scholarly journals Critical Approaches to Ageing Body Politics in the Works of Erica Jong

Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ieva Stončikaitė
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
External Appearance ◽  
Erica Jong ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Historical Times ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Age Studies

The ways we read our bodies and bodily transformations are deeply inscribed in cultural meanings that vary across different historical times and societies. Even if the desire to achieve culturally imposed beauty standards and ideals is relevant to all age groups, anxieties about bodily decline become more pronounced as we approach the final stages of our lives. Physical changes are never just manifestations of cellular and organic loss, but can also be a source of troubled identifies and fragmented personalities caused by the mismatch between our external appearance and the inner perception of the self. This paper offers the longitudinal analysis of female processes of ageing from age-studies and feminist perspectives, as depicted in the works of Erica Jong, a contemporary American writer. It uncovers significant aspects of the pressures older women are subjected to in order to look more appealing in youth-oriented cultures, and demonstrates that the human body is often regarded as a conflicting site of perpetual ambiguities and troubled feelings caused by physical decay.

scholarly journals Automated Speech Recognition Systems and Older Adults: A Literature Review and Synthesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Werner ◽  
Gaojian Huang ◽  
Brandon J. Pitts
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Automated Speech Recognition ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Physical Changes

The number of older adults is growing significantly worldwide. At the same time, technological developments are rapidly evolving, and older populations are expected to interact more frequently with such sophisticated systems. Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems is an example of one technology that is increasingly present in daily life. However, age-related physical changes may alter speech production and limit the effectiveness of ASR systems for older individuals. The goal of this paper was to summarize the current knowledge on ASR systems and older adults. The PRISMA method was employed and 17 studies were compared on the basis of word error rate (WER). Overall, WER was found to be influenced by age, gender, and the number of speech samples used to train ASR systems. This work has implications for the development of future human-machine technologies that will be used by a wide range of age groups.

“Together We Stand, Divided We Fall”; Social Criticism and the Sociology of Sport and Leisure

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Deem
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Social Division ◽  
Sociology Of Sport ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Pluralist Approach

The article explores four modes of critical social theory in the sociology of sport and leisure, and attempts to identify common ground between these, especially in relation to their treatment of gender issues. Perspectives differ not only in their concepts and explanations but also in their underlying domain assumptions. First, the Weberian/Figurational perspective taken by Rojek is considered; this approach is the least concerned with gender, although breaking new ground in other ways. Second, the article looks at the work of the neo-Marxist, Hargreaves, which does include gender and race as issues, although secondary to class. Third is the work of Clarke and Critcher, with an important emphasis on the politics of culture and consumption, but again gender is seen as secondary to class. Finally, recent feminist perspectives are analyzed; here gender is primary, but other issues like class have not always been fully incorporated. Synthesis between different critical approaches to sport and leisure is seen as desirable because of the huge task of transforming these social phenomena. The paper suggests, however, that since the domain assumptions of all four are so different, their best way forward may lie in a new radical pluralist approach that does not a priori see any one social division as paramount.

scholarly journals You still don’t understand: why troubled engagements continue between feminists and (critical) IPE

2006 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGINA WAYLEN
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

Relatively early in the attempts to gender the discipline of International Relations (IR), it was argued by some feminist scholars that it was easier to raise feminist concerns in International Political Economy (IPE) than in IR. However, it has subsequently proved very difficult to articulate these concerns within mainstream IPE, as ‘the neo-realist and neo-liberal frameworks, with their common focus on state-centric issues of co-operation and conflict and their positivist and rationalistic methodologies, do not lend themselves to investigating gendered structures of inequality …’. In contrast, more overlap has been discerned between feminist perspectives and methodologies and the less influential ‘globalist’ (also known as critical/transdisciplinary or heterodox) approaches to IPE than with the dominant statist approaches. This article takes this position as its starting point and will focus on the relationship between gendered analyses and critical IPE (as it will be known here). It therefore does not engage with the undoubtedly important question of how far it is possible or desirable to have a gendered analysis that is not linked to feminism, as within both feminist and critical approaches to IPE an emancipatory agenda is entirely legitimate and even an integral part of those approaches.

scholarly journals “Stop … and Remember”: Memory and Ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-113
Author(s):  
Catherine Charlwood
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Old People ◽  
Social Gerontology ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Bodily Function ◽  
Age Studies

Abstract This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, particularly Never Let Me Go (2005) and, the less critically considered, The Buried Giant (2015). While criticism and reviews touch upon themes of ageing, loneliness, and loss of bodily function, scholars are yet to reveal either the centrality of this to Ishiguro’s work or how this might speak to real-life questions surrounding ageing. Few readers of Never Let Me Go realise that in writing it Ishiguro’s guiding question was ‘how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people’? The arguments here seek to restore such authorly intentions to prominence. Ishiguro is more interested in socio-cultural meanings of ageing than biologically impoverished memories: this article examines the shifting relationships Ishiguro presents between memory and age as regards what happens to the ways in which memories are valued, and how people might be valuable (or not) for their memories. Interdisciplinary with age studies and social gerontology, this article demonstrates how Ishiguro both contributes to, and contends with, socially constructed concepts of ageing. In refocusing Ishiguro criticism onto reminiscence rather than nostalgia, this article aims to put ageing firmly on the agenda of future research.

Escaping Youth

Young ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-50
Author(s):  
Elena Omelchenko ◽  
Nadya Nartova ◽  
Yana Krupets
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Age Identity ◽  
Saint Petersburg ◽  
A Value ◽  
Age Studies ◽  
Identity Production

The contemporary sociological debate highlights that youth is a category of age, but actual chronological youth is hardly viewed as a period of age production. Transition studies exclude youth as a stage of age identity production, while age studies do not problematize young people’s experience. This article focuses on age construction by two groups of chronologically young women. The analysis of 40 qualitative interviews with 15- to 20-year-old girls and 30- to 35-year-old women from Saint Petersburg shows that the concept of youth is slipping away from the biographical narratives of the informants from both age groups. Subjective adulthood experienced by young women is a goal and a value, while a young body does not prove to be a significant and available resource. At the same time, adulthood is not constructed as a set of clearly defined social characteristics but as an identity, a subjective experience, embodied adult personhood.

Black Girls and Dolls Navigating Race, Class, and Gender in Toronto

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
Janet Seow
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Doll Play

Doll play is critical in the formation of young black girls’ gender, race, and class identities. In this article, I use textual analysis that emphasizes how physical changes in dolls correspond to contextual shifts in society over the last seven decades, and qualitative research with ten Afro-Caribbean girls and young women in Toronto to reveal the racial and cultural meanings of dolls in young people’s everyday lives and how doll play is complicated by racist and classist representations of dolls. By exploring what doll play meant to them, I show how it helps black girls understand racial and gendered norms. Through doll play, girls reveal an understanding of their racialized identities and marginalization as they demonstrate unacknowledged skills in their ability to navigate barriers that reinforce racial inequalities and social hierarchies in girls’ material culture in a multicultural Toronto.

scholarly journals Time, precarisation and age normality: on internal job mobility among men in manual work

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 2290-2307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clary Krekula
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Order ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Job Mobility ◽  
Corporate Strategies ◽  
Older Employees ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Off Time

AbstractThis article explores the conditions for extended working life from an organising perspective. Based on the idea that temporality makes up a fundamental organising dimension, it discusses conceptions of internal job mobility, and if and when employees are expected to relocate to a different unit at work. The material consists of interviews with 11 men between the ages of 56 and 74, working in manual and managerial capacities at a foundry of a Swedish branch of a large international steel company. The results show that internal work mobility is regulated by normative assumptions of mobility in terms of on- and off-time. This socio-temporal order constructs younger age groups as the age normality while designating the older employees’ transitions as a normative breach. It is also shown that the temporal order constitutes a disciplining element steering employees from an early stage to plan for limitations that may arise as a result of ageism and/or physical changes. The result confirms that transition to less-physically demanding tasks is a prerequisite for continuing working in a physically demanding job. These transitions are not, however, included in the socio-temporal order of the company, but are presented as the older employees’ individual problem. All together, these results show the need to introduce organisational practices and corporate strategies in the debate on extended working life.

scholarly journals Unified Agenda of the Golden August: a perspective to promote breastfeeding in Mato Grosso, Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R C O Carvalho ◽  
L B Fonseca ◽  
R R Pires ◽  
J K V Taveira ◽  
Y Z Gajardo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
School Students ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Breastfeeding Promotion ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Nursing Mothers ◽  
Almost All

Abstract Issue Mato Grosso, Brazil has a low average of exclusive breastfeeding. Breastfeeding promotion actions usually focus on transmitting information to pregnant or nursing mothers about the benefits of breast milk, although cultural factors interfere in this practice, and so, needs to be more explored by public health actions and policies. Description of the problem Since 2013, Mato Grosso State Department of Health annually carries out, in August, the project 'Unified Agenda of the Golden August', whose goal is to organize and to publicize in a map all breastfeeding promotion actions carried out by the municipalities of the state. To focus on the cultural meanings of breastfeeding, in 2019 the project was expanded with the inclusion of an artistic-cultural activity. Results The First Week of Art and Culture of Breastfeeding was an action lasting 30 days, which included four short courses, the exhibition and debate of the film 'Tigers', the musical show 'Strength Woman', the art exhibition 'The Breastfeeding Art' with ceramic sculptures, canvas paintings, photographs and installations, guided tour and a special invitation from elementary school students. The central issue of all activities was breastfeeding. All actions were free with the participation of 30 regional artists. For the first time, in 2019, the project mobilized 140 of the 141 municipalities in the state, totaling 475 actions and 15,485 participants. We highlight the participation of a curricular internship in the nutrition course of a public university and volunteer students in the project, which contributed to the exchange of knowledge between management/service and academia. Lessons This practice allowed us to reflect on the act of breastfeeding from the perspectives of art and culture, taking the theme to other age groups and institutional spaces. This practice provided the opportunity to promote breastfeeding among the entire community and mobilized almost all municipalities in the state. Key messages Breastfeeding may be promoted by different perspectives and methods, not only in healthcare centers and with the transmission of information. Health policies about breastfeeding promotion may include people of all age groups and sex.

‘William’ and The Old Folks: Notes on Infantilisation

1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Hepworth
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Mature Adult ◽  
The Face ◽  
Adult World ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Older Men And Women ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractCritical concern with infantilisation practices—i.e. the tendency to treat older people as if they are dependent children—has for the most part concentrated on the negative associations between infantilisation and dependency in later life. Infantilisation is usually defined as an unwelcome imposition on older men and women who are often portrayed as relatively powerless to resist. Whilst the negative consequences of enforced infantilisation must not be ignored there are also occasions when infantilisation may be regarded as a voluntary or chosen mode of resistance on the part of older people to the decrements and external impositions of later life. The concept of infantilisation may therefore be enlarged to include modes of resistance involving processes of mutual identification of the old with the young; in certain instances even as a form of conspiracy between these two age groups against the wider society. This paper therefore pursues fictional images of such rapport as they occur in a selection of the ‘William’ stories written by Richmal Crompton during the period from 1919 up to her death in 1969, and with an appeal which continues up to the present day. The argument is that these stories of alliances between boyhood and ‘elders’ may be regarded as vivid examples (a repository of positive images) of what may be described as ‘positive infantilisation’: that is to say, of consciousness of the independence of subjective selfhood from the ageing body in the face of the misperceptions and misleading stereotypes of the ‘mature’ adult world.

Political Participation over the Life Cycle

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lehman Schlozman ◽  
Sidney Verba ◽  
Henry E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
Life Cycle Effects

This chapter considers the disparities in political activity on the basis of age and what their implications for the representation of the opinions, concerns, and needs of all are. It attempts, in short, to analyze life-cycle, cohort, and period effects. Life-cycle effects refer to the social, psychological, and physical changes that take place as individuals age. In any society, particular experiences tend to correspond to particular stages in the life cycle. Using data from American National Election Studies (ANES) panel studies and from more than a half century of ANES cross-sections, this chapter investigates the origins of gaps among age groups in participation and finds evidence for both cohort and life-cycle effects.

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