Editorial for special issue Ageing, body and society: Key themes, critical perspectives

Over the last two decades significant theoretical, methodological and empirical developments have explored the social, biological and cultural dimensions of our bodies as we grow older. An earlier concern within ageing studies that a focus on the bodies of older people represented a return to biological determinism and an overly medical approach has been replaced by a realisation how a focus on ageing bodies offers a novel lens to examine a range of existing sociological and theoretical concerns. These include the nature of the body, self and ageing; social identities and social inequalities; lived experiences and everyday life; the role of materiality and consumption in the cultural constitution of age; health and illness; and ageing across the full lifecourse from midlife to deep old age. It is over twenty years since Peter Őberg published his seminal article in Ageing & Society on the absent body in gerontology (Öberg, 1996). It is therefore timely to bring together established and emergent researchers to review the wealth of work in this area, and to take forward key debates, enhance current and emergent theoretical perspectives, and disseminate empirical research in ‘ageing, body and society’. In particular, this special issue aims to highlight and explore interconnections between the corporeality of ageing bodies and the socio-cultural context in which we live. The special issue has built upon the international networks and focus of the British Sociological Association (BSA) Ageing, Body and Society study group1 for which the co-editors Dr. Wendy Martin and Professor Julia Twigg have been co-convenors since 2007. Through international symposia and an annual one day conference, the study group has brought together international academics and researchers whose work focuses on ageing, bodies and embodiment, exploring and debating different theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and empirical findings

Narratives at work: What can stories of older athletes do?

notes: Available in 'FirstView' onlinepublication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePrevious research has shown that young adults tend to identify and reinforce negative stereotypes of growing older. They can express both fear and trepidation regarding the bodily changes that occur with advancing age. With this in mind, in this paper we draw upon Frank's (2010) theoretical framework of socio-narratology to examine the work that stories can do. We take as a working example the impact that stories of ageing told by masters athletes might have upon young adults, and specifically their perceptions of (self-)ageing. Three focus groups were carried out with the young adults to examine their perceptions of (self-)ageing prior to and following their viewing of a digital story portraying images and narratives of mature, natural (‘drug-free’) bodybuilders. Our analysis pointed to a number specific capacities that stories of masters athletes might have, namely the potential to re-open young adults sense of narrative foreclosure, the stretching and expanding of existing imagined storylines, and increasing the availability of narrative options. We propose that understanding what stories can do, what they can do best, and the narrative environments that help and hinder this process is essential if our programmes and policies are to produce the results that are wanted

Successful ageing or inevitable decline? Ageing and old age in gerontological discourse

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:2955.623(9) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Consumption and community: choices for women over forty

Women in their forties face a range of issues regarding how they choose to present themselves to the world; often these choices involve forms of consumption. We talked to two groups of British women and discussed how they felt about themselves and the pressures upon them. We present a discussion which aims to synthesize some of the key features of how these women face their futures and suggest potential theoretical positions to help encapsulate women’s present and futures selves. We suggest that there are a number of pressures that may engender alternative consumption choices and these are often set within a wider sense of female community. The concept of community should prove useful for further theorising on women’s future consumption choices

Adjusting the cut: fashion, the body and age in the UK high street

The article explores the interplay between bodily and cultural ageing in the provision of clothing for older women, examining how design directors of UK clothing retailers act as cultural mediators, shaping the ways in which later years are imagined, experienced and performed at an embodied level. Based on interviews with clothing retailers with a significant involvement with the older market: Marks & Spencer, George at Asda, Jaeger, Viyella and Edinburgh Woollen Mill, it analyses the contexts in which they design, discussing: the potential of the grey market; the association of fashion and youthfulness; and the tensions between lifestyle and age in the formation of the market. It explores the ways in which they adjust the cut, colour and style of clothes to meet the requirements of older bodies and the changing cultural interpretations of these, addressing debates around the interplay of bodily and cultural ageing, and the role of consumption in the constitution of age. Reflecting both the cultural and material turns, it argues for the need to expand the social gerontology imaginary to encompass wider sources shaping the meanings of later years