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Ageing

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Ageing: Issues and Perspectives

Q1. The development of the welfare state in western capitalist economies had contributed to

eradicate ageist attitudes against older adults

Ageing has been treated as a disability and neglected by the society through political and

economic forces that have greatly played part in ensuring unequal distribution of resources

among the older adults’ population. This increased inequality as a result of old age has resulted

in stereotypic attitudes by a certain divide of the population who associates old age with

unproductivity and dependency. For instance, Hong Kong’s ageing time bomb where the

government demanded that people eligible for preretirement should take part in support for self-

reliance. Welfare states were developed to help the ageing persons cope through policies that

ensures their need are taken care of the political and structural systems within the society.

Advancements in industrialization and developments in public health reshaped the

meaning of old age because developments in these sectors gave a whole new meaning to old age

where old age was considered as state where one was eligible for the state support and provisions

aimed at promoting a decent life. Ageing was also viewed as a state that could be free of

vulnerabilities such as illness and poverty and this news spread through the 18th to the 20th

century. The welfare states established the retirement age at (60-65) in the 1950s after a

successfully stable career. This retirement, was accompanied by provision of pensions and

retirement benefits in selected careers such the civil servants and thus reduced the notion that old

age was associated with burden. This pension was meant to help the old adults support their

needs without having to depend on the society for much aid unless in instances where they (older
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old adults) had grown to stage where they were unable to be financially productive members of

the society

Development of welfare states resulted in categorization of life into distinct stages of

schooling, work and retirement where each distinct stage was associated with particular roles

thus the working class were encouraged to devote attention in the healthcare and long-term care

of the old aged people. Governments as a result of development of welfare states also set aside

fund that was used in the development of foster institutions that took care of old adults

Q 2. 'Positive models of ageing are sexist and ethnocentric

The models of ageing were developed and legitimized to encourage older employees to withdraw

their services from the labor markets early enough in the western capitalist societies. These

models included healthy ageing, productive ageing, active ageing and successful ageing. The

models in their attempt to conceptualize ageing in a wide range however failed to take into

consideration some aspects of ageing and were therefore termed as biased as they were

discriminative on gender and regional basis.

Positive models of ageing are established from the perspectives of western researchers rather

from ageing individuals and therefore fail to characterize the experience of ageing adults who are

located in different social locations and are diverse culturally. These models fail to take into

consideration the conditions that affect ageing and the factors that are associated with ageing are

not globally applicable and as such ageing in North America may be Quite different from Ageing

in Asia because the surrounding environments of these locations are different.

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Positive models also deviate from equality as they perceive ageing from gender-based

perspective where physical limitations efficiently contribute to ageing and thus women are

generally associated with earlier retirements as opposed to male counterparts. The choice of

active ageing is also not available to everyone as women struggle to stay active and may

eventually be frustrated thereby affecting their self-esteem because the society has stereotyped

them into early retirement after getting to a particular age. Women and men therefore experience

ageing differently

a. Explain what successful ageing means

Transformation from childhood to adulthood and eventually old age constitutes the whole

process of aging where various models have been developed to expound on the ideology about

ageing. These models are referred to as the positive models of ageing whose purpose is to

encourage worker’s early withdrawal from the labor market. These models include healthy

ageing, productive ageing, active and Successful ageing which is also an illustration of this

model.

Successful ageing is achievable when the vulnerability to disease and disease-related

disabilities reduces while still maintaining a high physical functionality as well as a very active

life. Successful ageing therefore aims to reduce dependency during old age because the model

considers general success of an individual and instead ignores the ageing factor. Development of

the adaptation process and methods with which one ages are believed to be part of successful

aging and therefore it is arguable that is really not aging but just a mere concept which condemns

adults who do age as successfully as their peers. Successful ageing in its classification excludes

particular groups of people especially those who do not engage in paid employment and those
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suffering from physical limitations. It therefore excludes older people who face structural and

situational difficulties as a result physical impairments, illness, increased dependency and

disabilities because such individuals are considered as failures according to this model. This

model therefore lays emphasis on productivity in a social capacity and therefore ageing people

who are limited to resources are not considered as part of this model because the model views

them as being unsuccessful. Furthermore, this model dictates how one should age, stereotypes

certain types of ageing as perfect, normal and successful while disregarding others as failures

and therefore successful ageing perceives those who struggle to fit in as normal and those who

are fail to fit in are therefore susceptible to loss of social respectability. The successful ageing

model assumes that it is the responsibility of an individual to manage and control their old age

and as such it alienates itself from structural conditions that causes inequalities during old age

and thus legitimizes policies which fail to address inequalities of old age as it perpetuates these

inequalities.

b. Discourses of successful ageing that offer recipe for societies to solve the problem of

population ageing

Successful ageing discourses are messages dispatched in texts and visual forms that emerge

and get circulated in the public domain through the media, documented policies health care

organizations and academic literatures. These discourses have created the need for societies to

engage in addressing the problem of population ageing.

One discourse is that Successful ageing aims to reduce portrayal of weakness and increased

dependency as one grows old because and as such this model excludes older person who faces

constraints in their structural nature as a result of changes in physical nature, vulnerability to

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diseases and disabilities, weaknesses and increased dependency because this model classifies

such individuals as failures. Successful aging discourse in social policy explains that the cost of

aging is high for older people as they are potentially not different from younger people because

of their economic role in production and consumption. This model like active aging therefore

emphasizes on that as one ages, they should equally engage in productivity in a social level as

their consumption stays the same and thus this model is inapplicable to ageing people who are

disadvantaged in acquiring resources because as one grows old, he should contribute to his

success.

Successful ageing discourse emphasizes that the responsibility of how one ages solely

depends on them and therefore old individuals who are unable to meet these normative

specifications are regarded as having been unsuccessful. This discourse paints certain kinds of

stereotypes on aging bodies and aging as correct, successful and good and classifies other forms

of ageing as unsuccessful and having failed. Additionally, classification of ageing as successful

and unsuccessful results in negative perception from the public on the aging process than they

might have viewed the whole process in the absence of influence from this discourse.

On the basis of cultural diversity successful ageing involves celebrating older people’s

relationships, productivity and massive consumption because this consumption steered by the

economic superiority of older people gives out a media through which old people ca re-build

themselves as they prepare their later identities and attain sense of fulfillment. This consequently

results in creation of a variety of cultures of ageing. Politically, Social ageing discourse states

that replacing the notion that older adults are burdens together with the aging of baby boomers in

a demographically changing society can be viewed as a commercial opportunity.

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Successful aging discourse emphasized that aging is personal choice and therefore old

adults by making right decisions on their lifestyles attitudes greatly play a part in influencing

how they age. Successful ageing is therefore portrayed by being actively involved in activities

such as exercises and voluntary works. Successful ageing therefore is therefore not viewed as

growing old but rather ignoring the old age. Successful aging also advocates for those who

attempt to fit in in the normative structure elaborated by the model and disregards those who fail

to fit in and as a result lead to loss of self-esteem for the ageing and loss of general societal

respect. This discourse therefore places old adults who are unable to fit in the normative structure

elaborated by the model in a stereotypic position as the society patently views them as failures.

Successful ageing discourse in its documentation does not consider experiences of old

adults instead it takes into accounts researcher’s perspectives therefore successful ageing through

empirical research is full of discrepancies between old adult’s actual ageing experiences and

measures of successful ageing. Successful ageing model being subject to constant evolution as a

result of changes in the lives of old adults has therefore faced constraints in in attempting to

address ageing as process constituting of selected individual experiences of old age.

Successful ageing discourses through its assumption that an individual is tasked with the

choice of managing as well as controlling their old age has resulted in diversion of attention from

the situations that contribute to production of inequalities associated with old age in the diverse

divisions of healthy wellbeing, security and levels of dependence. This argument leads to

individuals being held accountable for their unsuccessful outcomes when they grow old.

Additionally, these assumptions result in diversion of the required attention on matters that result
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in inequalities during old age and instead focus on legitimizing policies that don’t consider these

inequalities because it promotes such inequalities.