The appraisal of difference: Critical gerontology and the active-ageing-paradigm
Introduction
Discourses describing population ageing as a crisis are omnipresent in Western industrialized countries: there is talk about the collapse of pension schemes, health care and long-term care systems, decreasing economic power and increasing social inflexibility. At the same time, however, there is a popular promise reminiscent of Friedrich Hölderlin's famous lines “where the danger is, also grows the saving power”: Parallel to the picture of elderly people as a dangerous bulk, the non-frail “new elderly” (van Dyk & Lessenich, 2009) have been discovered as potentially active and productive citizens. The notions of active ageing revolve around the idea that these retirees are capable and duty-bound to live a self-reliant life and contribute to the public good (Deutscher Bundestag, 2010; Council of the European Union, 2010). Against this backdrop we have recently witnessed a fundamental socio-political re-negotiation of old age, which constitutes a major challenge to Gerontology and Ageing Studies.
The popular focus on the able-bodied “young-old” or “new elderly” comes along with the appraisal of their (ongoing) “sameness” in terms of achievement-based midlife-norms and capacities. Traditionally inclined to overcome the deficit model of old age, it is not surprising, prima facie, that many gerontologists have quite openly joined the coalition that sings the praise of the “new elderly”, their virtues and resources. This approving stance more or less characterizes the mainstream of gerontology, which I will – deliberately simplifying – call “Happy Gerontology”: This term, borrowed from Noberto Bobbio,1 suggests that Happy Gerontologists tend to promote positive views on old age by neglecting frailty, dementia and hardship, while stressing the continuities between midlife and independent/active later life at the same time.
It is up to streams of Critical Gerontology to take a contrary view: Diverse as they are, rooted in a wide range of theoretical perspectives, Critical Gerontologists reflect on the neoliberal framing of old age activation as well as the exclusive character of achievement- and continuity-based positive images of ageing. After briefly presenting the rise of the active-ageing-paradigm (2) and summarizing the critical objections against it (3), it is the aim of this article to critically revisit and evaluate the arguments of Critical Gerontologists (4). Without denying their credits of having challenged the model of active ageing, I will expose theoretical pitfalls that lead the critique of the Happy Gerontology's “sameness promise” into the dead-end of a homogenized difference: Though certainly often unintended, the appraisal of old age as being positively different from midlife ends up with sheltering “old people” from impositions of active society. After elaborating on the roots of this difference perspective and discussing its problems I will finally (5) sketch some conceptual ideas on how to overcome the fruitless dichotomy of sameness (“they have to be like us”) and difference (“they are the others”). The article aims at broadening the view at the polyphonic field of age and ageing without thereby dismissing the critique of neoliberal active ageing.
Section snippets
Active ageing — the renegotiation of old age
There is a broad range of actors promoting active and productive ageing, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union, the OECD and the United Nations. Back in 1999, which was declared the “International Year of Older Persons” by the United Nations, the European Commission urged its member states to change “outmoded practices” in relation to older persons: “Both within labour markets and after retirement, there is the potential to facilitate the making of greater
Critical perspectives on active ageing — an assault on naïve happiness
However, not everybody turned out to be happy: Critical Gerontologists have entered the stage and question the claim that active ageing is a “positive goal synonymous with apple pie and motherhood” (Estes & Mahakian, 2001: 207). It is beyond the scope of this article to do justice to the heterogeneous field of Critical Gerontology and its diverse theoretical roots. Since the late 1970s, Mainstream-Gerontology has been criticized by the Marxian inspired Political Economy of Ageing, though
“Old age is different”
The critique of active ageing and anti-ageing-consumer culture is based on a strong normative concept of difference that rejects the extension of “mid-lifestylism” (Biggs, 1997: 567) as a misguided attempt to suggest continuity and sameness where indeed a different phase of life starts: “Old people are not, in fact, just like middle-aged persons but only older. They are different” (Calasanti, Slevin, & King, 2006: 17). The critics challenge midlife as an unquestioned universal benchmark for the
Conclusions and perspectives
The dominant active-ageing paradigm has been fruitfully challenged and criticized by Critical Gerontologists who refer to a variety of theoretical perspectives, ranging from Marxian Political Economy of Ageing to Cultural and Foucauldian Gerontology. However, as I have demonstrated, this critique runs into a dead-end: Old age tends to be homogenized and sometimes even naturalized, in order to shelter and protect “old people” from neoliberal activity claims. The good news is that Critical
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