‘Third Age’ under neoliberalism: From risky subjects to human capital

Shimoni, Shir

doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2018.10.004

Cited by 30 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Critical age scholars such as Emmanuelle Tulle (2008) , Stephen Katz (2005) , Shir Shimoni (2018) , and Allain and Marshall (2017) have documented the ways that a diverse number of institutions and actors in the West have prescribed staying fit and active in later life. The public, press, state, medical professionals, and various health organizations extoll the virtues of keeping fit and active, especially as one enters later life, describing it as the common-sense way to age well.…”

Section: Risk and The Active Agermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, Shimoni (2018) has documented the ways that the popular press has produced neoliberal discourse related to the term “third age” and how this has changed over time. She argues that from the mid-1980s until the early 90s, the press described aging populations, particularly the young-old (or third agers), as a risky population, presenting them as a potential social burden on the state.…”

Section: Risk and The Active Agermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neo-liberal active aging discourse disregards pleasure for its own sake and positions appropriate aging as either risk avoidant or self-invested, especially when it intersects with the discourses of apocalyptic demography ( Shimoni, 2018 ). The disavowal of pleasure not only happens within public discourse, but also, remarkably, within scholarly discourse (for example, see Fincham, 2017 ).…”

Section: Pleasure Forgottenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discussing the hockey arena as a site of risky pleasure, I will investigate how older men navigate these contradictions in their social positions as hockey players. I will also explore how the place and materiality associated with physical activity mediate the men's understanding of themselves and their later-life physical activity, asking how their participation in the physical space of the hockey rink allows them to negotiate their own social positions in light of the aforementioned social pressures, pushing them to mitigate risk and invest in the present ( Shimoni, 2018 ). I will show that these later-life hockey-playing men focus on the pleasures associated with hockey, physical activity and relationships, eschewing discourses that position them and their activities as risky.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Winter of our contentment: Examining risk, pleasure, and emplacement in later-life physical activity

Allain

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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In the West, many in the media and the health sector emphasize physical activity as important for the old, so that they can circumvent the impacts of aging and the associated costs. At the same time, neoliberal health discourse advises older people to avoid activities that may cause injuries, such as slips and falls, creating contradictions for older people who participate in sports on ice. In light of these mixed messages, this paper explores how older men understand their bodies through their participation in the seemingly risky sport of ice hockey. I conducted eighteen semi-structured interviews with older Canadian men who played hockey, identifying common themes related to aging, embodiment, risk and pleasure. Participants were aware that common-sense discourse produced hockey as risky for the old, but often downplayed this risk, privileging pleasure. Discourses associated with pleasure acted as an important way for older men to examine their bodies and contemplate the significance of hockey in their lives. Through the comradery players developed with each other, their interactions with the material objects of hockey, and their emplacement on hockey rinks and arenas, they found ways to celebrate their bodies as both aging and capable of experiencing pleasure — implicitly challenging neoliberal discourses of old age in the process.

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Section: Risk and The Active Agermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Risk and The Active Agermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pleasure Forgottenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Winter of our contentment: Examining risk, pleasure, and emplacement in later-life physical activity

Allain

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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“…The meanings and perceptions of age and ageing are changing in late-modern societies. Later life is no longer perceived as a lifestage of social disengagement, but increasingly commodified and constructed around productivity and consumption, changing the individual experience of later life from a risk-based to an entrepreneurial one (Shimoni, 2018). Simultaneously, late-life creativity has been revived as a research topic (Amigoni and McMullan, 2015): in a review of studies covering the last 40 years, Fraser et al (2015) found that most studies on the subject were published after 2000.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's it worth? Value and valuation of late-life creativity

Gallistl

2020

Ageing and Society

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New interest in late-life creativity has arisen in gerontology. To date, such research has mainly focused on the positive impact creativity has on older adults, but has scarcely contextualised older adults’ creative engagement. Drawing on the sociology of valuation, this article aims to contextualise late-life creativity by critically exploring how creativity gains, stabilises and loses its value and how these processes are related to perceptions, images and discourses addressing old age. Data from 13 interviews with older (60+) adults involved in creative practices in Austria are used to explore these topics. Interviews examined perceptions of creative production, everyday routines and personal attitudes towards ageing. Interviews transcripts were analysed using the documentary method. The analysis revealed three registers of valuation in late-life creativity: economic value, in which valuable creativity was given away at a high revenue; field value, where valuable creativity was appreciated by institutions or other artists in the field; and lifecourse value, in which doing a creative activity for a long time meant being able to produce a creative product that was high in value. This article emphasises late-life creativity as a process of value production that is structured by the making and evaluating of creative products and adds to the current critique that the narrow view of late-life creativity in its associations with wellbeing present a reductionist picture of the capacities that the arts and creativity have for older adults. The results demonstrate the potential for valuation studies in gerontology as they highlight the circumstances and practices by which the activities of older adults are (de)valued. For policy and practice, this article suggests imagining arts-based interventions for older adults beyond the realm of health and wellbeing, and encourages thinking about how valuable artistic experiences can be supported in later life.

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