Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Tampere University, Finland.
Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care, University of Helsinki, Finland; IACCHOS, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
J Aging Stud. 2023 Mar;64:101106. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101106. Epub 2023 Jan 20.
In this paper, we have used the exceptional circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic as a window for investigating the ambivalent, stereotypical and often-incongruent portrayals of exceptional vulnerability and resilient self-management that define the self-constructions available for older adults. From the onset of the pandemic, older adults were publicly and homogenously presented as a biomedically vulnerable population, and the implementation of restrictive measures also raised concerns over their psychosocial vulnerability and wellbeing. Meanwhile, the key political responses to the pandemic in most affluent countries aligned with the dominant paradigms of successful and active ageing that build on the ideal of resilient and responsible ageing subjects. Within this context, in our paper we have examined how older individuals negotiated such conflicting characterisations in relation to their self-understandings. In empirical terms, we drew on data comprising written narratives collected in Finland during the initial stage of the pandemic. We demonstrate how the stereotypical and ageist connotations associated with older adults' psychosocial vulnerability may have paradoxically offered some older adults novel building blocks for positive self-constructions as individuals who are not exceptionally vulnerable, despite ageist assumptions of homogeneity. However, our analysis also shows that such building blocks are not equally distributed. Our conclusions highlight the lack of legitimate ways for people to admit to vulnerabilities and voice their needs without the fear of being categorised under ageist, othering and stigmatised identities.
在本文中，我们利用 COVID-19 大流行带来的特殊情况，调查了对老年人自我构建可用的定义中特有的脆弱性和弹性自我管理的矛盾、刻板和经常不一致的描述。从大流行开始，老年人就被公开且一致地描绘为具有生物医学脆弱性的人群，而实施限制措施也引起了人们对他们的心理社会脆弱性和幸福感的关注。与此同时，大多数富裕国家针对大流行的关键政治反应与成功和积极老龄化的主导范式一致，这些范式建立在有弹性和负责任的老龄化主体的理想基础上。在这种背景下，我们在本文中研究了老年人如何根据自己的自我理解来协商这种相互矛盾的描述。从经验上看，我们借鉴了在大流行初期芬兰收集的书面叙述数据。我们展示了与老年人的心理社会脆弱性相关的刻板印象和年龄歧视内涵如何可能具有矛盾性，为那些尽管存在年龄歧视的同质性假设，但并非特别脆弱的个体提供了积极自我构建的新构建块。然而，我们的分析也表明，这些构建块的分布并不均衡。我们的结论强调了人们承认自己的脆弱性并表达自己的需求的合法途径的缺乏，而不会担心被归入年龄歧视、排斥和污名化的身份。
