Molly Andrews

The seductiveness of agelessness

In recent years, many researchers in the study of ageing have adopted a terminology of ‘agelessness’. They argue that old age is nothing more than a social construct and that until it is eliminated as a conceptual category, ageism will continue to flourish. This article challenges this view, stating that the current tendency towards ‘agelessness’ is itself a form of ageism, depriving the old of one of their most hard-earned resources: their age. Specific theories of ageing (successful ageing, mask of ageing, continuity theory) are assessed in this light, and original data are presented as evidence of old age as a unique phase of the lifecycle replete with continued developmental possibilities.

Narrative imagination and everyday life

Acknowledgements Chapter One: Introduction: Trafficking In Human Possibilities Chapter Two: Knowledge, Belief, And Disbelief Chapter Three: Ageing Chapter Four: Education Chapter Five: Politics Conclusion Bibliography

The narrative complexity of successful ageing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue for an archaeological expedition of sorts, to search for and to uncover a host of stories which might assist us in piecing together a framework worth dedicating our future lives to understanding ageing.Design/methodology/approach – This is a theoretical paper on ageing.Findings – An individuals experience of ageing is integrally bound to questions of culture – particularly the systems of meaning within culture – and context. Just as there is not “one true story of aging”, so the paper suggests that we must have multiple narratives to assist us in building our own models of successful ageing.Originality/value – Narratives of successful ageing, like all narratives, are never told in a vacuum. Rather, there must be those who are able to hear them, often stretching themselves beyond their own experiences, even beyond their own cultural frameworks. This has strong implications for researchers of successful ageing: together, we must try to meet the challenge of l...

Ageful and proud

There is something splendid about the word ageful – a word which I had not encountered before reading Bytheway (2000). Ironically, Bytheway does not share my affection for his invention; rather, for him it seems to have negative connotations, reflected in his comment: ‘as gerontologists we are vulnerable to seeing ourselves and those we study entirely in terms of age: as ageing rather than living individuals: ageful rather than ageless’ (2000: 785–6). But why this juxtaposition between ageing and living? Surely there is an interconnectedness between the two. We are ageing from the moment we are born; the longer we live, the more full of age we become.

Learning from Stories, Stories of Learning.

Several years ago, after a lecture I gave on research methods to first year undergraduates, a member of class came up to me. The woman, considerably older than me and from the Caribbean, asked if we could have a quick word. I agreed, and asked her if she would like to go to my office. No, she assured me, that wouldn’t be necessary; hers would be a quick inquiry, and we could stay in the classroom where we were.

I. Breaking Down Barriers: Feminism, Politics and Psychology

The article explores the relationship between the three labels of feminist political psychologist from the perspective of the author. It interweaves personal narrative with case studies to illustrate how these three concepts are intricately bound together. In order to pursue research in political psychology gender can not be ignored as a central category in the way social, economic and political life are organized. Furthermore for the author Feminism is connected to a political understanding of the world.

Enduring ideals: revisiting Lifetimes of Commitment twenty-five years later

ABSTRACT This article examines political commitment to work for progressive social change as a lifelong activity. Challenging assumptions that idealism is something which is associated with youth, and, appropriately, later to be ‘grown out of’, the article presents an alternative model for examining social activism as a lifelong engagement. Revisiting research published 25 years ago (Lifetimes of commitment: Aging, politics, psychology, Cambridge University Press, 1991), the author re-examines key aspects of the study, including its most central contribution concerning activism as a feature across the life course. The discussion addresses recent debates on old age and political inclination as they are manifested in the global mourning of the death of Nelson Mandela, and the Brexit vote.

It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics – By Francesca Polletta

weakened political authority, competing systems of values, high risk, the need to rely on your own resources, and the seductive appeal of a global (or in his case, cosmic) communication system (viz, a hotline to the Almighty through prayer). There he was, a ‘new’ individual back in the fourth century AD. The meat of The New Individualism is to be found in the second and final chapters which trace some aspects of the theorisation (and mythologisation) of individualism, including the contributions made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (that great ‘individualist’ who depended so much on his female patrons), Benjamin Franklin, the Frankfurt School (‘manipulated individualism’), the stream of (mainly) American writing since the 1950s (including Reisman, Bellah, Putnam, and Sennett) on ‘isolated privatism,’ and the work revolving around Beck and Giddens during the 1990s on ‘reflexive individualism.’ There are a few gestures towards the dynamics of historical change but precious little sense of why the world is moving in the way it is. Instead, the display of theories is interwoven with a gallery of individual case studies to illustrate how we variously strive ferociously for control, search for pleasure or reassurance, seize the day, feel terribly vulnerable, and make use of new technology and the internet in some way while we are having these experiences. Some of the case studies feel a bit like what used to be called ‘object lessons,’ constructed composites leading us towards pre-set conclusions. To balance this, two of them are especially lively, ambiguous and ‘edgy.’ One features the authors’ own daughters and is full of anxiety mixed with pride; that seemed real. The other is the case of Norman Bishop, founder of Positive Solutions Inc. Unlike ‘Larry’, ‘Simon’ and ‘Ruth’ (three of the other cases), Norman is an identifiable individual and the real hero of this book. He accepts the world as it is and tries to make it better. When you have read this book it is worth paying a brief visit to http://www.wesleyan.edu/av/ PositiveSolutions.html where you will find Norman Bishop and Charles Lemert standing together, smiling gloriously at the camera.