Age inequalities Flashcards
Interpretivists
PROUT AND JAMES - argues that age categories are socially constructed and vary in different society eg. through rites of passages like Bar Mitzvahs.
CARRIGAN AND SZMIGIN -
Negative labelling and stigmatisation in the media leads to a self-fulfilling for older people, so they may act incontinent.
COHEN -
Looks at stigmatisation of young people in the media, specifically looked at the moral panic surrounding mods and rockers at Margate which lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
HOCKEY AND JAMES - looked at how elderly are infantilised in care homes through the way they are given pocket money and have a lack of privacy and they resisted this by purposely acting like a child.
Weberians
WEBER - argues that younger and older people lose status due to their age , as young people lack party due to the fact that they can’t vote.
Class- youth have mcjobs (Ritzer)
PARKIN - younger and older people are apart of ‘negatively privileged status groups’ as they are kept out of privileged status groups through social segregation.
BARRON AND NORRIS - ‘dual labour market theory’; elderly and younger people apart of secondary labour market with unstable, 0 hour contracts, and low pay whereas middle age in primary labour market.
Feminist
ARBER AND GINN - age affects power and status of women as older women face inequalities that older men don’t.
BRANNEN - middle age women face a dual burden as they have a responsibility to take care of their children and their parents
SONTAG - there is a double standard of ageing in the media, eg. Fern Britton replaced by Holly Willoughby on Good Morning Britain
ITZIN - women face a double standard as women’s status linked to reproductive system instead of the workplace, they feel pressure to fight the signs of aging which is known as cosmeticisation, and is capitalised by many industries.
GANNON - differences in the ageing process are more to do with lifestyles and expectations rather than biology. Androcentric- men as norm and female hormones as a ‘problem’. Scientific discourse portrays aging process for men and women as biological. Dualistic notions- normal/diseased categories are unhelpful for aging process; changing body seen as ‘diseased’.
OAKLEY - Women and children are interlinked and interdependent, inequality they face are similar. Women taking care of children restricts them. Children seen as more disadvantaged to Oakley: 1) Adults speak for children 2) childhood issues are ignored in Sociology unlike gender 3) children lack the same rights adults have 4) children have to conform to the demands of adults 5) society is ‘adult centred’
Functionalism
PARSONS (MIDDLE AGE) - masculine and feminine roles are natural and desirable as it reflects their natural characteristics; men have instrumental role and women have expressive role
PARSONS (OLD AGE) - disengagement theory; elderly disengage with previous roles and ‘harvest the fruits of their labours’ and enjoy recreational activities. Isolated from their families.
CUMMING AND HENRY- suggests the way society the elderly has positive benefits as ‘social disengagement’ allows younger people to take their place in the labour market.
EISENSTADT - youth need to go from an ascribed to an achieved status, youths face inequality but have a forum of frustrations (it is a bridge to adulthood) as they face inequality due to juggling work, home, education etc. buy functionalists say this is necessary but youth culture is inherently binding.
Marxism/ Neo Marxism
GRAMSCI - false class consciousness explains people do not realise their exploitation. For example, child benefit and pensions create dependency so elderly and youth don’t question their exploitation, accepting things such as zero hour contracts
BOND ET AL - ‘The political economy of old age’, those from lower social classes are more likely to suffer poverty in old age. Government state pensions are inadequate and therefore those who are elderly and from the lower social classes are discriminated against.
VINCENT - age is a potential source of conflict, exploitation and discrimination. Talks negatively on state pensions as women would be more likely to depend on this and the setting of retirement age means older people are pushed out of work.
PHILLIPSON - argues that capitalism needs to continually renew its workforce who may be more productive. Elderly are marginalised through institutionalised dependency.
JONES - Grandparents are the new reserve army of labour; ⅓ families in the UK rely on grandparents for child care but grandparents don’t get paid for their work and tend to financially fund the child for free making considerable contributions
Postmodernism
POLHEMUS - focus on youth being a non-homogeneous group shopping at the ‘supermarket of style’.
LACZKO AND PHILIPSON - researched early retirement and
found that the inequality faced by some elderly people was due to
wealth and not ageing itself.
FEATHERSTONE AND HEPWORTH - Life course has become deconstructed, two processes occur; 1) De-differentiation - the process by which the differences between different stages of the
life course become less clear. 2) Deinstitutionalisation - the process by which the institutions of society become less
closely associated with maintaining different phases of the life course. There is also a ‘mask of aging’ due to surgeries like botox meaning youth and elderly are becoming more alike
PILCHER- blurring of life stages
