Subscribe

Subscribe to our Newsletter and get informed about new publication regulary and special discounts for subscribers!

ILSHS > Volume 27 > “You’ll Never Walk Alone”: Phenomenology and...
“You’ll Never Walk Alone”: Phenomenology and Ageing in Contemporary Culture
< Back to Volume

“You’ll Never Walk Alone”: Phenomenology and Ageing in Contemporary Culture

Full Text PDF

Abstract:

This article explores the theory of phenomenology and its relevance for understanding ageing. I begin by attempting to unravel the main theorisations of phenomenology and then explore how the use of a biographical method can be enmeshed in cultural contexts of ageing. In particular, I assess the relevance of the ageing body, and ageing identity for pointing toward a general theory that can be defined as a ‘phenomenology of ageing’. Part of the context for realising the potential of phenomenology is its dissection of meaning, not as fixed, but as fluid as found in the context of everyday life. Phenomenology provides a significant contribution to un-locking an understanding of what is means to be a human person situated within and across the life course. It can be used to reveal critical consciousness, understanding of personal identity and social meanings. This article explores the contexts, examples and situations within which the perspective can be illuminated for understanding ageing. Ageing is a biographical process and this will be dissected for understanding social theory.

Info:

Periodical:
International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 27)
Pages:
19-30
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.27.19
Citation:
J. L. Powell "“You’ll Never Walk Alone”: Phenomenology and Ageing in Contemporary Culture", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 27, pp. 19-30, 2014
Online since:
May 2014
Authors:
Jason L. Powell
Keywords:
Aging, Consciousness, Identity, Meaning, Phenomenology
Export:
RIS, BibTeX, Text
Distribution:
Open Access

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

Benner P. (1995). Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring and Ethics in Health and Illness. Sage: Thousand Oaks, California.

Berger P. L., Luckmann T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor.

Biggs S. (1999). The Mature Imagination. OUP: Milton Keynes.

Biggs S., Powell J. L., Journal of Ageing & Social Policy 12(2) (2001) 93-111.

Bordo S. (1993). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, University of California Press: Berkeley.

Cicourel A. V. (1973). Cognitive Sociology: Language and Meaning in Social Interaction. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Csordas J. (1997). Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Davilla R., Pearson C., Human Studies 17 (1994) 325-341.

Elder G. H. Jr. (2001) Life course., In G. L. Maddox (Ed. ), The Encyclopedia of Ageing (3rd Ed. ), pp.593-596. New York: Springer Publishing Co.

Encandela J., Symbolic Interaction 20 (1997) 251-273.

Featherstone M., Hepworth M. (1993). Images in Ageing, in Bond, J & Coleman, P. (Eds. ) Ageing in Society. London: Sage.

Frank A., Theory, Culture and Society 7 (1990) 131-162.

Garfinkel H. (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Garfinkel H., Sacks H. (1986). On Formal Structures of Practical Actions,. In Garfinkel, H. (ed. ) Ethnomethodological Studies of Work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Gilleard C., Higgs P. (2000). Cultures of Ageing. London: Prentice Hall.

Gubrium J. (1992). Out of control: Family therapy and domestic disorder. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Gubrium J., Holstein J. (1995). The Active Interview. California: Sage.

Husserl E. (1931). Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. W. R. Boyce Gibson, trans. New York: Humanities Press.

Laslett P. (1991). A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Layder D. (2004). Social and Personal Identity. London: Sage.

Layder D. (2007). Understanding Social Theory, (2nd edition). London: Sage.

Longino C. F. Jr., Murphy J. W. (1995). The Old Age Challenge to the Biomedical Model: Paradigm Strain and Health Policy. Amityville, NY: Baywood Press.

May T., Williams M. (2002). Knowing the Social World. OUP: Milton Keynes.

May T., Powell J. (2008). Situating Social Theory, McGraw Hill: Milton Keynes.

Morris D. (1998). The Culture of Pain, University of California Press: Berkeley.

Neugarten B. L., Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 415 (1974) 187-198.

Phillipson C. (1998). Reconstructing Old Age, Sage: London.

Passuth P. M., Vern L. Bengtson (1988). Sociological Theories of Ageing: Current Perspectives and Future Directions., Pp. 333-355 in J. Birren and V. Bengtson (eds. ) Emergent Theories of Ageing. New York: Springer.

Powell J. L., Biggs S., Journal of Ageing Identity 5(1) (2000) 3-13.

Powell J. L., Longino C. F., Journal of Ageing & Identity 7(4) (2002) 107-118.

Powell J. L., Wahidin A. (2007). Understanding Ageing Bodies: A Postmodern Dialogue,. In: Powell, J. and Owen, T. (Eds. ) Reconstructing Postmodernism. Nova Science: New York.

Ritzer G. (1996). Modern Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw Hill.

Ritzer G. (2004). The Globalization of Nothing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Ritzer G. (2007). The McDonalization of Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Rosenberg C., Golden J. (eds. ) (1992). Framing Disease: Studies in Cultural History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Schutz A. (1972). The Phenomenology of the Social World. Originally published in 1932. Translated by Walsh, G. and Lehnert, F. Introduction by Walsh, G. London: Heinemann.

Settersten R. (1999). Lives in Place and Time. The Problems and Promises of Developmental Science. Amityville, New York: Baywood.

Shehan L. (ed. ) (1999). Through the Eyes of the Child: Revisioning Children as Active Agents of Family Life. Greenwich: JAI Press.

Shilling C. (1993). The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage.

Sibeon R. (2004). Rethinking Social Theory, Sage: London.

Starr J. M., International Journal of Ageing and Human Development 16(4) (1983) 255-70.

Toombs S., Human Studies 18 (1995) 9-23.

Turner B. (1995). Ageing and identity,. In Featherstone, M. & Wernick, A. (1995) Images of Ageing. London: Routledge. ( Received 14 April 2014; accepted 21 April 2014 ).

Show More Hide