Doing age across the life course
Far from referring just to the
chronological order of years since birth, age is a decisive marker of identity
across the life course and, like gender and ethnicity, it is a structural and
powerful organizational principle of social life. However, (social) scientists
tend to lose sight of this when they define age as a proxy or as a purely
socio-demographic characteristic to define the boundaries of their research
projects. In this seminar we will discuss the social construction of age and
how age matters across the life course. How are children, adolescents, adults,
and older people constructed in relation to their age? How does age intersect
with other categories of difference? The seminar will take a close look at key
concepts developed by interdisciplinary researchers to address age differences
across the life course such as Childism, Youthism, Adultism, Ageism,
Generational Order, Age Coding, and Un/Doing Age.
- Enseignant·e: Anne Carolina Ramos