Ageing Differently: Imagining Older People as Agents

The Ageing Differently project considers the ageing processes as a series of cultural processes rather than as an inexorable pathway towards biological deterioration. The project’s aim is to highlight that there are different ways to be involved into the ageing process and to address the issue from the perspective of the imaginaries and the different strategies implemented to cope with the inevitable challenges that this process entails. These different ways are linked to multiple factors, such as economic, cultural and social variables, the presence/absence of a family and friendship networks, the presence/absence of a partner, the presence/absence of children, the overall health conditions, gender, sexual orientation, housing situations, place of residence, lifestyles, images of the world, etc. Prejudices and negative images about old age, in their several gender-related articulations, inevitably lead also to negative views of formal and/or informal care related to older people. If older people are reduced to a mere burden on society and deprived of their ability to create meaningful and rich relationships with their carers, it is almost inevitable that care work will also be associated with negative emotions, with hard work and dirty work. Analysing the agency of the frail elderly in their relationship with the caregiver can help us understand the real meaning and value of the care relationship in a different perspective and to associate care with different, more inclusive notions of social citizenship. By doing so, we can also reduce the multiple inequalities associated with this fundamental activity of our everyday lives.