Four - The problem with modelling ageing

Summary

‘Model ageing’ vs anti-model

Chapters Two and Three have provided ample evidence of the productivity of policy makers and academics in developing and ‘selling’ the concepts of active and successful ageing. I have already alluded to my aim to examine these two concepts, as well as other related concepts such as productive, positive and healthy ageing, under the umbrella term of model ageing. This chapter elaborates on the case for viewing the notions of active and successful ageing, as well as other ‘prescriptions’ for ageing appropriately, through the prism of model ageing – an integrative concept that throws light on the reasons for, and the consequences of, thinking about ageing populations within models of ‘how to age well/properly’.

In order to examine the interface of these models and individual experience, I will employ the heuristic devices of ‘model’ and ‘antimodel’ older person – ‘model’ being aligned with active/successful ageing, and ‘anti-model’ deviating from the model behaviours and outcomes. We can begin to understand some of the parameters of being a ‘model older person’, as well as obstacles to becoming a ‘model older person’, by reflecting on who might fit the model, and on those who do not conform to it. The ‘model’ ageing citizen is a social construction and a policy aim; but it is also manifest (embodied) in people who (intentionally or unwittingly) adhere to (elements of) the model.

We can surmise that some of the ‘model agers’ are privileged (for instance a professor who continues to work in her 70s – because she can, and wants to); others are socially disadvantaged (for instance an older low-income worker who derives no enjoyment from his menial and exhausting work but needs the income). Some enjoy fitting the ‘model’; others resent it. However, it is important to acknowledge that we know little about the lived experience of being an ageing ‘model citizen’, or the ‘antithesis’ of the model. Investigating the lived experience of ‘model citizens’ is important for scholarly and policy reasons, because this helps to elucidate the drivers of and obstacles to ‘model’ behaviour. But we cannot fully understand the dynamics of the model unless we also study people who do not adhere to the model, and stand in stark contrast to it.