Ageing studies

Ageing studies (or age studies) is a field of theoretically, politically, and empirically engaged cultural analysis that was developed by scholars from many different disciplines. Over the past fifteen years the field of ageing studies has flourished, with a growing number of scholars paying attention to the cultural implications of population ageing.
History and description of the field.
Ageing studies break from the traditional field of gerontology by highlighting how biological ageing is mediated by cultural construction, and by emphasising the self-representation of the elderly. The first issue of the academic journal "Age, Culture, Humanities" includes many essays that address the "coming of age" of this field, in which Stephen Katz draws a comparison between the current state of age studies and gender studies.
Ageing studies is an interdisciplinary field, which can be affiliated to the wider approaches found in cultural studies, gender studies, media and film studies, consumer culture, etc. Researchers working in this field interrogate the cultural discourses and practices that construct the meaning of ageing. For example, they invoke calculations of age, asking at what age someone is considered "old" (fifty? sixty?) and referring to the social practice of trying to figure out someone's age. They investigate how public expressions of ageing in the West, such as representations of old age in the news, films and television, create limited views of old age, therefore leading to ageism, a general lack of awareness of diversity, and intergenerational misunderstandings and divisions. Within this perspective, ageing is understood not merely as a biological state, but as a lived experience, embodied and mediated, occurring within specific material and social circumstances. Research in this field is primarily conducted through methodologies associated with the social sciences and the humanities.
Academic organisations.
Research centres and networks:
Journals: