New Forms of Ageism, its Hidden Sources and Perspectives for Cultural Inclusion

In this article I discuss ageism as a force that excludes older people from society and normative images and models of living, and pay attention to its underlying cultural sources and strategies for inclusion. To begin, I will discuss how “compassionate ageism”—typical for the early welfare state—has been replaced by more harmful forms of ageism. This is followed by an exploration of deeper causes of ageism from the perspective of finitude and the interhuman condition. Lastly, I explore some preconditions for a cultural inclusion of older people—notably, the acceptance of a fundamental ambivalence related to aging. For the timely project of developing an inspiring culture of aging we need an art of living that resists ageist labelling and stigma, embraces the ambivalences of finite life, and doesn’t stop at “old age.”

(from Age, Culture, Humanities, 2025)

Narrative Configurations of Ageing and Time

Ageing and time are interconnected because ageing is basically living seen in a temporal perspective; especially as living after having already lived for a relatively long time. This makes “time” an important concept in trying to explain ageing. Usually, the connection between “ageing” and “time” is sought – or supposed to be found – in the concept of “age.” Unfortunately, “age” is used in confusingly different ways: “as we age,” “his age,” “the Stone Age,” “old age” or “weary with age.” “Time” does not offer much more clarity: “acceleration time,” “Caesar’s time,” “time will tell,” “time destroys all,” “time of birth” or “time since birth.” To clarify some of these confusions, different dimensions of “time” and ambiguities of “ageing” will be distinguished in this chapter. A major problem appears to be that chronometric time and lived time are both necessary to understand human ageing, but that these approaches tend to exclude or occlude each other. Narrative time is introduced as a way to interrelate these two temporal perspectives, to make it possible to develop and share meaningful accounts of our temporal human condition and to acknowledge the diversity of contexts in which human ageing takes place.

(from Cultural Histories of Ageing: Plots, Myths and Metaphors of the Senescent Self. Margery Vibe Skagen (ed). Routledge 2021, pp. 21-41, 2021)

Critical Turns of Time, Age, and Aging

(from IAGG Congress 2015 Keynote, 2015)

Communes of elderly people: between independence and colonization

Since the early 1980s, living in communes or communal groups has become more and more popular with elderly people in the Netherlands. The communal lifestyle has spread remarkably to age groups unaffected in the past. This phenomenon is considered to be an important innovation by all, whatever their viewpoint or background.

(from Journal of Aging Studies, 1994)

Filoso a de l’envelliment: Envellir bé no potser el mateix que mantenir-se jove

Estadísticament els éssers humans viuen més temps que mai abans: l’esperança de vida en néixer pràcticament s’ha dupli- cat en els països més desenvolupats en els últims 150 anys. Sembla, però, que al- guna cosa falta. Hi ha hagut crides repeti- des, especialment de l’Organització Mun- dial de la Salut, per afegir “vida” als anys després d’afegir anys a la vida. La cultura, que és un instrument per fer la vida més llarga, a través de coses com ara la mi- llora de la higiene i l’atenció mèdica, no es planteja les qüestions que sorgeixen quan s’intenta facilitar i inspirar vides més signi catives durant l’envelliment. Això es pot veure en molts models de “envelli- ment reeixit” que tendeixen a destacar l’absència de malalties.

(from Perifèria, 2016)

Aging: Learning to Live a Finite Life

Although biodemographic research informs us that life expectancies have risen impressively during the last century this has not led to much interest in these new horizons of aging. The instrumentalist culture of late modern societies, including its health cure system, has clearly difficulties to relate to the elusive but inevitable limitations of finite life. Moreover, as most people can be expected to survive into old age, thinking about finitude is easily postponed and reserved for those who are ‘really old’. Indeed, a meaningful and realistic understanding of aging needs to include a confrontation with the finitude of life. Instead of reducing aging to the opposite or continuation of vital adulthood, it should be seen as something with a potentially broad and deep significance: a process of learning to live a finite life. As a contribution to this cultural repositioning of aging the article presents a philosophical exploration of finitude and finite life. Among the discussed topics are the Stoic and Epicurean ways of living with death but also the necessity to expand the meaning of ‘finitude’ beyond mortality. Aging is foremost a process of living through changes that are largely beyond our control although they require active responding. Next, individualistic or existentialist interpretations are criticized because finite lives presuppose a social world in which they emerge and on which they depend. Unfortunately, aging, the most important experiential source of knowledge about what it is to live a finite life, is neglected by the same culture that needs its wisdom.

(from The Gerontologist, 2017)

Time in Late Modern Ageing

Human ageing is basically living in time. Therefore, the ways in which ageing is approached are strongly influenced by interpretations of what it is to live in time. Such interpretations are saturated with cultural meanings. The chronological (or rather, chronometric) concept of time that has become dominant in late modern societies appears to be purely instrumental and neutral. As such it not only obscures other forms of temporal orientations that are vital to understand ageing processes, but allows all kinds of cultural meanings (from ageist prejudice to political programs) to creep in, hiding behind the scientific prestige of statistics and exact measurements of people’s ages.

(from Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology, 2015)

Human aging, finite lives and the idealization of clocks

Aging and time are interconnected because aging is basically living seen in a temporal perspective. This makes ‘time’ an important concept in trying to explain aging. However, throughout modernity time has increasingly been identified as clock time: perfectly fit to measure ‘age’ as time since birth but failing to explain ‘age’ as an indicator of aging processes and even less adequate to grasp the lived time of human beings. Moreover, the clock as a cultural idol of instrumentalist perfection has led to approaching human aging in terms of maintenance and repair, inspiring a neglect and depreciation of human vulnerability. The instrumentalist culture of late modern society, including its health cure system, has difficulties to relate to the elusive but inevitable limitations of finite life. This tendency is supported by outspoken approaches in biogerontology indulging in perspectives of infinite human lives; a message that is eagerly consumed by the mass media. Moreover, as most people can be expected to survive into old age, thinking about finitude is easily postponed and reserved for those who are ‘really old’. Instead of reducing aging to the opposite or mere continuation of vital adulthood, it should be seen as something with a potentially broad and deep significance: a process of learning to live a finite life.

(from Biogerontology, 2017)