Imagining feminist old age: Moving beyond ‘successful’ ageing?

"They didn't think we'd do it!": Community gardening as an act of resistance for people with dementia

People living with dementia commonly report negative experiences such as disempowerment, stigma, and oppression. Community gardening has demonstrated its potential as a forum for the practice of resistance against the oppressions experienced by other marginalised groups; however, this element of the experience of community gardening has yet to be explored in the context of dementia. A collaboratively-designed community gardening project took place over six weeks, involving six people with dementia. The participants selected all activities undertaken in the garden. Data were collected through semi-structured group interviews with the gardeners and researcher observations. Context-setting semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with four day centre staff members, and three key informants who had experienced working with people with dementia in the garden. The garden acted as a platform for the articulation of both verbal and embodied expressions of resistance against the disempowerment and loss of agency experienced by many people with dementia. The participatory design of the gardening sessions enabled the gardeners to assert their autonomy and independence, and defy the negative stereotypes associated with dementia, which some of the group members appeared to have internalised. Community gardening activities may offer a forum for expressions of resistance against the structures oppressing individuals with dementia. However, in order for this potential to be unlocked, such initiatives must be collaboratively designed, following an approach which recognises the strengths and enduring abilities of people living with dementia. Additionally, the empowering impact of community gardening should not be diluted by positioning the activity as a substitute for adequate statutory health and social care provision, thereby individualising responsibility for the wellbeing of people with dementia.

Aging as Adaptation

In traditional gerontological terms, adaptation is usually understood as the production of physical aids to mitigate the impairment effects caused by age-related disabilities, or as those alterations organizations need to make under the concept of reasonable adjustment to prevent age discrimination (in the UK, e.g., age has been a protected characteristic under the Equality Act since 2010). This article will be the first to examine aging in relation to theories of adaptation within cultural studies and the humanities. It is thus an interdisciplinary intervention within the field of cultural gerontology and cultural theories of adaptation. Adaptation studies in cultural studies and the humanities have moved away from fidelity criticism (the issue of how faithful an adaptation is to its original) toward thinking of adaptation as a creative, improvisational space. We ask if theories of adaptation as understood within cultural studies and the humanities can help us develop a more productive and creative way of conceptualizing the aging process, which reframes aging in terms of transformational and collaborative adaptation. Moreover, for women in particular, this process of adaptation involves engagement with ideas of women's experience that encompass an adaptive, intergenerational understanding of feminism. Our article draws on interviews with the producer and scriptwriter of the Representage theater group's play My Turn Now. The script for the play is adapted from a 1993 coauthored book written by a group of 6 women who were then in their 60s and 70s, who founded a networking group for older women.

Leaving no one behind: successful ageing at the intersection of ageism and ableism

BACKGROUND

The concept of 'successful ageing' has been a prominent focus within the field of gerontology for several decades. However, despite the widespread attention paid to this concept, its intersectional implications have not been fully explored yet. This paper aims to address this gap by analyzing the potential ageist and ableist biases in the discourse of successful ageing through an intersectional lens.

METHOD

A critical feminist perspective is taken to examine the sensitivity of the discourse of successful ageing to diversity in societies. The paper analyzes how ageist and ableist biases can manifest in the ways we conceptualize ageing, drawing on examples in the context of mental health.

RESULTS

We argue that the conventional approach to successful ageing is limited in its ability to account for the experiences of people who have faced intersectional discrimination throughout their lives. Drawing on examples in the context of mental health, we explore among others the link between depression and disabilities. Furthermore, we shed light on the negative impact of ageist and ableist attitudes concerning the diagnosis and treatment of dementia.

DISCUSSION

We demonstrate how diversity is often overlooked in discussions of ageing well, and how ageist and ableist biases can manifest in the ways we conceptualize ageing. We argue that focusing solely on the health status as a means of achieving success fails to adequately counter ageism for all people. We further emphasize the role of structural factors, such as ageist attitudes, in shaping the experience of ageing and exacerbating health inequalities.

CONCLUSION

Overall, our findings emphasize the need for a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of ageing and therefore an intersectional approach to conceptions of ageing well that recognizes and addresses the biases and limitations of current discourses. Thereby, this paper offers valuable insights into the complex intersections between age and disabilities from a bioethical perspective, highlighting the need for a more inclusive and intersectional approach to ageing.

Revitalising sensualities of ageing with Parkinson's through dance

Dance for Parkinson's can be characterised as a growing social movement which has become a worldwide phenomenon that gives rise to new questions about the meaning and importance of dance in relation to intersecting and overlapping identity categories of ageing and chronic conditions. In this article, we probe into the potentially constructive interplay between the lived experiences of Parkinson's dance as a space of revitalised sensuality and the cultural imaginations and values connected to the nexus between ageing and chronic conditions. Through a dialogic interpretive framework that recognises and ascribes value to the embodied experiences of Parkinson's dancers, we analyse how the experiences of living with Parkinson's as a chronic condition in the context of ageing are in interplay with the experiences of dancing as an embodied sensual activity. Consequently, we propose that, by emphasising the critical value of stories told by Parkinson's dancers, we are able to gain a more nuanced understanding of how Parkinson's dance affects the nexus between ageing and chronic conditions in revitalising and sensual ways.