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Doing change and continuity: age identity and the micro–macro divide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2009

PIRJO NIKANDER
PIRJO NIKANDER*
Affiliation:
Methodology Centre for Human Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
*
Address for correspondence: Pirjo Nikander, Methodology Centre for Human Sciences, P.O. Box 35, MaC 208, FIN-40014, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland. E-mail: Pirjo.Nikander@jyu.fi
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Abstract

This paper is a study of the discursive management of notions of change and continuity in interview talk. It presents selected short empirical examples from interviews with 22 Finnish baby-boomers, and discusses the methodological and theoretical issues that arise. Following a review of the major approaches to the study of age identity, the analytic intersection between qualitative gerontology and discursive psychology is explored. The analysis identifies how the frequent use of a ‘provisional continuity device’ enables speakers simultaneously both to acknowledge and to distance themselves from factual notions of physical or psychological lifespan change. The key methodological argument is that the discursive analysis of age-in-interaction cannot necessarily be achieved through the myopic micro-study of discursive strategies, but rather two suggestions are made. First, it is argued that analytically-anchored and rigorous discursive gerontology that both systematically draws on and contributes to the broad field of discursive research provides a means by which to test empirically post-modern conceptualisations of age identity. Second, it is suggested that analyses of age-talk in everyday and institutional settings provide an analytical and theoretical middle-ground between the macro versus micro or ‘microfication’ debate in gerontology.

Keywords

age identitybaby-boom cohortprovisional continuity devicediscursive gerontologymicro and macromicrofication
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 29 , Issue 6: Discourse, identity and change in mid-to-late life: inter-disciplinary perspectives on language and ageing , August 2009 , pp. 863 - 881
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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