CPDP Conference Who is Who

Name: Paul STENNER

Affiliation: The Open University, BRIGHTON&HOVE, UK

CPDP Conference 2012 presentation

Active ageing: from the Zimmer Frame to the Zimmers

The notion of active ageing is central to the articulation of a novel image of ageing neatly summed up by the music video of The Who's classic song My Generation released in 2007 by the newly formed band The Zimmers. The name is a reference to the Zimmer frame', an iconic walking support typically associated with elderly people. The image of a rock band of 40 musicians with a combined age of about 3000 years lead by a 90 year old singer, all of them actively and enthusiastically performing this anthem of youthful rebellion contrasts strikingly with the image of an old person struggling to walk with a Zimmer frame. This shift in image from ageing as degeneration' to active ageing' raises many issues for social scientists, not least because it is arguably consistent with broader social and political shifts including the dismantling of welfare systems and the increased relevance of the economic domain. In the proposed paper I will touch upon some theoretical ideas and data relevant to active ageing that emerge from a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 42 men and women aged 72 years about their understandings and experiences of active ageing. These data will be used to stress the relevance of the subjective dimension for understanding what is at stake in active ageing, but this subjective dimension must also be related to the relatively novel forms of governance at play in discourses and practices of active ageing.