Understanding and transforming ageing through the arts

Murray, Michael; Amigoni, David; Bernard, Miriam; Crummett, Amanda; Goulding, Anna; Munro, Lucy; Newman, Andrew; Rezzano, Jill; Rickett, Michelle; Tew, Philip; Warren, Lorna

doi:10.1332/policypress/9781447314660.003.0003

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Cohen 2006), which can be linked to work on resilience. Evidence for this comes from the New Dynamics of Ageing programme of research 7 which suggested that the arts can facilitate social connectivity, help address negative societal meta-narratives (Murray et al 2014), and construct socially situated identities that respond to individual and community challenges (Newman, Goulding and Whitehead 2013), providing resources for resilience. Similarly, Young et al (2015) have undertaken a systematic review of the literature on the impact of community-based arts and health interventions on cognition in those with dementia and conclude that such activities have positive effects.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the visual arts in the resilience of people living with dementia in care homes

et al. 2018

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This study responds to a gap in the literature relating to the resilience of people living with dementia in care homes. We applied an ecopsychosocial framework of resilience, theorising that sources of resilience may be personal, social and structural. Visual arts enrichment activities were examined to see how they might provide opportunities for resilience. The data used for this study were qualitative and originated from people with dementia aged between 70 and 99 years old (N = 48) living in four care homes in North East England, United Kingdom and staff/carers/family members (N = 37). The results showed that visual arts enrichment activities supported the resilience of those with dementia through creative expression, increased communication, improved self-esteem, and influenced relationships with carers and family members. It is concluded that even those with advanced dementia are capable of demonstrating resilience which can be supported by, and explored through, visual arts enrichment activities.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the visual arts in the resilience of people living with dementia in care homes

et al. 2018

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“…The difficulties described by those participants who assumed leadership roles in local organisations ( e.g. anxiety about lack of support or possible conflicts with neighbours) were also found in the CALL-ME study conducted in Manchester and identified as barriers to participation (Murray et al , 2014).…”

Section: Reintroducing and Re-articulating The Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Controlling active ageing: a study of social imaginaries of older people in Chile

Schmidt

Yang

2019

Ageing and Society

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A key issue in understanding the social lives of older people is how active they are in coping with the demands of ageing. Often the ‘successfulness’ of ageing is measured with medical and biological criteria. While the notion of ‘active ageing’ is more appealing and neutral, its meaning is often obscured, fragmented or inconsistent. Our aims in this study were to establish ‘active ageing’ as a process in which older people try to take control of their lives by conforming to or resisting different social imaginaries of later life, and to explore individuals’ strategies for making the best use of available resources and fending off potential risks of social exclusion. We adopted a two-stage research design. First, we produced artistic images that corresponded to social imaginaries of tensions in ageing in three social domains (politics, mass media and older people). Then, we used these images as stimuli in interviews with a balanced sample of 32 middle-aged and older residents of Santiago, Chile, to discover their strategies for coping with these tensions. Although imaginaries of ageing tended to describe ageing in terms of restrictions and stereotypes, we found diverse and increasingly flexible life projects and expectations of activity in later life.

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“…Individuals were mostly self-selected, their participation unhindered to any significant degree by sensory impairment. However, participants were not recruited where mental capacity was in question since the goal was to encourage a narrative story approach used successfully in previous research concerned with ways in which experiences and attitudes across the lifecourse affect individual circumstances and perceptions in later life (Clarke and Warren, 2007), in particular relating to the ageing body (Murray et al , 2014). Despite recruitment limitations ( see Conclusion), the narrative themes discussed below emerged in interviews from participants with very different experiences.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I've got lots of gaps, but I want to hang on to the ones that I have’: the ageing body, oral health and stories of the mouth

et al. 2018

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The mouth may be presented and understood in different ways, be subject to judgement by others and, as we age, may intrude on everyday life due to problems that affect oral health. However, research that considers older people's experiences concerning their mouths and teeth is limited. This paper reports on qualitative research with 43 people in England and Scotland, aged 65–91, exploring the significance of the mouth over the lifecourse. It uses the concept of ‘mouth talk’ to explore narratives of maintaining, losing and replacing teeth. Participants engaged in ‘mouth talk’ to downplay the impact of the mouth, demonstrate socially appropriate ageing, and distance themselves from ‘real’ old age by retaining a moral identity and sense of self. They also found means to challenge dominant discourses of ageing in how they spoke about missing teeth. Referring to Leder's notion of ‘dys-appearance’ and Gilleard and Higgs’ work on the social imaginary of the fourth age, the study illustrates the ways in which ‘mouth talk’ can contribute to sustaining a sense of self in later life, presenting the ageing mouth, with and without teeth, as an absent presence. It also argues for the importance of listening to stories of the mouth in order to expand understanding of people's approaches to oral health in older age.

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Understanding and transforming ageing through the arts

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

The role of the visual arts in the resilience of people living with dementia in care homes

The role of the visual arts in the resilience of people living with dementia in care homes

Controlling active ageing: a study of social imaginaries of older people in Chile

‘I've got lots of gaps, but I want to hang on to the ones that I have’: the ageing body, oral health and stories of the mouth

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