Imagining the third age: symbolic exchange and old age

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that current policy representations of old age relativise cultures of old age and preclude development of cultural and social time capable of accommodating embodied old age. Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum is used as the basis for understanding the production, reproduction, circulation and consumption of images of old age in creating a ‘social imaginary’ of collective ageing in contemporary consumer society. The rationalities and technologies of governmentality are discussed as phenomena that simultaneously underpin the social imaginary and raise new possibilities for representing old age identities. Implications are drawn for health research and practice.

Key Words:

• Baudrillard
• consumer society
• images of ageing
• old age
• postmodern lifecourse
• social policy