[From the (un)freedom of embodied age(ing) in modern society and the necessity of a critical gerontological perspective of the body].
Perspectives on the aging body as a social construct and in its function as constructing the social are hitherto less developed in (social) gerontology. Nevertheless, "age(ing) and body" contains much more than biological changes and losses. In the body as a social medium and result of actions, we can understand the classical question connecting social structures and individual subjectivity in its social-structural and individual differentiation.The interrelationship between the body and other dimensions of the life situation is more than health; it also concerns employment, social contacts and material situation. The social construction of reality can be examined through the body especially in terms of the special way of function in the modern society (e.g. as experience society and consumer society). They include structural contradictions which can be recognised by individual ambivalences, expressed as, e.g., physical age(ing) in a youth-centred culture. In this article the main topic is to raise awareness in (critical) gerontology about the body as a social phenomenon.
Backes
Gertrud M
GM
Hochschule Vechta - Universität, Zentrum Altern und Gesellschaft (ZAG), Driverstr. 22, 49377, Vechta, Germany. gertrud.backes@uni-vechta.de
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011287:Prejudice; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012922:Social Change; D012945:Social Values