Ieva Stončikaitė | Pompeu Fabra University (original) (raw)
Papers by Ieva Stončikaitė
Creating New Meanings For Old Age, 2024
Despite the increasing visibility of older individuals, ageing is often viewed negatively in cont... more Despite the increasing visibility of older individuals, ageing is often viewed negatively in contemporary Western society. The gendered and socioculturally constructed nature of growing older, along with the double standard of ageing, further marginalises older women, who constitute the loneliest and most socially isolated segment of society. This chapter focuses on a British literary editor and writer, Diana Athill’s, acclaimed memoir Somewhere Towards the End (2008), which challenges the narrative of decline and negative perceptions of ageing. Athill’s work serves as a powerful example of life writing that celebrates the experience of old age and later-life creativity. Through her introspective, witty, and thought-provoking narrative, she demonstrates that ageing can be a dynamic process marked by self-discovery, fewer regrets, and increased self-confidence. By reminding her readers of the richness inherent in every life stage, Athill also breaks the association of the fourth age with disability and challenges the notions of successful ageing. She presents a narrative that embraces the potential of individuals in their 80s and beyond, and emerges as a role model for women of her generation to become more empowered and unapologetic in old age.
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Studies in Travel Writing, 2024
This article focuses on Erica Jong’s and her fictional characters’ travel experiences in Venice, ... more This article focuses on Erica Jong’s and her fictional characters’ travel experiences in Venice, which is portrayed as a carefree and sensual destination. Jong demonstrates how female solo travelling can help challenge unequal gender roles, explore female sexuality regardless of one’s age, and rewrite the narratives of the Grand Tour. However, in her later works, the depiction of Venice transitions from a glorification of its charm to portraying it as a seductive place of decadence. The dichotomy between beauty and decay becomes a reminder of the passage of time and the inevitability of constant changes. While Jong and her heroines defy the centuries-long and idealised cultural heritage of Venice by moving beyond its common association with male desire, they also reveal that ephemeral love affairs can lead to emotional disillusionment. They also become potential targets of the leisure tourism industry and romanticised discourses that continue to influence contemporary travel expectations.
Link to the full text:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AYKYCDJSHBFKK67VH7WA/full?target=10.1080/13645145.2024.2322983
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The Gerontologist, 2023
The complexities surrounding aging, dementia, and care are timely and urgent issues that transcen... more The complexities surrounding aging, dementia, and care are timely and urgent issues that transcend beyond institutional boundaries, evincing a critical debate on later life across disciplines. In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in literary and cultural representations of dementia and care narratives, which offer valuable insights into the intricate paradigms of living and growing older with this condition. In her memoir I Remain in Darkness (1999), the Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux provides a candid account of her mother’s journey through dementia, from its onset to the gradual decline. Ernaux sincerely explores the nuances of dementia and caregiving within both the familial and institutional context, and sheds light on the complex and uneasy relationship between a mother and a daughter. Through the act of witnessing, she embarks on a path of healing, which allows her to confront her past wounds and better navigate the challenges that lie ahead. Ernaux’s harrowing account of her mother’s dementia and aging is both a confessional piece of writing and a narrative therapy, which reveals the challenges of aging, illness, and unresolved family tensions. Her work illuminates the interconnectedness between the past, present, and future, and shows that illness narratives can act as a catalyst for transformative change, identity formation, and self-reflection. However, Ernaux’s confessional memoir also troubles the ethics of life writing and identity issues, and seems to perpetuate the pathologizing medical gaze through the exposure of her mother’s vulnerability and intimacy in the face of dementia and care.
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International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2024
CFP: Special issue in 'International Journal of Ageing and Later Life' on ageing, intergeneration... more CFP: Special issue in 'International Journal of Ageing and Later Life' on ageing, intergenerationality, and narrative. Open to any perspectives that might enrich the existing literature
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Educational Gerontology, 2023
This article underlines the potential of autoethnography as interdisciplinary qualitative methodo... more This article underlines the potential of autoethnography as interdisciplinary qualitative methodology to improve research and pedagogy in critical geragogy. It argues that autoethnography, broadly expanding and yet still only fairly legitimized approach, can serve as an ageism intervention, an act of activism, and sociocultural critique to raise awareness about gender- and age-based discrimination in an adult educational context. First-person representations framed within autoethnography allow for expression of the ways in which ageism can be experienced in academic and educational environments as well as in more mundane and private settings. Autoethnographical writing also has the power to question prevailing frames of thinking, subverts dominant discourses and ‘subjugated knowledges,’ and allows for plausible solutions to current and future challenges in adult education and later life. Exposing and defying stereotypical notions of aging can positively alter the social milieu, community well-being, and quality of life of older individuals. Autoethnography also helps reveal many unvoiced aspects about lifelong learning, gender dynamics, and the intricacies of aging, and move beyond traditional empirical and disciplinary boundaries. Critical insider views of scholars, students, and professionals involved in adult education, social work, and gerontology programmes can help foster new interdisciplinary knowledge and ameliorate their research, learning processes, and teaching practices.
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Older Women in Europe: A Human Rights-Based Approach, 2022
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Journal of Aging Studies
This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of a... more This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life.
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Land
This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future option... more This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social w...
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022
This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with parti... more This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with participants enrolled in the Senior Programme of the University of Lleida, the City Council of Lleida, and care homes, as well as professional workers in the field of gerontology and related areas. It presents the analysis of interviews focused on the participants’ life trajectories, ageing, creativity, self-perception, and quality of life. The study aimed to examine how creativity influences the maintenance and improvement of a sense of wellbeing in older adults, and to reflect on how the perception of old age and of oneself changes through creative activity and active engagement across the life span. The article is framed within a new concept in sociology and the social sciences—‘profiguration’, which is the key element in the promotion and strengthening of intergenerational interdependence, education, wellbeing, social participation, and active ageing.
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Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research, 2021
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Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 2021
An increasing growth of older people has caused significant socioeconomic transformations for alm... more An increasing growth of older people has caused significant socioeconomic transformations for almost all sectors of society, including the tourism industry. In the last decades, older adults have become an important target group for the leisure tourism market on a global scale. It is estimated that older individuals, especially the representatives of the baby-boom generation, will be responsible for a relatively large share of all holiday spending, and that senior tourism will become the fastest and biggest potential driving force in the hospitality markets. Yet, senior tourism is still a marginal branch in aging and tourism studies. This article aims to address this gap by highlighting the complex nexus of recreational later-life mobility, active engagement and successful aging. It interrogates whether the senior tourism market liberates and empowers older adults, or further perpetuates age-related inequalities and reinforces consumerist pressures and the ideals of a good old age. To answer this question, it sheds light on the positive aspects of leisure travels in later life, such as an enhanced sense of well-being, happiness and psychological health. As a counterargument, the article shows how the senior leisure market, constructed around neoliberal Western notions of successful aging, further deepens discrimination among older adults.
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The Gerontologist, 2021
Background and Objectives This article addresses the representations of dementia and caregiving i... more Background and Objectives This article addresses the representations of dementia and caregiving in the fourth age as depicted in Erica Jong’s later-life work. It shows how the experience of parental care leads to the discovery of new ways of human interaction and expressions of personhood. Research Design and Methods Framed within literary–cultural age studies, this article shows how humanities-based inquiry can illuminate important aspects of aging and care of the oldest old, which are significant and revealing, but often hidden under the dark shadow of dementia. Results Newly discovered ways of communication challenge the notion of the loss of agency as they demonstrate that the body itself has the power of creative and intentional capacities and self-expression. Discussion and Implications Care-related narratives offer new insights into aging, dementia, and subjectivity that can help pursue a better analysis of the “deep” old age, strengthen collective solidarity, and manage incr...
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Aging Studies, 2019
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Societies, 2020
Negative stereotypes about old age abound in our present-day society, which often considers older... more Negative stereotypes about old age abound in our present-day society, which often considers older people as sexually incapable or even asexual. On the other hand, active ageing ideologies foster the practice of sex in later life as a sign of healthy and active ageing. The aim of this pilot case study was to examine the impact that poetry on sexuality, ageing and creativity had on older individuals. In total eight participants, aged 49–76, participated in a workshop offered by the University of Lleida (Spain). The initial hypothesis was that the participants, following the example set by the poems, would produce pieces of creative writing in which they voiced their own concerns and experiences about sexuality in later life from the distance that metaphor grants. While some of the participants’ writings engaged with the poems that deal with sexuality in older age, none of the participants’ creative pieces contained explicit instances of sexual experiences. The analysis of the particip...
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Journal of Aging Studies, 2020
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Behavioral Sciences, 2019
Important demographic shifts and the so-called ‘longevity revolution’ have generated profound tra... more Important demographic shifts and the so-called ‘longevity revolution’ have generated profound transformations in social interpretations of old age, an increased interest in age studies and new ideas on how to age well. The majority of current successful ageing models, however, represent rather a prevailing construct in Western societies. Physical and psychosocial well-being and the ability to adjust to the ideals of successful ageing are often seen as an integral part of a good quality in life. Those who do not or cannot follow these lines are often regarded as morally irresponsible and seem to be doomed to have a lonely, unhealthy and unhappy later life. This paper questions the current discourses of successful ageing in terms of healthy and happy living and calls for a reconsideration of more global, integrated and holistic understandings of the process of growing old.
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![Research paper thumbnail of ‘No, My Husband Isn’t Dead, [But] One Has to Re-Invent Sexuality’: Reading Erica Jong for the Future of Aging](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/91815353/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Societies, 2017
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Journal of Aging Studies, 2022
This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studi... more This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life.
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Land, 2022
This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future option... more This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social work, and the outcomes of the subsequent classroom discussions with the author of the book. The study results show that better knowledge about the complexities of ageing and later life can lead to the reconstruction of the students’ viewpoints about older age, help foster critical thinking, and defy age-related stereotypes, beliefs, and prejudices.
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This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with parti... more This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with participants enrolled in the Senior Programme of the University of Lleida, the City Council of Lleida, and care homes, as well as professional workers in the field of gerontology and related areas. It presents the analysis of interviews focused on the participants' life trajectories, ageing, creativity, self-perception, and quality of life. The study aimed to examine how creativity influences the maintenance and improvement of a sense of wellbeing in older adults, and to reflect on how the perception of old age and of oneself changes through creative activity and active engagement across the life span. The article is framed within a new concept in sociology and the social sciences-'profiguration', which is the key element in the promotion and strengthening of intergenerational interdependence, education, wellbeing, social participation, and active ageing.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Creating New Meanings For Old Age, 2024
Despite the increasing visibility of older individuals, ageing is often viewed negatively in cont... more Despite the increasing visibility of older individuals, ageing is often viewed negatively in contemporary Western society. The gendered and socioculturally constructed nature of growing older, along with the double standard of ageing, further marginalises older women, who constitute the loneliest and most socially isolated segment of society. This chapter focuses on a British literary editor and writer, Diana Athill’s, acclaimed memoir Somewhere Towards the End (2008), which challenges the narrative of decline and negative perceptions of ageing. Athill’s work serves as a powerful example of life writing that celebrates the experience of old age and later-life creativity. Through her introspective, witty, and thought-provoking narrative, she demonstrates that ageing can be a dynamic process marked by self-discovery, fewer regrets, and increased self-confidence. By reminding her readers of the richness inherent in every life stage, Athill also breaks the association of the fourth age with disability and challenges the notions of successful ageing. She presents a narrative that embraces the potential of individuals in their 80s and beyond, and emerges as a role model for women of her generation to become more empowered and unapologetic in old age.
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Studies in Travel Writing, 2024
This article focuses on Erica Jong’s and her fictional characters’ travel experiences in Venice, ... more This article focuses on Erica Jong’s and her fictional characters’ travel experiences in Venice, which is portrayed as a carefree and sensual destination. Jong demonstrates how female solo travelling can help challenge unequal gender roles, explore female sexuality regardless of one’s age, and rewrite the narratives of the Grand Tour. However, in her later works, the depiction of Venice transitions from a glorification of its charm to portraying it as a seductive place of decadence. The dichotomy between beauty and decay becomes a reminder of the passage of time and the inevitability of constant changes. While Jong and her heroines defy the centuries-long and idealised cultural heritage of Venice by moving beyond its common association with male desire, they also reveal that ephemeral love affairs can lead to emotional disillusionment. They also become potential targets of the leisure tourism industry and romanticised discourses that continue to influence contemporary travel expectations.
Link to the full text:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AYKYCDJSHBFKK67VH7WA/full?target=10.1080/13645145.2024.2322983
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Gerontologist, 2023
The complexities surrounding aging, dementia, and care are timely and urgent issues that transcen... more The complexities surrounding aging, dementia, and care are timely and urgent issues that transcend beyond institutional boundaries, evincing a critical debate on later life across disciplines. In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in literary and cultural representations of dementia and care narratives, which offer valuable insights into the intricate paradigms of living and growing older with this condition. In her memoir I Remain in Darkness (1999), the Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux provides a candid account of her mother’s journey through dementia, from its onset to the gradual decline. Ernaux sincerely explores the nuances of dementia and caregiving within both the familial and institutional context, and sheds light on the complex and uneasy relationship between a mother and a daughter. Through the act of witnessing, she embarks on a path of healing, which allows her to confront her past wounds and better navigate the challenges that lie ahead. Ernaux’s harrowing account of her mother’s dementia and aging is both a confessional piece of writing and a narrative therapy, which reveals the challenges of aging, illness, and unresolved family tensions. Her work illuminates the interconnectedness between the past, present, and future, and shows that illness narratives can act as a catalyst for transformative change, identity formation, and self-reflection. However, Ernaux’s confessional memoir also troubles the ethics of life writing and identity issues, and seems to perpetuate the pathologizing medical gaze through the exposure of her mother’s vulnerability and intimacy in the face of dementia and care.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2024
CFP: Special issue in 'International Journal of Ageing and Later Life' on ageing, intergeneration... more CFP: Special issue in 'International Journal of Ageing and Later Life' on ageing, intergenerationality, and narrative. Open to any perspectives that might enrich the existing literature
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Educational Gerontology, 2023
This article underlines the potential of autoethnography as interdisciplinary qualitative methodo... more This article underlines the potential of autoethnography as interdisciplinary qualitative methodology to improve research and pedagogy in critical geragogy. It argues that autoethnography, broadly expanding and yet still only fairly legitimized approach, can serve as an ageism intervention, an act of activism, and sociocultural critique to raise awareness about gender- and age-based discrimination in an adult educational context. First-person representations framed within autoethnography allow for expression of the ways in which ageism can be experienced in academic and educational environments as well as in more mundane and private settings. Autoethnographical writing also has the power to question prevailing frames of thinking, subverts dominant discourses and ‘subjugated knowledges,’ and allows for plausible solutions to current and future challenges in adult education and later life. Exposing and defying stereotypical notions of aging can positively alter the social milieu, community well-being, and quality of life of older individuals. Autoethnography also helps reveal many unvoiced aspects about lifelong learning, gender dynamics, and the intricacies of aging, and move beyond traditional empirical and disciplinary boundaries. Critical insider views of scholars, students, and professionals involved in adult education, social work, and gerontology programmes can help foster new interdisciplinary knowledge and ameliorate their research, learning processes, and teaching practices.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Older Women in Europe: A Human Rights-Based Approach, 2022
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Aging Studies
This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of a... more This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Land
This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future option... more This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social w...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022
This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with parti... more This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with participants enrolled in the Senior Programme of the University of Lleida, the City Council of Lleida, and care homes, as well as professional workers in the field of gerontology and related areas. It presents the analysis of interviews focused on the participants’ life trajectories, ageing, creativity, self-perception, and quality of life. The study aimed to examine how creativity influences the maintenance and improvement of a sense of wellbeing in older adults, and to reflect on how the perception of old age and of oneself changes through creative activity and active engagement across the life span. The article is framed within a new concept in sociology and the social sciences—‘profiguration’, which is the key element in the promotion and strengthening of intergenerational interdependence, education, wellbeing, social participation, and active ageing.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research, 2021
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 2021
An increasing growth of older people has caused significant socioeconomic transformations for alm... more An increasing growth of older people has caused significant socioeconomic transformations for almost all sectors of society, including the tourism industry. In the last decades, older adults have become an important target group for the leisure tourism market on a global scale. It is estimated that older individuals, especially the representatives of the baby-boom generation, will be responsible for a relatively large share of all holiday spending, and that senior tourism will become the fastest and biggest potential driving force in the hospitality markets. Yet, senior tourism is still a marginal branch in aging and tourism studies. This article aims to address this gap by highlighting the complex nexus of recreational later-life mobility, active engagement and successful aging. It interrogates whether the senior tourism market liberates and empowers older adults, or further perpetuates age-related inequalities and reinforces consumerist pressures and the ideals of a good old age. To answer this question, it sheds light on the positive aspects of leisure travels in later life, such as an enhanced sense of well-being, happiness and psychological health. As a counterargument, the article shows how the senior leisure market, constructed around neoliberal Western notions of successful aging, further deepens discrimination among older adults.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Gerontologist, 2021
Background and Objectives This article addresses the representations of dementia and caregiving i... more Background and Objectives This article addresses the representations of dementia and caregiving in the fourth age as depicted in Erica Jong’s later-life work. It shows how the experience of parental care leads to the discovery of new ways of human interaction and expressions of personhood. Research Design and Methods Framed within literary–cultural age studies, this article shows how humanities-based inquiry can illuminate important aspects of aging and care of the oldest old, which are significant and revealing, but often hidden under the dark shadow of dementia. Results Newly discovered ways of communication challenge the notion of the loss of agency as they demonstrate that the body itself has the power of creative and intentional capacities and self-expression. Discussion and Implications Care-related narratives offer new insights into aging, dementia, and subjectivity that can help pursue a better analysis of the “deep” old age, strengthen collective solidarity, and manage incr...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Aging Studies, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Societies, 2020
Negative stereotypes about old age abound in our present-day society, which often considers older... more Negative stereotypes about old age abound in our present-day society, which often considers older people as sexually incapable or even asexual. On the other hand, active ageing ideologies foster the practice of sex in later life as a sign of healthy and active ageing. The aim of this pilot case study was to examine the impact that poetry on sexuality, ageing and creativity had on older individuals. In total eight participants, aged 49–76, participated in a workshop offered by the University of Lleida (Spain). The initial hypothesis was that the participants, following the example set by the poems, would produce pieces of creative writing in which they voiced their own concerns and experiences about sexuality in later life from the distance that metaphor grants. While some of the participants’ writings engaged with the poems that deal with sexuality in older age, none of the participants’ creative pieces contained explicit instances of sexual experiences. The analysis of the particip...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Aging Studies, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Behavioral Sciences, 2019
Important demographic shifts and the so-called ‘longevity revolution’ have generated profound tra... more Important demographic shifts and the so-called ‘longevity revolution’ have generated profound transformations in social interpretations of old age, an increased interest in age studies and new ideas on how to age well. The majority of current successful ageing models, however, represent rather a prevailing construct in Western societies. Physical and psychosocial well-being and the ability to adjust to the ideals of successful ageing are often seen as an integral part of a good quality in life. Those who do not or cannot follow these lines are often regarded as morally irresponsible and seem to be doomed to have a lonely, unhealthy and unhappy later life. This paper questions the current discourses of successful ageing in terms of healthy and happy living and calls for a reconsideration of more global, integrated and holistic understandings of the process of growing old.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Societies, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Aging Studies, 2022
This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studi... more This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Land, 2022
This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future option... more This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social work, and the outcomes of the subsequent classroom discussions with the author of the book. The study results show that better knowledge about the complexities of ageing and later life can lead to the reconstruction of the students’ viewpoints about older age, help foster critical thinking, and defy age-related stereotypes, beliefs, and prejudices.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with parti... more This article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups conducted with participants enrolled in the Senior Programme of the University of Lleida, the City Council of Lleida, and care homes, as well as professional workers in the field of gerontology and related areas. It presents the analysis of interviews focused on the participants' life trajectories, ageing, creativity, self-perception, and quality of life. The study aimed to examine how creativity influences the maintenance and improvement of a sense of wellbeing in older adults, and to reflect on how the perception of old age and of oneself changes through creative activity and active engagement across the life span. The article is framed within a new concept in sociology and the social sciences-'profiguration', which is the key element in the promotion and strengthening of intergenerational interdependence, education, wellbeing, social participation, and active ageing.
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Ageing is a diverse and multifaceted experience that is unique to each person. The process of age... more Ageing is a diverse and multifaceted experience that is unique to each person. The process of ageing is lived differently according to each individual’s socio-cultural, historical, religious, and political context, among other significant factors. However, the stereotype of homogeneity is still one of the strongest aspects related to later life. This Special Issue covers manuscripts of original research that critically examine the experience of old age and the process of growing older from different perspectives that range from social sciences to humanities and include social gerontology, cultural and literary gerontology, environmental gerontology, gerotechnological studies, social anthropology, and gender studies. The published articles explore and deepen our knowledge on body politics, sexuality, active and healthy ageing, space and place, age-friendly politics, human-robot interaction, media environments, digitalisation, the fourth age, ageism, narrative inquiry, creative writing, retirement management, and policy discourses among other topics. They collect arguments that show the variables and uniqueness of later life, and expand on the current theoretical frameworks in the field of age studies and beyond. The overall aim of this Special Issue is to broaden the gerontological scholarship and develop critical thought of old age and the life course beyond the merely biological processes of growing older and their sociocultural constructs. This Special Issue can be of interest to scholars, practitioners, stakeholders, and individuals concerned with the current dynamics of later life as well as the futures of ageing.
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