– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the stigma surrounding old age, which in many ways has increased rather than decreased with the ageing of the population.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the stigma surrounding old age, which in many ways has increased rather than decreased with the ageing of the population.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of this paper is to introduce the reader to recent writing and research surrounding talk of a “demograhic time bomb”, with the ageing of populations world wide. It also looks back on the work on “ageing studies” over the last two decades, revealing the prevailing disavowals of old age among the old themselves, as well as the contrasting gendered dynamics of the ways in which we are, as Margaret Gullette writes, “aged by culture”.
Findings
–The author introduces the conceptual notion of “temporal vertigo” to the complicated effects of the multiplicity of continuities and discontinuities older people experience when reflecting upon who they are over a lifetime. Ageing is of interest for those who have always been sceptical about any notion of the “true self”, allowing us to puzzle over how the account the old give of themselves will rely upon their ability to incorporate differing versions of the self, woven into the volatilities of memory and fantasy.
Originality/value
The paper's exploration of the radical ambiguities in the representation and discussions surrounding old age in these times.
Details
Keywords
When I was about 10 or 11 years old I played in a school rugby football team for a short time. Rugby is a game where you clasp a pointed ball to your chest and try to run through…
Abstract
When I was about 10 or 11 years old I played in a school rugby football team for a short time. Rugby is a game where you clasp a pointed ball to your chest and try to run through a wall of opposing players to put the ball on the ground behind them. They attempt to throw you to the ground, seize the ball, and run through a wall of your players in order to put the ball on the ground behind you. When half the game is over, everyone turns around and runs the other way.