Introduction

Abstract

At the outset of this book project, the range of questions that contributors were invited to address were:

• What kinds of images and representations of ageing are currently in circulation, for example in the media?

• How do these work ideologically, as representations of ageing and mid/later life? How do the images or the discourses work in constructing positions for older people in present day society?

• How are they (or might they be) responded to and understood by middle-aged and older people themselves (and others)?

• How might individuals use such images and representations for self-identity work, to define themselves in age-salient ways? How might middle-aged and older people appropriate current representations through dress or other aspects of appearance? How do they talk about the choices they make?

• What is the personal angle in ageing and identity? In what ways are (age) identities visual/textual/discursive?

The aim was a collection which explores aspects of ageing and identity (or identification) from a number of different, but related, disciplinary perspectives, and which examines contemporary popular images/imagery/discourses and individuals’ own personal experiences and self-presentations of ageing and identity, drawing on empirical data.