‘Young at heart’: discourses of age identity in travel agency interaction

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIRPI YLÄNNE-McEWEN

This paper examines, through discourse analysis at a micro level, how age identities become interactionally constructed through talk. After a brief overview of the constructivist arguments, the focus is on a single-case interaction between an older client couple and three travel agency assistants. The various means by which age is made salient by the participants and the ensuing age identities that are created for and by the couple in particular are investigated. The images of the ‘elderly’ as portrayed in holiday brochures, providing one dimension of the context of this encounter and being significant in older travellers' self-identity construction, are also looked at. It is argued that discourse analysis has a useful contribution to make in social gerontology in that it can illuminate the interactive processes through which ageing and old age can be defined.

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 1133-1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Barnhart ◽  
Lisa Peñaloza
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Wilińska ◽  
Cecilia Henning

The main objective of this study was to examine the process of old age identity construction within a setting of social welfare work with old people. We sought to identify social welfare practices that construct and enforce certain old age identities. The empirical material analysed in this article is part of a study of a non-governmental organization in Poland. The method of analysis was inspired by nexus analysis, which analyses social actions through a historical and ethnographic perspective. The analysis focused on practices that produced, sustained and promoted particular old age identity. The results of this study show a complex process in which welfare professionals create the identities of preferred clients. The study shows that social welfare practice is often oriented toward imagined client identities that have little to do with real people.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-112
Author(s):  
Mehreen Umar ◽  
Sarwet Rasul

The linguistic choices and graphical representations used in Pakistani print advertisements offer an interesting dimension in studying the ways in which gender identities are constructed. This study focuses on the nature of gender representation in Pakistan print advertisements of clothing brands and examines the general attributes given to men and women in Pakistani print advertisements. The purpose of the study is to explore the ways in which the print advertisements serve as a tool to construct, communicate and reinforce the long standing perceptions about gender identities. For this purpose a total of 102 advertisements are selected from a Pakistani weekly magazine Daily Times Sunday Magazine. Data is collected from 8 issues of this magazine published over a period of two months. All the advertisements of various clothing brands are taken to study how male and female identities are constructed and represented in the advertisements. A socio-semiotic approach to discourse analysis is used to study discourse, signs, symbols and other extra linguistic (semiotic) features used in the advertisements to construct and represent gender identities and to examine how the male and female models are portrayed in these advertisements with respect to style, posture, attitude, gaze, age, identity etc. The paper provides useful insights into the phenomena of gender representation and identity construction in the current Pakistani context.


Romanticism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-270
Author(s):  
Mark Sandy

Attending to the hoped-for connection between young and older generations, this essay revisits Wordsworth's poetic fascination with the elderly and the question of what, if any, consolation for emotional and physical loss could be attained for growing old. Wordsworth's imaginative impulse is to idealise the elderly into transcendent figures, which offers the compensation of a harmonious vision to the younger generation for the losses of old age that, in all likelihood, they will themselves experience. The affirmation of such a unified and compensatory vision is dependent upon the reciprocity of sympathy that Wordsworth's poetry both sets into circulation and calls into question. Readings of ‘Simon Lee’, ‘I know an aged Man constrained to dwell’, and ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar’ point up the limitations of sympathy and vision (physical and poetic) avowed in these poems as symptomatic of Wordsworth's misgivings about the debilitating effects of growing old and old age. Finally, Wordsworth's unfolding tragedy of ‘Michael’ is interpreted as reinforcing a frequent pattern, observed elsewhere in his poetry, whereby idealised figures of old men transform into disturbingly spectral second selves of their younger counterparts or narrators. These troubling transformations reveal that at the heart of Wordsworth's poetic vision of old age as a harmonious, interconnected, and consoling state, there are disquieting fears of disunity, disconnection, disconsolation, and, lastly, death.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.


Author(s):  
Divya Raj ◽  
Subramaniam Santhi ◽  
G. J. Sara Sapharina

AbstractObjectivesThis study finds out the effectiveness of neurobic exercise program on memory and depression among elderly residing in old age homes.MethodsThe non-probability purposive sampling technique was used for sample selection. Wechsler's memory scale (WMS-IV) and Geriatric depression scale (GDS) were the instruments used to assess the memory and depression among elderly during the pretest and posttest, respectively and the researcher had developed data sheet to collect information about the background variables using interview technique.ResultsThe neurobic exercise program was found to be effective in reducing depression among elderly residing in old age homes. There was a significant difference (p<0.001) in the level of depression had been found during the pretest and posttest in the interventional group. There was a statistically significant difference (p<0.001) found between the study group and in the control group. There was significant correlation (r=0.417, p<0.05) found between the memory and depression during the pretest in the study group among the elderly. A statistically significant association (p<0.05) found in the mean scores of depression and marital status of the elderly during the pretest in the study group and there was a significant association (p<0.01) found in the mean scores of depression and the gender of the elderly during the pretest and posttest in the non interventional group were found.ConclusionsThe findings suggested that neurobic exercise program is an effective intervention in improving memory and reducing depression.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike Enßle ◽  
Ilse Helbrecht

Abstract This article aims to enhance the conceptual debate on diversity in old age by exploring the interplay of diversity in later life and images of old age. We argue that the analysis of images of old age on the micro-level is a fruitful methodology in order to unravel the meaning of diversity in later life. Drawing on findings from qualitative research in Berlin, we explore how new and diverse imaginations, experiences and lifestyles of old age emerge. The conceptual focus on images of old age enables us to investigate further what diversity in later life comprises and how it simultaneously fosters the genesis of new images of old age. The manifold new images we found in our research suggest that prevalent societal discourses about old age on the macro-level are rather deceptive and represent mostly stereotypes such as ‘active agers’ or ‘frail and dependent elders’. We offer three explanations why alternative images of old age are currently barely present in public discourse: (a) the actors transmitting images of age; (b) the institutionalisation of the images; and (c) the challenge to communicate complexity. We conclude by suggesting that images of old age are a promising starting point to explore and make visible both the diversity of social groups within the older generation as well as the heterogeneity of older individuals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Aram Terzyan

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the evolution of Russia’s image representation in Georgian and Ukrainian political discourses amid Russian-Georgian and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts escalation. Even though Georgia’s and Ukraine’s troubled relations with neighboring Russia have been extensively studied, there has been little attention to the ideational dimensions of the confrontations, manifested in elite narratives, that would redraw the discursive boundaries between “Us” and “Them.” This study represents an attempt to fill the void, by examining the core narratives of the enemy, along with the discursive strategies of its othering in Georgian and Ukrainian presidential discourses through critical discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the image of the enemy has become a part of “New Georgia’s” and “New Ukraine’s” identity construction - inherently linked to the two countries’ “choice for Europe.” Russia has been largely framed as Europe’s other, with its “inherently imperial,” “irremediably aggressive” nature and adherence to illiberal, non-democratic values. The axiological and moral evaluations have been accompanied by the claims that the most effective way of standing up to the enemy’s aggression is the “consolidation of democratic nations,” coming down to the two countries’ quests for EU and NATO membership.


Author(s):  
Tomáš Černěnko ◽  
Klaudia Glittová

The aim of the paper is to describe the supply of public services in the field of social protection - old age (represented by expenditures in group 10, class 2 of COFOG classification) in relation to the demand for these services represented by the population in the age group 62+ related to the size and region of the local government unit. The analysis of supply and demand takes place at the level of individual local governments and the results are then presented in relation to the size of the municipality and the region. Two approaches were used for the analysis. The first focuses on the description of the current situation through the categorization of local governments according to the approach to the provision of services, and the second consists in regression analysis. The results of the regression analysis suggest that the size of the municipality and the region do not play as important a role in terms of access to the provision of the examined services as indicated by the first, descriptive analysis. To find a "pattern" for local authorities to decide on access to services for the elderly, further research will be needed that takes into account several socio-economic indicators.


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