Aging and identity politics

In this essay, I reflect on multiple identities—woman, lesbian, old—as they interconnect at different life stages. I raise an issue of identity politics (Is “old” as fundamental an identity as “woman”?) and suggest that critical gerontology offers a lens through which to interpret my personal journey from a core feminist identity to a questioning and ambivalent identity as an old woman.     

A new age of old age?: Gerotranscendence and the re-enchantment of aging

Gerotranscendence theory is reviewed regarding its content, development, diffusion, impact, empirical results, and ontology. Gerotranscendence theory describes a “natural” alteration of consciousness in old age leading to “wisdom” and a qualitative break with a mid-life rational and materialist world-view. According to the theory, gerotranscendence is obstructed by a lack of alternative values and roles in old age in Western societies. Theoretically and in clinical practice, gerotranscendence theory has been linked to psychoanalysis. It is concluded that gerotranscendence theory is empirically weak, has parallels in the New Age movement as well as in romantic Orientalism, and can be understood as an attempt to re-enchant aging.     

“Beware of the estrogen assault”: Ideals of old manhood in anti-aging advertisements

Previous studies have demonstrated the tendency of recent medical, therapeutic, and pharmacologic discourses on sexuality to advocate a “resexing” of old age, in which aging men purchase means to bolster erections [Marshall, Barbara L. and Stephen Katz. 2006. “From androgyny to androgens: Re-sexing the aging body.” Pp. 75–97 in Age Matters: Realigning feminist thinking, edited by T. M. Calasanti and K. F. Slevin. New York: Routledge.]. This study examines the links between masculinity and age in anti-aging advertisements. Analysis of ninety-six anti-aging websites reveals a vision of manhood as: based on hormones, opposing womanhood, forestalling aging, competing and performing in sexual and employment realms, allowing men to dominate those around them. Rather than challenge ageism, this construction reinforces both age and gender inequalities. It defines men as dominant and defines women in terms of men’s desires. It defines prosperity in old age in terms of younger experiences, and defines aging itself as a sickness that results from a loss of masculinity (testosterone), which only aggressive consumption of anti-aging products can heal.     

Authoring aging: Personal and social constructions

The aim of this paper is to set out some of the context for the journey I have taken as a gerontologist, reflecting both on some of the decisive “turning points” and the links between personal and social constructions of aging. Along the way, the paper examines some questions about the relationship between analytical and biographical themes. The article reviews the various influences affecting my approach to issues about aging, and the contribution of these to my own thinking about critical gerontology. The latter I see as having a long gestation within my own maturing as a gerontologist, following engagement with debates in sociology and social policy. The article identifies a number of important actors and institutions that have shaped my understanding of the social, economic and political relationships underpinning old age.     

Urban environment, spatial fragmentation and social segration in Latin America: Where does innovation lie?

To “review the urban question” in terms of sustainable development, the premise is formulated that improving infrastructures, equipment and services to preserve the natural and built urban environment is costly and generates expenses of all kinds—at economic and social levels. Without the introduction of equalisation mechanisms, these expenses will increase inequalities between different parts of the urban population.As confirmed by 2 Latin American case studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and La Paz Bolivia, the quality of urban environment depends directly on improving living conditions for the resident population. The aim is to assist the poor in developing a rubbish disposal service for the families living in the informal settlements of La Paz, or to extend water supply to the poorer areas on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The collective benefits of these “innovations” are self-evident. However, understanding the environmental issues involved, and evaluating the social impact of these innovations, means examining what motivates their implementation.The first difficulty was in finding financial and economic information on the global cost of the new technologies, due to the lack of managerial culture and the discretional attitude of private enterprises and public administration.A second observation is that the social dimension of the environmental upgrading process in Latin America cities has been neglected by the main urban decision-makers. In all the contexts, the evolution of the projects’ implementation clearly demonstrates that social issues cannot be dissociated from political ones. Although the players themselves often find it difficult to estimate economic costs, these are nonetheless real and represent burdens that should be distributed equitably among the beneficiaries of services; but which are, in practice, often viewed in terms of profit. This leads to conflicts between different population groups, the political authorities and private intermediaries.Rather than viewing technological action as an unique “source” of innovation, we must consider its global dimension via the social practices it generates. On the other hand, we should reposition every specific event in its immediate environment and see how it reflects contemporary macro-social processes, in a world of “globalisation”.     

Getting my stories straight: A narrativist in quest of congruence

Drawing on his work in the area of narrative gerontology, the author reflects on the measure of congruence that exists between the theories he has been developing about the storied complexity of adult development and his lived experience as an aging individual himself. His reflections include a discussion of his former career as a parish minister and his ongoing passion for “the writing life”. He concludes with some speculation on the possibility of combining his interests in narrative and aging with his continuing interest in theological themes.     

Learning from tradition: the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities.     

Functional specificity in discussion networks: The influence of general and problem-specific networks on health outcomes

Though commonly used in social science research to measure the influence of social networks, the link between discussing “important matters” within networks and the achievement of instrumental ends is frequently unspecified or untested. To address this gap, we explore the consequences of using the general “important matters” approach versus one in which the substance of discussions is directly linked to the outcomes of interest. The egocentric social networks of people experiencing an acute health crisis are examined. We identify the characteristics of and the degree of membership overlap between “important matters” and “health matters” discussants, and explore their relative power in explaining a wide range of health and health services-related outcomes. We find no evidence for the influence of “important matters” networks, while characteristics of “health matters” networks demonstrate a significant effect across all models.     

The economic importance of air travel in high-amenity rural areas

The western United States offers a case study on the importance of access to large population centers and their markets, via road and air travel, for economic development. The vast distances between towns and cities in the American West can be a detriment to business, yet they also serve to attract technology and knowledge-based workers seeking to live in a picturesque setting. In spite of the increasing importance of amenities to migration and business location, also needed is access to markets, particularly via commercial air service. We test a new county classification system for the western United States to reflect differing degrees of access to population centers and account for the increasing importance of airports. Past classifications are based on population size and cross-county commuting. We examine the validity of this new classification and test for differences in economic performance among the three county types. Our findings show that there are three distinct Wests that can be classified using economic performance measures and socioeconomic characteristics. The results show that “metro” and “isolated” counties are clearly distinct, but “connected” counties, those that are rural in nature but have ready access to metropolitan areas via air travel, can be difficult to distinguish from “metro” and “isolated” counties. Much of the variation is explained by travel distance to airports. The findings illustrate the importance of airports in rural development, and the limitations facing those communities that are isolated from markets and population centers. The results apply to other parts of the world with similar characteristics that include large expanses of open space, natural amenities that attract migrants and stimulate new business, and different degrees of access to large population centers via road or air travel, and therefore different rates of economic growth.     

From the lab to the front line: How individual biogerontologists navigate their contested field

This paper infuses a new perspective into scholarship on anti-aging science: the experiences of individual scientists as they have entered and navigated this controversial field. We draw on in-depth interviews with 43 prominent biogerontologists to accomplish three objectives. First, we highlight key factors that draw scientists into biogerontology – especially the unique and complex puzzles posed by aging. Second, we examine how biogerontologists define themselves and their research in relation to “anti-aging” science – particularly how scientists distance themselves from the tarnished history of the field and employ powerful language to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate scholarship, and science from industry. Finally, we explore how individual scientists manage any social, religious, and ethical objections to conducting “anti-aging” research — and the repertoire of responses they use to simultaneously dismantle objections and reinforce the legitimacy of their science. The analyses reveal how much is ultimately at stake for these individual scientists on the front line.     

Gender violence, fan activism and public relations in sport: The case of “Footy Fans Against Sexual Assault”

This paper is based on the belief that online activism is essential for understanding the role and potential of public relations in modern campaigns. In relation to the issue of gender violence against women in football, analyzed and compared are the responses of two official, resource-rich organisations – the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (AFL) – and an unofficial, resource-poor fan advocacy group, called Football Fans against Sexual Assault (FFASA). In cooperation and conflict with the leagues, FFASA positioned itself in the market place, taking the widely unoccupied niche of “fan advocacy”—different from “expert advocacy” or “player advocacy”.The article discusses in more detail the major strategy of the group, the Purple Armband Games, which carries many elements of cutting-edge public relations such as advocacy as third-party endorsement; “fan activism” as empowering of “expert advocacy”; “symbolic outsourcing” of participants by facilitating their mode of engagement, the “emblematic richness” of the purple armband symbol, the “oneness” of which overcomes any confrontational dualism.     

Commentary: The media in 2045—Not a forecast, but a dream

The mass media continue to be among the most crucial instruments for the practitioner of public relations, and, to be sure, among the most frustrating. How are the media changing? How will those changes affect public relations? And should there be new public policies about mass media in a twenty-first century where technical, political, social, and economic realities will be radically different from previous centuries, including the twentieth?Although most public relations professionals have shied away from public criticism of the media, and have not been vocal advocates for changing public policies about media, nevertheless they need answers to the questions raised above. In this thoughtful essay, Claude-Jean Bertrand looks at a possible mass media half a century from now and provides a dream scenario.Unfortunately, Professor Bertrand describes some “twentieth-century” public relations practices as part of the “old” problems and “dreams up” some changes in those practices, as well. It may be that a public relations professional or professor should write an essay devoted to a dream scenario for public relations in 2045. The Public Relations Review invites such commentary.     

Assessing outcomes for sufferers of severe mental disorder: A conceptual framework and review

A conceptual framework is presented for classifying the outcomes of services for sufferers of severe mental disorders. The proposed classification framework contains three dimensions: (a) the respondent type; (b) the social context; and (c) the domain of treatment outcomes. Respondent types include the client, the family, the extended social network, the clinician and the scientist. Social contexts include the individual, the family, work/school and the broader community. Domains of treatment outcome include “clinical status,” “functional status,” “life satisfaction and fulfillment,” and “safety and welfare.” This multidimensional framework is used to organize an illustrative review of existing outcome measures. It is concluded that: (a) measures of safety and welfare raise important social and policy questions and these measures require considerable development in order for utility to be realized; (b) although a good beginning has been made, more attention needs to be focused on defining and measuring “life satisfaction and fulfillment” and combining this domain with others to produce “well being” or “quality of life” scales; (c) the functional status area requires additional research and development especially when measurement is conducted in contexts other than work/school; and (d) although measures of clinical status are relatively well developed, the family perspective and context must be integrated into these measures.     

Re-branding the NHL: Building the league through the “My NHL” integrated marketing campaign

This article is a case study examining promotional efforts undertaken by the National Hockey League (NHL) via integrated marketing initiatives launched during the 2005–2006 season. Following the 2004–2005 season player lockout², the NHL worked to promote itself to both fervent and casual fans. By briefly assessing past marketing efforts and the dwindling popularity of the league in recent years, the article provides a fuller picture of how professional hockey was marketed in North America when the NHL returned to play. The focus is on “My NHL” and the league's re-branding efforts as part of its new integrated communications plan. This research reveals that in its attempts to revive the sport the NHL has done a better job than with past efforts, however the current campaign must be aggressively maintained in order to successfully re-brand the league.     

Attachements indésirables, attachements acceptables : autour d’un échange de seringues en prison

To inquire into innovation in public policy, attention is focused on the work done by a group that proposed an innovative project for “preventing” drug-use in a prison in Luxembourg. After several events and reversals, the final arrangements, which brought together disparate interests, was grounded in the contingent attachment of various persons to the leading role played by a general practitioner and the “permanent attachment” of authorized needles distributed in a case. In a situation where attempts to work out a theory in terms of “positions”, “power” and “control” would have difficulty coming up with a convincing explanation of this surprising process, preference is given to describing this innovation in terms of “passages” and “attachments”.     

Public relations as “practice:” applying the theory of Alasdair MacIntyre

Public relation’s search for a unifying theory may be fulfilled through application of Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of a “practice,” a very specific and value-laden concept. This article explores what it would mean to be a public relations practice in MacIntyre’s concept of the term and argues that such an approach to public relations is of value for the field.     

“It's practical, but no more controllable”: Social representations of the electronic purse in Austria

The electronic purse (chip-card) is promoted as an option offering consumers an easy means of payment. It also offers advantages to traders and banks by reducing transaction costs. However, successful launching of the electronic purse depends mainly on consumers' acceptance, which in the past was very low in Austria. We study consumers' acceptance of the electronic purse, cash and established non-cash payment systems by analysing social representations of payment facilities. Semantic contents of associations raised in response to the stimulus words “means of payment in general”, “cash”, “cheque”, “ATM-card”, “credit-card” and “electronic purse” have been analysed. Overall, 264 people were studied applying two techniques: the “associative network” and the “conceptual network”. It is shown that means of payment are categorised on two dimensions: cash and non-cash. Non-cash payment facilities are characterised by high abstraction levels, and loss of subjective control over expenditures. The electronic purse is perceived as highly dissimilar to other means of payments.     

The Concepts of University Lifelong Learning Provision in Europe

The organizational and conceptual models of the university lifelong learning provision in Europe are analyzed. Unexpectedly, common terms such as “lifelong learning” and “university continuing education” are found not to be well defined, and there is a substantial lack of statistical data on both. The underlying concepts of the EU member states differ significantly and their efforts seem to be partly mismatched. One of the main common denominators is the inseparable connection with e-learning and/or open and distance learning. Modern information technology support appears to be the foundation of future efficient and cost-effective lifelong learning.