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Older Men
Older Men
Wednesday, 13 July 2016: 16:00-17:30
Location: Hörsaal 42 (Main Building)
RC11 Sociology of Aging (host committee) Language: English
In this session we would like to pay attention to the limited amount of scientific discussion dedicated to gender aspects of the ageing process. Research in social gerontology bears witness to the fact that women increasingly outnumber men in the usual “old age” categories. This can be ascribed to the demographic profile of an ageing population as well as to gender inequalities in various domains of women’s lives.
Many social scientists problematize the use of the standard “male” model to reflect the typical life course and experience of ageing (e.g. the three-stage life cycle of education, work and retirement). As a result, or an unintended consequence, the main focus of the last few decades of ageing research has been addressed mostly to women. However, we can ask the following questions: Is the male experience of ageing still as homogenous and “typical” as before? In what forms and ways, and under what circumstances do contemporary men experience the ageing process?
In this session we would like to point to the need to make a “male” turn and discuss these and similar questions. Therefore, we invite researchers to submit papers dealing with the roles, relationships, identities, and practices of older men, e.g. in relation to the corporality, health status, sexuality, “untraditional” domains of men’s lives, etc.
The papers are expected to explore the intersections of age, identity and masculinity that may influence the different ways in which manhood is understood, experienced and enacted. Varieties of theoretical and methodological backgrounds are welcome.
Session Organizer: