New Objects, Old Age. The Material Culture of Growing Old

Abstract

Th e analysis focuses on how to understand the process that occurs when older people are faced with new objects associated with a certain age and with certain health conditions, how the medical materiality of old age is accepted, internalized, questioned or resisted, and how these medical objects fi t in with everyday life.are associated with old age, for example hearing aids and walking frames.Even if ageing proceeds throughout life, the main group to be associated with the process of ageing is older people. Furthermore, old age and older individuals represent constructions that are regarded as diff erent and deviating in comparison with younger people.

Ambivalence among staff regarding ageing with intellectual disabilities: Experiences and reflections

“…According to the interviewees, older people with ID do not have the ability to express their needs, and they cannot easily manage assistive devices, which can in turn lead to uncertainty about whether to introduce assistive devices. Ageing, with or without ID, often involves an increasing number of assistive devices, which can either be accepted or resisted by the individual who is expected to use them ( Alftberg, 2017 ). In this case, the presence of intellectuyal disability, rather than older age, seemed to be a barrier to the use of assistive technology, according to the staff.…”

Medication management in Swedish nursing homes: an ethnographic study of resistance, negotiation and control

“…Material objects have the capacity to affect people's minds, emotions and actions by stimulating intentions, interpretations and meaning making. Objects have the power to set the scene and ensure normative behaviour by being ordinary, a part of everyday life and taken for granted (Alftberg, 2017;Miller, 2005). When it comes to medications as objects, Whyte et al (2002) point out the power of medicine grounded in their capacity to give and take control.…”

Researching Ageing

“…Things are found everywhere, including in the lives of older adults. However, it is only in recent years that researchers of age and ageing have begun to study things in old age from a social and cultural science perspective (e.g., Twigg, 2013;Endter and Kienitz, 2017;Kollewe, 2017;Höppner and Urban, 2018;Alftberg, 2017). In the social and cultural sciences, by contrast, interest in things has greatly increased in recent decades in the course of the "material turn".…”