Explain and briefly evaluate how class influences an individuals age identity? [24 mk]

by vasudev_sharan (student)

Explain and briefly evaluate how class influences an individual’s age identity?

Any explanation of ‘social class influencing age identity of individuals’ would presuppose, different types of ‘class cultures’ would have corresponding ‘age identities’. As class and age, both are separate sources of social identity, a discussion would warrant examining if these are related in a cause-effect manner.

Old age is associated with a ‘stereotype identity’ comprising values and lifestyle such as; limited competence, vulnerable, dependence, loneliness, poor health, unable to learn newer skills, restrictions/inflexibility or rigidity, immobility, need care and protection resulting to the marginalisation and stigmatising them as ‘inferior’ (Pilcher 1996). In UK studies have shown that this stereotyping of old age has come to be institutionalised at several levels leading to discrimination because of age (ageism) (Johnson and Bytheway 1993). However, this stereotype identity is not shared equally by different social classes. This negative identity weakens as one moves upwards in the class hierarchy.

Old age is seen as a social problem in many ways. The stereotype of old people as a social problem however, is more pronounced in case of working class. This is socialised mostly through family (pg 71 Waugh et al, OCR 2008). In working class families members assume that older relative will need and want more care than they actually do. Often, retirement starts early and working class men rarely remain in employment after 65. This class confirms more closely to the official view of old age in terms of different benefits and concessions (pg 69 Waugh et al, OCR 2008). A member of this class is more likely to believe that to be elderly is more to do with age rather than that with ‘level of health and fitness’ (pg 70 Waugh et al, OCR 2008). As one moves up in the class ladder sub-categories within the old emerge. Contrary to the working class conception of old age being a homogeneous category, middle and upper class members are likely to see sub-categories of ‘oldest-old’ and ‘young-elderly’ as part of old age (McKingsley 2001).

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Similarly, middle age is associated with particular norms, values and roles. Norms would include the type of car driven, places to shop for clothes, hobbies and holiday destinations. Values may be concerned with health issues of life. All of these may differ according to class. In many respects middle age like old age can be identified as having a low status. Here, a working class member may find middle age to be more in low status than a member of middle or upper class. There can be instances when because of ageism (age discrimination) a middle aged person may be told that they are too old for particular jobs in their late 40’s and early 50’s. Yet in other ways depending upon the class to which one belongs middle age may bring a higher status than either youth or old age (Bradley 1996). In other words, middle class approach to middle age could be very different from the approach of the working class. For example, the lifestyle choices and values of a middle class – middle aged man of hankering after their youth, dreaming of buying a sports car or a middle class middle aged woman displaying great concern over menopause may not be true of working class.

As regards youth identity, the influence of class is rather subtle. Nevertheless, the youth or the ‘young people’ are not a united and easily-identifiable social group and they do differ according to class. The distinct way of life associated with youth consisting of growing up, rebelling (Clarke 1976), fun, and excitement would have variations with differing membership of class. A middle class youth may be expected to defer his need gratifications to a later stage of his life as he busies himself in acquiring knowledge and skills which would help him either maintain or improve his income, wealth and influence. Contrarily, a working class youth may value the present more and indulge in the goodies of the youth ‘now and here’.

Ian Jones et al (2010) in their recent research have indicated that extensive researches on ‘expectations of’ and ‘meanings attached’ to retirement show that individuals with lower income and wealth have been found more likely to view the option of retirement in a negative light (Gowan 1998). Some studies show that the negative attitude towards older workers seeing them as expensive in terms of wage and health insurance costs appear to cut across sectors of industry with similar trends of discarding older workers in both manufacturing and financial services (Quadagno et al 2003). Others such as Sennett (2006), however, argue that there is a shift in values within capitalism that valorises youth and demeans age, experience and memory. A study in UK shows that different attitudes towards the older worker have been found in the different sectors of the economy, with the production and construction sectors making greater use of early retirement schemes and appearing to lag behind other sectors such as service and finance in terms of strategies to address older workers (Taylor and Walker 1994).

Sociologists argue that other than class; gender and ethnicity also have a role to play in shaping age identity. Tajfel (1978) and later Brown and Turner (1981) have argued that in actual life individuals may not behave as passive actors guided only by their social identities. Personal identity (personality traits, physical attributes, interpersonal styles, self-esteem, level of aspiration and the like) of individuals may clash with their social identities and decide their behaviour in given situations.

Theorists of postmodernism have posited that age boundaries are blurring and the plurality of identities are ever increasing. They have found ‘second modernity’ to be the most effective prism to study and understand social identities (Beck, 2004; Higgs and Gilleard, 2006) in the backdrop of social transformations associated with an increasing individualization within social life (reflexive individualisation), which draws on a heightened self-knowledge of social relations (Bauman, 1995, 2000; Outhwaite, 2006) and emergence of ‘quasi-subjects’ (individuals becoming authors of their own biographies and constructing identities and biographical narratives in order to give meaning to their lives that are lived out in the face of uncertainty within workplace) (Latour, 2003).

Explain and briefly evaluate how class influences an individuals age identity? [24 mk]

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