Ageing, agers and outdoor re-creation: being old and active outdoors in the time of COVID: an autoethnographic tale of different wor(l)ds. ‘I’m not vulnerable?’

Abstract

ABSTRACT COVID-19 is the greatest global crisis since WW11, infecting millions of people. Those amongst the worst affected have been in the older age range and largely have underlying health issues. The importance of maintaining wellbeing, being fit and healthy, and resisting neoliberal and normalizing discourses as we age becomes more crucial. This paper considers the entanglement of embodied, emplaced ageing, nature-based recreation and green and blue spaces in exploring the experiences and sensibilities of agers. It argues that interpretative research can provide for a better and more nuanced appreciation of older folks’ changing embodied subjectivities and their relations with the outdoors. Autoethnography is examined as an insightful, credible methodology in (re)-presenting being old outdoors and being active outdoors. The perceived vulnerability of 70+ folk is considered in light of government policy discourses emanating as a consequence of the pandemic. The paper folds with realist tales of Lockdown in New Zealand.