Expert Discourses on Ageing and Social Gerontology
Abstract
This article is devoted to reconstructing and analysing expert discourses on ageing and the social status of the elderly. Based on interview materials from experts working with the elderly in various fields, we analyzed their ideas about old age and the elderly. The opinions, ideas, and attitudes of specialists working with the older generation are an important basis for social policy. According to experts, a person’s life cycle is divided into main stages intended for a particular age: education for youth, work for adulthood, and retirement for old age. However, experts highlight the ongoing age 'shift' and the need to reconsider the changes that have occurred. When describing the main characteristics of old age, experts refer to established notions of ageing and disease. When determining age limits, experts consider normative factors, an individual perception of themselves, and their state of health. According to our experts, the main advantages of old age are extensive life experience, a meaningful perspective on many things, and freedom of action in the face of reduced institutional constraints. Despite the high heterogeneity of the elderly population, and the fact that the elderly are a differentiated social and age group, including by health status, which can be decisive in terms of activity, experts conditionally divide the elderly into two categories — 'active' and 'inactive.' They then decide who is active and who is not. 'Active' elderly people are independent and in good health, and are actively involved in a variety of spheres. 'Inactive' elderly people are sick, lonely, and dependent on outside help; in other words, they require social services. The media play a certain degree of influence on age self-identification and ideas about older age among experts and the public by broadcasting the image of the poor, disadvantaged, and sick. In practice, work is needed to change the negative image of the elderly that is based on the heterogeneity of this social group.