Abstract:

Explored is the social construction of aging from a historical & contemporary perspective. It is proposed that age be combined with life cycle & need as a basis for analysis & policy. There is a commonly held belief that cultural perceptions of old age correlate with socioeconomic realities of aging. The aged, it is thought, were revered in preindustrial society, but came to be disdained as their proportions grew & as their economic usefulness declined; consequently, social policies such as Social Security were devised to "solve" the problem. Historical analysis, however, reveals a divergence between socioeconomic conditions & cultural perceptions of aging. There is little evidence for a past golden era. Also, while conditions of aging changed primarily in the twentieth century, perceptions changed in the nineteenth. Indeed, the definition of aging as a social problem, together with well-meaning "solutions" such as forced retirement, have contributed to the plight of the aged. Today, as the life cycle becomes more fluid & age-related statuses less synchronized, chronological age is losing its relevance. Thus it is retirement, not age, which separates middle age from old age, while it is mental or physical deterioration which separates the young old from the old old. As the heterogeneity of the aged becomes more evident, the use of chronological age as a basis for analysis, advocacy, & entitlement is increasingly attacked. A better approach might be to integrate the aged into the larger society whenever possible & to provide social services according to need rather than age. In short, the aged should be mainstreamed.