Lorna Warren

Hopes, fears and expectations about the future: what do older people's stories tell us about active ageing?

ABSTRACT ‘Active ageing’ is a key concept in current policy and research on ageing and yet is under-analysed or interpreted largely within an economic framework. This paper explores active ageing in the broader context of older peoples lives. Drawing on a series of biographical interviews with 23 people aged 60–96 years, the discussion focuses on the theme of future hopes and concerns. Exhortations for ‘active ageing’ may be challenged by a lifelong unwillingness to look forward or plan ahead. Nevertheless, the findings show that fears for a future of limited resources, decline and dependency can exist alongside not only the desire to live longer but also the positive anticipation of forthcoming events and strong inter-generational relations. ‘Living for now’ and ‘taking a day at a time’ – and by extension the accomplishment of everyday activities rather than the activity-driven goals of earlier years – are common strategies for dealing with the unpredictability of later life. In this respect, even stopping paid work and entering residential care may be actively chosen and empowering even though they are steps towards disengagement and dependency. Similarly, planning for death, such as writing (living) wills and making funeral arrangements, may be positive and proactive responses to beliefs and concerns about dying. ‘Active ageing’ therefore needs to offer choices for life to be lived at all stages whilst recognising that much of the focus for older people is on ordinary needs, deeds and relationships.

Dealing with Complexity in Research Processes and Findings: How Do Older Women Negotiate and Challenge Images of Aging?

The Representing Self—Representing Ageing initiative has been funded by the ESRC as part of the New Dynamics of Ageing cross-council research program. It has consisted of four projects with older women using visual research methods and participatory approaches to enable women to articulate their experiences of aging and to create alternative images of aging. Complex research processes were utilized. Innovative methods included the use of art elicitation, photo diaries, film booths, and phototherapy.

Working with older women in research: Some methods‐based issues

Commentators have highlighted the growing political and research interest in user involvement, with particular reference to social policy (Kemshall & Littlechild, 2000). Beresford (2002) has noted the tendency to present it as a ‘good thing’ pointing out, however, that it has both liberatory but also regressive potential. At the same time, Barnes (2001) has illuminated the limitations of ‘mainstream’ theory and practice in user participation in their failure to accommodate emotional experience, storytelling and diverse debates, as well as to develop more creative ways of working.This paper describes elements of the above as part of a critical reflection on the experiences of working with older women from a range of communities in research. The focus is on the practicalities of setting up and carrying out the research, though implications for the process of policy‐making are also briefly highlighted.

‘I Don’t See Many Images of Myself Coming Back at Myself’: Representations of Women and Ageing

In twenty-first century Western society, there is an obsession with youthfulness (Walters, 2010): popular culture presents women’s (hetero)sexual allure as their passport to success (Bartky, 1990; Bordo, 1993) and images of ageing, if visible at all (Zhang et al., 2006), are increasingly influenced by the discourses of the anti-ageing industry (Calasanti, 2007; Hurd Clarke, 2011). The Second World Assembly on Ageing (United Nations, 2002) recognized a need to challenge stereotyped images of ageing, particularly in relation to older women. The use of visual methods as a means of allowing older women to articulate their experiences of ageing is one way of doing this but, to date, ‘ordinary’ older women have had few opportunities to either comment on, or create, their own images of ageing and old age. This chapter gives details of one research initiative which has aimed to do precisely that. Representing Self — Representing Ageing (RSRA)1 brought together an interdisciplinary team united through a commitment to the use of participatory visual methods. The project has been designed to enable older women to work together to identify and critique dominant images of women in popular culture and to use creative media to make their own individual images of ageing. Resultant artwork has been displayed in an exhibition entitled Look at Me! held in a range of venues in the UK and capturing public responses to these ‘alternative’ images.

Oral care as a life course project: A qualitative grounded theory study

OBJECTIVE To report on a theory to explain the oral health of older people over the life course. BACKGROUND The study of ageing has burgeoned into a complex interdisciplinary field of research, yet there are few studies in oral health from the perspective of older people that bridge the gap between sociology and oral health related research. METHODS A grounded theory study involving a convenience sample of 15 men and 28 women aged between 65 and 91 years across different levels of education. Data were subjected to grounded theory analysis using QSR NVivo 11.0 and where relevant phenomenological theory. RESULTS Participants conceived of oral care as a life course project that resulted from an active plan to keep ones teeth into older age. This involved accessing the social world of dentistry, holding appropriate values, understanding the associated personality types, social practices, goals and outcomes. The life course project is a social project supported by social institutions. It involves ideas about appropriate ageing including how oral health is to be managed at different stages in the life course. The degree to which individuals are able to participate in this project is determined by both individual and social factors. CONCLUSIONS The theory explains why the loss of a single tooth might be experienced as traumatic but also why older people adapt to their changing oral health. Oral health in older age represented a lifetimes investment in oral care. Future health policies should consider this lifetime investment when considering care for older people.