Summary
Contents
Subject index
“With great rigour, yet an enviable lightness of touch, Susan Pickard has written an engaging and accessible book that students will love.” – Rosaline Gill, City University London “A scholarly tour de force that brings into focus the various disciplines, histories, literatures and knowledges that have transformed us into modern subjects of age.” – Stephen Katz, Trent University Age Studies takes an invigorating approach to the study of age and ageing in contemporary society. Encompassing ageing throughout the life course, taking in childhood, adolescence, mid-life and older age, and situated explicitly within a sociological disciplinary framework, Age Studies: • Explores current social science debates on the study of ageing linking these to core sociological concepts. • Links theory and application, using a variety of examples and international case studies • Includes chapter summaries, further reading and guided questions. A thought-provoking companion to advanced undergraduates and postgraduate student studying ageing, older people, social gerontology and related courses.
Identity and Age
Identity and Age
Background: the dread of old age as a logic of theoretical models
In the previous chapter we observed that the unique experiences, priorities and qualities associated with different ages and stages of the life course are being homogenized within this framework, compressed to fit the mould of the enterprising self: one that emphasizes productivity and consumerism. Whilst this ‘one size fits all’ identity hides the differences relating to class and gender, this approach to the self is also, importantly, static and contains no suggestion, once one has reached adulthood, of how one changes through the rest of the life course, except through negative increments away from that state. If ageing, then, is the enemy of the self, and this belief ...
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