scholarly journals Forever young? An analysis of the factors influencing perceptions of ageing

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1669-1693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Bordone ◽  
Bruno Arpino ◽  
Alessandro Rosina
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Logistic Models ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Unique Data ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Social

AbstractDrawing on the revived literature on the subjective dimension of ageing, this paper investigates whether people aged 65+, usually defined as old, do actually feel old and which events they associate with feeling old. Logistic models are used on unique data from the 2013 survey called ‘I Do Not Want to Be Inactive’, conducted on individuals aged 65–74 in Italy (N = 828). It is found that a large proportion of respondents do not feel old at all. The analyses show that women are more likely than men to feel old and to think that society considers them old. While men feel old mainly when they retire, women associate this feeling with loneliness, loss of independence and death of loved ones. Higher-educated people are less likely to associate feeling old with loneliness and boredom than their lower-educated counterparts. The findings have important implications for the conceptualisation of ageing. Most people who are old according to the standard threshold of 65 do not consider reaching this age as a distinctive marker of old age in their lifecourse. This suggests that absolute thresholds for setting the start of old age are questionable. Feeling old seems to be mainly influenced by events, such as retirement and death of loved ones, hinting to the importance of the social construction of ageing in addition to its biological dimension. Researchers and policy makers are encouraged to give more attention to layperson views on ageing.

Dementia Policy in Australia and the ‘Social Construction of Infirm Old Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-62
Author(s):  
Cecily Hunter ◽  
Colleen Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
The Social

Images of Old Age in the Hong Kong Print Media

1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Gibb ◽  
Eleanor Holroyd
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
South China Morning ◽  
The Media ◽  
Social Images

AbstractThe present study set out to identify how the experience of being old in Hong Kong is represented through images commonly recurring in the print media. A case is presented for how the media not only reflect social images and views on ageing, but actively participate in the social construction of views about being old. Two newspapers in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post (English medium) and the Sin Tao (Chinese medium), were surveyed and contents of stories depicting old age were analyzed, using a qualitative and quantitative methodological design. Dominant amongst the themes was vulnerability in old age. Newspapers used stories according to journalistic formulae to present both negative and positive depictions of old age; however, positive stories carried a sense of the exceptional rather than ordinary life. Results were analysed through a comparison between the two Hong Kong newspapers as well as a comparison with a similar study undertaken on the Australian print media.

scholarly journals The Social Construction of Global Health Priorities: An Empirical Analysis of Contagion in Bilateral Health Aid

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Baccini ◽  
Mirko Heinzel ◽  
Mathias Koenig-Archibugi
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Advocacy Networks ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Health Aid ◽  
The Social ◽  
Aid Policy

Abstract Donors of development assistance for health typically provide funding for a range of disease focus areas, such as maternal health and child health, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases. But funding for each disease category does not match closely its contribution to the disability and loss of life it causes and the cost-effectiveness of interventions. We argue that peer influences in the social construction of global health priorities contribute to explaining this misalignment. Aid policy-makers are embedded in a social environment encompassing other donors, health experts, advocacy groups, and international officials. This social environment influences the conceptual and normative frameworks of decision-makers, which in turn affect their funding priorities. Aid policy-makers are especially likely to emulate decisions on funding priorities taken by peers with whom they are most closely involved in the context of expert and advocacy networks. We draw on novel data on donor connectivity through health IGOs and health INGOs and assess the argument by applying spatial regression models to health aid disbursed globally between 1990 and 2017. The analysis provides strong empirical support for our argument that the involvement in overlapping expert and advocacy networks shapes funding priorities regarding disease categories and recipient countries in health aid.

Age Relations in An English Church

1989 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Jerrome
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Old Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Social Gerontology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Age Relations

Age identities are a product of negotiation between acquaintances and intimates. The negotiation takes place against a background of assumptions about appropriate ways of moving through the life span. This study of ageing in the context of an English church shows how organisational needs must be taken into account in understanding the ageing strategies of participants. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in the south of England in 1985–6. The analysis draws on the literature of social gerontology which is mainly American. It is part of a larger ESRC-funded study of the social construction of old age in Britain.

scholarly journals Constructing Drug Using Victims

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Laguna
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
The United States ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Congressional Hearings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Congressional Hearing

Sociologists and political scientists examining the social construction of public anxiety surrounding drug use in the United States have argued that racial minorities are the targets of the harshest drug laws while middle-class whites are shielded. In this article, I provide further evidence that middle-class, white drug users are shielded from harsh punishment by analyzing the process through which U.S. legislators and policy makers decide which drug users need punishment and which deserve protection and treatment. Analyzing transcripts from federal Congressional hearings, I examine the rhetoric of legislators and stakeholder witnesses concerning the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) by middle-class whites. Building on the social construction literature, I use social identity theory to demonstrate how legislators within Congressional hearings create in- and out-groups in order to categorize different drug users and dealers. My analysis of Congressional hearing language concerning white MDMA use demonstrates that Congressional speakers use rhetoric to convince committee members and the wider public that middle-class, white drug users are different from drug users of color and that the appropriate policy response is education and treatment rather than punishment. My findings highlight how middle-class, white drug users are characterized differently from drug users of color, providing further evidence that U.S. drug policy has historically favored middle-class, white drug users.

The social construction of violence in old age

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Hörl
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Persons ◽  
Family Carers ◽  
The Social

Varying definitions and conceptualisations of violence in old age exist within and between the scientific community, medical and social work professionals, family carers and the elderly persons themselves. In this paper it is argued ‐ and illustrated by examples ‐ that each of the different actors or observers in this field construct their own social reality and hold selective perceptions of what is meant by violence in general, or elder abuse in particular.

In defiance of an ageing culture

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKE HEPWORTH
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Middle Years ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia 1997, 276pp, $29.95 cloth ISBN 0-8139-1721-2.Margaret Morganroth Gullette is one of America's foremost critics of the concept of ageing as a universal and comprehensive process of decline which begins in the middle years. She is a formidable critic of biological essentialism, defender of social constructionism, and opponent of ‘middle ageism’. Her most recent book, published in 1997 and not yet available in the UK, has been widely acclaimed in the USA. This review article describes Gullette's analysis of the social construction of decline in the context of her previous writings on midlife and outlines her strategy for combatting the decline model of ageing into old age.

Disability, Dependence, and Old Age: Problematic Constructions

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Dale Stone
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Old People ◽  
Canadian Population ◽  
The Social

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that fear of aging can more precisely be recognized as a fear of disability and that fear of disability can be centrally understood as a fear of dependence. Accordingly, we are not likely to see old people being treated as important members of society until we see a change in attitudes towards disability. The argument is developed with reference to a consideration of attitudes toward and treatment of elders and people with disabilities, a consideration of the social construction of dependency, and an examination of statistics on the Canadian population of people with disabilities. The ubiquity of disability across all age groups means that there needs to be a re-conceptualization of disability as part of the human experience.

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