The othering of old age: Insights from Postcolonial Studies
The othering of old age: Insights from Postcolonial Studies
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jaging.2016.06.005
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发表时间：
2016-12-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
van Dyk, Silke
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
van Dyk, Silke
谈到老年问题，我们目前正在目睹几乎是革命性的变化。经过几十年的无知和缺乏公共利益，老年问题从根本上重新谈判。不同的作者已经诊断出老年的日益增长的分歧，分为一个相当独立和有能力的第三年龄和一个深刻的老第四年龄，其特点是疾病，虚弱和依赖。在这种背景下，许多老年学家声称，所谓的老年人受到赞扬和重视，因为他们在中年规范和能力方面（持续）“相同”，而最年长的老年人越来越被激进的“他者”排除在人类之外。采取这一诊断，本文阐述了这种日益增长的两极分化在以后的生活：基于实证研究的重新谈判的老年在德国，这一贡献认为，并置的“同一性”和“他者”掩盖了真正的性质的两极分化，特别是与didto的社会作用的第三个年龄。我们看到的不是同一性和他者性，而是不同的他者化过程，年长者被视为他者，最年长者被视为他者。尽管存在着对第四时代的贬抑的深刻批判性分析，以及相当数量的关于老年激活和老年人新角色的文献，但本文关注的具体点--第三时代的他者--却被完全忽视了。本文更详细地讨论了这种差距的原因，并将指出后殖民研究的概念在多大程度上可以帮助我们理解他者荣耀和贬低的双重过程。(C)2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
When it comes to old age, we are witnessing almost revolutionary changes at the present time. After decades of ignorance and lack of public interest, old age has fundamentally been re-negotiated. A diverse range of authors have diagnosed the growing bifurcation of old age into a rather independent and capable Third Age and a deep old Fourth Age that is characterized by sickness, frailty and dependency. Against this backdrop, many gerontologists claim that the so-called young-old are praised and valued for their (ongoing) "sameness" in terms of midlife-norms and capabilities, whereas the oldest old are increasingly excluded from humanity by radical "othering". Taking up this diagnosis, the article elaborates on this growing polarization within later life: Based on empirical research on the re-negotiation of old age in Germany, this contribution argues that the juxtaposition of "sameness" and "otherness" obscures the true character of the polarization, particularly with regardto the social role of the Third Age. Instead of sameness and otherness, we rather witness different processes of othering, with the young-old being valued as the other and the oldest old being disdained as the other. Despite the existence of profound critical analyses of the abjection associated with the Fourth Age as well as a considerable amount of literature on old age activation and the new role of the young-old, the specific point of this article's concern the othering of the Third Age has been completely neglected. The article discusses the reasons for this gap in more detail and will indicate to what extent concepts from Postcolonial Studies may help us to understand the dual process of othering glorification and abjection. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.