Abstract
This chapter discusses the social reality of aging, emphasizing the discrepancy between positive aging discourse and the social reality of aging in precarious times. The chapter starts out by describing what it means to be living in precarious times, referring to Baumann’s (2007) “living in liquid times” and Grenier’s “new culture of risk” (Grenier et al. 2017). Precarity is defined as a characteristic of modern work conditions (Kalleberg 2009) and pension transitions (Phillipson et al. 2018) but also a quality of human relations (Butler 2004; Portacolone 2013) and a global phenomenon of increased insecurity (Allison 2013). The implications of precarity for aging are discussed by examining the inconsistencies between the positive aging discourse and the social reality of aging. Several examples are used to illustrate this point: precarious work and “disappearing pensions,” the insecurity associated with loneliness , health decline in old age, and the “precariatised mind” as defined by Guy Standing (2011). The “precariatised mind” concept is used to explain how precarity may shape cognitions and emotions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Allison, A. (2012). Ordinary refugees: Social precarity and soul in 21st century Japan. Anthropological Quarterly, 85(2), 345–370.
Allison A. (2013). Precarious Japan. Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822377245.
Azerado, Z., & Afonso, N. (2016). Loneliness from the perspective of the elderly. Rev. Bras. Geriatr. Gerontol., Rio de Janeiro, 19(2):313–324.
Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity (M. Ritter, Trans.). London: Sage.
Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization: Institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. London: Sage.
Benach, J., & Muntaner, C. (2007). Precarious employment and health: developing a research agenda. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61(4), 276–277. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.045237.
Benach, J. M., Amable, C. Muntaner, & Benavides, F. G. (2002). The consequences of flexible work for health: are we looking at the right place? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 56(6), 405–406. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.6.405.
Biggs, S. (2014). Precarious ageing versus the policy of indifference: International trends and the G20. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 33(4), 226–228.
Bourdieu, P. (1998). Acts of resistance: Against the tyranny of the market. New York: The New Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1999). The weight of the world. Social suffering in contemporary society. Oxford: Polity Press.
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: It’s time to consider the causes of the causes. Public Health Reports, 129, 19–31.
Brown, J. W., Liang, J., Krause, N., Akiyama, H., Sugisawa, H., & Fukaya, T. (2002). Transitions in living arrangements among elders in Japan: Does health make a difference? The Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, S209–S220.
Butler, J. (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. London: Verso.
Butler, J. (2009). Frames of war: When is life grievable? London: Verso.
Castel, R. (2000). The roads to disaffiliation: Insecure work and vulnerable relationships. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(3), 519–535.
Castel, R. (2003). From manual workers to wage laborers: Transformation of the social question. Trans. Richard Boyd. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Craciun, C., & Flick, U. (2014). “I will never be the granny with rosy cheeks”: Perceptions of aging in precarious and financially secure middle-aged Germans. Journal of Aging Studies, 29, 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.01.003.
Craciun, C., & Flick, U. (2015). “I want to be 100 years old, but I smoke too much”: Exploring the gap between positive aging goals and reported preparatory actions in different social circumstances. Journal of Aging Studies, 35, 49–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2015.07.006.
Craciun, C., & Flick, U. (2016). Aging in precarious times: Exploring the role of gender in shaping views on aging. Journal of Women and Aging, 28, 530–539. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2016.1223896.
Dahlberg, L., Agahi, N., & Lennartsson, C. (2018). Lonelier than ever? Loneliness of older people over two decades. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 75, 96–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2017.11.004.
Ehrenreich, B. (2009). Smile or die: How positive thinking fooled America and the World. London: Granta.
Ferguson, L. (2012). Tackling loneliness in older age – Why we need action by all ages. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, 13(4), 264–269. https://doi.org/10.1108/14717791211286931.
Ferraro, K. F., & Shippee, T. P. (2009). Aging and cumulative inequality: How does inequality get under the skin? The Gerontologist, 49(3), 333–343. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnp034.
Ferrie, J. E., Shipley, M. J., Newman, K., Stansfeld, S. A., & Marmot, M. (2005). Self-reported job insecurity and health in the Whitehall II study: Potential explanations of the relationship. Social Science and Medicine, 60(7), 1593–1602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.006.
Ferrie, J. E. (2002). Effects of chronic job insecurity and change in job security on self reported health, minor psychiatric morbidity, physiological measures, and health related behaviours in British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 56(6), 450–454. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.6.450.
Foster, L., & Walker, A. (2014). Active and successful aging: A European policy perspective. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu028.
Grenier, A., & Phillipson, C. (2018). Precarious aging: Insecurity and risk in late life. Hastings Center Report, 48, S15–S18. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.907.
Grenier, A., Phillipson, C., Laliberte Rudman, D., Hatzifilalithis, S., Kobayashi, K., & Marier, P. (2017). Precarity in late life: Understanding new forms of risk and insecurity. Journal of Aging Studies, 43, 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2017.08.002.
Grenier, A. (2012). Transitions and the lifecourse: Challenging the constructions of ‘growing old’. Bristol: Policy Press.
Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis. London: Arrow Books.
Hauser, M. D. (2006). Moral minds: How nature designed our universal sense of right and wrong. New York: Harper Collins.
Hutchings, J., & Gower, K. (1993). Unemployment and mental health. Journal of Mental Health, 2(4), 355–358. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638239309016971.
Jamieson, L., & Simpson, R. (2013). Living alone: Globalization, identity, and belonging. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400101.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2013). Book review symposium: Response to reviews of Arne L Kalleberg, good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s. Work, Employment & Society, 27(5), 896–898. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017013480403.
Kim, I. H., Muntaner, C., Vahid Shahidi, F., Vives, A., Vanroelen, C., & Benach, J. (2012). Welfare states, flexible employment, and health: A critical review. Health Policy, 104(2), 99–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2011.11.002.
Kim, T. J., & von dem Knesebeck, O. (2015). Is an insecure job better for health than having no job at all? A systematic review of studies investigating the health-related risks of both job insecurity and unemployment. BMC Public Health, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2313-1.
Klinenberg, E. (2012). Going solo. New York: Penguin Press.
La Montagne, A. D. (2010). Commentary: Precarious employment: Adding a health inequalities perspective. Journal of Public Health Policy, 31(3), 312–317. https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2010.25.
Lassen, A. J., & Moreira, T. (2014). Unmaking old age: Political and cognitive formats of active ageing. Journal of Aging Studies, 30, 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.03.004.
László, K. D., Pikhart, H., Kopp, M. S., Bobak, M., Pajak, A., Malyutina, S., … Marmot, M. (2010). Job insecurity and health: A study of 16 European countries. Social Science and Medicine, 70(6), 867–874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.11.022.
Lei, X., Strauss, J., Tian, M., & Zhao, Y. (2015). Living arrangements of the elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS national baseline. China Economic Journal, 8, 191–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2015.1102473.
Liang, J., & Luo, B. (2012). Toward a discourse shift in social gerontology: From successful aging to harmonious aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 26(3), 327–334.
Loretto, W., & Vickerstaff, S. (2015). Gender, age and flexible working in later life. Work, Employment and Society, 29(2), 233–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017014545267.
Meyer, R. P., & Schuyler, D. (2011). Old age and loneliness. The Primary Care Companion For CNS Disorders. https://doi.org/10.4088/pcc.11f01172.
Millar, K. M. (2017). Toward a critical politics of precarity. Sociology Compass, 11(6), e12483. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12483.
Molé, N. J. (2010). Precarious subjects: Anticipating neoliberalism in northern Italy’s workplace. American Anthropologist, 112(1), 38–53.
Muehlebach, A. (2011). On affective labor in post-Fordist Italy. Cultural Anthropology, 26(1), 59–82.
Phillipson, C., Shepherd, S., Robinson, M., & Vickerstaff, S. (2018). Uncertain Futures: Organisational Influences on the Transition from Work to Retirement. Social Policy and Society, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474746418000180.
Portacolone, E. (2011). The myth of independence for older Americans living alone in the Bay Area of San Francisco: A critical reflection. Ageing & Society, 27, 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2013.01.001.
Portacolone, E. (2013). The notion of precariousness among older adults living alone in the U.S. Journal of Aging Studies, 27(2), 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2013.01.001.
Portacolone, E., Rubinstein, R. L., Covinsky, K. E., Halpern, J., & Johnson, J. K. (2018). The precarity of older adults living alone with cognitive impairment. The Gerontologist. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnx193.
Price, D. (2006). Why are older women in the UK poor? Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, 7(2), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1108/14717794200600011.
Richtel, M. (2010, June 7). Hooked on gadgets, and paying a mental price. New York Times, p. 1.
Ross, A. (2009). Nice work if you can get it: Life and labor in precarious times. New York: New York University Press.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37, 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/37.4.433.
Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Stepler, R. (2016). Smaller share of women 65 and over are living alone. Washington, DC: Pew Center.
Stenner, P., McFarquhar, T., & Bowling, A. (2011). Older people and “active ageing”: Subjective aspects of ageing actively. Journal of Health Psychology, 16(3), 467–477. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105310384298.
Townsend, J., Godfrey, M., & Denby, T. (2006). Heroines, villains and victims: Older people’s perceptions of others. Ageing and Society, 26(6), 883–900.
Van Dalen, H. P., Henkens, K., & Wang, M. (2014). Recharging or retiring older workers? Uncovering the age-based strategies of European employers. The Gerontologist, 55(5), 814–824. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu048.
Vosko, L. F. (Ed.). (2006). Precarious employment: Understanding labour market insecurity in Canada. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press.
Vosko, L. F. (2010). Managing the margins: Gender, citizenship, and the international regulation of precarious employment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Waite, L. (2009). A place and space for a critical geography of precarity? Geography Compass, 3(1), 412–433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00184.x.
Walker, A. (2009). Commentary: The emergence and application of active aging in Europe. Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 21(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420802529986.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crăciun, I.C. (2019). The Social Reality of Aging. In: Positive Aging and Precarity. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14255-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14255-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14254-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14255-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)