Adult Life: Aging, Responsibility, and the Pursuit of Happiness (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ethics and Aging: On the Existential Vicissitudes of Ethical Striving
2017
If the question of the good old life is somehow distinct from the more general question of the good life, how are such factors as "age", growing "old", aging", "life phases" implicated in the experience and understanding of the "good"? I will begin by considering how to think of aging and life phases without falling prey to certain unwarranted reductionisms about aging as bodily growth and decay across a chronometric life span. Here it will be important to bring the hypothesis of human indeterminacy to bear also with respect to the temporal configuration of human forms-of-life into certain phases-of-life. One concern that could already be raised here is that the very concept of life phases, despite all references to indeterminacy, is a theoretical non-starter due to its tendency to reify life according to e.g. ideological, institutional, economic discourses. However, I will attempt to show that by viewing human indeterminacy with the question of life phases in mind, a latent age bias is actually exposed in the very notion of human indeterminacy: an age bias, that-if it remains unnoticed-will be a stumbling block, but-when explicated-provides a vantage point for theoretical considerations of life phases and ethics. With this in mind, the latter half of this paper will focus on the notion of "life phases" as a phenomenological prism. Through a sympathetic, but critical reading of the notion of vital conjunctures, I will rediscover here also a certain potential age bias prioritizing futurity, but equally point to some very useful resources for the present explorations. Asking explicitly what is "vital" about vital conjunctures; what kind of force this vitality harbors, the consideration of life phases moves toward a genuine thinking of the temporality of events as a key to understanding what aging means in human life. Finally, I will conclude by briefly relating these preliminary considerations of the natal temporality of phases-of-life to the issue of ethics and ethical striving.
How the ethical experience defines adulthood: A sociological analysis
This paper presents a qualitative research on young Montrealers’ transition to adult life. We draw on Derrida’s critical theory of ethics to demonstrate how the experience of responsibility characterizes interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Responsibility is defined as a willingness to respond to others, which young people learn through interpersonal relationships and key events in their life course. Based on an analysis of their life stories, the paper argues that young adults need to answer for themselves – affirming their values and identity – in order to be able to respond to others.
On the Frontier of Adulthood: Emerging Themes and New Directions
On the Frontier of Adulthood reveals a startling new fact: adulthood no longer begins when adolescence ends. A lengthy period before adulthood, often spanning the twenties and even extending into the thirties, is now devoted to further education, job exploration, experimentation in romantic relationships, and personal development. Pathways into and through adulthood have become much less linear and predictable, and these changes carry tremendous social and cultural significance, especially as institutions and policies aimed at supporting young adults have not kept pace with these changes. This volume considers the nature and consequences of changes in early adulthood by drawing upon a wide variety of historical and contemporary data from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Especially dramatic shifts have occurred in the conventional markers of adulthood—leaving home, finishing school, getting a job, getting married, and having children—and in how these experiences are configured as a set. These accounts reveal how the process of becoming an adult has changed over the past century, the challenges faced by young people today, and what societies can do to smooth the transition to adulthood. "This book is the most thorough, wide-reaching, and insightful analysis of the new life stage of early adulthood."—Andrew Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University "From West to East, young people today enter adulthood in widely diverse ways that affect their life chances. This book provides a rich portrait of this journey-an essential font of knowledge for all who care about the younger generation."—Glen H. Elder Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "On the Frontier of Adulthood adds considerably to our knowledge about the transition from adolescence to adulthood. . . . It will indeed be the definitive resource for researchers for years to come. Anyone working in the area—whether in demography, sociology, economics, or developmental psychology—will wish to make use of what is gathered here."—John Modell, Brown University "This is a must-read for scholars and policymakers who are concerned with the future of today's youth and will become a touchpoint for an emerging field of inquiry focused on adult transitions."—Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University
On Becoming an Adult: Autonomy and the Moral Relevance of Life's Stages
The Philosophical Quarterly, 2013
What is it about a person's becoming an adult that makes it generally inappropriate to treat that person paternalistically any longer? The Standard View holds that a mere difference in age or stage of life cannot in itself be morally relevant, but only matters insofar as it is correlated with the development of capacities for mature practical reasoning. This paper defends the contrary view: two people can have all the same general psychological attributes and yet the mere fact that one person is at the beginning of a life and another in the middle of one can justify treating the younger person more paternalistically than the older one. Recognising the moral relevance of age, moreover, is crucial if one is to accommodate both the liberal moral ideal of respect for autonomy and our demanding educational aims, given that these otherwise come into conflict with one another.
Elders are the only people we can look towards to learn how to live and more so, how to die - for in showing us the beauty and grace in dying, they teach us how to live life fully with meaning and purpose. When we cast elders aside as no longer of use, a burden on society, we communicate to the rest of humanity that we are only valuable to a certain point in our lives, and then no more. We risk sending a message to future generations that what is important about you and your life is not who you are, but rather is what you do and how you contribute, in an economic fashion, to the rest of society. I come from a generation who mistakes time for money and money for love – and we never have enough love. My generation is confused as to what is most important right now; which I believe is the patient, listening ear you lend to others to hear their stories, the time you give which helps others feel seen, and the equal rights you are willing to fight, which reminds us all the importance of humanity and its ultimate value = love. What is not most important, if at all, is the wealth, monetary items, or material possessions we leave behind. Sadly, I spent the first 25 years of my adult life not understanding this illusion. This research and its autoethnography method provides me with a unique technique to research, experience, and write about the phenomena of growing old and the experience of becoming an elder for my community. All of which provide me with a deeper understanding of how I mirror the society I am a part of through my actions and behaviors. This research project not only illuminates my personal experiences in ceremony as I ponder this next phase of my life, it also illustrates the power of contemplative silence, rituals, and connection to nature for any willing participant. This is just the beginning for a new life long practice for me.
Narrative and the social construction of adulthood
New directions for child and adolescent development, 2014
This chapter develops three points of elaboration and theoretical expansion upon Cohler's (1982) treatise on personal narrative and life course. First, we highlight Cohler's emphasis on an interpretive, idiographic approach to the study of lives and reveal the radicalism of this approach, particularly in its ability to interrogate the lived experience of social categorization. Second, we link Cohler's position directly to cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and consider the link between inner and social speech through the idea of narrative engagement. Finally, following Cohler's life course perspective on human development, we suggest that adulthood is best conceived as a cultural discourse to which individuals orient their personal narratives through a dynamic process of narrative engagement rather than a clearly demarcated life stage. Emerging adulthood is linked to cultural and economic processes of globalization in the 21st century and challenges static no...
Radiography, 1962
Almost everywhere in Europe, corresponding to transformations in post-industrial societies, transitions from youth to adulthood are becoming prolonged and destandardised, and welfare measures minimised. This in turn puts pressure on parents and young people. Within the group of Southern European countries, Italy is characterised by low levels of welfare provision and reliance on the family as a form of support. However, young adults in Italy constitute a case in its own right for a particularly delayed transition to adulthood. Not only scholars but also the national and international press heavily attack them with the accusation that they have lost freshness and potential in public life. The question is, then, what conditions allow a young Italian to consider himself/herself an adult in the current cultural and social-political scenario? International sociological literature on life cycle agrees in identifying five thresholds which have to be overcome in order to reach adulthood. Among these, we concentrate on obtaining a stable working position and becoming a parent. Findings from our two different research projects strongly converge in criticising the necessity, for the young adults interviewed, to refer to such thresholds. Within a situation of growing contingency, 'yo-yo' modalities have been identified to interpret transitions that are not only prolonged and destandardised, but also uncertain and reversible. Pushing further in this direction, our interview material suggests that it may be helpful to reconceptualise the intrinsic value of reflexively 'passing' turning points to consider oneself fully adult and to problematise adulthood itself as an unquestionable point of arrival.
Special Issue. Ageing as a Unique Experience.
2023
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.