films in which a person with dementia is the principal character. These films have been chosen according to the following criteria: representing different stages of dementia (early, moderate and advanced); films where the demented is the protagonist; and films challenging the biomedical view of dementia. Two of the characters are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease: the protagonist of Cortex (2008) is at a moderate stage, the one in Pandora’s Box (2008) is diagnosed when already in advanced stage and the third, the protagonist of Old Cats (2010), while not officially diagnosed, is in early onset of dementia. While the number of dementia films has significantly increased during the past decade, only a few access the subjective world and acknowledge the personhood of people with dementia. Made outside the mainstream film industry, making elaborate use of cinematic image and metaphor, these films, each in its own particular cinematic idiom, succeed in conveying the psychological, social and spiritual realities of dementia as they are experienced from within the protagonist’s psyche. While not denying the often bleak and painful aspects of dementia, these recent productions go against the grain, inspiring a complex, richly nuanced picture of dementia that centres around the protagonist’s stubbornly courageous struggle to forge a meaningful existence even in the direst of circumstances. These films, we believe, offer a richer and profound understating of the human aspects embedded in the phenomena of dementia.

No Country for Old Men: a search for masculinity in later life

2019-12-16T08:56:13+01:00

As several recent studies have shown, contemporary scholarship on masculinity in later life is beset with significant limitations that mirror social and cultural aspects of the very subject that it is meant to study. Reflecting the culture at large, studies of masculinity have presupposed an unspoken, static image of midlife men as the criterion for manhood. This essay reads the protagonist of No Country for Old Men, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, in the context of masculinity studies, age studies, and the evolution of the American Western. Both Cormac Mcarthy’s novel and the Coen brothers’ film adaptation will be addressed. We argue that, as a man who becomes deprived of the traditional props of ageless male identity, Bell offers an unexpected and intriguing instance of the search for late-life masculine identity. By the end of No Country for Old Men, Bell has departed from the traditional masculinity scripts of the American Western. He is an aging, ineffectual cowboy who has retired, renounced the violence that sustained his male dominance, and lost the moral certainty that ensured his identity. Bell is no longer certain of who he is - which leaves him free to find out what it might mean to be an old man.

“The play’s the thing”: theatre as a scholarly meeting ground in age studies

2019-12-16T08:56:13+01:00

Addressing three current critical turns in gerontology, this article proposes the theatre as a fertile ground for various theoretical angles in age studies - including the performative on and off stage, the narrative in the script and the critical questioning of age and ageism in the multiple realities of performance. Beginning from a shared site in the theatre, researchers may be able to establish greater common ground, resulting not only in multi-disciplinary efforts but also in truly interdisciplinary work. With a foundation in performance studies, this article suggests promising directions for age studies and theatre scholarship by examining three aspects of theatrical production: a play script, Jan de Hartog’s popular The Fourposter (1951); a collaborative development of a script and production, Jeanette Mathewes Stevens’ 2010 senior drama ElderSpeak; and a performance, a 2011 song-and-dance revue staged by an established senior theatre troupe, the Sarasota Senior Theater.

Critical turns of aging, narrative and time

2019-12-16T08:56:12+01:00

As human aging is basically living (in) time, time is a fundamental, but also uncomfortably uprooting concept for aging studies. However, time is usually reduced to chronometric time; a mere measurement that has been emptied of the narratives that were traditionally part of it. Its abstract and instrumental character implies that to become meaningful, chronometric time still depends on narratives. Not only are narratives needed to relate chronometric time to the world, they are also crucial to interrelate the dimensions of lived time: the past, the present and the future. As late modern aging takes place in multiform life worlds and in confrontation with a diversity of social systems, political and cultural macro-narratives play an important role in shaping situations and destinies of aging people. However, because of the prestigious exactness of chronometric time and the role it plays in calculations and statistics, narratives tend to creep in and remain hidden behind chronometric exactness. It is argued that micro-narratives remain important for empirical studies of aging as they articulate human experiences, but that narratives also play an increasingly important role in the interrelation between systemic worlds and life worlds. Therefore, narrative studies should seek more cooperation and critical discussion with disciplines that study macro developments such as sociology, economics or political science to clarify the role of macronarratives in policies on aging. The article ends with a contemporary example of new systemic (debt) clocks which have a major impact on the lives of many citizens, especially the aged. Although these clocks remain dependent on specific macro-narratives, their ominous ticking tends to hide them and to implode the debate about them.

Andreas Hoff (ed.) (2011). Population Ageing in Central and Eastern Europe. Societal and Policy Implications. Farnham, UK & Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, 260 pp. ISBN 978 0 7546 7828 1 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:52+01:00

Not Available.

Christina R. Victor (2010). Aging, Health and Care. Bristol: The Policy Press, 224 pp. ISBN 978 1 84742 9 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:52+01:00

Not Available.

Bennett, A. & Hodkinson, P. (eds.) (2012). Ageing and Youth Cultures. Music, Style and Identity. London & New York: Berg, 208 pp. ISBN 978 1 84788 835 8 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:52+01:00

Not Available.

J. Gordon Harris (2008). Biblical Perspectives on Ageing: God and the Elderly (second edition). New York: Harworth Press, 199 pp. ISBN 978 0 78903 538 7 (hardbound),

2019-12-16T08:56:54+01:00

Christine Ceci, Kristín Björnsdóttír & Mary Ellen Purkis (eds.) (2011). Perspectives on Care at Home for Older People. New York: Routledge, 194 pp. ISBN 978 0 415 89590 3 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:53+01:00

Not Available.

Political participation of older adults in Scandinavia - the civic voluntarism model revisited? A multi-level analysis of three types of political participation

2019-12-16T08:56:53+01:00

This article examines political participation among older adults in österbotten, Finland, and Västerbotten, Sweden. Two specific hypotheses are tested. First, we anticipate that older adults are loyal voters but less avid in engaging in politics between elections. Second, we expect individuallevel resources to explain why older people participate in politics.

The article offers two contributions to the literature on political participation of older adults. First, it corroborates earlier findings by showing that older adults indeed have a higher inclination to vote than to engage in political activities between elections, but it also shows that the latter engagement is more diversified than one could expect. Second, although the findings largely support the resource model, they suggest that we need to consider also other factors such as the overall attitude towards older people.

’He wasn’t in that chair’: what loneliness means to widowed older people

2019-12-16T08:56:55+01:00

We have little robust empirical evidence that articulates what being lonely means to older people and even less knowledge about what loneliness means to older widows and widowers; this article addresses that deficit. We undertook a re-analysis of 125 interviews with older people (aged 55-98) that explored their experiences of widowhood. In this article, we focus on those interviews in which participants described themselves as experiencing loneliness by the spontaneous use of terms such as ’’lonely’’, ’’loneliness’’ or ’’lonesome’’. Almost half of the participants (42%) described themselves in that way without any prompting from the interviewer. In terms of understanding and describing the meaning of loneliness, 50% explained loneliness in terms of absence of either their spouse, a physical presence in the house or people. One-third (34%) discussed loneliness in relation to time and place: night, weekends and home, and 4% described the emotional impact of loneliness. Fifteen per cent just said they were lonely without elaboration, assuming a common understanding of what loneliness means. Our findings suggest that widowed people’s understanding and experience of loneliness resonates with the concept of ’’emotional’’ loneliness, resulting from the loss of significant social and emotional attachment. This has important implications for the types of interventions that may be appropriate for remediating loneliness in this group.

“Otherwise it would be nothing but cruises”: exploring the subjective benefits of working beyond 65

2019-12-16T08:56:55+01:00

The age at which statutory and private pensions are being paid is increasing in many countries and hence more people will need to work into their late 60s and beyond. At present, relatively little is known about the meanings of work for people who actively choose to work into their later life. This qualitative study examined the subjective benefits of continuing in a paid job or self-employment beyond the age of 65 in the United Kingdom. Thirty-one participants were interviewed, aged 65-91 years (median age 71), with 11 females and 20 males. Fourteen were working full-time and seventeen part-time. Interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis. Although financial reward was acknowledged (more so by the female participants and the males who had young second families), there was more elaboration of the role of work in maintaining health and enabling continuing personal development. Work was framed as increasing personal control over later life, lifestyle choices and active participation in wider society, an antithesis to ’’cruising’’.

Dale Dannefer & Chris Phillipson (eds.) (2010). The SAGE Handbook of Social Gerontology. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC: SAGE Publications, 712 pp. ISBN 978 1 4129 3464 0 (hardcover)

2019-12-16T08:56:54+01:00

Not Available.

Jordan I. Kosberg (ed.) (2007). Abuse of Older Men. New York: Haworth Press, 202 pp. ISBN 978 0 7890 3541 7 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:56+01:00

Not Available.

Aagje Swinnen and John A. Stotesbury (eds.) (2012). Aging, Performance and Stardom: Doing Age on the Stage of Consumerist Culture. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 208 pp. ISBN 978 3 6439 0176 7 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:56:56+01:00

Not Available.

Rhetoric and reality of daily life in English care homes: the role of organised activities

2019-12-16T08:56:57+01:00

In divergent ways, both government policy and care home practices influence the everyday life of older people living in English care homes. The rhetoric of choice for care home residents may be in conflict with the reality of government policy-driven service delivery. The aim of the article is to examine the role of organised activities in facilitating choice and active ageing among care home residents. Findings from a study of ten care homes in South East England exemplify the conflict between government policy rhetoric and the reality of care home life. The indication is that the formality of the ’’activities of daily living’’ support procedures restricts residents’ involvement in the organised social activities.Within the general provision of services, the organised ’’social activities’’ offered failed to meet the interest, cognitive and physical abilities of residents. The reality of ’’choice’’ is therefore questionable. Policy needs to support a transformation in the delivery of care to ensure it addresses the actual needs and expectations of older people experiencing care home life.

Dirk Hofäcker (2010). Older Workers in a Globalizing World. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 336 pp. ISBN 978 1 84844 817 9 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:56+01:00

Not Available.

The fight-to-die: older people and death activism

2019-12-16T08:56:57+01:00

This article explores the activities and convictions of older right-to-die activists who belong to a small but very active interest group based in Scotland, UK, called Friends at the End (FATE). The analysis presented here is based on knowledge gained through seventeen months of ethnographic research with the organisation. While FATE activists currently campaign for a legal right to a medically assisted death, many are also open to taking matters into their own hands, either by travelling to the Swiss organisation Dignitas or by opting for what is known as ’’self-deliverance’’. FATE members’ openness to different means of securing a hastened death contrasts sharply with the more limited demands of the UK’s main right-to-die organisation, Dignity in Dying, and highlights their specific orientation to freedom, which, it is argued here, results from the organisation’s older demographic.

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:57:00+01:00

The critical use of narrative and literature in gerontology

2019-12-18T08:18:37+01:00

It is now widely accepted that ’’age’’ and ’’ageing’’ are cultural concepts that are open to question. The thinking encouraged by critical gerontology has been crucially important in provoking questions about the complexities of later life, age and ageing. Similarly, the interrogation of stories of age and ageing via narrative approaches and as found in literature are increasingly recognised as an important source of knowledge for mining the intricacies of later life. There are close links between the interests of critical gerontologists and those who engage in narrative and literary gerontology. However, the potential that critical gerontology has for illuminating and probing these stories of age has often been neglected. The central argument of this article is that narrative and literary approaches to age and ageing when allied to perspectives from critical gerontology can furnish scholars with important perspectives for interpreting and re-configuring ’’age’’. The focus is upon how a genuinely dialogic relationship between critical gerontology and narrative and literary gerontology can be forged. In this way, the full potential of these stories of ageing; their epistemological status for enriching theoretical work on ageing, might be better exploited.

“The baby-boom is over and the ageing shock awaits”: populist media imagery in news-press representations of population ageing

2019-12-16T08:56:59+01:00

From an international perspective, media representations of population ageing have been described as apocalyptic in character. In this article, we analyse the way population ageing is represented in three Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Västerbottens-Kuriren. The aim is to investigate Swedish news-press representations of population ageing and the old age identities that they offer. We conduct qualitative analyses of the articulations between the verbal content and the use of illustrations, metaphorical language, headlines and captions using the concepts offered by discourse theory. The analysis of the material shows that the studied newspapers firmly position population ageing within a wider discourse of political economy and as a threat to the concept of welfare. Growth is promoted as a self-evident means for adjusting to the expected threat. Illustrations and metaphorical language helped to constitute population ageing as a serious, dichotomised (e.g. young vs. Old) and emotive (e.g. addressing anxiety and ear) problem. The analyses also show how the representations of population ageing bear some populist features, and we argue that such features support a de-politicisation of the phenomenon population ageing.

How do unfamiliar environments convey meaning to older people? Urban dimensions of placelessness and attachment

2019-12-16T08:56:59+01:00

The discussion within gerontology of the relationship between older people and their environment (place attachment and ageing in place in particular) has been based on an assumption of familiarity with place. Yet increasingly older people experience unfamiliar environments. This can be through increased travelling as tourists and visitors to other towns and cities, through redevelopment of town centres or through cognitive decline, where the familiar becomes unfamiliar. This article reviews the conceptual frameworks underpinning the concepts of place attachment and unfamiliarity and questions the relevance of such concepts for understanding urban lifestyles in later life. We demonstrate that even in an unfamiliar environment older people can develop a sense of place through the aesthetics and usability of the environment as well as through shared memories. Consequently this has relevance for how we plan our environments to make them age-friendly.

Later life ICT learners ageing well

2019-12-16T08:56:58+01:00

This article is based on a qualitative study of later life computer learners and their learning experiences in Sydney, Australia. Participants who undertook lessons from peer tutors in non-formal learning environments were aged between 63 and 86. Sixteen later life learners were interviewed individually by using hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. The use of semi-structured interviews provided opportunities for participants to elaborate and reflect on their learning and lived experiences. The interviews took place over a period of seven years, from 2003 to 2010. The main aim of the study was to understand and interpret the lived experiences of information and communication technology (ICT) learning in later life. Interpretations from the study suggested that learning and using a computer contributed to a sense of well-being, furthered an understanding of the lifeworld and provided participants with a heightened sense of belonging. In this article, well-being is discussed in the context of ageing and learning in a modern developed country. The ontological and existential themes of being, becoming and belonging are explored and used as a framework to interpret the findings from the study.

Pietro Garibaldi, Joaquim Oliveira Martins and Jan van Ours (eds.) (2010). Ageing, Health, and Productivity: The Economics of Increased Life Expectancy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 288 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 958713 1 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:56:58+01:00

Not Available.

Lonely older people as a problem in society – construction in Finnish media

2021-06-23T17:03:42+02:00

Loneliness is a prevalent stereotype of old age but there is a lack of studies of how it is represented in mass media. This study examines how the loneliness of older people is portrayed in mass media. The research material consists of 154 texts from the leading 50+ magazines and daily newspapers in Finland. In the texts, loneliness was rarely seen solely as a lack of companionship and many negative attributes were connected to it. Among other things, loneliness was connected to the low status of older people in society, inhumane practices in elderly care, lack of meaning in life and neglect by relatives. Loneliness was also viewed as an inevitable part of ageing. However, many suggestions were made to alleviate loneliness. The extent of these suggestions varied from broad and collective actions to simple and perfunctory solutions.

Ethno-cultural diversity in home care work in Canada

2019-12-16T08:57:01+01:00

Worldwide, immigrant workers are responsible for much of the care provided to elderly people who require assistance with personal care and with activities of daily living. This article examines the characteristics of immigrant home care workers, and the ways in which they differ from non-migrant care workers in Canada. It considers circumstances wherein the labor of care is framed by ethno-cultural diversity between client and worker, interactions that reflect the character of this ethno-cultural diversity, and the strategies employed by workers to address issues related to this diversity. Findings from a mixed methods study of 118 workers in the metropolitan area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, indicate that while the discriminatory context surrounding migrant home care workers persists, issues of ethno-cultural diversity in relationships are complex, and can also involve non-foreign born workers.

Multi-cultural home care is not always framed in a negative context, and there often are positive aspects.

Tasks performed by primary caregivers and migrant live-in homecare workers in Israel

2019-12-19T08:19:14+01:00

The issue of migrant live-in homecare workers has been barely addressed in the gerontological literature, in spite of the increase of older persons being cared for by such persons in many Western countries. The purposes of the study are to examine the extent to which migrant live-in homecare workers substitute family caregivers or complement the care that is provided by primary caregivers, and to examine if there are differences in primary caregivers’ involvement in providing help with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) before and after hiring a migrant live-in homecare worker, by caregivers’ employment status and gender. The data were drawn from a study that included 335 triads (care recipients, their primary caregivers, and their Filipina live-in homecare workers).

The findings show that for the most part primary caregivers continue to play a significant role in providing care, in particular with regard to IADL tasks, even when there is a migrant live-in homecare worker. Several patterns of division of labor between the formal and informal caregivers were identified; that is, in some cases they complement each other while in other cases the migrant live-in homecare workers substitute for the care previously provided by the primary caregivers. Significant differences between male and female caregivers and between working and nonworking caregivers were found with regard to involvement in providing care before and after employment of a migrant homecare worker.

Embodying the ideal carer

2019-12-16T08:57:03+01:00

Demographic developments have caused challenges to national arrangements for elderly care. In Austria one answer has been the employment of migrant carers in the home of people with care needs. The literature on migrant carers has largely discussed economic considerations and specific national welfare state arrangements which underlie the employment of carers. This article focuses on the relation between the moral construction of migrant carers in the family-oriented welfare system of Austria and the ideological understanding of ’’ideal’’ care in society.Using Critical Discourse Analysis the discourse is analysed in newspapers and through focus groups. Migrant carers are constructed as fictive kin, representing an approximation of the idealised family carer. Furthermore, investigating the way people think and talk about migrant carers enables a better understanding of what an idealised notion of care entails and how it represents the ideological construction of the welfare state. It will be argued that the migrant carer is constructed in the public discourse as a replacement for a nostalgically imagined ideal care relationship.

Migrant home care workers caring for older people: fictive kin, substitute, and complementary family caregivers in an ethnically diverse environment

2019-12-21T08:20:20+01:00

Not available.

Acknowledgement

2019-12-16T08:57:04+01:00

Christina Victor, Sasha Scambler and John Bond (2009). The Social World of Older People. Understanding Loneliness and Social Isolation in Later Life. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 262 pp. ISBN 978 0 335 21521 8 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:57:00+01:00

Leisure in old age: disciplinary practices surrounding the discourse of active ageing

2019-12-16T08:57:07+01:00

In the 1990s, the World Health Organization adopted the term ’’active ageing’’, which currently represents a key vision of old age in Western societies facing the situation of demographic ageing. The meaning of the idea of active ageing is based on the concept of individuals actively and systematically influencing the conditions of their ageing through selfresponsibility and self-care. The aim of this article is to map how the idea of active ageing is constructed and the implications it presents with regard to the way in which seniors relate to their experience of old age. It concentrates on a specific segment of senior-oriented social services (centres for seniors that offer leisure time activities and educational courses) that represent an institutional context for the manifestation of the discourse of active ageing. A three-year ethnographic study was conducted in two such centres in the Czech Republic. The article focuses on various strategies for the disciplining of the ageing body. It points out that these disciplinary practices are an integral part of the daily running of the centres and that the seniors who intensively engage in them have internalised the idea of an active lifestyle as the most desirable lifestyle in old age. Active ageing was constructed by them as a project that must be worked on. Through the ’’technologies of self’’ embedded in the imperative of the necessity to move or do something, they participate in the production of the discourse of active ageing as a form of discipline of the body. At the same time, the article outlines how the idea of active ageing as the ’’correct’’ form of ageing influences the self-conception of these seniors and their attitudes towards ageing and their peers.

A critical assessment of generational accounting and its contribution to the generational equity debate

2019-12-16T08:57:06+01:00

This article describes generational accounting (GA) with a focus on what it brings to the broader literature on generational equity. Our assessment suggests that the GA model has its limitations but is potentially useful in the hands of analysts who are familiar with both the strengths and limitations of the model. It is most useful when the focus is on dealing with intergenerational equity, but it is much less useful when the focus is on issues related to class, race, and other forms intragenerational equity. We conclude that when GA models are used to support calls for retrenchment of public spending on pensions and other social programs that target the older population, it makes sense to recognize that the potential benefits with respect to government debt and deficit reduction and reduced inequality in net tax burdens across age cohorts may come at the cost of increased intragenerational inequality for many workers and retirees.

Suicide among elders: a Durkheimian proposal

2019-12-16T08:57:06+01:00

This article proposes a model based on Durkheim’s suicide framework as a tool for enhancing gerontological practitioner’s ability to detect and prevent suicide among elders. Although many suicide detection tools are based on psychological factors, this model focuses on identifying environmental stressors that may increase psychological stressors. To illustrate our concepts, we use case files from one author’s experience as a practicing social worker in nursing homes. We offer this model not as a replacement for psychological detection tools, but as an additional tool for practitioners who work to identify and prevent suicides among the elderly.

Chiara Saraceno (ed.) (2008). Families, Ageing and Social Policy: Intergenerational Solidarity in European Welfare States. Cheltenham, UK & Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 336 pp. ISBN 978 1 84720 648 0 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:57:05+01:00

Not Available.

Julia Johnson, Sheena Rolph and Randall Smith (2010). Residential Care Transformed: Revisiting ’The Last Refuge’. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 272 pp. ISBN: 978 0 230 0242 9 (hardback)

2019-12-16T08:57:05+01:00

Not Available.

Anthony Chiva and Jill Manthorpe (eds.) (2009). Older Workers in Europe. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 177 pp. ISBN 978 0 335 22275 9 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:57:04+01:00

Not Available.

Anthea Innes (2009). Dementia Studies. London: Sage, 195 pp. ISBN 978 1 4129 2164 0 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:57:07+01:00

Ageing societies and the welfare state: where the inter-generational contract is not breached

2019-12-16T08:57:10+01:00

Changes to policies for work and retirement in EU15 nations (1995–2005)

2019-12-18T08:19:20+01:00

’’Active ageing’’ policies have been presented as a potential panacea for the conflict between generations many argue will result from demographic ageing. Indeed, as part of a new intergenerational contract, older individuals (here defined as those aged 50-64) are expected to re-engage with, and remain in, the labour market longer. However, this implies all individuals experience the same policy mix. This study uses micro-level data to address changes to work and retirement policies for older individuals from 1995 to 2005, and the resultant alterations to the degree of choice in terms of labour market participation different sub-groups within this age cohort had. The data demonstrate that the policy shift towards ’’active ageing’’ is not universally applied to all older individuals as some retain the ability to early exit from the labour market. Thus the notion of a single intergenerational contract is overly simplistic and neglects a great deal of intragenerational difference.

Paid work between age 60 and 70 years in Europe

2019-12-17T08:19:17+01:00

Over the past years, older persons’ workforce participation has increased and, after years of studying early retirement, the focus has gradually shifted to workforce participation between age 60 and 70 years. Those are the years directly below and above the mandatory retirement age in most of the European countries. We investigate the influence of socio-economic status (SES) on older persons’ workforce participation. Moreover, we study whether the importance of private pensions in a country modifies the effect of SES. Survey data from eleven European countries are analysed in multilevel analyses. Results show that paid work in old age is the domain of persons with high SES. Moreover, a high share of private pensions in a country diminishes the influence of occupational prestige on men’s workforce participation. This suggests that older persons with low SES deserve particular attention in labour market reforms. Additionally, it suggests that pension reforms be monitored concerning their effects on social inequalities.

Gender roles and social policy in an ageing society

2019-12-16T08:57:08+01:00

This article reviews the major underpinnings of the Japanese welfare state in the context of social care from a feminist perspective. In Japan, familycare responsibilities have traditionally been assigned to women; hence, care has long been a women’s issue. However, as the social contract of a male breadwinner and a ’’professional housewife’’ gradually fades out, Japanese women find more opportunities to renegotiate their caring roles. Of course, this social transformation did not occur in isolation, it was influenced by patterns in economic development, state policies and mainly demographic changes. All this has stimulated new state responses in the form of social welfare expansion that arguably aim to relieve women of the burdens of family-care. The issue remains, however, as to whether Japan would be able to recognise that the main structural issues of population ageing do not originate from demographic changes, but from a strict gendered division of labour and gender inequality.

Caring for a parent while working for pay in the German welfare regime

2019-12-16T08:57:08+01:00

This article presents the results of a study that addresses the strategies adopted by adult children in employment who bear the main care responsibility for a frail parent. The context of the study is the resources and constraints offered and imposed, respectively, by long-term care policies in Germany. The empirical part is based on 34 in-depth interviews conducted in winter 2007-2008 in Berlin and Brandenburg. Five different care arrangements emerge at the interfaces of family resources and constraints, paid work demands, other family demands and policy options. These represent different ways of dealing with the interference that can occur between work and care, and other dimensions of personal and family life. In the conclusion, against the background of the research findings, the authors discuss the role of the German policy framework for long-term care in terms of its efficacy in providing adequate care and in easing work amily tensions in a context characterised by unequal private resources.

Ricca Edmondson and Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz (eds.) (2009). Valuing Older People. A Humanist Approach to Ageing. Bristol:

2019-12-16T08:57:07+01:00

Ageing well? Older people’s health and well-being as portrayed in UK magazine advertisements

2021-06-23T17:03:54+02:00

The media, including advertising, is an important source of information about health and ageing. Furthermore, advertising makes certain discourses, vocabularies and imagery available as resources for age and health identity formation for older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate qualitatively the prominent themes relating to health and ageing that emerged from a sub-corpus of 140 British magazine advertisements depicting older adults. We focus on how these depictions construct health identity in older age through their underlying discourses. The six main themes included solutions to health problems; maintenance or regaining of independence and quality of life; managing risks; staying younger, healthy and active; taking pride in appearance; and discourses of responsibility and choice. The most prominent underlying discourse was the possibility, necessity and desirability to take positive action to maintain health and well-being in older age. We relate these findings to current societal discourses of active ageing and anti-ageing.

Age coding: On age-based practices of distinction

2020-01-10T08:34:19+01:00

In this article I discuss how conceptions of age create individuals’ subjective experiences of old age. I introduce the concept of age coding and argue that it should be understood as referring to practices of distinction that are based on and preserve representations of actions, phenomena, and characteristics as associated with and applicable to demarcated ages. The article illustrates how age codes can be used (1) as age norms; (2) to legitimize, negotiate and regulate symbolic and material resources; (3) as a resource in interactions; as well as (4) to create age-based norms and deviance. This broad application means that the concept should be understood as a tool for analyzing age relations generally.

Acknowledgement

2019-12-23T08:21:11+01:00

Not Available.

Miriam Bernard and Thomas Scharf (eds.) (2007). Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies. Bristol: The Policy Press, Ageing and the Lifecourse Series, 200 pp. ISBN 978-1-86134-890-6 (paperback)

2019-12-16T08:57:12+01:00

Dying old: and preferably alone? Agency, resistance and dissent at the end of life

2019-12-16T08:57:14+01:00

Older people who die alone are commonly portrayed negatively in the academic and popular literature. Dying alone is viewed either as an outcome of anti-social behaviour or the result of family, neighbourhood or social services neglect. The idea that people may be exercising agency, resistance or dissent at the end of life and that they do not want attention from services or the wider community receives little or no consideration. By comparing the community and professional views with those of the elderly about end of life preferences, this paper argues that the academic and community image of the elderly as ’’victims’’ has eclipsed the usual ability to see this group in pluralist terms. This stereotype of older people who die alone has negative consequences for sociological and policy analysis.

Successful aging as an oxymoron

2019-12-16T08:57:14+01:00

Notions of what it means to age well or successfully are central to social gerontological research and practice. As such, one would expect that there would be consensus as to what the construct of successful aging means and/or how aging well is achieved. This is not, however, the case which is why this study explores the meanings that a group of older people (i.e. some with home-help care and some without) attach to this construct. The empirical material is constituted of 16 semi-structured interviews. The findings bring to fore the different resources (such as physical, mental, psycho-social, spiritual, and financial ones) that are associated with successful aging and the kind of outlook on life that is regarded as useful if one wants to age well. Differences between home-help care recipients and those that do not receive this type of care were found. Those that are managing without the help offered by home-help care services listed more resources and offered more nuanced descriptions of what successful aging means than those that receive home- help care. This suggests that receiving home-help care and/or not being able to manage primarily on one’s own might shape the manner in which older people think about what constitutes a good old age. The in-depth analysis of the notions of successful aging that were brought to the fore suggests also the paradoxical fact that the title of this article attests to; namely that some associate aging well with not aging at all and deem, in fact, the term successful aging to be an oxymoron.

Living in single person households and the risk of isolation in later life

2019-12-16T08:57:13+01:00

Data from the International Social Survey Programme (2001) was used to analyse the social networks of older people and whether living in single person households increased the risk of isolation. When comparing respondents with one or more adult children, there was no significant difference in the likelihood of experiencing familial isolation between people living in single person households and those living in larger households. A majority of those living in single person households had at least regular contact with a sibling, adult child or close friend and participated in a social organisation. Friends compensate to some extent for a lack of support from the family, although in southern and eastern European countries, other relatives appeared to be more important in support networks. People living in single person households were more likely to experience isolation, but this was largely related to advanced age and childlessness. Whilst a very small minority in Japan were living in single person households, they were significantly more likely to be severely isolated than those living in single person households in other countries.

Ricca Edmondson and Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz (eds.) (2009). Valuing Older People. A Humanist Approach to Ageing. Bristol

2019-12-16T08:57:13+01:00

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:57:17+01:00

Traute Meyer, Paul Bridgen and Barbara Riedmu¨ller (2007). Private Pensions versus Social Inclusion? Non-State Provision for Citizens at Risk in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 260 pp. ISBN 978 1 84720 353 3 (available as e-book)

2019-12-16T08:57:15+01:00

Characteristics of multiple-diseased elderly in Swedish hospital care and clinical guidelines

2019-12-16T08:57:15+01:00

In Sweden, an expected growing gap between available resources and greater potential for medical treatment has brought evidence-based guidelines and priority setting into focus. There are problems, however, in areas where the evidence base is weak and underlying ethical values are controversial. Based on a specified definition of multiple-diseased elderly patients, the aims of this study are: (i) to describe and quantify inpatient care utilisation and patient characteristics, particularly regarding cardiovascular disease and co-morbidity; and (ii) to question the applicability of evidence-based guidelines for these patients with regard to the reported characteristics (i.e. age and co-morbidity), and to suggest some possible strategies in order to tackle the described problem and the probable presence of ageism. We used data from three sources: (a) a literature review, (b) a register study, based on a unique population-based register of inpatient care in Sweden, and (c) a national cost per patient database. The results show that elderly patients with multiple co-morbidities constitute a large and growing population in Swedish inpatient hospital care. They have multiple and complex needs and a large majority have a cardiovascular disease. There is a relationship between reported characteristics, i.e. age and co-morbidity, and limited applicability of evidence-based guidelines, and this can cause an under-use as well as an over-use of medical interventions. As future clinical studies will be rare due to methodological and financial factors, we consider it necessary to condense existing practical-clinical experiences of individual experts into consensus-based guidelines concerning elderly with multi-morbidity. In such priority setting, it will be important to consider co-morbidity and different degrees of frailty

Age Changes in Subjective Work Ability

2019-12-16T08:57:16+01:00

This article explores the influence of psychosocial work environment on age-related subjective changes in work ability and discusses differences between work ability and job performance. The results show age and physical health to be strong predictors of subjective decline in work ability. The age effect is independent of age-associated declining health. It is not clear what it is about age that produces the subjective decline in work ability. While primary age changes may produce decline, stereotypes and self-stereotypes about ageing may also be important. Among psychosocial factors, options for learning and problems at work are robust predictors of subjective changes in work ability. One practical consequence is to ensure learning opportunities for workers, even for workers approaching retirement age. By giving learning opportunities to senior workers, subjective work ability may be maintained, and competence acquired through learning may in a direct way support stability or improvements in job performance.

Growing older in Malta. Experiences of British retirees

2019-12-16T08:57:17+01:00

International retirement migration (IRM) is attracting increasing research interest. This article reports findings from an exploratory case study of 16 older people who havemoved from theUKto grow older in Malta. Data was collected using in-depth interviews drawing on a life history approach. This article builds on previous research in the IRM field by providing detailed examples of the push and pull factors influencing the decision to move to Malta and the reported positive experiences of living in Malta. The article also discusses negative impressions of life in Malta, an issue that has not been previously documented in relation to Malta. Future difficulties that the immigrants may encounter are also considered. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge concerning the experience of IRM.

The interface between formal and informal support in advanced old age: A 10-year study

2019-12-17T08:20:11+01:00

The aim of this paper is to investigate the interface between the formal and informal support provided to very old people against a background of increasing need for care and a decreasing number of potential informal caregivers. We used a sample of 323 community-dwelling octogenarians participating in the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old (SWILSOO) (n=1441 interviews). Descriptive analyses and a multilevel model were used to test whether formal and informal services complemented or substituted one another. The study revealed that the amount of informal services increased significantly as the frequency of formal aid increased, indicating that the two networks were complementary in the majority of the cases. In 21.2% of the cases, the formal network partly substituted the informal network (as an adjustment) and only in 6.4% of the cases did the informal support end after the formal support had increased (radical substitution). The concern that the introduction of formal services may curb the readiness of relatives and friends to provide care is thus unfounded.

Sailing on seas of uncertainties: late style and Puccini’s struggle for self-renewal

2019-12-16T08:57:18+01:00

The popularity of Puccini’s melodramatic operas, often derided by “serious” musicologists, has hindered a more rounded evaluation of his attempt at stylistic change. This paper offers a novel perspective of lifespan creative development in order to move the discussion of Puccini beyond the dichotomy of popular versus high-brow culture. Tracing the aspects of gradual stylistic change that began in The Girl from the Golden West (1910) through the three operas of Il Trittico: Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi (1918–1919), the paper then focuses on Puccini’s last opera, Turandot (1926), as exemplifying a potential turn to a reflexive, philosophical style which is very different from the melodramatic, sentimentalist style generally associated with his work. In order to discuss this change as embodying a turn to late style, the paper identifies major stylistic shifts as well as underlying themes in the work of Puccini. Th paper concludes by discussing the case of Puccini as a novel contribution to the discussion of lateness in art, until now reserved to a selected few ’“old Masters.”

Residential Mobility in Older Dutch Adults : Influence of Later Life Events

2019-12-16T08:57:19+01:00

In this study we examined life course events of older Dutch adults in relation to three types of moves and the moving distance. Using the frameworks developed by Litwak and Longino (1987) and Mulder and Hooimeijer (1999), we stipulated life events or triggers and conditions in various life domains. We selected a total of 1,160 men and 1,321 women (aged 54 to 91) from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. We conducted multinomial logistic regression analyses to predict moves to a residential care facility, adapted housing or regular housing and to predict the moving distance. Retirement, an empty nest, widowhood and a decline in health each triggered specific moves. In additional analyses, the effects of triggers, especially health changes, were moderated by conditions. There is no indication of a specific trajectory of moves associated with consecutive life events, as suggested by Litwak and Longino. By combining triggers and conditions, however, the framework developed by Mulder and Hooimeijer allows for a more valid analysis.

Discussing responsibility and ways of influencing health

2019-12-16T08:57:18+01:00

In this discursive study of four group discussions, I examine how the study participants respond to questions about the possibilities of individuals to influence their own health and their responsibility for health, and what is the role of old age in this context. One key finding was that the participants balanced between seeing health as a do-it-yourself matter and on the other hand as a matter of fate or chance. The participants did not question the idea that they could influence their health or assume responsibility for their own health, but they did raise several factors that limit individual influence. Focus groups proved to be an appropriate data collection method for studying morally laden and potentially sensitive issues. It is suggested that the findings of this small-scale study echo broader western discourses on health and old age and contemporary cultural and social developments.

The Mature Imagination and Consumption Strategies

2019-12-16T08:57:20+01:00

Baby boomers have been credited with an essentially ’youthful’ approach to themselves, to consumption and to life-style. As they enter midlife and older age they are also faced with the challenges of a mature identity. This paper critically examines the strategies that baby boomers in the United Kingdom use to manage identity as they grow older. Specifically, questions concerning attitudes to cohort labels, personal ageing and other generations are compared to the consumption choices that are made in areas considered to be key to an ageing identity, including: appearance, clothing and bodily maintenance. Boomers identify with succeeding rather than preceding generations. While they claim not to be concerned with bodily ageing as such, their strategies are aimed at maintaining a balance between youthful and mature identities. Priority was given to blurring the boundaries between themselves and younger adult generations. The implications for the relationship between adult ageing and patterns of consumption are explored.

Acknowledgements

2019-12-16T08:57:24+01:00

Understanding the Baby Boom Generation: Comparative Perspectives

2019-12-18T08:20:11+01:00

Not available.

The Third Age and the Baby Boomers

2019-12-16T08:57:23+01:00

This paper outlines two contrasting positions in interpreting contemporary change in later life. These are summarily represented by a cohort approach that focuses upon the baby boomers and a generational approach that focuses upon the third age. We argue that understanding the role of the sixties’ cultural revolution for the emergence of the third age offers a broader conceptual understanding of the transformation of later life than that provided by the more restrictive and restricting framework of a baby boom cohort. That many people, particularly in the USA, self identify with the term ’baby boomer’ reflects not so much the power of cohorts as structuring influences on the ’conscience collective’ as the role of the market and the media in shaping their social identities.

Ageing in Inner Cities The Residential Dilemmas of the Baby Boomer Generation

2019-12-18T08:20:00+01:00

Although residential mobility decreases with age, rates rise around the age of retirement, especially for people living in cities. The post-war birth cohort of 1945–1954 differs in many respects from previous generations, and these differences are currently influencing residential choices made around the age of retirement. Using data from 60 semi-structured interviews in four areas of London and Paris that have undergone gentrification, this paper examines the residential trajectories and choices facing members of the 1945–1954 birth cohort. The analysis reveals three types of residential trajectories – ’pioneers of gentrification’, ’city movers’ and ’local inhabitants’. These trajectories are intertwined with contextual factors such as life course events, family situation, housing market conditions, and the institutions of Britain and France. The analysis shows that pioneers of gentrification have more opportunities for choice in future residential locations, and are tending to adopt complex residential patterns that often involve a combination of extended stays throughout the year in different locations. Whilst they still favour a city life, their current neighbourhood location is not a priority in any future residential choice. City movers have lived in diverse locations over the life course and although they too express a continued preference for the city, ties to the local neighbourhood remain relatively weak. Among the ’local’ inhabitants, differentiation from the gentrifers is strong, and attachment to the local neighbourhood depends upon the context of the urban setting. The British and French contexts of housing policy and markets play an important role in determining residential mobility. Collectively, the analysis shows that there is little ’stability’ in the choices for current cohorts of people in cities approaching retirement, with few interviewees having formed a definitive plan for a future residential location.

Finnish Baby Boomers and the Emergence of the Third Age

2019-12-17T08:20:23+01:00

This paper examines the lives of baby boomers in Finland, and is based on several studies previously published in Finnish. The article considers the particular characteristics of this group of baby boomers. It then discusses whether the baby boom cohorts can also be called a generation. Following this, the life course of the boomer generation is contrasted with various images that have appeared in the media and elsewhere about their lives. Boomers have been presented as a radical’ or ’selfish’ generation. This article proposes two new themes: boomers as a crossroads generation and boomers as a bridging generation. The paper also considers the emergence of the third age as approached from a generational perspective. The third age has been defined as a generational field underpinned by agency and consumption, with its roots in the youth culture of the post-war decades. This characterization is also highly relevant to the Finnish case, but needs to be elaborated by taking into account socio-historical knowledge of the distinctive life course of the boomer generation.

Hans-Werner Wahl, Clemens Tesch-Romer and Andreas Hoff (eds.) (2007). New Dynamics in Old Age: Individual, Environmental and Societal Perspectives. New York: Baywood Publishing Co., 400 pp. ISBN 0-89503-322-4 (hpk)

2019-12-16T08:57:21+01:00

Jan Baars and Henk Visser (eds.) (2007). Aging and Time; Multidisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. Published in the Society and Aging Series, 202 pp., ISBN 978-0-89503-367-3 (cloth)

2019-12-16T08:57:21+01:00

IJAL – An Open Access Journal

2019-12-17T08:21:25+01:00

Not available

Exclusion in Very Old Age : The Impact of Three Critical Life Events

2019-12-18T08:20:22+01:00

This paper focuses on relational exclusion (i.e. isolation and non-participation in social activities) in very old age. Based on a five-year study of an octogenarian cohort, the authors investigate the impact of three critical life events (deterioration of health, death of a close relative, entry into a nursing home) on relational life and social involvement. With advancing age, older people withdraw from some social activities, but their relationships with their family and friends remain stable. Life events have a stimulative effect on the support network (especially of family), and only the deterioration of health curbs social activity. This would seem to confirm the existence of a process of disengagement stemming more from the older people’s functional or sensory disabilities than from an individual choice.

Stereotypes of Old People Persist. A Swedish “Facts on Aging Quiz” in a 23-year Comparative Perspective

2019-12-17T08:20:57+01:00

In 2005, as well as in 1982, almost 90 percent of Swedes subscribed to the stereotype that retirement pensioners suffer from loneliness and more than half of Swedes also believed that pensioners suffer from boredom and dissatisfaction with life. Little seems to have changed for the better, or even impaired with regard to the images of the psychological conditions of pensioners, at the same time as Swedes have become somewhat more knowledgeable about the physiological/material conditions associated with aging. This follows from a 2005 follow-up of a Swedish Facts on Aging Quiz, first given in 1982. The comparatively stable pattern of stereotypes over the 23-year period indicates that stereotypes – in old, well-known or permutated forms – will prevail as long as their ageist roots do. The changes observed indicate the possibility of a future pattern of stereotypes, which combines an exaggerated “positive” image of retirement pensioners’ health and wealth, with associated envy of the “greedy geezers”, and pity for their lonely and meaningless lives.

Visual Signs of Ageing: What are we Looking at?

2019-12-16T08:57:26+01:00

Consumer culture has placed the ageing body in a dilemma of representation. Physical appearance has become increasingly important as a symbol of identity, and at the same time society idealizes youth. This study explores visual ageing empirically. By using photographs of older persons (70+) as starting point, it is explored how visual age is assessed and interpreted. It is shown that informants read age in a spread of stages and categories. Main age indicators are biological markers: skin, eyes, and hair colour, but supplemented by vigour, style, and grooming. Furthermore, in-depth interviews indicate that visual age is mainly interpreted into categories and moral regulations rooted in early modernity. Subsequently the question of a postmodern perspective of visual ageing is discussed in this article. The empirical findings in the study question a postmodern fluidity of visual signs – at least when the concern is signs of ageing.

Older Consumers in Malaysia

2019-12-16T08:57:25+01:00

The main objective of this study was to understand the concerns and problems faced by older people in an industrializing middle-income country, Malaysia, in their process of acquiring products to meet their everyday needs. Respondents aged 55 and over were interviewed in eight states throughout Peninsular Malaysia providing 1356 usable questionnaires; two-thirds from urban and one-third from rural areas. Education, health status, and life satisfaction were recorded. Service patronage behaviour was examined for four main categories of commonly-sought consumer goods: groceries, health supplements, apparel, eating outlets, plus selected services (public transport, vacation packages and financial services). The findings showed that older adults in Malaysia are rather discerning consumers. Many respondents are price conscious and have developed consumer attitudes with regard to attitude of staff and assistance rendered. Many display a good ability to discriminate and to select, especially on the basis of price and durability of products and many appear to be acting as effectively as consumers in any other age group.

John A.Vincent, Chris R. Phillipson and Murna Downs (eds.) (2006). The Futures of Old Age. London: Sage. Published in association with the British Society of Gerontology, 255 pp.; ISBN 978-1-4129-0108-6 (pbk)

2019-12-16T08:57:25+01:00

Population aging, genders and generations

2019-12-16T08:57:31+01:00

Not available.

Changing Welfare States and the “Sandwich Generation” : Increasing Burden for the Next Generation?

2019-12-16T08:57:31+01:00

The burden placed on individuals aged 40 to 59 – especially on women – by competing demands from work and both older and younger family members is often addressed using the metaphor of the “sandwich generation”. Based on a systematization of the definitions used in the literature, empirical evidence on the frequency of such generational constellations and on their impact on the well-being of sandwiched adults will be presented. Analysing the second wave of the German Aging Survey shows that being sandwiched – defined as a generational constellation – is very common, but simultaneous care activities for both older and younger family members are rare, especially in combination with labour force participation, and that life satisfaction is not systematically related to being sandwiched. Implications for further research and future developments will be discussed, especially with respect to changes in family structure (e.g. the beanpole family) and changes in the amount of welfare state spending for the aged.

Gender and Generational Continuity: Breadwinners, Caregivers and Pension Provision in the UK

2019-12-16T08:57:30+01:00

The UK is considered a ’male breadwinner/female part-time carer’ state due to men and women conforming to stereotypical gender roles within partnerships, and welfare policies reflecting and reinforcing this gender division. Using data from the General Household Surveys 2001 and 2002, this article shows that mothers continue to be markedly disadvantaged in participating in the accumulation of pensions compared to women who have never had children. This is mostly because they take on caring roles at the expense of paid work, but also because where women earn much less than their partners, they are more likely to depend on them for pension provision. Female breadwinners are likely to be low earners, and so, in contrast with men, their status as “breadwinner” does not usually imply pension accumulation. Consideration of the impact of the institutional framework of pension provision requires an understanding of inequalities within couples and societal expectations of mothers’ caring responsibilities.

Gender Arrangements and Pension Systems in Britain and Germany : Tracing change over five decades

2019-12-16T08:57:29+01:00

This paper studies the modernisation of gender arrangements and the restructuring of pension systems in the United Kingdom and Germany since the 1950s. We firstly aim to pinpoint the time when pension programmes were apt components of the ’strong breadwinner model’. Secondly, we explore the assumption that pension systems are tools of stratification, by comparing the ways in which the constraints and incentives of these pension systems have been in line with typical life courses of women. Our paper argues that the constraints and incentives of pensions have altered quite significantly over time and questions whether they have appropriately been characterised as components of strong breadwinner models over the long term. In the UK the pension system only supported the strong breadwinner model until the mid-1970s, whilst the German system never fully supported it. In addition, it is shown that the impact of pensions on women’s behaviour is relatively limited. At times, women’s lives were in accordance with the male breadwinner model, and they suffered high poverty risks despite having potential access to a more modern pension regime; during other periods, their employment choices were at odds with the strong directives issued by pension regulations to stay at home. This demonstrates the importance of taking other factors, such as cultural influences and other societal institutions into account when exploring the impact of social policies on citizens’ lives; but it also poses the question of whether pensions are really important building blocks of the breadwinner model.

Acknowledgement

2019-12-16T08:57:32+01:00

Julia Twigg (2006). The Body in Health and Social Care. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 198 pp. ISBN 0-333-77620-8 (pbk)

2019-12-16T08:57:28+01:00

Newspaper portrayals of health and illness among Canadian seniors : Who ages healthily and at what cost?

2019-12-16T08:57:29+01:00

While media representations of health and illness receive growing attention from researchers, few studies have considered the newspaper portrayals of health and illness among the elderly. Yet, print media are one vehicle through which governments, in a climate of concern about population aging and the sustainability of the social safety net, emphasize individual responsibility for health and well-being in later life. By praising healthy aging, the media may, perhaps inadvertently, perpetuate new ageist stereotypes that marginalize vulnerable adults who fail to age healthily, and downplay the role of social institutions and structural inequalities (particularly gender and socio-economic status) in influencing individuals’ personal resources and lifestyle choices. This paper explores whether, and if so, how the media represent interrelations between health and aging, through thematic analysis of a pool of articles about seniors published in The Globe and Mail in 2005.

Theorizing and Social Gerontology

2019-12-16T08:57:44+01:00

Theory is increasingly important in social gerontology. Thus it is gratifying to see the debut of a new journal that encourages theorizing about age and aging. The papers in Volume 1, number 1 of the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life reflect a concern for developing theory that is laudable. I hope that in the future researchers who submit manuscripts to IJAL and the reviewers who evaluate them will share this concern for building theory. This is because we are at a tipping point, a watershed, in the development of knowledge about the social and psychological dimensions of aging.

Merryn Gott (2005). Sexuality, Sexual Health and Ageing. Berkshire: Open University Press, 176 pp. ISBN 0-335-21018- X (pbk).

2019-12-16T08:57:38+01:00

Social Capital and Health in the Oldest Old

2019-12-16T08:57:41+01:00

The aim of this study was to measure social capital in the oldest old, and its association with different dimensions of health. The Umeå 85+ study is a cross-sectional study of 253 people, aged 85 years, 90 years and 95 years or older. A principal component factor analysis was performed to assess classes of information measuring the structural and the cognitive components of social capital on an individual level. In the final model, one factor consisting of attachment, social integration and social network emerged which accounted for 55 per cent of the total variance. We analysed the association between structural social capital and various dimensions of health such as depressive symptoms, functional ability and self-rated health. This study suggests that structural social capital may partially explain depressive symptoms but not functional ability or self-rated health. We conclude that social capital is a relevant resource for the oldest old, but we suggest a different approach when measuring social capital in this age group, such as conducting a longitudinal study or including retrospective questions in the study. The oldest old may have had a high level of social capital, but our study could not identify this statistically.

Dynamics of Health Care Seeking Behaviour of Elderly People in Rural Bangladesh

2019-12-16T08:57:42+01:00

Bangladesh is projected to experience a doubling of its elderly population from the current level of 7 million to 14 million by the end of the next decade. Drawing upon qualitative evidence from rural Bangladesh, this article focuses on coping strategies in cases of illness of elderly people and the contributing factors in determining the health-seeking behaviour of elderly persons. The sample for this study consisted of elderly men and women aged 60 years or older and their caregivers. Nine focus group discussions and 30 in-depth interviews were conducted. Findings indicate that old age and ill-health are perceived to be inseparable entities. Seeking health care from a formally qualified doctor is avoided due to high costs. Familiarity and accessibility of health care providers play important roles in health-seeking behaviour of elderly persons. Flexibility of health care providers in receiving payment is a crucial deciding factor of whether or not to seek treatment, and even the type of treatment sought.

The Complexity of Ageism. A Proposed Typology

2019-12-16T08:57:43+01:00

Comparing data from a contemporary (2002) study and a study from 1984, it was found that, now as then, people display seemingly contradictory constellations of attitudes toward old people. Large proportions of respondents, now as then, advocate more influence and space for the 65+ group, at the same time as many feel that no one in the parliament should be above the age of 65. This contradiction becomes intelligible when the conceptions of and behavioral dispositions toward old people are combined in a new proposed typology of ageism, which is the result of a study conducted in 2002 and reported in this article. This new typology includes the Pitying Positive, the No Fuzz, the Consistently Negative and the Consistently Positive. These types are empirically described, and use of the typology is exemplified by focusing on ageist attitudes toward parliament membership.

To be Forever Young? Towards Reframing Corporeal Subjectivity in Maturity

2019-12-16T08:57:43+01:00

In this paper I examine the relationship between the body in midlife and subjectivity in contemporary western cultures, drawing on both social constructionist and psychoanalytic perspectives. Referring to recent theoretical accounts, I take the position that how we are aged by culture begins in midlife, and that this period is therefore critical in understanding how the body-subject in western consumer cultures is aged and gendered through culturally normative discourses and practices. I also address the gendering of ageing bodies, and argue that, like the feminine, ageing has been marked by ambiguity and lack. This ambiguity has presented a problem for dualistic age theories, in that it has been difficult to theorize the ageing body productively since the binary language used to theorize it already devalues old age. I contend that our tacit understanding of both male and female ageing bodies is as discursively constituted as ’feminine’, based on cultural perceptions of loss of bodily control and the ambiguity of ageing bodies that become increasingly recalcitrant in the ’correct’ performance of cultural age and gender norms. Finally, I inquire whether alternative, non-dualistic perspectives might be developed that redress this problem, and disrupt the alignment of ageing with negative associations such as lack and loss, perspectives that, rather than associating gendered ageing with decline, loss or lack, associate it with the goal of living an abundant life into deep old age.

Anne Leonora Blaakilde (2005). Livet skal leves – forlæns, baglæns og sidlæns [Life shall be lived – forwards, backwards and sideways]. Gyldendal, 272 pp. ISBN 87-02-02593-0

2019-12-16T08:57:39+01:00