Beyond Reductionism in the Study of Aging
The Functional Organismic Nexus and the Case of Race
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6440141 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dale Dannefer (0000-0002-1497-379X, Case Western Reserve University), Nan Zhou (0000-0001-9566-2768, Case Western Reserve University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 679-710 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-2653 • E-ISSN: 1861-891X |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11577-025-01037-6 |
| OpenAlex | W4416758242 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 164 |
The study of age and human development in the social and behavioral sciences has been constricted in intellectual scope by reductionist inclinations supported by a set of mutually reinforcing ideas derived from functionalist sociology and organismic theory in psychology, which we have termed the functional–organismic (F-O) nexus. This nexus emphasizes “normative” assumptions and individual-level modes of explanation, precluding attention to the explanatory power of social forces in shaping both individual aging and the social organization of age and the very meaning of age. Even in the face of challenging evidence, this nexus of ideas has proven remarkably resilient. After examining the appeal of the nexus in three substantive areas (cohort analysis, cumulative dis/advantage, and social genomics), we suggest that a series of recently emergent developments in both science and society pose a new order of challenge to its individual-level focus. To illustrate how such new evidence may further call into question such individualistic assumptions, we examine recent scholarship focused on the issues of racism and the construct of race. Examining multiple issues surrounding the intersection of race with age and life-course patterns illustrates the role of systemic social processes in shaping life-course patterns and shows clearly the limits and distortions of the premises of the F‐O nexus and the questions posed within it
An End to Inequality
How Old Are You?
Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age
Concepts and Theories of Human Development
Marked
Unequal Childhoods
De-Standardization of the Life Course
When Do Individual Differences Matter? A Paradoxical Theory of Personality Coherence
Aged Heterogeneity
Social Determinants of Health and Diabetes
Opening Pandora’s Box
The health gap
Trends in health inequalities in 27 European countries
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Birth Outcomes
Ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Europe
Cumulative Advantage, Cumulative Disadvantage, and Inequality Among Elderly People
From Intervention to Co-constitution
The Precious and the Precocious
Understanding unequal ageing
Critical Perspectives on Successful Aging
Age Norms, the Timing of Family Role Transitions, and Intergenerational Caregiving Among Aging African American Women
Schools, Achievement, and Inequality
The National Institute on Aging Health Disparities Research Framework
Racial residential segregation
Societal and Individual Life Processes
The Segregated Origins of Social Security
The Political Economy of Pension Reform in Europe
The Institutionalization of the Life Course
Critical Psychology
Navigating the German school system when being perceived as a student ‘with migration background’
On Doing Psychology Critically
Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Sequences in the Study of Age and Generation Effects
Age of Assignment of Roles and Responsibilities to Children
Social Structure and Social Construction of Life Stages
Structure, text, and subject
Servants of globalization
Inequality in the Promised Land
Systemic Racism
Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination
Children of the Great Depression
Children of Global Migration
Childhood Adultification in Economically Disadvantaged Families
Intersectional inequalities and the U.S. opioid crisis
Closing the Wealth Gap
The legacy of structural racism
Revisiting the bamboo ceiling
Social class background and the school-to-work transition
The Continued Eclipse of Heterogeneity in Gerontological Research
Systemic and Reflexive
Cumulative Advantage as a Mechanism for Inequality
Race and genetics
Infrastructures of social reproduction
What types of neighbourhoods are redlined
See no evil
The Black/White Disability Gap
Economic Status Over the Life Course and Racial Disparities in Health
Enriching the Tapestry
Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course
Are Comparisons the Answer to Understanding Behavioral Aspects of Aging in Racial and Ethnic Groups
Later-Life Economic Inequality in Longitudinal Perspective
Assessing Racial Health Inequality in Older Adulthood
Self-Rated Health and Mortality Among Black and White Adults
Redlining, racism and food access in US urban cores
I Did Not Get that Job Because of a Black Man
Aging as intracohort differentiation
Professing Education in a Postmodern Age
Ethnic inequalities at the transition from school to work in Belgium and Spain
Racism in Schools and Ethnic Differentials in Educational Achievement
Ethnicity, gender, social class and achievement gaps at age 16
The Second Generation in Europe
Foreign Accents in the Early Hiring Process
Growing up before their time
Gender, Public Policy and the Oldest Old
Towards a Political Economy of Old Age
Life course epidemiology
The Bell Curve
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Framework
Housing and wealth inequality
Cohort differences in cognitive aging and terminal decline in the Seattle Longitudinal Study
Cumulative Disadvantage
Are Some People Crime‐prone? Replications of the Personality‐crime Relationship Across Countries, Genders, Races, and Methods
Place‐based social exclusion
A Life Course Perspective on How Racism May Be Related to Health Inequities
Discrimination and Health Inequities
Comparative integration context theory
The Second Generation in Western Europe
Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course
The Political Economy of Ageing and the Second Coming of Neoliberalism
Age as an Institution
Ageing and Care Poverty
Feminism, Age Relations, and the Construction of Old Age
The Impact of Sandwich Care on Employment and Well-Being in Germany
Age Is (Not) Just a Word—A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Social Construction of Age, Ageing, and Generations
Exploring Well-Being Among Older Migrants
Aging and Cohort Succession
We don’t do that in Germany!” A critical race theory examination of Turkish heritage young adults’ school experiences
Achieved educational attainment, inherited genetic endowment for education, and obesity
Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage and the Life Course
Thirty years of research on race differences in cognitive ability
Health Disparities due to Diminished Return among Black Americans
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |