Bearing the Burdens we (don’t Tend to) Bare
Independence as ‘One More Opportunity for me to Fail’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12957674 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ashley Moyse (0000-0001-6253-353X, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 387-409 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Population Ageing (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1874-7876 • E-ISSN: 1874-7884 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12062-021-09339-1 |
| OpenAlex | W3198385056 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 51 |
The burdens of older life, during what Peter Laslett calls the fourth-age, exaggerate feelings of fear and desire while resourcing despair. Some such burdens are borne from human corporeality. Others are socially constructed and afflict older persons further. A typology of burdens is introduced, identifying reflexive, transitive, and accusative burdens. The reflexive dirge of the person grieving their losses of competence, self-sufficiency, and independence includes a transitive counterpart, where a person’s self-perceived burden includes also the sense that one has become a burden to others. The accusative burden is experienced when persons are marked by others, catastrophically, as a burden. Regardless, these burdens must be given attention while attending to the ideations that prioritise independence but risk despair. Thus the relation between burdened self-image, despair, and late modern and policy preoccupations with independence will further focus such attention. Specifically, the prominence of independence in narratives of successful ageing will be interrogated, while inviting theological reflection on the reality of dependence and the nature of bodily life, together. That the Christian theological tradition teaches that human beings are bodies and are mutually dependent presses back against dogmas that prioritise independence and other icons of discrete subjectivity. Pointing toward Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s understanding of vicarious representative action, the reader is invited to consider again the kind of language in policy and for practice that might humanise persons in exchanges of responsible care(giving) and mutual dependence throughout the life course
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Epistemology · Feeling · Independence (probability theory · Narrative · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Transitive relation · Aging and Gerontology Research · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
The Oldest old
A Fresh Map of Life
Why Is Late‐Life Disability Declining?
Trends in the Health of the Elderly
Ageing populations
Aging without agency
Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century
The Complete Writings of Menno Simons
Modernity and Self-Identity
The Ethics of Everyday Life
Resisting hierarchies through relationality in the ethics of care
Mind Matters
Unacknowledged distinctions
Speaking of ‘limitations’ while trying to disregard them
The Economic ‘Burden’ of Ageing and the Prospect of Intergenerational Conflict
Quality of life from the perspectives of older people
Being Old, Old People and the Burdens of Burden
The Emergence of the Third Age
The myth of independence for older Americans living alone in the Bay Area of San Francisco
Redefining agency in late life
Independence in Old Age
Differentiating autonomy from individualism and independence
Experiences and Motivations Underlying Wishes to Die in Older People Who Are Tired of Living
Feeling like a burden
Ready to give up on life
Older people and 'active ageing
Fodder for Despair, Masquerading as Hope
Language and Agency
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |