title: Future talk in later life.
abstract: This article focuses on the relevance that the dimension of the future has for promoting healthy and active aging. Older people generally have difficulties in talking about the future and when they do they generally express very negative perspectives on it. The data analyzed in this paper are part of an on-going interdisciplinary research project: "Aging, poverty and social exclusion: an interdisciplinary study on innovative support services" (https://apseclunl.wordpress.com/). The project aims at documenting good practices in social intervention with older people who are at risk of exclusion. This study describes and critically discusses an activity carried out in Portugal among older women in a poor area in the suburb of Lisbon entitled "self-awareness workshop on the future". Through a detailed discourse analysis within an ethnomethodological framework the study shows age membership categorizations in use and categorization processes, examining the workshop interaction. In particular, the article describes how the psychologist works at deconstructing and problematizing the negative connotations related to age membership categories. Taking into consideration the interactionally constructed nature of aging and the material consequences that different attitudes towards aging can imply is very important in particular in relation to the provision of services to older people.
authors.affiliation: CLUNL, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. De Berna, 26C Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: isap@fcsh.unl.pt.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Paoletti
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: sandragomes.arpib@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008136:Longevity; D008875:Middle Aged; D012929:Psychological Distance
keywords: Active aging; Discourse analysis; Ethnomethodology; Future talk; Old age categorization