Reflections on the construction and study of elderliness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v8i2.166Abstract
The institutional approach with its focus on the roles and the socio-economic status of elderly people still prevails in African research on ageing. To be sure, this perspective is not without value, at least if we take it beyond the confines of orthodox modernization theory. Nevertheless, if we want to save older Africans from macro-sociological extinction in general and from structural-functionalist elimination in particular, we need to pay closer attention to the multiplexity of their everyday lives and to their subjective experiences, without, of course, thereby neglecting the institutional structure of society.References
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Apt, N.A. 1996. Coping with old age in a changing Africa. Aldershot; Avebury.
Bernardi, b. 1985. Age class systems: social institutions and politics based on age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdiea, P. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bruner, E.M. 1986. Experience and its expressions. In: Turner, V.M. & Bruner, E.M. (Eds) The anthropology of experience. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 3-30.
Cattell, M.G. 1990. Models of old age among the Samia of Kenya: family support of the elderly. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 5: 375-394.
Cattell, MG. 1997. Ubuntu, African elderly and the African family crisis. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 6(2): 37-39.
Cattell, M.G, 1999. Elders’ complaints: discourses on old age and social change in rural Kenya and urban Philadelphia. In: Hamilton, H.E. (Ed.) Language and communication in old age: multidisciplinary perspectives. New York/London: Garland, pp. 295-317,
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Cole, T.R. 1997 [1992], The journey of life: a cultural history of ageing in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Estes, C.L. & Binney, E.A. 1989. The biomedicalization of aging: dangers and dilemmas. The Gerontologist, 29: 587-597.
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Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures, London: Hutchinson.
Giddens, A. 1991. The consequences of modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Neysmith, S.M. & Edwardth, J. 1984. Economic dependency in the 1980s: its impact on Third World elderly. Ageing and Society, 4(1): 21-44.
Oberg, P. 1996. The absent body : a social gerontological paradox. Ageing and Society, 16: 701-719.
Okely, J. 1994. Vicarious and sensory knowledge of chronology and change: ageing in rural France. In: Hastrup, K. & Hervik, P. (Eds) Social experience and anthropological knowledge. London/New York: Routledge, pp, 45-64.
Phillipson, C. 1998. Reconstructing old age: new agendas in social theory and practice. London. Sage.
Sagner, A. & Mtati, R.Z. 1999. Politics of pension sharing in urban South Africa. Ageing and Society, 19(4): 393-416.
White, M. & Epston, D, 1990. Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.
Apt, N.A. 1996. Coping with old age in a changing Africa. Aldershot; Avebury.
Bernardi, b. 1985. Age class systems: social institutions and politics based on age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdiea, P. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bruner, E.M. 1986. Experience and its expressions. In: Turner, V.M. & Bruner, E.M. (Eds) The anthropology of experience. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 3-30.
Cattell, M.G. 1990. Models of old age among the Samia of Kenya: family support of the elderly. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 5: 375-394.
Cattell, MG. 1997. Ubuntu, African elderly and the African family crisis. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 6(2): 37-39.
Cattell, M.G, 1999. Elders’ complaints: discourses on old age and social change in rural Kenya and urban Philadelphia. In: Hamilton, H.E. (Ed.) Language and communication in old age: multidisciplinary perspectives. New York/London: Garland, pp. 295-317,
Cohen, L. 1998. No aging in India: Alzheimer's, the bad family, and other modern things. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Cole, T.R. 1997 [1992], The journey of life: a cultural history of ageing in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Estes, C.L. & Binney, E.A. 1989. The biomedicalization of aging: dangers and dilemmas. The Gerontologist, 29: 587-597.
Featherstone, M. 1995. Post-bodies, aging and virtual reality. In: Featherstone, M. & Wemeck, A. (Eds) Images of aging: cultural representations of later life. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 227-244.
Featherstone, M. & Wemeck, A. 1995. Introduction. In: Featherstone, M. & Wemeck, A . (Eds) Images of ageing: cultural representations of later life. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 1-15.
Ferreira, M. 1999. Building and advancing African gerontology. Editorial Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 8(1): 1-3.
French, L. 1994. The political economy of injury and compassion: amputees on the Thai-Cambodia border. In: Csordas, T.J. (Ed.) Embodiment and experience: the existential ground of culture and self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 69-99.
Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures, London: Hutchinson.
Giddens, A. 1991. The consequences of modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Hareven, T.K. 1995. Changing images of aging and the social construction of the life course. In: Featherstone, M. & Wemeck, A. (Eds) Images of aging: cultural representations of later life, London/New York: Routledge, pp. 119-134.
Harper, S. 1997. Constructing later life/constructing the body: some thoughts from feminist theory. In: Jamieson, A. Harper, S. & Victor, C. (Eds) Critical approaches to ageing and later life. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp, 160-172.
Hazan,H. 1986. Body image and temporality among the aged: a case study of an ambivalent symbol. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 7(1): 305-329.
Hockey, J. & James, A. 1993. Growing up and growing old: ageing and dependency in the life course. London: Sage.
James, A., Hockey, J. & Dawson, A. 1997. Introduction: the road from Santa Fe. In: James, A., Hockey, J. & Dawson, A. (Eds) After writing culture: epistemology and praxis in contemporary anthropology, London/New York: Routledge, pp. 1-15.
Katz, S. 1996. Disciplining old age: the formation of gerontological knowledge. Charlottesville/London: University Press of Virginia.
Kaufman, S. 1986. The ageless self: sources of meaning in later life. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Keith, J. et al. 1994. The aging experience: diversity and commonality across cultures. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Kenyon, G.M, & Randall, W.L. 1997. Restoring our lives: personal growth through autobiographical reflection. Westport: Praeger.
Kilbride, P.L. & Kilbride, J.C. 1997. Stigma, role overload, and delocalization among contemporary Kenyan women. In: Weisner, T.S., Bradley, C. & Kilbride, P.L. (Eds) African families and the crisis of social change. Westport/London: Bergin & Garvey, pp. 208-223.
Kleinman, A. & Kleinman, J. 1991, Suffering and its professional transformation: toward an ethnography of interpersonal experience. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 15(3): 275-301.
Kohn, T. 1994. Incomers and fieldworkers: a comparative study of social experience. In: Hastrup, K. & Hervik, P. (Eds) Social experience and anthropological knowledge. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 13-27.
Lyman, K.A. 1989. Bringing the social back in: a critique of the biomedicalization of dementia. The Gerontologist, 29(5): 597-605.
Neysmith, S.M. & Edwardth, J. 1984. Economic dependency in the 1980s: its impact on Third World elderly. Ageing and Society, 4(1): 21-44.
Oberg, P. 1996. The absent body : a social gerontological paradox. Ageing and Society, 16: 701-719.
Okely, J. 1994. Vicarious and sensory knowledge of chronology and change: ageing in rural France. In: Hastrup, K. & Hervik, P. (Eds) Social experience and anthropological knowledge. London/New York: Routledge, pp, 45-64.
Phillipson, C. 1998. Reconstructing old age: new agendas in social theory and practice. London. Sage.
Sagner, A. & Mtati, R.Z. 1999. Politics of pension sharing in urban South Africa. Ageing and Society, 19(4): 393-416.
White, M. & Epston, D, 1990. Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.
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1999-10-01
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