scholarly journals Colonizing the Aged Body and the Organization of Later Life

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 1699-1717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Hyde ◽  
Diane Burns ◽  
John Hassard ◽  
Anne Killett
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Body ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Social Segregation ◽  
Normative Concepts ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Mental Decline ◽  
Corporate Colonization

Based on fieldwork in residential homes, arrangements for the care of older people are examined with reference, primarily, to Deetz’s theory of ‘corporate colonization’. Extending this theory, it is argued that grouping such people in care homes can result in a form of social segregation, one that reflects the management of the aged body in relation to normative constructions of dependence. Focusing on the experiences of residents, the everyday effects of narratives of decline on disciplining the lives of older people are assessed, with this analysis taking recourse to the work of Foucault (1979). The result is the identification of three related concepts at work in the colonizing process of the aged body: (i) appropriation of the body – the physical and social practices involved in placing older people in care homes; (ii) separation from previous identities – how a range of new subjectivities are produced in the process of becoming a ‘resident’; and (iii) contesting colonized identities – the ways in which residents can attempt to challenge normative concepts of managed physical and mental decline. Overall the disciplining of the body is theorized not only as an adjunct to the notion of corporate colonization but also, more generally, as a prominent and powerful organizing principle of later life.

Can’t wait to feel better: Facebook Live and the recalibration of downtime in tending to the body

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110034
Author(s):  
Dang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Body ◽  
Therapeutic Method ◽  
Temporal Space ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Temporal Structures

This article explores the temporality of liveness on Facebook Live through the analytical lens of downtime. Downtime is conceptualized here as multiscale: downtime exists in between the micro action and inaction of everyday life, but also in larger episodes of personal and health crises that reorient the body toward technologies for instantaneous replenishment of meaning and activity. Living through downtime with mobile technology enables the experience of oscillation between liveness as simultaneity and liveness as instantaneity. By juxtaposing time-as-algorithmic against time-as-lived through the livestreaming practices of diện chẩn, an emergent unregulated therapeutic method, I show how different enactments of liveness on Facebook Live recalibrate downtime so that the body can reconfigure its being-in-time. The temporal reverberation of downtime and liveness creates an alternative temporal space wherein social practices that are shunned by the temporal structures of institution and society can retune and continue to thrive at the margin of these structures and at the central of the everyday.

Using crystallization to understand loneliness in later life: integrating social science and creative narratives in sensitive qualitative research

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110059
Author(s):  
Barbara Barbosa Neves ◽  
Josephine Wilson ◽  
Alexandra Sanders ◽  
Renata Kokanović
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Older People ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Social Phenomena

This article draws on crystallization, a qualitative framework developed by Laurel Richardson and Laura Ellingson, to show the potential of using sociological narratives and creative writing to better analyze and represent the lived experiences of loneliness among older people living in Australian care homes. Crystallization uses a multi-genre approach to study and present social phenomena. At its core is a concern for the ethics of representation, which is critical when engaging with vulnerable populations. We use two case studies from research on loneliness to illustrate an application of crystallization through different narrative types. To supplement our sociological narratives, we invited author Josephine Wilson to write creative narratives based on the case studies. Josephine was awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017 for Extinctions, a novel exploring themes such as later life and loneliness. By contrasting the two approaches—sociological and creative narratives—we discuss the implications of crystallization for qualitative research.

Why clothes matter: the role of dress in the everyday lives of older people

2018 ◽  
pp. 181-196
Author(s):  
Julia Twigg
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material Constitution ◽  
Frail Elders ◽  
Consumption Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday

Dress is part of the material constitution of age, providing as it does the vestimentary envelope that presents the body to the social world. Drawing on a series of empirical studies, this chapter explores the role of dress in the embodied lives of older people. It argues that a focus on dress is relevant not just to the younger old and to arguments concerning the new role of consumption culture among this group, but also for the day to day embodied lives of frail elders, in this case those with dementia.

scholarly journals Lived experiences of ageing and later life in older people with intellectual disabilities

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 602-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
IDA KÅHLIN ◽  
ANETTE KJELLBERG ◽  
CATHARINA NORD ◽  
JAN-ERIK HAGBERG
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
The Body ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Life World ◽  
People With Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to explore how older people with intellectual disability (ID), who live in group accommodation, describe their lived experience in relation to ageing and later life. The article is based on a study with a phenomenological approach, grounded on the concept of life-world. Individual, qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 people with ID (five men, seven women), between the ages of 48 and 71 (mean=64), who lived in four different group accommodation units in southern Sweden. A descriptive phenomenological analysis method was used, which disclosed a structure consisting of themes and sub-themes. The findings of the study reveal the informants' lived experience of ageing and later life as a multifaceted phenomenon, expressed through the two themes, ‘age as a process of change’ and ‘existential aspects of ageing’, each with three sub-themes. The body is an essential element in their experience of ageing and growing old, and in how this experience is expressed. The study also found social, cultural and historical dimensions of the life-world to be important in the informants' experience of ageing and later life. This supports understanding of the existence of a collective life-world for older people with ID, the unique experiences the informants share because of their disability and its consequences for their lifecourse.

‘If I look old, I will be treated old’: hair and later-life image dilemmas

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD WARD ◽  
CAROLINE HOLLAND
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dual Processes ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
Road Project ◽  
Field Workers ◽  
Using Data

ABSTRACTThis paper considers the social symbolism of hair, how it is managed and styled in later life, and what attitudes to appearance in general and hairstyling in particular reveal about ageism in contemporary culture. The paper draws on findings from a two-year, nationwide, participative study of age discrimination in the United Kingdom, the Research on Age Discrimination (RoAD) project. Using data collected by qualitative methods, including participant diaries and interviews undertaken by older field-workers, the paper explores narratives of image and appearance related to hair and associated social responses. The paper focuses on older people's accounts of the dual processes of the production of an image and consumption of a service with reference to hairdressing – and the dilemmas these pose in later life. The findings are considered in the context of the emerging debate on the ageing body. The discussion underlines how the bodies of older people are central to their experience of discrimination and social marginalisation, and examines the relevance of the body and embodiment to the debate on discrimination. A case is made for further scrutiny of the significance of hairdressing to the lives of older people and for the need to challenge the assumption that everyday aspects of daily life are irrelevant to the policies and interventions that counter age discrimination and promote equality.

Exploring the Normality of the Complexities of Later Life in Aged Homes: A Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 097639962096126
Author(s):  
Shi Yin Chee ◽  
Toney K. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Research Gap

Dependency on aged care homes is unusually becoming a viable option for elderly couples these days, which is unconventional to the Asian way of life. The perception of the aged care home, perceived as an institution, has gradually shifted over the years and continued to evolve as elderly couples have become more open to this option to ascertain their independence. Though scholarly researchers have conducted studies on elderly life in aged care homes, there is no evidence of research on elderly couples’ mundane life in aged care homes specifically addressing the complexities of institutional interference in the togetherness, end of life, privacy, sexuality and intimacy of their physical and emotional necessities. Therefore, this article addresses this research gap. It employs an in-depth systematic literature review to address the issue and unveils important insights on the body of knowledge. The findings reveal the complexity of elderly couples’ challenges in dealing with institutional interference, as well as the importance of autonomy and privacy.

Psychotherapies and Older Adults

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 537-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Garner
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Patients ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Therapeutic Technique ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Approach ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Old Age Psychiatry ◽  
Better Than

Objective: To confirm clinical experience which suggests that older people are offered psychotherapies significantly less often than younger ones. For those who are able to access psychotherapeutic help the outcome is comparable, sometimes better, than for younger patients. Method: Contemporary and older seminal literature was reviewed for psychodynamic, cognitive–behavioural, reminiscence and systemic family therapies treating older patients. Results: The main findings supported the experience of staff in old age psychiatry that if the reluctance of referrers and sometimes of older patients themselves can be overcome this type of work is valuable and effective. Conclusions: Each patient is unique. Generalizations are not always appropriate, however, with advancing years some common themes emerge in therapeutic work. It may be necessary to make modifications to the therapeutic technique to accommodate the difficulties experienced by people in later life but also to use their strengths. Staff working in this field need to have the capacity to be aware of and to understand their own feelings and prejudices about the second half of life. For patients not offered formal therapy a psychotherapeutic approach will nevertheless enhance their psychiatric care. Although the body of research is growing, more work needs to be done in evaluating all of the psychotherapies offered to older people.

Role of Rasayana in Geriatric Care - A Review

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yagyik Mishra ◽  
Negalur Vijay ◽  
Thakor Krunal ◽  
Bhat Nagaraj ◽  
Shubhasri B.
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Geriatric Care ◽  
The Body ◽  
Psychological Improvement

The growth of any country or society depends on the number of youth dwelling in that country but according to recent statistical data we soon will have older people more than children and more people at extreme old age than ever before. The number of people aged 65 or older is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050. Geriatrics (Jarachikitsa) is the branch of medicine dealing exclusively with the problems of aging and the diseases of elderly. The term Rasayana (rejuvination) refers to nourishment or nutrition. Rasayana therapy act essentially on nutrition dynamics and rejuvenate the body on both physical and mental levels. The problems of health due to modernization can be solved by increasing resistance against diseases and psychological improvement by implementing Rasayana therapy. Aging (Jara) is one among the Swabhavika Vyadhis. Jara Chikitsa is one among the Astanga of Ayurveda which is specifically dedicated for geriatric care. As per estimation, India currently has around 75 million persons over 65 years. By proper administration of Rasayana therapy as preventive tool one can delay Jara Janita Vyadhis to occur. This paper highlights the role of Rasayana in geriatric care.

Toward a conceptual model for successful transgender aging

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502199466
Author(s):  
Steffany Sloan ◽  
Jacquelyn J Benson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
The Body ◽  
Aging Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Resilience Factors

Transgender older adults have been subject to life-long stigma and marginalization, resulting in significant social and health consequences. Despite these challenges, this population commonly reports thriving in later life. In order to attend to nuanced experiences of older transgender adults, theoretical models of successful aging must reflect complexities presented by gender minority status. In order to address theoretical gaps, a systematic qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted to summarize findings across the body of qualitative transgender aging research. Findings indicated that transgender older adults conceptualize successful aging through the process of embracing gender identity. Themes were identified to conceptualize successful transgender aging such as gender expression, shedding internalized stigma, and championing a resilience mindset. Implications for social work practice are provided, suggesting a more comprehensive understanding of both challenges and resilience factors amongst the aging transgender population.

Understanding diversity in later life and a new culture of aging: Sociology of aging in Japan

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092110053
Author(s):  
Daisuke Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Disparities ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Care Problems ◽  
Sociological Studies

This essay introduces sociological studies on aging and related topics in Japan since 2000. It argues the three following points. First, the results of sociological studies on aging, and those from related social science disciplines, have moved away from a uniform understanding of aging to reveal greater diversity in the process. Second, it has become apparent that older people face various social problems, such as social isolation, social disparities, and family care problems. Studies have argued that it is essential to support mutual aid in the community. Finally, the reflexivity of high modernity attempts to push the problem of aging towards autonomy, but a new culture of aging assumes that dependence has the potential to overcome this reflexivity.

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