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Ageing, corporeality and embodiment
In: Key issues in modern sociology
Aging in Non-Human Primate Society: What Relevance for Social Gerontology?
In: Anthropology & Aging: journal of the Association for Anthropology & Gerontology, Band 44, Heft 1, S. 37-56
ISSN: 2374-2267
Wild animals were once thought not to age, as their deaths were viewed as the consequences of constant exposure to the perennial risks of nature. Studies of non-human aging were largely confined to biological investigations, focusing upon short-lived species such as fruit flies, mice and nematodes. Over recent decades, this has changed, and studies of non-human aging have begun to investigate aging taking place in social contexts. The present paper reviews such work on social aging in non-human primate societies. Four themes were evident in seeking potential parallels between human and non-human social aging. These were social disengagement, social bonds or social capital, status rank and dominance, and kinship ties. No studies were found that had explored parent caregiving. The lack of clear evidence that agedness is perceived and recognised within non-human primate groups suggests that most age-associated behavioral changes are at best demi-regularities that map quite imprecisely upon social aging in human societies. However as non-human primate societies are becoming gradually confined to areas and environments established through human agency and human institutions, it is possible to speculate that non-human primate old age will become more common if less natural and as a result, perhaps more akin to social aging in human societies.
More age, less growth? Secular stagnation and societal ageing
In: The international journal of sociology and social policy, Band 43, Heft 1/2, S. 1-16
ISSN: 1758-6720
PurposeThe aim of the study is to demonstrate evidence that societal ageing and poor economic growth are linked in the advanced economies. It challenges the claim however that secular stagnation represents a serious problem for future prosperity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper critically reviews recent formulations of the secular stagnation hypothesis concerning stalled economic growth in the advanced economies and the links between demographic ageing and economic slowdown. It outlines both trends (of ageing and stalled growth) and reviews some of the key empirical studies that have sought to determine the role played by demographic change in accounting for the relative lack of growth in the advanced economies.FindingsThe advanced economies are ageing and their economic growth is slowing, although a causal link between these two phenomena remains unproven. However, even if no direct causal link can be drawn between these two processes the focus upon the impact of societal ageing serves as a stimulus to re-think the nature of future growth in our increasingly ageing and unequal societies.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the measurement of demographic trends is relatively straightforward, there are more problems in specifying the exact parameters of macroeconomic growth. This makes empirical studies in the area difficult to interpret. However studies in this area have value in widening thinking about the role of ageing and the nature of growth in the future.Practical implicationsRather than fearing the prospect of an age related slowdown in the rate of growth in the advanced economies, these developments offer opportunities to focus upon redistribution more than growth, while supporting a programme of growth with equity in the world's developing economies.Social implicationsWhile a demographically over-determined model of the secular stagnation hypothesis is dubious, the future ageing of the advanced economies is certainly a challenge. It is also an opportunity for rethinking ideas about ageing, growth and development. Adopting such a more nuanced perspective offers a counter-narrative to the demographic catastrophising that is often evident when discussing 'societal ageing'. It also suggests the value of shifting the perspective of seeking ever increasing growth toward a greater focus upon redistribution, between and within the generations.Originality/valueThere has been very little engagement with the secular stagnation hypothesis outside economics. Behind its macroeconomic formulation, however, lie assumptions about the ageing of society that can easily become examples of unwarranted demographic catastrophising. By bringing this topic to the attention of the social sciences, the paper can serve as a stimulus for rethinking both ageing and growth.
Viewing the body as an (almost) ageing thing
In: Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, Band 21, Heft 4, S. 883-901
ISSN: 1572-8676
AbstractThis paper examines the role of the body in the social and psychological study of ageing. Drawing upon the phenomenological tradition, it argues that the body occupies a halfway house between materiality and subjectivity, unsettling those social psychological and biological frameworks by which age and ageing are traditionally understood. While offering no simple resolution of this ambiguity, the paper highlights the intrinsic nature of this dilemma. After reviewing recent research and writing concerning body awareness, body ownership and body affordance, the thesis is proposed that much of what constitutes bodily ageing can be seen as a series of 'normal abnormalities'. These result in our experience of bodily ageing pivoting uneasily between an object and a subject position. This dialectic is incapable of synthetic resolution but still, to varying degrees it preoccupies many in later life. It is rarely confronted in its full complexity, however, in ageing studies. The phenomenological tradition provides an under-utilised framework for future investigations in this field.
Age, subjectivity and the concept of subjective age: A critique
In: Journal of aging studies, Band 60, S. 101001
ISSN: 1879-193X
The changing fortunes of UK retired households, 1977–2017
In: The international journal of sociology and social policy, Band 41, Heft 5/6, S. 597-610
ISSN: 1758-6720
PurposeThis study aims to explore whether trends in the pattern of income inequality over the past 40 years apply equally to working and retirement age households in the UK, and if so, why this might be so.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on data from the Office of National Statistics, various indices of income inequality have been calculated among retired and working-age households for the period 1977–2017.FindingsDespite a broadly similar trend towards increasing inequality during the 1980s and into the 1990s among both types of household, income inequality among UK retired households has always remained below than that of working-age households. For retired and working-age households alike, the fortunes of those in the upper half of the income distribution have seen themselves do better. Despite the temporal contiguity, different explanations for both sets of inequalities seem to be required, and likely different strategies needed to ameliorate their more negative effects.Originality/valueFew studies have conducted comparisons of inequality between retirement and working-age households over four decades in any country. The present study's long view suggests that factors creating inequality in the upper half of the income distribution may differ in both their cause and impact, compared with inequalities in the lower half. Arguably, the greatest need is to improve access to benefits for those retired householders at the bottom of the income distribution.
Bourdieu's forms of capital and the stratification of later life
In: Journal of aging studies, Band 53, S. 100851
ISSN: 1879-193X
Suffering: The darker side of ageing
In: Journal of aging studies, Band 44, S. 28-33
ISSN: 1879-193X
From collective representations to social imaginaries: How society represents itself to itself
In: European journal of cultural and political sociology: the official journal of the European Sociological Association (ESA), Band 5, Heft 3, S. 320-340
ISSN: 2325-4815
Population aging: The transformation of societies, by Donald T. Rowling: New York, NY, Springer, 2012, 292 pp., $239.00 (hardcover), ISBN-13: 978-94-007-4050-1
In: Journal of women & aging: the multidisciplinary quarterly of psychosocial practice, theory, and research, Band 28, Heft 4, S. 346-347
ISSN: 1540-7322
A murderous ageism? Age, death and Dr. Shipman
In: Journal of aging studies, Band 22, Heft 1, S. 88-95
ISSN: 1879-193X
Old Age in Ancient Greece: Narratives of desire, narratives of disgust
In: Journal of aging studies, Band 21, Heft 1, S. 81-92
ISSN: 1879-193X