Social Construction of Pain and Aging: Individual Artfulness Within Interpretive Structures

Collective representations of growing older and experiencing chronic pain have posed limits on ways that individuals can derive meaning for and successfully manage these experiences. Taking the perspective of social constructionism, this article demonstrates (a) that some subcultures provide more positive and useful alternatives to these collective representations, and (b) that individuals themselves have been creative in constituting positive self-images in the midst of growing older and managing chronic pain. Using data from the author's fieldwork in two continuing-care retirement communities, the article goes on to address the intersection of subcultural interpretive structures and individual artfulness in the social construction of pain and aging. The data suggest that individual artfulness can be only as creative and liberating as interpretive structures permit. This finding adds to the growing literature (stemming from phenomenology and ethnomethodology) that concentrates on individuals as agents of the social construction of reality as well as social contexts of opportunity, constraints, and resources.