Monika Wilińska

Is there a place for an ageing subject? Stories of ageing at the University of the Third Age in Poland

The University of the Third Age (U3A) is an organization widely recognized for its achievements in the field of adult education. However, little research to date has addressed the position of the U3A in the context of the societal discourse on ageing. The aim of this study was to examine stories of ageing told by the U3A in Poland and to place these stories within the contemporary discourse of ageing. The study sought to reflect on the role of the U3A in providing an environment that encourages the growth of an ageing subject. The results of this study indicate that rather than resisting ageist discourses, the U3A simply rejects the idea of old age. The U3A characterizes its members as exceptional people who have nothing in common with old people outside of the U3A. Therefore, the U3A plays only a minor role in changing the social circumstances of old people in Poland

Because women will always be women and men are just getting older: Intersecting discourses of ageing and gender

The aim of this article is to examine a meeting between discourses of gender and age at the macro-level, applying an intersectional research approach. The discussion of intersecting discourses is based on empirical material from Poland. It refers to the condition of social policy towards age and gender, in Poland, as well as the media discourse. The results of the study indicate that the intersection between discourses of age and gender involves discriminatory practices that result in an establishment of one-dimensional and pejorative subject positions. Two main subject positions of grandma and pensioner exemplify the main mechanism of a dynamic relationship between both discourses where the order implied by one discourse is strengthened at the expense of the other. The phenomenon of gendered age and aged gender reflects the key rule for understanding subject positions which pertain to categories of older women and older men.

Old Age Identity in Social Welfare Practice

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.

Multiple Marginalizations Based on Age: Gendered Ageism and Beyond

This chapter offers a theoretical contribution to the discussions revolving around multiple marginalizations based on age. Our main focus is on gendered ageism, where vulnerability and marginalization is based on the interaction of age and gender, and its potential to highlight the processes and practices of marginalization. Based on the understanding of ageism as a socio-cultural practice involving privilege, subordination, and inequality, we rework existing conceptualizations of multiple marginalizations and of gendered ageism. The understanding of ageism as a form of doing enmeshed in interlocking power structures draws attention to the importance of socio-cultural context and the dynamics involved in the creation and reproduction of social reality, including social inequalities. This chapter draws on a wide range of existing studies to illustrate and explain this new approach. It concludes with an outline of an applicable research programme that yields novel ways of exploring multiple inequalities in later life and gendered ageism more specifically.

In Search of the Everyday Life of Older People in Japan: Reflections Based on Scholarly Literature

The main objective of this paper is to critically examine discourses about old age in Japan, a country with perspectives that are culturally different from the European and American perspectives that tend to dominate the scholarly discourse on ageing. We focus our inquiry on the scientific discourse as representative of a system of knowledge that has a crucial role in determining ways of thinking and perceiving old age. Our literature review is based on a study of academic articles, within the field of gerontology, about the everyday life of older people in Japan that were published in the 10-year period between 1999 and 2009. We apply a Foucauldian gerontology perspective as our analytical tool. The results of our study indicate that there is insufficient knowledge about the everyday life of older people in Japan in gerontological research. We identify a number of discursive practices applied in various research projects that present a one-sided story of old age in Japan. In the conclusion of this paper, we identify a need for interdisciplinary and qualitative studies of old age in Japan that would include voices of older people.

Proud to be a woman: Womanhood, old age, and emotions

ABSTRACT This article takes its starting point in the discussions regarding intersecting discourses of gender and age and the lived experience of older women. The main objective is to discuss the experience of womanhood among older women and to demonstrate their active role in creating spaces for themselves and their friends and affecting each other. The study is based on narrative interviews with female members of the University of the Third Age (U3A). The main findings describe older women who actively engage with discourses of gender to embark on positive constructions of womanhood. They create their own spaces for women’s activism that are filled with positive emotions mobilized to support each other. This article discusses such findings and their relevance to the study of old age and gender. As a result, it serves as an invitation to think and feel differently about older women and their experience of womanhood.

An Older Person and New Media in Public Discourses: Impossible Encounters?

The aim of this paper is to consider the use and role of new media in the lives of older people. To this end, I focus on the social images of encounters between older people and new media. My focus is two-fold; on the one hand, I aim at opening the academic discussion on new media and older people to societal and structural considerations; on the other, I make an argument about the use of discourse, critical discourse analysis in particular, approaches to understand the main discourses that frame the experience of older people with new media. Thus, in this paper I question taken for granted assumptions regarding the inherent characteristics of older people that prevent them from entering the social media space. I draw on the concept of ageism to discuss the implications of this for an individual, older social media user.

Shame on me ... emotions in the fieldwork on old age in Japan

The starting point of this article is my research experience in Japan. As a non-Japanese, white woman, I spent four months in Japan researching about old age. Those four months were a period of an extensive research activity filled with various events and situations. The main aim of this article is to attend to emotions in fieldwork by illuminating the role of emotions in research and knowledge construction. More specifically, this article is a record of my own experiences of various accumulated emotions and knowledge that have shaped my understanding of what I saw, heard and felt during my fieldwork on old age in Japan. The particular focus is on shame and how shame became the mediator and activator of my knowledge about old age in Japan. The examples presented here demonstrate that openness and ability to feel contribute greatly to the type of research in which we engage, and the type of research we are capable of performing.

People like us: experiencing difference in the working life of immigrant women

Purpose - The main aim of this article is to research the lived experience of difference. In this article, we are interested in the field of working life in the context of entrepreneurship among Tu ...

Ageism in a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Reflections from the Research Field

In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities and challenges of researching ageism from a cross-cultural perspective. We discuss the complexity of exploring diverse ageist practices as performed in different parts of the world. We also reflect upon the socio-cultural backgrounds through which researchers filter the experiences of fieldwork and research on various enactments of ageism. The key tenet of our argument is that these two dimensions interact during the fieldwork to create unique frameworks that researchers apply in their studies.