Abstract
This special issue focuses broadly upon questions and themes relating to the current conceptualisations, representations and use of 'ethnicity' (and ethnic minority experiences) within the field of social gerontology. An important aim of this special issue is to explore and address the issue of 'otherness' within the predominant existing frameworks for researching those who are ageing or considered aged, compounded by the particular constructions of their ethnicity and ethnic 'difference'. The range of theoretical, methodological and empirical papers included in this collection provide some critical insights into particular facets of the current research agendas, cultural understandings and empirical focus of ethnic minority ageing research. The main emphasis is on highlighting the ways in which ethnic cultural homogeneity and 'otherness' is often assumed in research involving older people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and how wider societal inequalities are concomitantly (re)produced, within (and through) research itself - for example, based on narrowly defined research agendas and questions; the assumed age and/or ethnic differences of researchers vis-à-vis their older research participants; the workings of the formalised ethical procedures and frameworks; and the conceptual and theoretical frameworks employed in the formulation of research questions and interpretation of data. We examine and challenge here the simplistic categorisations and distinctions often made in gerontological research based around research participants' ethnicity, age and ageing and assumed cultural differences. The papers presented in this collection reveal instead the actual complexity and fluidity of these concepts as well as the cultural dynamism and diversity of experiences within ethnic groups. Through an exploration of these issues, we address some of the gaps in existing knowledge and understandings as well as contribute to the newly emerging discussions surrounding the use of particular notions of ethnicity and ethnic minority ageing as these are being employed within the field of ageing studies.
Highlights
The demographic landscape of Europe, and the Western world more generally, is changing significantly as a consequence of population ageing and immigration (Nguyen ; Warnes et al )
With the overall ageing of the general population and the increasing numbers of immigrants reaching old age in their host countries, racial and ethnic minorities are beginning to constitute the fastest growing segment of the elderly population within many Western countries (Burholt ; Jimenez et al ). This recent as well as further expected future growth in the number of older people from ethnic minority backgrounds calls for the need to recognise, uncover and understand the diverse and heterogeneous nature of old age and later life experiences and needs within these Western host countries
Academic research which seeks to examine the experiences of ageing among ethnic minority older people, or even which pays attention to issues relating to ethnicity in old age more generally, remains scarce (Blakemore ; Blakemore and Boneham ; Phillipson ; Wray a; see Warnes et al ). This special issue of Ageing & Society is an attempt to reinforce the importance of a greater level of engagement with issues relating to ethnicity within ageing studies and social gerontology
Summary
The demographic landscape of Europe, and the Western world more generally, is changing significantly as a consequence of population ageing and immigration (Nguyen ; Warnes et al ).
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