Age coding: On age-based practices of distinction

Abstract

In this article I discuss how conceptions of age create individuals' subjective experiences of old age. I introduce the concept of age coding and argue that it should be understood as referring to practices of distinction that are based on and preserve representations of actions, phenomena, and characteristics as associated with and applicable to demarcated ages. The article illustrates how age codes can be used (1) as age norms; (2) to legitimize, negotiate and regulate symbolic and material resources; (3) as a resource in interactions; as well as (4) to create age-based norms and deviance. This broad application means that the concept should be understood as a tool for analyzing age relations generally. Keywords: age coding, age identity, othering, subjective age, categorization, chronological age.Some years ago I conducted a study on how locations such as age and gender interact during the life course. At that time I interviewed women older than 75 years of age (see Krekula 2006Krekula , 2007. I became interested in how the women created self-images and negotiated the boundaries

Conceptions and tendencies of age discrimination and attitudes

“…As we showed earlier, previous research has argued that age can be conceptualized in many different ways, and one of these ways is the negotiation of age and the attempts to make sense of our social world by means of these negotiations (Krekula 2009). Age, in any of its everyday forms (Snellman, Johansson & Kalman 2012), is an articulatory device (cf.…”

“…Age, in any of its everyday forms (Snellman, Johansson & Kalman 2012), is an articulatory device (cf. Nikander 2009) that individuals use as a resource to position themselves within the social world (Lundgren 2010) by coding experience (Krekula 2009). The responses to the discriminatory and attitudinal questions can be understood as a part of a broader societal negotiation of age relations that serves to pinpoint one's political location (Calasanti 2003).…”

“…Krieger 1999) to the more specific studies of age discrimination. Other contributions function more explicitly as analytical tools, such as those of age relations (Calasanti 2003), age-coding (Krekula 2009), age positions (Lundgren 2010, Lundgren & Ljuslinder 2011, and the analyses of age-talk in everyday and institutional settings (Nikander 2009). …”

New Objects, Old Age. The Material Culture of Growing Old

“…Each age is attributed different norms, ideas and expectations. (Närvänen 2004;Krekula 2009.) 2 Michel Foucault uses the concept of biopower to describe how this disciplination developed as an occurrence in modern society with the purpose of controlling and governing the population (Foucault 1995(Foucault , 1990).…”

Normative, Empiricist, and Interpretive Considerations in the Ageism Research Process

“…There are other useful conceptualizations of (ageist) practices that use other terms than ageism, such as "age-relations" (Calasanti 2003) and "age coding" (Krekula 2009). Elsewhere I have suggested an interpretive (constitutive) working definition of ageism as constitutive practices which are permeated with our experiences of the chronological, social, biological and psychological life course.…”