Postmodernist View on Age Inequality

Question 1

What do Postmodernists do

Answer 1

Paint old age as a positive time of life because they argue retirement allows people greater freedom and challenges.

Question 2

What does Blaikie argue

Answer 2

That chronological age, ageism, and age-determined inequality are less likely to shape people’s life experience in the 21st century.

Question 3

What does Blaikie suggest

Answer 3

That UK society has undergone a social transformation from social experiences based on collective identities originating in social class and generation to an increasingly individualised culture. In which old age can be avoided by investing in techniques that preserve youth.

Question 4

What do Powell and Biggs observe

Answer 4

That new technology and cosmetic surgery allow some older people to continually re-invent themselves

Question 5

What does Polemus argue

Answer 5

That 21st-century youth is not a homogenous group - young people today shop in a global supermarket of style and construct their identity from a range of disparate sources

Question 6

What does Vincent suggest

Answer 6

That global capitalism is still the major determinant of age experience and inequality. He argues that decreasing labour-market stability and rapidly changing employment patters have produced age groups which are still shaped along class lines