(Non-)Politicized Ageism: Exploring the Multiple Identities of Older Activists

Daniel Blanche-T,Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol

doi:10.3390/soc12020040

Abstract

The increase in ageing populations has spurred predictions on the growth of a politically powerful old-age bloc. While their protest mobilizations have risen to reach youth standards, there is scarce scholarly evidence of the role of multiple identities in older activists’ involvement. We address this gap by interviewing activists in Iaioflautas, an older adults’ social movement emerging from the heat of the protest cycles in Spain in 2011. In-depth interviews with 15 members of varying levels of involvement revealed the paramount role of the movement in the identity construction of its participants. Iaioflautas endows a strong sense of collective identity based on intergenerational solidarity and enables to counter the culturally devalued identity of older adults and retirees. Whereas perceptions of widespread ageist stereotypes against older adults abound in this group, they omit to view the movement through an old-age identity politics lens. Furthermore, they reproduce ageist attitudes against age peers refraining from active involvement. This paradox suggests that the non-politicization of ageism restrains the development of a collective identity based on old age. We highlight how an increase in ageing populations might advance this issue in future research.

Highlights

Contrary to the standard narrative that portrays older adults as socially disengaged and politically “insular” [2], research has shown that, in some countries, they are as likely to be involved in non-institutional political activities as their younger counterparts [3,4]
Despite widespread yet implicit ageism against older adults in contemporary societies [11], old age has far predominantly failed in framing the discrimination and social exclusion experienced by the constituents of this group as a political matter [10]
Among the multiple identities older activists draw from their active involvement in an older people’s social movement such as Iaioflautas, the strongest and most salient one is being a member of the movement

Summary

Introduction

Nonviolent civil resistance campaigns have experienced an eruptive growth in the twenty-first century [1]. While social movements’ studies have long established the critical role of identities in collective action processes [9], the arrangements of identities that individual older activists make and experience in this setting have received scarce scholarly attention. At the same time, when compared to other social categories of discrimination such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or functional diversity, old age has seldom configured a political identity capable of attracting and mobilizing potential participants into action [10]. Despite widespread yet implicit ageism against older adults in contemporary societies [11], old age has far predominantly failed in framing the discrimination and social exclusion experienced by the constituents of this group as a political matter [10]. Older adults have not significantly crafted a politicized collective identity comparable to other well-established identity politics [12]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion