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Symposium

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Emancipatory Gerontology in the 21st Century—Structure, Action, and Ideologies: A Symposium Honoring Carroll Estes

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Location: Room 606
CE: 1.5

Emancipatory gerontology (Estes, 2020) envisions possibilities of moving toward a society
where citizens of all ages experience dignity and access to essential resources. Such
possibilities require transforming institutional configurations and dominant ideological
narratives around class, race, gender, and age. Yet the longstanding resistance to such
ideals has been further aggravated recently by the effects of neoliberal policies and by
renewed forms of racist and other exclusionary ideologies, as well as ageism itself. The
symposium presents critical work across a range of key gerontological domains. Papers
explore the stratification of longevity and related issues, especially in urban settings,
ideological and practical consequences of the intersection of age and race, and ongoing
conceptual and ideological issues in life-course and gerontological theorizing. Maya
Rockeymoore Cummings elaborates the fresh concept of rageism - the intersection of
ageism and racism - and the ways in which various levers of power are used to undermine
life chances of non-European racial and ethnic groups across the life course and
generations. Jan Baars explores inequalities affecting ageing over the life course, arguing
that long lives are increasingly a privilege for wealthier members of society. Chris Phillipson
and Tine Buffel consider new social divisions emerging between and across age groups,
with large cities driving distinctive forms of inequality associated with gentrification and class
and race segregation. Dale Dannefer interrogates the continuing uncritical use of the
concept of agency, exploring how discourses of life-course and gerontological scholarship
may have ideological components that contributes to the legitimation of destructive social
arrangements.

Learning Objectives:

  • After attending the session participants will be able to relate the main strands of Emancipatory Gerontology to key areas of concern within the study of ageing, linking these to issues around inequality and its organization by factors of race, social class, and gender and their interaction
  • 'After attending the session participants will be familiar with key issues concerning the role that racism has played in shaping differential life-course patterns and patterns of aging across different racial and ethnic groups.
  • After attending the session participants will have a grounding in the theoretical foundations of emancipatory gerontology and the ongoing conceptual and ideological challenges that it confronts, illustrated by the distortions and problems surrounding the problem of agency.

Presentations:

  • 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
    Lange/Parole, Structure/Action: Toward a Reframing of Agency in Gerontology and Life Course Studies

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Dale Dannefer, PhD (he/him/his) – Case Western Reserve University

  • 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
    Emancipatory Gerontology and the Political Economy of the City: New Inequalities and Policy Responses

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Chris Phillipson, Ph.D (he/him/his) – University of Manchester

  • 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
    Age, Aging, and Social Justice

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Jan Baars, PhD, FGSA, FASS (he/him/his) – University for Humanistic Studies

  • 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
    RAGEISM: Racism, Ageism, and the Quest for Liberation Democracy