I am not that old’

Inter-personal experiences of thriving and threats at a senior centre

Bibliographic Data

ID11201366
AuthorsAnne Lund (0000-0003-3180-8013, Oslo University Hospital), Gunn Engelsrud (0000-0002-0102-2725, Oslo University Hospital)
Year2008
Volume28
Issue5
Pages675-692
Publication date2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAgeing and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-686X • E-ISSN: 1469-1779
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0144686x07006988
OpenAlexW1975316347
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited20

The high cultural valuation of youthfulness and fitness in the mass media and more generally in western consumer society is the contextual frame for this study. It examines older people's attitudes towards their own ageing and towards people who are older or frailer than themselves. Participant observation was conducted of the attitudes, actions and interactions of the users of a senior centre in Norway. The users held two sets of attitudes that led to quite different activities and actions at the centre. On the one hand, they saw the centre as helping them ‘thrive’, which was associated with involvement in the community and participation in the structured daily activities to promote the senses of belonging and being useful. On the other hand, some perceived the centre and particularly the other users as ‘threats’ – as reminding them that they were getting old and increasingly vulnerable to sickness and disability. To some, the centre was for old people with disabilities, and they used subtle strategies to distance themselves from this group. Some users' attitudes and behaviour were in tension: they wished to participate in the valued activities but also to distance themselves from frailer users, while not denying their own ageing. The distancing strategies and behaviour amounted to age discrimination in interpersonal relations and interactions at the centre. This behaviour accepts rather than challenges the cultural valuation of youthfulness and the negative representation of old age

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Distancing · Interpersonal communication · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) · Sociology · Thriving · Valuation (finance) · Aging and Gerontology Research · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · Medicine · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology