Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:21:56.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Doing change and continuity: age identity and the micro–macro divide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2009

PIRJO NIKANDER
PIRJO NIKANDER*
Affiliation:
Methodology Centre for Human Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
*
Address for correspondence: Pirjo Nikander, Methodology Centre for Human Sciences, P.O. Box 35, MaC 208, FIN-40014, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper is a study of the discursive management of notions of change and continuity in interview talk. It presents selected short empirical examples from interviews with 22 Finnish baby-boomers, and discusses the methodological and theoretical issues that arise. Following a review of the major approaches to the study of age identity, the analytic intersection between qualitative gerontology and discursive psychology is explored. The analysis identifies how the frequent use of a ‘provisional continuity device’ enables speakers simultaneously both to acknowledge and to distance themselves from factual notions of physical or psychological lifespan change. The key methodological argument is that the discursive analysis of age-in-interaction cannot necessarily be achieved through the myopic micro-study of discursive strategies, but rather two suggestions are made. First, it is argued that analytically-anchored and rigorous discursive gerontology that both systematically draws on and contributes to the broad field of discursive research provides a means by which to test empirically post-modern conceptualisations of age identity. Second, it is suggested that analyses of age-talk in everyday and institutional settings provide an analytical and theoretical middle-ground between the macro versus micro or ‘microfication’ debate in gerontology.

Keywords

age identitybaby-boom cohortprovisional continuity devicediscursive gerontologymicro and macromicrofication
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 29 , Issue 6: Discourse, identity and change in mid-to-late life: inter-disciplinary perspectives on language and ageing , August 2009 , pp. 863 - 881
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, M. 1999. The seductiveness of agelessness. Ageing & Society, 19, 3, 301–18.Google Scholar
Antaki, C. and Widdicombe, S. (eds)1998. Identities in Talk. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. 1991. Gender and Later Life: A Sociological Analysis of Resources and Constrants. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. 1995. Connecting Gender and Ageing: A Sociological Approach. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK.Google Scholar
Baker, C. D. 1984. The search for adultness: membership work in adolescent-adult talk. Human Studies, 7, 301–23.Google Scholar
Barak, B. and Stern, B. 1986. Subjective age correlates: a research note. The Gerontologist, 26, 5, 571–8.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. 1992. Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies. Polity, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. 2006. Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Biggs, S., Lowenstein, A. and Hendricks, J. (eds)2003. The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. Baywood, New York.Google Scholar
Bodily, C. L. 1994. Ageism and the deployments of age: a constructionist view. In Sarbin, T. R. and Kitsuse, J. I. (eds), Constructing the Social. Sage, London, 174–94.Google Scholar
Burman, E. 1994. Deconstructing Developmental Psychology. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B. 1997. Talking about age: the theoretical basis of social gerontology. In Jamieson, A., Harper, S. and Victor, C. (eds), Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK, 7–15.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B. 2005. Age-identities and the celebration of birthdays. Ageing & Society, 25, 4, 463–77.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B. 2009. Writing about age, birthdays and the passage of time. Ageing & Society, 29, 6, 881–99.Google Scholar
Coupland, J. 2009. Time, the body and the reversibility of ageing: commodifying the decade. Ageing & Society, 29, 6, 951–75.Google Scholar
Coupland, J., Coupland, N. and Grainger, K. 1991. Intergenerational discourse: contextual versions of ageing and elderliness. Ageing & Society, 11, 3, 189–208.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. and Coupland, J. 1990. Language and later life. In Giles, H. and Robinson, P. W. (eds), Handbook of Language and Social Psychology. Wiley, Chichester, UK, 451–68.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. and Coupland, J. 1999. Ageing, ageism and anti-ageism: moral stance in geriatric medical discourse. In Hamilton, H. E. (ed.), Language and Communication in Old Age: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Garland, New York, 177–208.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. and Ylanne McEwen, V. 1993. Introduction: discourse, institutions and the elderly. Journal of Aging Studies, 7, 3, 229–35.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. and Nussbaum, J. F. (eds)1993. Discourse and Lifespan Identity. Sage, Newbury Park, California.Google Scholar
Coupland, N., Coupland, J. and Giles, H. 1989. Telling age in later life: identity and face implications. Text, 9, 2, 129–51.Google Scholar
Covey, H. C. 1992. The definitions of the beginning of old age in history. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 34, 4, 325–37.Google Scholar
Dannefer, D. 1989. Human action and its place in theories of aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 3, 1, 1–20.Google Scholar
Devor, H. 1989. Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.Google Scholar
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. 1997. Jockeying for a position: the construction of masculine identities. Discourse and Society, 8, 2, 203–17.Google Scholar
Estes, C. 1979. The Aging Enterprise. Jossey Bass, San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1989. Ageing and old age: reflections on the postmodern life course. In Bytheway, B., Keil, T., Allatt, P. and Bryman, A. (eds), Becoming and Being Old: Sociological Approaches to Later Life. Sage, London, 143–57.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1991. The midlife style of ‘George and Lynne’: notes on a popular strip. In Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M. and Turner, B. S. (eds), The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. Sage, London, 197–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1993. Images of ageing. In Bond, J. and Coleman, P. (eds), Ageing in Society. Sage, London, 144–67.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Wernick, A. (eds)1995. Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Fry, C. L. 2003. The life course as a cultural construct. In Settersten, R. A. Jr (eds), Invitation to the Life Course: Toward New Understanding of Later Life. Baywood, Amityville, New York, 269–94.Google Scholar
Gergen, K. J. and Gergen, M. M. 2000. The new aging: self construction and social values. In Schaie, R. W. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Evolution of the Aging Self: The Societal Impact on the Aging Process. Springer, New York, 281–306.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, O. 2001. Cultures of Ageing. Prentice Hall, London.Google Scholar
Grainger, K. 1993. That's a lovely bath dear: reality construction in the discourse of elderly care. Journal of Aging Studies, 7, 3, 247–62.Google Scholar
Gubrium, J. F. and Wallace, B. J. 1990. Who theorises age? Ageing & Society, 10, 2, 131–49.Google Scholar
Gubrium, J. F., Holstein, J. A. and Buckholdt, D. R. 1994. Constructing the Life Course. General Hall, New York.Google Scholar
Hagestad, G. O. and Dannefer, D. 2001. Concepts and theories of aging: beyond microfication in social science approaches. In Binstock, R. H. and George, L. (eds), Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Fifth edition, Academic, San Diego, California, 3–21.Google Scholar
Harwood, J. 2007. Understanding Communication and Aging: Developing Communication and Awareness. Sage, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hazan, H. 1994. Old Age: Constructions and Deconstructions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hendricks, J. 1995. Age identification. In Maddox, G. L. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ageing: A Comprehensive Resource in Gerontology and Geriatrics. Springer, New York, 34–5.Google Scholar
Hendricks, J. 2003. Structure and identity – mind the gap: towards a personal resource model of successful aging. In Biggs, S., Lowenstein, A. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. Baywood, New York, 63–87.Google Scholar
Hepburn, A. and Wiggins, S. (eds)2007. Discursive Research in Practice. New Approaches to Psychology and Interaction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hepworth, M. 2002. Using ‘cultural products’ in researching images of ageing. In Jamieson, A. and Victor, C. R. (eds), Researching Ageing and Later Life. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK, 80–95.Google Scholar
Hockey, J. and James, A. 1993. Growing Up and Growing Old: Ageing and Dependency in the Life Course. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Hockey, J. and James, A. 2003. Social Identities Across the Life Course. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Holstein, J. A. 1990. The discourse of age in involuntary commitment proceedings. Journal of Aging Studies, 4, 2, 111–30.Google Scholar
Holstein, J. A. and Gubrium, J. F. (eds)2008. Handbook of Constructionist Research. Guilford, New York.Google Scholar
Jolanki, O. 2004. Moral argumentation in talk about health and old age. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 8, 4, 483–503.Google Scholar
Jones, R. L. 2006. ‘Older people’ talking as if they were not older people: positioning theory as an explanation. Journal of Aging Studies, 20, 1, 79–91.Google Scholar
Joseph, J. 2004. Language and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Kastenbaum, R., Derbin, V., Sabatini, B. and Art, S. 1972. ‘The ages of me’: towards personal and interpersonal definitions of functional ageing. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 3, 2, 197–211.Google Scholar
Katz, S. 1996. Disciplining Old Age: The Formation of Gerontological Knowledge. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.Google Scholar
Katz, S. 2005. Cultural Ageing: Life Course, Life Style and Senior Worlds. Broadview, Peterborough, Canada.Google Scholar
Kaufman, S. 1994. The social construction of frailty: an anthropological perspective. Journal of Aging Studies, 8, 1, 45–58.Google Scholar
Kearl, M. C. and Hoag, L. J. 1984. The social construction of the midlife crisis: a case study in the temporalities of identity. Sociological Inquiry, 54, 3, 278–300.Google Scholar
Kirk, H. 1992. Geriatric medicine and the categorisation of old age: the historical linkage. Ageing & Society, 12, 4, 483–97.Google Scholar
Krause, N. 2000. Are we really entering a new era of aging? In Schaie, R. W. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Evolution of the Aging Self: The Societal Impact on the Aging Process. Springer, New York, 307–18.Google Scholar
Murphy, J. W. and Longino, C. F. 1992. What is the justification for a qualitative approach to ageing studies? Ageing & Society, 12, 2, 143–56.Google Scholar
Murphy, J. W. and Longino, C. F. 1997. Towards a postmodern understanding of aging and identity. Journal of Aging and Identity, 2, 2, 81–9.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2000. ‘Old’ vs. ‘little girl’: a discursive approach to age categorisation and morality. Journal of Aging Studies, 14, 4, 335–58.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2002. Age in Action: Membership Work and Stage of Life Categories in Talk. Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Helsinki.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2003. The absent client: case description and decision-making in inter-professional meetings. In Hall, C., Juhila, K., Parton, N. and Pösö, T. (eds), Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services: Identities, Interactions and Practices. Jessica Kingsley, London, 112–28.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2007. Emotions in meeting talk. In Hepburn, A. and Wiggins, S. (eds), Discursive Research in Practice: New Approaches to Psychology and Interaction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 50–69.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2008 a. Constructionism and discourse analysis. In Holstein, J. A. and Gubrium, J. F. (eds), Handbook of Constructionist Research. Guilford, New York, 413–28.Google Scholar
Nikander, P. 2008 b. Working with transcriptions and translated data. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5, 3, 225–31.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. 2004. Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. 1998. Reconstructing Old Age. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. 2003. Globalization and the reconstruction of old age: new challenges for critical gerontology. In Biggs, S., Lowenstein, A. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. Baywood, New York, 163–79.Google Scholar
Pomerantz, A. 1986. Extreme case formulations: a way of legitimizing claims. Human Studies, 9, 219–29.Google Scholar
Potter, J. 2003. Discourse analysis and discursive psychology. In Camic, P. M., Rhodes, J. E. and Yardley, L. (eds), Qualitative Research in Psychology: Expanding Perspectives in Methodology and Design. American Psychological Association, Washington DC, 73–94.Google Scholar
Potter, J. and Wetherell, M. 1987. Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Powell, J. L and Longino, C. F. 2002. Postmodernism versus modernism: rethinking theoretical tensions in social gerontology. Journal of Aging and Identity, 7, 4, 219–26.Google Scholar
Rapley, M. 1998. ‘Just an ordinary Australian’: self-categorisation and the discursive construction of facticity in ‘new racist’ political rhetoric. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 3, 325–44.Google Scholar
Raz, A. E. 1995. The discourse of aging and other age-related languages: how selves are authorized in the postmodern. In Denzin, N. K. (ed.), Studies in Symbolic Interaction. Volume 18, Jai, Greenwich, Connecticut, 23–57.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, D. 1987. Discourse Markers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Seltzer, M. M. 1992. Continuity and change revisited. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 35, 1, 67–82.Google Scholar
Shotter, J. and Gergen, K. J. (eds)1989. Texts of Identity. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Skevington, S. and Baker, D. (eds)1989. The Social Identity of Women. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Speer, S. 2008. Natural and contrived data. In Bickman, L., Brannen, J. and Alasuutari, P. (eds), Handbook of Social Research. Sage, London, 290–312.Google Scholar
Stokoe, E. H. 1998. Talking about gender: the conversational construction of gender categories in academic discourse. Discourse and Society, 9, 2, 217–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tracy, K. and Coupland, N. 1990. Multiple Goals in Discourse. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, UK.Google Scholar
Twigg, J. 2007. Clothing, age and the body: a critical review. Ageing & Society 27, 2, 285–305.Google Scholar
von Kondratowitz, H.-J. 2003. The legacy of social constructionism for social gerontology. In Biggs, S., Lowenstein, A. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. Baywood, New York, 45–62.Google Scholar
Wallace, B. J. 1992. Reconsidering the life review: the social construction of talk about the past. The Gerontologist, 33, 1, 120–5.Google Scholar
Walker, A. 1981. Towards a political economy of old age. Ageing & Society, 1, 1, 73–94.Google Scholar
Watson, R. D. and Weinberg, T. S. 1982. Interviews and the interactional construction of accounts of homosexual identity. Social Analysis, 11, 1, 56–78.Google Scholar
Wetherall, A. 2002. Gender, Language and Discourse. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Wetherell, M. and Potter, J. 1992. Mapping the Language of Racism: Discourse and the Legitimation of Exploitation. Harvester Wheatsheaf, London.Google Scholar
Widdicombe, S. and Wooffitt, R. 1995. The Language of Youth Subcultures: Social Identity in Action. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, UK.Google Scholar
Wood, L. A. and Kroger, R. O. 1995. Discourse analysis in research on aging. Canadian Journal of Aging, 14, 1, 82–99.Google Scholar
Wood, L. A. and Kroger, R. O. 2000. Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar