Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-4hvwz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T14:23:57.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Being a gerontologist: intersections between the professional and the personal in the Ageing of British Gerontology project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2019

Jackie Reynolds Open the ORCID record for Jackie Reynolds [Opens in a new window] ,
Miriam Bernard  and
Mo Ray
Jackie Reynolds*
Affiliation:
Research, Innovation & Impact Services, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Miriam Bernard
Affiliation:
School of Social Science & Public Policy, Keele University, Keele, UK
Mo Ray
Affiliation:
School of Health and Social Care, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: j.reynolds@staffs.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite the growth of cultural gerontology this century, relatively few gerontologists have interrogated their own experiences of ageing through a critical reflexive lens. This paper seeks to address this lack of attention by discussing some findings of the Ageing of British Gerontology project: a two-year (2015–2017) Leverhulme-funded study focused on identifying key developments and changes in gerontological research, theory, policy and practice in Britain since the founding of the British Society of Social and Behavioural Gerontology (now the British Society of Gerontology) in 1971. As part of our mixed-method study, we undertook 50 in-depth biographical interviews with ‘senior’ or retired individuals who have played a key role in the creation and development of gerontology in Britain. As well as focusing more widely on gerontological developments, we asked participants about the relationship between their professional insights into ageing and their personal experiences of ageing – both their own and that of loved ones. In this paper, we discuss the findings in relation to five key themes: health, illness and mortality; close personal relationships; work relationships; challenging ageism; and ageing selves. We found evidence that participants often drew upon their personal experiences of ageing in a range of contexts, including teaching and research. There were also numerous examples of professional insights informing personal decision-making, especially in relation to care of loved ones, though the emotionally challenging aspects of this emphasised the limitations of professional insights. Ultimately, we argue that the distinction between the personal and the professional is something of a false dichotomy, and there is often a complex interplay between the two aspects.

Keywords

cultural gerontologyreflexivityageinggerontologists
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , May 2021 , pp. 1051 - 1071
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbaum, WA (2008) Facing up to Janus. Journal of Aging Studies 22, 184–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Achenbaum, WA (2011) On becoming a grandfather. Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging 35, 11–15.Google Scholar
Achenbaum, WA (2013) Robert N. Butler, MD: Visionary of Healthy Aging. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Achenbaum, WA and Albert, DM (1995) Profiles in Gerontology: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Amigoni, D and McMullan, G (eds) (2019) Creativity in Later Life: Beyond Late Style. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arber, and Timonen, (2012) Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationship in Global Contexts. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernard, M, Ray, M and Reynolds, J (in press) The Evolution of British Gerontology: Personal Perspectives and Historical Developments. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Biggs, S and Lowenstein, A (2011) Generational Intelligence: A Critical Approach to Age Relations. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bolte Taylor, J (2008) My Stroke of Insight. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Brown, PP, Cohen, AL, Bradley, DB, Bennett, CR, Dawson, A and Estes, CL (2015) Becoming a gerontologist: lessons from the WIGL project. The Gerontologist 55, 814.Google Scholar
Bytheway, B (2011) Unmasking Age: The Significance of Age for Social Research. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calasanti, T (2008) A feminist confronts ageism. Journal of Aging Studies 22, 152–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, A and Horobin, G (1977) Medical Encounters: The Experience of Illness and Treatment. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Degnen, C (2015) Ethnographies of ageing. In Twigg, J and Martin, W (eds), Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, chap. 13, pp. 105–112.Google Scholar
Fairhurst, E (1997) Recalling life: analytical issues in the use of ‘memories’. In Jamieson, A, Harper, S and Victor, C (eds), Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, chap. 6, pp. 62–76.Google Scholar
Gullette, MM (1997) Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife. Virginia: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Gullette, MM (2004) Aged by Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hardie, J (2015) Variety is the Spice of Life: The Worlds of Eric Midwinter. London: Third Age Press.Google Scholar
Hazzard, W (2013) As a gerontologist enters old age. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 61, 639–640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendricks, J (2008) Coming of age. Journal of Aging Studies 22, 109–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, A (2016) Retirement, learning and the role of higher education. International Journal of Lifelong Education 35, 477–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, A, Harper, S and Victor, C (eds) (1997) Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Journal of Aging, Humanities and the Arts (2010) A tribute to Gene D. Cohen. Journal of Aging, Humanities and the Arts 4(4).Google Scholar
Katz, S (2015) Five eye-openers in my life of critical gerontology. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life 10, 21–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawton, MP (1990) An environmental psychologist ages. In Altman, I and Christensen, K (eds), Environment and Behavior Studies: Emergence of Intellectual Traditions. Boston, MA: Springer, chap. 13, pp. 339–364.Google Scholar
McKevitt, C and Morgan, M (1997) Anomalous patients: the experiences of doctors with an illness. Sociology of Health and Illness 19, 644–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, J (2014) Reconnecting the Disconnected: A Study of the City of Manchester's Intergenerational Initiative (Unpublished PhD thesis). Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University, Keele, UK.Google Scholar
Moody, HR (2008) Afterword: The maturing of critical gerontology. Journal of Aging Studies 22, 205–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moody, HR (2009) From successful aging to conscious aging. In Sokolovsky, J (ed.). The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspectives. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp. 67–76.Google Scholar
Neugarten, BL (1988) The aging society and my academic life. In Riley, MW (ed.), Sociological Lives: Social Change and the Lifecourse, Vol. 2. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, chap. 7, pp. 91–106.Google Scholar
Oakley, A (2007) Fracture: Adventures of a Broken Body. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, D (2016) Do geriatricians truly welcome ageing? Age and Ageing 45, 439–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pickard, S (2016) Age Studies: A Sociological Examination of How We Age and Are Aged Through the Life Course. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Ray, RE (2008) Foreword: Coming of age in critical gerontology. Journal of Aging Studies 22, 97–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rier, D (2000) The missing voice of the critically ill: a medical sociologist's first-person account. Sociology of Health and Illness 22, 68–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarton, M (1973) Journal of a Solitude. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Sarton, M (1984) At Seventy. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Sarton, M (1988) After the Stroke: A Journal. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Sarton, M (1992) Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-ninth Year. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Sarton, M (1993) Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Settersten, R and Hagestad, G (2015) Subjective aging and new complexities of the life course. In Diehl, M and Wahl, H-W (eds), Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Vol. 35. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 29–53.Google Scholar
The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review (2018) Special issue: In Honor of James Emmett Birren (1918–2016). The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review 5(1).Google Scholar
Twigg, J (2015) Dress and age: the intersection of life and work. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life 10, 55–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twigg, J and Martin, W (eds) (2015) Routledge Handbook of Critical Gerontology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, K (1991) Aging and Its Discontents: Freud and Other Fictions. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar