introducing the “third age”: a “successful” alternative to ... · third age is a new...
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Introducing the “Third Age”: A “Successful” Alternative to the
Tripartitioned Life Course?
Dawn C. Carr, MGS, ABD Miami University
Department of Sociology and Gerontology
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Overview
• Conceptualization of the third age • Critical examination of salient ideals • Implications for the way older adults
are valued • Implications for future research on the
third age
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A New Paradigm
• Contextualized by the third age • Marked by macro-demographic changes
– Population aging – Life course structure
• Linked with rhetoric about active and productive aging – Avoidance of decline – Promotion of “successful aging”
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New Structure of Later Life
• Tripartitioned Life Course Structure – Institutionalization of retirement
• Education, work, and leisure – Criticisms
• Limits social value / status in later life • Economic costs of population aging
• Third age – Delay of disability
• Four-part life course
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• New opportunities in old age – Retirement before disability
• Average older adult – New possibilities
• Productivity • Meaningful engagement
New Opportunities for Later Life
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Examination of the Salient Ideals of the Third Age
• Salient Perspectives • A New frontier for personal growth • Avoidance of aging and acting young
in old age
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Third Age is a New Frontier for Personal Growth
• Seeks to sever tie between old age and less valued “leisure” roles – Major critique of tripartitioned life course
• Challenges ageist views of older adults as frail and needy – Especially productive aging
• Focus on opportunities in later life
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Being a “Third-Ager” Means Acting Young in Old Age
• Encouragement of productive aging to increase social value – E.g., Volunteering – Seeking to off-set costs of population
aging • Choice about individual behavior
• Avoidance of dependency (fourth age) • Individual responsibility for remaining
independent
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Third Age Rhetoric: Conflicting Core Values and Ideologies
• 1. tension between individual responsibility (and choice) and social structural support (i.e., retirement)
• 2. relevance of socially versus economically valued social roles
• 3. personally versus socially valued opportunities in later life
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Is the “Third Age” an Improvement?
• Not necessarily • Awkward position of seeking to remain
“ageless” – Submitting to decline and disengagement,
no longer “successful” – Masking aging by mimicking middle-age
lifestyle – Success in later life is related to decisions
about behavior
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Third Age as Evidence of Resilience?
• Avoidance of aging – Entry and exit from third age viewed as the
product of personal decisions and behaviors • Ageist depiction of old age
– Old age redefined based on privilege – Perpetuation of “anti-aging” rhetoric
• “Third age societies” and resources??
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Alternative Perspectives: Celebrating the Third Age
• De-emphasized • Evidence of positive changes • Recognition that paths to the third age
are not equal – Opportunity versus choice – Availability of resources across the life
course
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Future Research: A macro-level perspective of resiliency
• Individual behaviors and opportunities related to distribution of resources – Linked with social structural forces
• Integration of personal resources and social resources
avoidance of dependency • Identify barriers to aging “positively” that
lead to inequality in later life