Ageing without senescence: A critical absence in social gerontology?

This paper addresses the absence of the term 'senescence' in recent social science literature on ageing. The significance of this omission is considered in light of the emerging standpoint of gero-science, which argues that the central processes defining ageing are concerned with the rising probability of functional decline, development of degenerative disease and death. From this perspective, the separation of ageing and senescence sustains the myth that there exist forms of ageing that are exempt from senescence.

Is ageism an oppression?

The concept of ageism as oppression has become an important point of reference in contemporary gerontology. Apart from its giving substance to the negative experiences impacting on older people, the idea of ageism as oppression is used in many different contexts, with different meanings. In this paper we argue that the positioning of ageism as oppression, rather than constituting a deepening of gerontological focus, seems to serve as a way of connecting those using it with other social movements for whom oppression and its overcoming have been critical to their historical development.

Age, subjectivity and the concept of subjective age: A critique.

This paper presents a critique and proposes a reformulation of the concept of subjective age. It questions the nature of 'subjectivity' used in framing the concept and the consequent failure to distinguish between 'subjectivity' and 'self-identity'. I argue that age is not easily framed as a phenomenal (for-me) experience and that it is at least questionable whether aging or agedness possess what might be termed a 'first-person' subjectivity.

Values across Ages.

Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age, by Nancy Jecker, addresses what she sees as Western society's overvaluing of autonomy and undervaluing of dignity, a bias that she sees as particularly unsuited to old age. While she makes a strong case, two main problems challenge her approach. First, she characterizes later life by the diseases and disabilities associated with it, compressing its ever-expanding social space into a narrow location where need trumps desire, and comfort companionship.