'Memories we treasure': Evaluating the impact on co-designers and audiences of a photographic exhibition by participants with memory problems

Visual research, including photovoice methods are increasingly used to elicit the experiences of people living with memory loss, though few such studies have investigated the impact of produced images on audiences. Drawing on Freire's empowerment pedagogy, we aimed to explore how a photography exhibition, created by individuals with memory concerns participating in the APPLE-Tree (Active Prevention in People at risk of dementia through Lifestyle, bEhaviour change and Technology to build REsiliEnce) dementia prevention programme contributed to an understanding on life with memory loss, and whether it reduced any stigma, among its co-producers and audience. Approximately 200 people attended the exhibition launch, of whom 97 completed a survey. We interviewed two co-producers with lived experience of memory problems and seven academic co-producers. In our thematic analysis of survey responses and interview transcripts, we developed three themes: (1) Increasing understanding by giving voice to participants: seeing unique individuals behind the work; (2) The power of visual methods to communicate research findings: interviewees described how the quality of the works and exhibition created an atmosphere that honoured participants as artists, valuing and respecting their messages; (3) Evoking emotions: fear and hope: The audience described the exhibition's power to evoke strong emotions of fear at the risk of losing "treasured memories" and hope of living successfully with memory loss. Some attendees and study team members felt motivated to try to reduce their future dementia risk. We consider the value of public engagement using arts-based co-production, and the impact of the exhibition in this field. We explore how our findings reflect notions of empowerment in two juxtaposing ways: empowerment to express how living with memory loss feels as a means of activism to reduce associated stigma, and empowerment to change future dementia risk through lifestyle changes.

Key Learnings from 'Seniors of Canada': A Community Project Aimed to Disrupt Ageism

Visual representations of aging have historically relied upon binarized clichés: idealized youthfulness versus frailty and illness. To challenge these oversimplified depictions, graduate students developed a community outreach project titled 'Seniors of Canada'. The aim of this project was twofold: (1) share images and stories of people in later life; and (2) challenge dominant narratives and stereotypes of aging. In this note, we outline the prevailing discourse of what aging 'looks like', how we collected stories and images, and implications for knowledge mobilization and research in Canada. This article highlights insights gained since the inception of the project, including three key learnings: (1) Building bridges across academia and community, (2) Intergenerational connection and digital tools, and (3) The power of visual storytelling. We provide a practical overview of a successful knowledge mobilization/community outreach project and showcase the power of bridging academia and community for social change.

Visual and material representations of ageing, space and rhythms in everyday life

A focus on the materiality within ageing studies brings into focus the material dimensions of space, rhythms and material objects in everyday life. The aim of this paper is to explore meanings around space in the context of the daily lives of people growing older and how materiality is embodied, embedded and performed in the material and social context of our everyday lives. The paper draws on data from the empirical research study Photographing Everyday Life: Ageing, Lived Experiences, Time and Space funded by the ESRC, UK. The focus of the project was to explore the significance of the ordinary and day-to-day and focus on the everyday meanings, lived experiences, practical activities, and social contexts in which people in mid-to-later life live their daily lives. The research involved a diverse sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over who took photographs of their different daily routines to create a weekly visual diary. The data reveals three interconnecting whilst analytically distinct themes within the materiality of ageing and the spaces around everyday life: (1) Space, materiality and everyday life; (2) Rhythms, routines and materiality; and (3) Social and material connectivity. The paper concludes by highlighting a complex engagement with space, in which participants drew and re-drew boundaries surrounding meanings of space, sometimes within the same interview or even within a discussion of the same photograph. Moreover, a focus on materiality has elicited rich and illuminating accounts of how people in mid-to-later life experience the intersections between ageing, bodies, time and space in their everyday lives.

Queer temporalities and the life course: Trans aging in Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021)

Torrey Peters' debut novel Detransition, Baby from 2021, a Women's Prize for Fiction nominee, problematizes gender norms by telling the story of three main characters: Reese, a trans woman, Ames, who de-transitioned to live as a man again, and Katrina, a Chinese and Jewish cis woman who is also Ames' lover and boss. Ames and Katrina are expecting a child and are testing the possibilities of having a non-conventional family together with Reese. Parenthood is, thus, the central theme of the novel which structures also the sections of book into the time before the conception and the weeks after it. By doing so, the temporal framework of the novel queers the linearity of heteronormative life courses on the form as well as the content level. Therefore, the interplay of form and content invites to critically investigate how the concept of trans time that challenges linearity and normative conformity (Halberstam, 2005) may provide useful insights into trans aging and the life course through this literary representation. Following, contemporary feminist theorists' commitments to negotiate what makes "life more livable for those whose gender presentation, identity, or bodily experience have been judged abnormal, nonexistent, or impossible" (Karhu, 2022, 304-305), this paper aims at carrying out a critical feminist literary analysis of trans aging, queer life courses and the thereof related gendered norms in Peters' novel. By relying predominantly on feminist poststructuralist theories (Butler 2004) and cultural aging studies (Maierhofer, 2019), it is the aim to challenge normativity and limited social norms through this critical literary reading.

Addressing the Black Box of AI-A Model and Research Agenda on the Co-constitution of Aging and Artificial Intelligence

Algorithmic technologies and (large) data infrastructures, often referred to as Artificial Intelligence (AI), have received increasing attention from gerontological research in the last decade. Although there is much literature that dissects and explores the development, application, and evaluation of AI relevant to gerontology, this study makes a novel contribution by critically engaging with the theorizing in this growing field of research. We observe that gerontology's engagement with AI is shaped by an interventionist logic that situates AI as a black box for gerontological research. We demonstrate how this black box logic has neglected many aspects of AI as a research topic for gerontology and discuss three classical concepts in gerontology to show how they can be used to open various black boxes of aging and AI in the areas: (a) the datafication of aging, (b) the political economy of AI and aging, and (c) everyday engagements and embodiments of AI in later life. In the final chapter, we propose a model of the co-constitution of aging and AI that makes theoretical propositions to study the relational terrain between aging and AI and hence aims to open the black box of AI in gerontology beyond interventionist logic.

Gerontology, Art, and Activism: Can the Intersection of Art, Social Research, and Community Power Lead to Lasting Change?

This paper seeks to address the question of what gerontologists and humanities scholars can learn from how their respective fields engage with critical issues of age-based intersectional disadvantage, inequality, colonialism, and exclusion. The paper considers the Uncertain Futures Project, a participatory arts-led social research study based in Manchester, United Kingdom. The project explores the inequalities of women over 50 regarding issues of work using an intersectional lens. This work has produced a complex entanglement of methodological ideas that underpin performance art, community activism, and gerontological research. The paper will consider if this model can lead to a lasting impact beyond the scope of the project and beyond the individuals involved. First, we outline the work undertaken from the conception of the project. We consider the relationship between these activities and the ongoing nature of qualitative data analysis within the complexity of academic workloads and competing priorities. We raise questions and considerations of how the elements of the work have connected, collaborated, and intertwined. We also explore the challenges within interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Finally, we address the kind of legacy and impact created by work of this nature.

"Sometimers, Alzheimer's? I love that! That's definitely me": Readers' Responses to Fictional Dementia Narratives

This article presents findings from an interdisciplinary project which invited readers to experience the impact of dementia via fictional characters' narratives. Combining methods from critical gerontology and literary linguistics-a field that examines the language of literature-we undertook an empirical reader response study of dementia fiction. We constructed a large corpus of dementia fiction; selecting 12 extracts, each containing first-hand, focalized accounts of fictional characters' experiences of living with dementia. Readers (31) were purposively sampled for 4 separate reading groups-student social workers (9); general public (9); family carers (6); and people with dementia (7). Over 6 weeks they engaged in separate, facilitated, on-line group discussions of extracts. Discussions were independently coded using ATLAS.ti. Although readers from all 4 groups reported that fictional characters drew them into the internal life of someone with dementia, some carers questioned whether fictional characters' experiences were plausible. Readers with dementia recognized themselves in the extracts; viewing fictional characters as eloquent envoys of their lived experiences of diagnosis, social isolation, loss of language, and use of humor. Fictional characters offer an entry point for understanding contrasts in caregiver and care-receiver experiences of dementia. Fictional characters are potentially useful for moving dementia narratives beyond monstrous cultural metaphors and onto a disability-based rights agenda.

"Live Gerontology": Understanding and Representing Aging, Loneliness, and Long-Term Care Through Science and Art

This article proposes an expansive conceptualization of gerontological research by engaging with a "live gerontology" that combines sciences and arts to better understand and represent aging and its diverse meanings and contexts. Borrowing the sociological concept of "live methods," we argue that gerontology can benefit from a "live" approach-not only methodologically, but also conceptually. To guide pathways between artistic and gerontological fields and frame its practices and outcomes, we suggest four propositions for a live gerontology: (1) using multiple genres to artfully connect the whole-interweaving micro-, meso-, and macrolevels to contextualize aging within various sociocultural milieus; (2) fostering the use of the senses to capture more than just what people say-what they do, display, and feel; (3) enabling a critical inventiveness by relying on arts' playfulness to design/refine instruments; and (4) ensuring a constant reflection on ethics of representation and public responsibility. To apply and experiment with a live gerontological approach, we describe collaborations with an award-winning writer and an illustrator. The collaborations drew on qualitative data from a study on lived experiences of loneliness in long-term care through ethnography and interviews with residents of 2 Australian facilities. The writer explored participants' accounts as creative stories, which were then illustrated. Motivated by an ethics of representation, we aimed to represent findings without othering or further marginalizing participants. The creative materials offered more than appealing representations, shining new light on the intricate nature of aging, loneliness, institutionalization, and gerontology research and practice.

Ageing, the digital and everyday life during and since the Covid-19 pandemic

Introduction

During and since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been an intensified integration of digital technologies into the everyday lives of older people. We do, however, know little about the ways in which older people incorporate digital technologies and communications into their daily lives and their own meanings, embodiment and experiences of the digital during and since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Method

The aim of our research was to explore the use of digital devices during and since the Covid-19 pandemic and to identify facilitators and barriers to incorporating digital devices into everyday life. The research involved a series of online focus groups with people aged between 63 and 86 years living in the United Kingdom and were conducted in 2022. Each focus group lasted around 90 min and data was audio-recorded and transcribed. The data was analysed thematically.

Results

From the analysis, three interconnecting whilst analytically distinct themes around the meaning and experiences of using digital devices in everyday life during and since the pandemic, are thematically presented as: (1) Incorporating the digital into everyday life; (2) Social and digital connectivity; and (3) Challenges and limitations of the digital in everyday life.

Discussion

The research has provided insights into the way digital devices were used by older people during and since the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, we highlight the increasing importance of digital connectivity and the ways in which older people actively engage (and resist) technologies of communication in their daily lives; and the significance of embodied co-presence and the immediacy of shared space and/or time is highlighted.

The qualitative embedded case study method: Exploring and refining gerontological concepts via qualitative research with older people

This article argues that a tailored version of the qualitative embedded case study method can be used to build strong conceptual and inclusive insights from qualitative research with older people, and, in doing so, advance theoretical scholarship in social and critical gerontology. Gerontology has often been described as "data-rich and theory-poor" (Birren & Bengtson, 1988). It is a field which draws heavily on post-positivist traditions of quantitative research and notions of prediction, generalization, and statistical significance. While critical qualitative approaches have gained ground through interdisciplinary scholarship in the social sciences and humanities, few attempts have been made to articulate the relationship between research questions designed to understand older people's experiences and concept- or theory-building in gerontology. This piece makes a case for engaging with the theoretical/methodological interface by drawing on an evolving approach entitled the qualitative embedded case study, as it was used in three qualitative studies on the concepts of frailty, (im)mobility, and precarity. It suggests this is an evolving approach with the potential to develop conceptually sound, meaningful research from older people's experiences, including diverse, underrepresented, and marginalized groups, and to draw on these insights to direct change.

Financial freedom, final fantasy, 'formative ageing': A study of ageing single women and retirement in contemporary China

This article aims to continue a conversation sustained in this journal during the last three decades; a conversation that seeks to promote critical thinking on age and ageing through the lens of gender and sexuality. I do so by considering a specific group of Chinese women: single women living in Beijing or Shanghai. I invited 24 of them, born between 1962 and 1990, to share their imaginations about retirement, in the Chinese context, where the mandatory retirement age for women is 55 or 50 (60 for men). My aims are three-fold: to insert this group of single women into retirement and ageing studies; to recuperate and document their retirement imaginations; and ultimately, to draw insights from their subjective accounts, to revisit dominant paradigms of ageing, notably so-called successful ageing. Empirical data show how these single women treasure financial freedom, but usually without taking concrete steps towards its accomplishment. They also embrace a diversity of imaginations about where and with whom they want to spend their retirement life, and what they want to do - both long-held dreams and new careers. Inspired by yanglao, a term they use instead of retirement, I argue the term 'formative ageing' is a more inclusive and less normative way of looking at ageing.

Lives of Violence and Vengeance: Life Stories of Older Oaxacan Adults

This qualitative research identifies and analyzes emotions linked to affective experiences and cultural aspects of experiences of violence in 219 older adults of eight Indigenous groups in Oaxaca, Mexico. Life stories are examined from perspectives of cultural gerontology, anthropology of emotions and critical medical anthropology with a gender perspective. Family violence, structural violence in daily life, gendered violence, inter-village and state violence, blood vengeance and the contribution of male alcoholization are examined. An understanding of the experiences of violence in the lives of older adults permits an improved knowledge and understanding of the emotional culture, social problems and the community.

Greater Inclusion of Asian Americans in Aging Research on Family Caregiving for Better Understanding of Racial Health Inequities

With the substantial demographic changes in racial composition in the United States since 1965, research on racial health inequities must build upon the Black-White binary to assess the complex ways "race" affects health and aging. Considering variation in the prevalence and meanings of aging across racialized groups requires concerted efforts to expand and disaggregate samples. Aligned with the goals of the intersectionality framework, we argue that greater inclusion of Asian Americans is critical to advance both theoretical and methodological considerations that enable us to investigate the lived experiences of Asian Americans. Using caregiving as an example, we discuss how systemic, cultural, and interpersonal marginalization from racism and other oppressive systems intertwine with "race" to produce the race effects. Greater inclusion of Asian Americans helps further provide the opportunity to conceptualize culture as dynamic and interacting with structure to produce different racial patterns. Meaningful inclusion of Asian Americans in research requires more systemic effort to collect accurate, reliable, and quality data for Asian Americans that can be disaggregated by other important axes of stratification.

Implicit, Explicit, and Structural Barriers and Facilitators for Information and Communication Technology Access in Older Adults

Older adults’ usage of information and communication technology (ICT) is challenged or facilitated by perception of usefulness, technology design, gender, social class, and other unspoken and political elements. However, studies on the use of ICT by older adults have traditionally focused on explicit interactions (e.g., usability). The article then analyzes how symbolic, institutional, and material elements enable or hinder older adults from using ICT. Our ethnographic methodology includes several techniques with Spanish older adults: 15 semi-structured interviews, participant observation in nine ICT classes, online participant observation on WhatsApp and Jitsi for 3 months, and nine phone interviews due to COVID-19. The qualitative data were analyzed through Situational Analysis. We find that the elements hindering or facilitating ICT practice are implicit-symbolic (children’s surveillance, paternalism, fear, optimism, low self-esteem, and contradictory speech-act), explicit-material (affordances, physical limitations, and motivations), and structural-political (management, the pandemic, teaching, and media skepticism). Furthermore, unprivileged identities hampered the ICT practices: female gender, blue-collar jobs, illiteracy, and elementary education. However, being motivated to use ICT prevailed over having unprivileged identities. The study concludes that society and researchers should perceive older adults as operative with technologies and examine beyond explicit elements. We urge exploration of how older adults’ social identities and how situatedness affects ICT practice. Concerning explicit elements, Spanish authorities should improve and adapt ICT facilities at public senior centers and older adults’ homes, and ICT courses should foster tablet and smartphone training over computers.

Ageism in Working Life: A Scoping Review on Discursive Approaches

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This review investigates the contribution of discursive approaches to the study of ageism in working life. It looks back on the 50 years of research on ageism and the body of research produced by the discursive turn in social science and gerontology.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This study followed the 5-step scoping review protocol to define gaps in the knowledge on ageism in working life from a discursive perspective. About 851 papers were extracted from electronic databases and, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 39 papers were included in the final review.

RESULTS

The selected articles were based on discursive approaches and included study participants along the full continuum of working life (workers, retirees, jobseekers, and students in training). Three main themes representing the focal point of research were identified, namely, experiences of ageism, social construction of age and ageism, and strategies to tackle (dilute) ageism.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Discursive research provides undeniable insights into how participants experience ageism in working life, how ageism is constructed, and how workers create context-based strategies to counteract age stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Discursive research on ageism in the working life needs further development about the variety of methods and data, the problematization of age-based labeling and grouping of workers, and a focus on the intersection between age and other social categories. Further research in these areas can deepen our understanding of how age and ageism are constructed and can inform policies about ways of disentangling them in working life.

Managing a positive impression: Self-presentation among octogenarians

This paper addresses self-presentation among home-dwelling octogenarians living in the Faroe Islands. The purpose was to examine how older adults make meaning of ageing in interaction and examine the possible impact of social and cultural norms on this meaning making practice. The study is based on social constructionism. Interviews were conducted with both married couples and individual men and women during the spring of 2019. The interviewees projected a positive impression of life as older adults. They used humour to cover up health problems, and downward social comparison with others to enhance their own active lifestyle. They included third-party compliments to enhance the impression of appearing 'younger' than their chronological age, thus reconciling the misalignment between age norms and lived experience.

Learning with and about Digital Technology in Later Life: A Socio-Material Perspective

Literature has widely explored the learning processes with information and communication technology (ICT) in later life, mostly focusing on the individual learner rather than materialities—such as smartphones, notepads, and handouts. The aim of this paper is to introduce a socio-material perspective by focusing on the question: What role do materialities play in digital learning processes in later life? This paper draws upon a situation analysis of data from a qualitative multi-perspective study. Researchers conducted participatory observations of five ICT courses for older adults in Austria and semi-structured interviews with seven trainers and nine older participants (61–81 years). By identifying three social worlds (digital devices, education, and participants’ everyday lives), the findings show how ICT-learning processes are embedded in the everyday lives of older adults and include not only digital, but also everyday materialities, such as pens, paper and books. These material convoys of digital learning in later life are vital in facilitating successful technology appropriation in later life.

Communication officers in local authorities meeting social media: On the production of social media photos of older adults

European local authorities increasingly use social media to present services and activities organized for citizens living in the particular area. Previous studies found that authority-managed social media visually depicted older adults as being active, sociable, happy, and physically capable, reflecting the normative "third age" representation. Yet few studies to date have examined how local authorities produce the photos of older adults for social media posting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with communication officers in a Swedish municipality, the purpose of this study is to investigate the production process for social media photos of older adults within local authorities from an institutional logics perspective. The analysis illustrates that communication officers strive to create a good image of the municipality and its services, follow municipal policy and EU law on data protection, seek photos through particular sources, adjust to and develop photographic standards of good photos, and endeavor to promote social media engagement in the photos. These motives and work practices of communication officers contribute to the visual representations of older adults as engaging in municipal services, being socially active, and staying physically capable. The analysis also indicates that both social media and bureaucratic logics encourage officers to produce photos of older adults that highlight the bright side of later life. The findings contribute to previous studies on online representations of older adults generated by local authorities, by showing how the third age representation may come about in practice, and which logics may influence officers to generate such representation. Furthermore, the knowledge provided could be used as a basis for assessment and improvement on authorities' production for social media photos of older adults, which in turn contributes to more diverse and thoughtful representations of older adults and later life in authority-managed social media.

Age-associations in British politics: Implications for the sociology of aging

Debates regarding the status of age in social analysis are foundational to the sociology of aging, with scholars continually questioning the role of age as a social force. The contemporary politicization of age in British politics sheds useful light on this debate. During the past decade, age has emerged as a potent predictor of political preference in the United Kingdom, encompassing numerous intertwined political economic developments. At face value, the emergence of age as a key political variable substantiates the status of age in social analysis. However, I argue that it is articulations of age-stratified politics, as much as the associations themselves, that should be of principle concern for the sociology of aging, because such articulations are reformulating age, aging and intergenerational relations. The sociology of aging should, therefore, engage with the contemporary politicization of age as a new answer to foundational debates.

Care, dementia, and the fourth age in Erica Jong's later work

Background and Objectives

This article addresses the representations of dementia and caregiving in the fourth age as depicted in Erica Jong’s later-life work. It shows how the experience of parental care leads to the discovery of new ways of human interaction and expressions of personhood.

Research Design and Methods

Framed within literary-cultural age studies, the article shows how humanities-based inquiry can illuminate important aspects of aging and care of the oldest old, which are significant and revealing, but often hidden under the dark shadow of dementia.

Results

Newly discovered ways of communication challenge the notion of the loss of agency as they demonstrate that the body itself has the power of creative and intentional capacities and self-expression.

Discussion and Implications

Care-related narratives offer new insights into aging, dementia and subjectivity that can help pursue a better analysis of the ‘deep’ old age, strengthen collective solidary and manage increasing ageism, especially pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Men in/and crisis: The cultural narrative of men's midlife crises

Focusing on cultural narratives about men's midlife crises, this article explores the more subtle forms that medicalization takes by broadening and re-orientating the concept of successful ageing away from strictly political, medical or/and sociological discussions of health and ageing and towards cultural representations of masculinity, optimization and the handling of a personal crisis. Using two examples; the British comedy Swimming with Men (2018) and the novel Doppler (2014) by Erlend Loe the article discusses the entanglement of masculinity, crisis and ageing and in doing so argues that cultural narratives about men's midlife crises do more than merely comment on already existing understandings of ageing and should in fact be understood as important components in the ongoing medicalization of middle-aged masculinities.

Care home residents on the move: the significance of cultural context for physical activity

Increased physical activity is widely promoted as beneficial for older people, but previous research indicates this may be difficult to implement in care homes, especially for people with dementia who form an increasing proportion of residents. Care home cultures can mitigate against physical activity for residents, but there is also scope for them to embed personalised physical activity. They are under-researched, but significant in terms of outcomes and quality of life for residents. This paper builds understanding of care home cultures of physical activity through qualitative, empirical research in five care homes. Key findings are that culturally framed views about physical activity, sometimes reflecting stereotypical views of dependency, can be seen in care homes. Managers, staff and residents may be invested in or resistant to physical activity and dominant managerial or societal views may be reflected or contested. The relatively closed boundaries of care homes reinforce sedentariness, and resident involvement in either chosen or enforced physical activity is varied. Interactions demonstrate potential to negotiate physical activity more or less effectively in any given care home. Rigid routines, external regulations and pressure on staffing can be negative, but management commitment has positive potential. In conclusion, the paper identifies that to increase physical activity in a sustainable manner, any intervention needs to address issues of culture change and individual needs and preferences.

[The entanglement of ageing and space in cultural educational programs : The spatial structuring of active ageing at the theater and in the Alps]

BACKGROUND

Even though the effects of cultural activities on active and positive ageing have been extensively examined, spatial aspects have hardly been considered by research in this field.

OBJECTIVES

Instead of understanding active ageing as a result of cultural education, this article focuses on practices of (active) ageing in cultural education programs for older adults. We examined the meanings of space and spatial arrangements in which cultural education takes place and how these spatial aspects limit or enable active ageing.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The article is based on six qualitative case studies of programs for cultural education for older adults. In programs, such as a yodel seminar or a theater workshop, data were collated by participatory observation and qualitative interviews with the participants and trainers of each program. All data were analyzed using situational analysis.

RESULTS

We found that the spaces where the programs took place had a special meaning to the older participants. This was mainly because these spaces where not exclusively designed for target groups of older adults. The experience of the program was not only characterized by these meanings but also by how these spaces were used within the program. Active ageing was realized through the appropriation of new spaces and specific spatial arrangements.

CONCLUSION

This article shows how spatial arrangements and the experience of (active) ageing are intertwined. To foster active ageing, cultural education programs need to provide spaces which can be used accordingly. For environmental gerontology, this paper highlights the necessity to consider the symbolic dimension of spaces and environments in research.

Gerontagogy Toward Intergenerationality: Dialogical Learning Between Children and Elders

This paper aims at overcoming the following limits of gerontagogy -particularly with regard to Lemieux's model: referencing chronological age; delimitating elders' learning in reference to traits (styles, needs, behaviors, etc.) in contrast to children's learning; overlooking the aging aspect. To do so, we propose to integrate aging and intergenerationality into gerontagogy from a sociocultural, dialogical and historical approach. This establishes the basis for an intergenerational and dialogical approach to elders' learning.

What's so critical about it? An analysis of critique within different strands of critical gerontology

Shortly after emerging in the 1980s, critical gerontology became a recognised part of mainstream gerontology. Under the umbrella of ‘critical gerontology’ sits a number of orientations that draw attention to how ageing is socially located, while foregrounding the importance of values in ageing research. Nevertheless, as critical gerontology is not a clearly defined field or orientation, inconsistencies in the use of ‘critique’ among critical gerontologists has been fermenting internal tensions. In this paper we draw on recent debates on critique as a form of discourse that aims to criticise a deficient social order with the aim of helping to bring about a good society, to identify four discourses of critique. These include the discourses of immanent critique and of transcendent critique, critique that focuses on tensions between these two, and critique that builds on constructive combinations of immanence and transcendence. We add to these an extra level of depth by distinguishing how critical discourse is applied in each case. We use this framework to identify the discourses of critique deployed in variants of critical gerontology. Here, we distinguish political economic, lifecourse, humanistic and culturalist approaches within critical gerontology and assess how each of these applies a discourse of critique. We find that these gerontological perspectives draw on a variety of discourses of critique and make use of varying degrees of engagement with critical discourse. The paper concludes by discussing how critical gerontology may develop as a reflective forum commenting on and integrating insights offered by its own varieties of critique and connecting these with macro-social analyses.

"Something Born of the Heart": Culturally Affiliated Illnesses of Older Adults in Oaxaca

This qualitative research identifies and analyzes emotions and interventions linked to affective experiences and cultural aspects of health/illness/care processes in 219 older adults of eight Indigenous groups in Oaxaca, Mexico. Life stories are examined from perspectives of cultural gerontology, anthropology of emotions and critical medical anthropology with a gender perspective. Significance and healing of two illnesses of cultural affiliation: tiricia (sadness of the soul) and envidia (rancor against the successful) are examined. Conditions other than diabetes and hypertension are healed by traditional remedies or spiritual cleansings. Examining tiricia and envidia permit improved knowledge and understanding of the emotional culture and the community.

"Now I Write Songs": Growth and Reciprocity After Long-Term Nursing Home Placement

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Nursing home residents have a need for activities that are meaningful, yet mandated scheduled activities remain poorly characterized. In order to understand how scheduled activities provide meaning for nursing home residents, we conducted a study of daily life in a nursing home with a robust activities program.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This 2-year, longitudinal ethnographic study embedded an ethnographer into the activities department of a 430-bed, not-for-profit, faith-based nursing home. Forty-three interviews and more than 250 hr of participant-observation were conducted, with a focus on creative arts and religious activities. Thirty-two residents and 15 activities staff were followed more than 12-23 months. Data were coded concurrently, and emerging themes challenged through purposive recruitment until thematic saturation was reached.

RESULTS

Scheduled activities in the nursing home offered opportunities for learning and personal growth regardless of functional or cognitive disability. Three major themes emerged. Artistic development included new self-identification as a musician, painter, or sculptor through arts programming. Intellectual and spiritual growth involved the use of activities to support ongoing practice and study. Reciprocity occurred as residents used the arts to remain contributing members of their institutional society, reciprocating with the institution that housed them.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Nursing home scheduled activities can facilitate the transformation of identity from resident or patient to the normalized social roles of artist, Torah scholar, and productive member of society.

Developing a critical trans gerontology

Within existing academic literature, ageing within trans populations has primarily been addressed from the perspective of offering advice to service providers and clinicians, with relatively limited application of critical sociological perspectives. This article seeks to integrate the critical perspectives on gerontology with transfeminism, identifying areas of commonality regarding accounts of an integrated lifecourse, scepticism of biomedicalization, and an emphasis on local context. The article suggests that this integration provides a fruitful basis for developing future research into the study of trans ageing, and also provides theoretical development across many debates around age, gender and the lifecourse.

The conspicuous absence of the social, emotional and political aspects of frailty: the example of the White Book on Frailty

Over the last 15 years, frailty has become a dominant discourse on late life. Taken-for-granted knowledge and practice can be seen in initiatives such as the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics’ White Book on Frailty. This paper begins with an overview of key themes on frailty from the biomedical literature, followed by critical literature in the social sciences and humanities. It discusses the tensions within the biomedical field, frailty as a social construction and ‘social imaginary’, practices of frailty as historically linked to political systems of care, and frailty as an emotional and relational experience. It then draws on a critical discourse analysis to assess the 2016 White Book on Frailty. Drawing on the idea of ‘significant absences’, the paper highlights the gaps that exist where the social and emotional understandings and political readings of frailty are concerned. The paper concludes by outlining the need to recognise the ‘politics of frailty’ including the power relations that are deeply embedded in the knowledge and practices surrounding frailty, and to incorporate older people's experience and ideas of vulnerability into research, policy and care practice.

Improving images of aging

The present issue of International Psychogeriatrics is the second one conveying data and reflections related to positive psychiatry (see Editorial: Jeste, 2018).

Aging and the Ethics of Authenticity

This article aims to make a philosophical contribution to debates about meaningful sociocultural narratives about aging. It is argued that the moral-philosophical discourse of authenticity may provide valuable resources for counter narratives about later life that are capable of challenging the dominant stereotyping decline- and age-defying cultural narratives. The discussion will draw on classical and contemporary views of authenticity by Rousseau; existentialists such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger; and contemporary thinkers such as Taylor and Meyers. Authenticity discourse is argued to be capable of, on the one hand, acknowledging the positive potentials of growth and development that later life may harbor, while, on the other hand, providing support for recognizing and integrating the inevitable existential vulnerability and finitude that old age also confronts us with. Although authenticity is not a commonly used term in gerontology, some examples show how a language associated with this philosophical discourse has found its way into gerontological thought as well, supporting its relevance for the context of aging. The article concludes with a discussion of four aspects through which the authenticity discourse may contribute to viable cultural narratives about later life.

The emergence of the creative ager - On subject cultures of late-life creativity

OBJECTIVES

In the last fifteen years, research on aging has seen a new interest in creativity in later life. While late-life creativity has often been described as a method to unpack the potential of older adults in the face of demographic change, this newfound interest is arguably linked to the commodification of late-life creativity itself in terms of innovation and productivity. These new modes of creativity might then also establish new ways to age. Has the homo aestheticus spread into old age?

METHOD

To explore this question, this paper first lays out a praxeology of late-life creativity. In this framework, creativity as well as age is understood as a social practice through which the artwork as well as the (older) artist is continuously produced. Second, this paper draws upon data from thirteen semi-structured interviews with older adults regularly involved in creative practices in their everyday lives. Using the documentary method, data shows how older adults describe the creative practice and what meanings they attach to growing older within these practices.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Analyzing subject cultures that emerge from creativity in later life shows how creative practice calls for a specific self-image that is centered around productivity, the preservation of field positions despite growing older and active as well as anti-aging. Studying late-life creativity through a praxeological lens allows for critically evaluating current modes of creativity and the normative positions that are inherent in these practices.

Dementia and detectives: Alzheimer's disease in crime fiction

Fictional representations of dementia have burgeoned in recent years, and scholars have amply explored their double-edged capacity to promote tragic perspectives or normalising images of ‘living well’ with the condition. Yet to date, there has been only sparse consideration of the treatment afforded dementia within the genre of crime fiction. Focusing on two novels, Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing and Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind, this article considers what it means in relation to the ethics of representation that these authors choose to cast as their amateur detective narrators women who have dementia. Analysing how their narrative portrayals frame the experience of living with dementia, it becomes apparent that features of the crime genre inflect the meanings conveyed. While aspects of the novels may reinforce problem-based discourses around dementia, in other respects they may spur meaningful reflection about it among the large readership of this genre.

The meaning of patient-nurse interaction for older women in healthcare settings: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of patient-nurse interaction for older women receiving care in healthcare settings.

BACKGROUND

Older women are often overlooked or misunderstood by the nurses caring for them. Some research exists on nurses' perception of their interaction with patients, yet few studies have described the meaning of such interaction from the patients' perspective.

METHODS

This was a pilot study using qualitative description as a methodology. Data were filtered through a lens of critical feminist theory to interpret interactions taking place in healthcare settings that are often characterised by paternalism. Seven women between the ages of 66 and 81 were interviewed using a semi-structured guide.

RESULTS

Participants had a distinctive perspective on the experience of caring. Their expressions include stories of being cared for themselves by nurses as well as historical recalls of being the one-caring for family members. In these combined stories, the contrast between the nurses who held caring in primacy and those who were distinctly uncaring sheds light on the importance of cultivating a moral ideal of caring and respect for personhood.

CONCLUSION

A population of older women who potentially face disabling conditions must rely on direct, meaningful, interaction with nurses to successfully navigate the healthcare system. The findings suggest that these women did not have consistent access to such interaction.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The gathering and interpretation of new narratives about patient-nurse interaction for older women could lead to a deeper understanding of power and civility as it impacts a caring relationship. Further research using a theoretical lens of critical feminism has implications for improving healthcare delivery for older women worldwide.

Intergenerational friendships of older adults: why do we know so little about them?

Intergenerational projects bringing together older adults and younger adults are increasingly common, but there is little research on unstructured, naturally occurring interaction, and in particular friendship between different generations. The aim of this article is to interrogate why we know so little about adult intergenerational friendship. A systematic literature search on this topic, covering a 30-year period, yielded only six articles which satisfied the inclusion criteria. This prompted us to examine how the topics of intergenerational friendship and friendship in old age have been approached in the literature to date. We argue that the paucity of research on intergenerational friendship reflects the focus of existing research on homophily, and consequently friendships among older or younger adults; and that this in turn reflects a social construction of older adults as unsuited to friendship with younger adults. Investigations of intergenerational friendship can help challenge the images and models of ageing and older adults that both research and societies currently operate with, and are constrained by. We conclude by calling for research that explores the views and experiences of older adults as parties to intergenerational relationships that are non-kin, chosen and based on mutual enjoyment.

The Cultural Value of Older People's Experiences of Theater-making: A Review

Purpose of the Study

Although a number of existing reviews document the health and social benefits of arts participation by older people, there are none which focus specifically on theater and drama. This article presents the findings of a study conducted as part of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council "Cultural Value Project." The 2-year (2013-2015) "Cultural Value Project" sought to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society. It made 72 awards: 19 critical reviews of existing bodies of research, 46 research development awards to carry out new research, and 7 expert workshop awards to facilitate discussions among academics and practitioners. Together, these awards explored the components of cultural value and the ways in which cultural value is evidenced and evaluated.

Design and Methods

Following an extensive search of academic databases and E-mail requests via relevant organizations and networks, 77 publications formed the basis for our own critical review.

Results

Our findings highlight the benefits and value of older people's theater and drama participation on health and well-being, group relationships, learning and creativity, and draw attention to the importance of the esthetic value and quality of older people's drama.

Implications

Despite the recent surge of interest in this field (a third of the reviewed literature was published between 2010 and 2014), we suggest that there are multiple areas for further research.

Homelessness and aging: The contradictory ordering of 'house' and 'home'

The concepts of 'house' and 'home' are compelling and contradictory. They are compelling because they elicit the desired sentiments of permanence, feeling 'at home', and maintaining continuity in one's life. At the same time, they can be experienced as contradictory where organizational practices and the socio-cultural imperatives of individual responsibility, cost containment, and rationed services are concerned. Where 'house' tends to evoke a sense of permanent stability, 'home' is regarded as the ideal living environment and site of care for older people. Yet, a consideration of the challenges that occur at the intersections of age and homelessness highlights a tension between the taken-for-granted ideal of 'home' for older people, and programs organized around 'housing' for homeless people. To begin, we ground our work in a critical perspective to the study of aging and briefly sketch the state of knowledge on homelessness in late life. We then explore the contradictions that occur at the intersections of age and homelessness, including the discursive ordering of 'house' and 'home,' the configurations of access and barriers, and aging in undesirable locations. In our conclusion, we draw attention to inequalities and the need for a life course perspective to ground future thinking. Our conceptual discussion is based on insights gained from a 3-year project on older homelessness in Montreal, Canada.