Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T09:07:36.104Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Controlling active ageing: a study of social imaginaries of older people in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2019

Cynthia Meersohn Schmidt  and
Keming Yang
Cynthia Meersohn Schmidt*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Durham, Durham, UK
Keming Yang
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Durham, Durham, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A key issue in understanding the social lives of older people is how active they are in coping with the demands of ageing. Often the ‘successfulness’ of ageing is measured with medical and biological criteria. While the notion of ‘active ageing’ is more appealing and neutral, its meaning is often obscured, fragmented or inconsistent. Our aims in this study were to establish ‘active ageing’ as a process in which older people try to take control of their lives by conforming to or resisting different social imaginaries of later life, and to explore individuals’ strategies for making the best use of available resources and fending off potential risks of social exclusion. We adopted a two-stage research design. First, we produced artistic images that corresponded to social imaginaries of tensions in ageing in three social domains (politics, mass media and older people). Then, we used these images as stimuli in interviews with a balanced sample of 32 middle-aged and older residents of Santiago, Chile, to discover their strategies for coping with these tensions. Although imaginaries of ageing tended to describe ageing in terms of restrictions and stereotypes, we found diverse and increasingly flexible life projects and expectations of activity in later life.

Keywords

active ageingsocial imaginariessocial rolesChile
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 40 , Issue 7 , July 2020 , pp. 1428 - 1454
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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

Abusleme, MT, Arnold Cathalifaud, M, González, F, Guajardo, G, Lagos, R, Massad, C, Sir, H, Thumala Dockendorff, D and Urquiza, Gómez, A (2014) Inclusión y Exclusión Social de las personas mayores en Chile. Santiago: Ediciones Servicio Nacional del Adulto Mayor.Google Scholar
Anderson, B (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Annear, M, Keeling, S, Wilkinson, T, Cushman, G, Gidlow, B and Hopkins, H (2014) Environmental influences on healthy and active ageing: a systematic review. Ageing & Society 34, 590–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arber, S, Bowling, A, Creech, A, Duncan, M, Goulding, A, Gyi, D, Hallam, S, Haslam, C, Kazi, A, Lloyd, L, Lord, J, MAP2030 Team, Murphy, M, Newman, A, Phillips, AC, Twumasi, R and Upton, J (2014) Maintaining health and well-being: overcoming barriers to healthy ageing. In Walker, A (ed.), The New Science of Ageing. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 113–154.Google Scholar
Baars, J and Phillipson, C (2013) Connecting meaning with social structure: theoretical foundations. In Baars, J, Dohmen, J, Grenier, A and Phillipson, C (eds), Ageing, Meaning and Social Structure: Connecting Critical and Humanistic Gerontology. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 11–30.10.2307/j.ctt9qgtp6.6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional (2002) Historia de la Ley No 19.828. Crea el Servicio Nacional del Adulto Mayor. Congreso Nacional de Chile.Google Scholar
Boreal and SENAMA (2011) Estudio de Recopilacion, Sistematización y Descripción de Información Estadística Disponible sobre Vejez y Envejecimiento en Chile. Santiago: BOREAL Investigación – Consultoría Ltda.Google Scholar
Boudiny, K (2013) ‘Active ageing’: from empty rhetoric to effective policy tool. Ageing & Society 33, 1077–1098.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boudiny, K and Mortelmans, D (2011) A critical perspective: towards a broader understanding of ‘active ageing’. Electronic Journal of Applied Psychology 7, 8–14.Google Scholar
Bowling, A (2009) Perceptions of active ageing in Britain: divergences between minority ethnic and whole population samples. Age and Ageing 38, 703–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowling, A and Gabriel, Z (2004) An integrational model of quality of life in older age. Results from the ESRC/MRC HSRC Quality of Life Survey in Britain. Social Indicators Research 69, 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowling, A and Iliffe, S (2006) Which model of successful ageing should be used? Baseline findings from a British longitudinal survey of ageing. Age and Ageing 35, 607–614.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunout, D, Osorio, P, Barrera, G, Torrejón, MJ, Meersohn, C, Anigstein, MS, Miranda, JP, Espinoza, I, Hirsch, S and de la Maza, MP (2012) Quality of life of older Chilean subjects living in metropolitan Santiago, Chile. Influence of socioeconomic status. Ageing Research 3, 1–22.Google Scholar
Buys, L and Miller, E (2006) The meaning of‘ active ageing’ to older Australians: exploring the relative importance of health, participation and security. 39th Australian Association of Gerontology Conference. Available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6671/.Google Scholar
Castoriadis, C (1975) L'institution imaginaire de la société. Paris: Éditions de Seuil.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (2014) The World Factbook. Field Listing. Available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ci.html.Google Scholar
Clarke, AE (2005) Situational Analyses: Grounded Theory Mapping After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Closs, P, Allen, CF, Alvarado, BE, Zunzunegui, MV, Simeon, DT and Eldemire-Shearer, D (2010) ‘Active ageing’: a qualitative study in six Caribbean countries. Ageing & Society 30, 79–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comité Nacional Para el Adulto Mayor (2002) Encuesta ‘Imagen de la Vejez’. Santiago: Comité Nacional Para el Adulto Mayor.Google Scholar
Feldman, MS, Skoldberg, K, Brown, RN and Horner, D (2004) Making sense of stories: a rhetorical approach to narrative analysis. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 14, 147–170.10.1093/jopart/muh010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, L and Walker, A (2013) Gender and active ageing in Europe. European Journal of Ageing 10, 3–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, L and Walker, A (2014) Active and successful aging: a European policy perspective. The Gerontologist Special Issue: Successful Aging, 1–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Gilleard, C and Higgs, P (2002) The third age: class, cohort or generation? Ageing & Society 22, 369–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilleard, C and Higgs, P (2013) The fourth age and the concept of a ‘social imaginary’: a theoretical excursus. Journal of Aging Studies 27, 368–376.10.1016/j.jaging.2013.08.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grefenstette, G (1994) Corpus-derived first, second and third-order word affinities. In Euralex. Amsterdam European Association for Lexicography, pp. 279–290. https://euralex.org/category/publications/euralex-1994/Google Scholar
Grenier, A (2012) Transitions and the Lifecourse: Challenging the Constructions of ‘Growing Old’. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hepworth, M (2000) Stories of Ageing. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (2014) Chile: Proyecciones y Estimaciones de Población. Total País Período de Información: 1950–2050. Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas.Google Scholar
Jameson, F (1977) Imaginary and symbolic in Lacan: Marxism, psychoanalytic criticism, and the problem of the subject. Yale French Studies 55/56, 338–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorquera, P (2010) Vejez y Envejecimiento: Imaginarios Sociales Presentes en los Textos Escolares Oficiales del MINEDUC (Año 2009) Thesis. Santiago, Chile: Universidad de Chile.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kok, AAL, Aartsen, MJ, Deeg, DJH and Huisman, M (2017) Capturing the diversity of successful aging: an operational definition based on 16-year trajectories of functioning. The Gerontologist 57, 240–251.Google ScholarPubMed
Kusumastuti, S, Derks, MGM, Tellier, S, Di Nucci, E, Lund, R, Mortensen, EL and Westendorp, RGJ (2016) Successful ageing: a study of the literature using citation network analysis. Maturitas 93, 4–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lassen, AJ and Moreira, T (2014) Unmaking old age: political and cognitive formats of active ageing. Journal of Aging Studies 30, 33–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Machielse, A and Hortulanus, R (2013) Social ability or social frailty? The balance between autonomy and connectedness in the lives of older people. In Baars, J, Dohmen, J, Grenier, A and Phillipson, C (eds), Ageing, Meaning and Social Structure: Connecting Critical and Humanistic Gerontology. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 119–138.Google Scholar
Meersohn Schmidt, C (2015) From Mid-Life to Later Life: Strategies for Controlling Age Transitions Among Chileans in Metropolitan Santiago. Thesis. Durham, UK: Durham University.Google Scholar
Mitchell, WJT (1984) What is an image? New Literary History 15, 503–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, M, Amigoni, D, Bernard, M, Crummett, A, Goulding, A, Munro, L, Newman, A, Rezzano, J, Rickett, M, Tew, P and Warren, L (2014) Understanding and transforming ageing through the arts. In Walker, A (ed.), The New Science of Ageing. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 77–112.Google Scholar
North, MS and Fiske, ST (2012) An inconvenienced youth? Ageism and its potential intergenerational roots. Psychological Bulletin 138, 982–997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
North, MS and Fiske, ST (2013) Act your (old) age: prescriptive, ageist biases over succession, consumption, and identity. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osorio Parraguez, P, Torrejón, MJ, Meersohn, C and Anigstein, MS (2012) Participación social y construcción de identidad. Expectativas y posibilidades. In E. Robinson, M. Rojas, & F. Campos (Eds.), REIACTIS III Conference (2010): “Personas mayores, ciudanía y empoderamiento: de la investigación a la acción.” Santiago, Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - Vicerrectoría de Comunicaciones y Educación Continua - Programa para el Adulto Mayor y CIEDESS.Google Scholar
Osorio Parraguez, P, Torrejón, MJ, Meersohn, C and Anigstein, MS (2011) Comprensión de la calidad de vida en personas mayores semivalentes en Chile. Revista Salud & Sociedad 2, 203–217.Google Scholar
Osorio Parraguez, P, Torrejón, MJ, Meersohn, C and Anigstein, MS (2013) Quality of life in older people from Chile: the role of subjectivity and agency. The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging. 17 (Suplement 1), S423.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C and Walker, A (1986) Conclusion: alternative forms of policy and practice. In Phillipson, C and Walker, A (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment. Aldershot, UK: Gower Publishing, pp. 280–290.Google Scholar
Pintos, J-L (2001) Construyendo realidad (es): Los Imaginarios Sociales. REALIDAD. Revista del Cono Sur de Psicología Social y Política 1, 7–24.Google Scholar
Pintos, J-L (2004) Inclusión/exclusión. Los Imaginarios Sociales de un proceso de construcción social. Semata. Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades 16, 17–52.Google Scholar
Pintos, J-L (2005a) Comunicación, construccion de realidad e Imaginarios Sociales. Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana 10, 37–65.Google Scholar
Pintos, J-L (2005b) Algunos Imaginarios Sociales de la vejez. Observaciones sobre datos de Internet. Semata. Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades, 17, 407–426.Google Scholar
Prosser, J (2011) Visual methodology. Toward a more seeing research. In Denzin, NK and Lincoln, YS (eds), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 479–496.Google Scholar
Ranzijn, R and Grbich, C (2001) Qualitative aspects of productive ageing. Australasian Journal on Ageing 20, 62–66.10.1111/j.1741-6612.2001.tb00355.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roer, CD (2009) Biography work: reflections on reconstructive social work. Journal of Social Work Practice 23, 185–199.10.1080/02650530902923783CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saldana, J (2013) The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, 2nd Edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Segal, L (2013) Out of Time: The Pleasures and the Perils of Ageing. London: Verso.Google Scholar
SENAMA (2009) Fuerza Mayor. Una Radiografía del Adulto Mayor Chileno. Santiago: Criteria Research.Google Scholar
SENAMA, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Caja los Andes (2010) Chile y sus Mayores. Resultados Segunda Encuesta Nacional Calidad de Vida en la Vejez (2010). Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.Google Scholar
Shotter, J (1997) Dialogical realities: the ordinary, the everyday, and other strange new worlds. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 27, 345–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, J (2011) Perceiving ‘things’ and ‘objects’ from within processes: resolutions situated in practices. Constructivist Foundations 7, 24–26.Google Scholar
Somers, MR (1994) The narrative constitution of identity: a relational and network approach. Theory and Society 23, 605–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C (2002) Modern social imaginaries. Public Culture 14, 91–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C (2004) Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torrejón, MJ (2007) Imaginario Social de la Vejez y el Envejecimiento. Análisis de Contenido de Prensa Escrita: El Mercurio, Las Últimas Noticias y La Cuarta. Thesis. Santiago, Chile: Universidad de Chile.Google Scholar
Urquiza, Gómez, A, Arnold Cathalifaud, M, Thumala Dockendorff, D and Ojeda Mayorga, A (2008) ¿Hay diferencias en la manera en que observan hombres y mujeres a los adultos mayores, ancianas y ancianos? Revista Mad 18, 1–19.Google Scholar
van Dyk, S (2014) The appraisal of difference: critical gerontology and the active-ageing-paradigm. Journal of Aging Studies 31, 93–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Dyk, S, Lessenich, S, Denninger, T and Richter, A (2013) The many meanings of ‘active ageing’. Confronting public discourse with older people's stories. Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques 44, 97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A (2015) Active ageing: realising its potential. Australasian Journal on Ageing 34, 2–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed