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Introducing Social Geographies some form of disability, and a small minority ever need any level of social care (McGlone, 1992). Yet, the association is pervasive and affects our own and others’ perceptions of our identities (see Box 7:3). The labelling of the ageing body has been described as central to ageism and experiences of old age as a distinct and different stage of life (Harper, 1997). Harper (1997:183) suggests that notions about the physical body, especially its finality, have become replaced with the cultural notion of frailty: the idee that death and decline can be controlled, ‘somehow transcended by science’. Thus old age is no longer seen 2s inevitable, and those older people who do nat avoid becoming frail are distanced from other life-stages and the spaces associated with them, Harper argues that: Copyrighted material The degree and speed at which individuals show signs of physiological ageing is not just a genetic lottery; it is influenced by income and class, and ethnicity and gender (Pain, Mow and Talbot, 2000). Increasingly, some people can resist physiological ageing, but it is also read differently by others ~ consider the different implications for men and women of acquiring the first facial wrinkles and white hairs. Social age Social age involves generally held beliefs and attitudes about the capability of people of different ages and the social and spatial behaviour which is appropriate for them (ageism). These attitudes have a considerable impact on the opportunities of older and younger people and also on how they view themselves (see Box 7.3) 1.2. Geographies of age: from spatial patterns to spatial constructions These developments in how we understand ‘age’ have implications for the issues which are studied and the ways they are approached by social geographers. Earlier work, which focused on spatial pattems of residence, welfare and service provision, tended to be in the positivist, empiricist tradition (see Chapter |, section 1.3.1) — for example, see the collection edited by Wames (1982). In such research, ‘age’ tends to be taken for granted as a category of analysis and is rarely questioned; instead the aim has been to make suggestions for policies which impact on either older people or children. While such work clearly has a place in geography as well as a broader role to play, a growing critique has emphasized what it has left out; in particular that the spatial construction of age, generation and lifecourse has been relatively little explored compared with identities of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality (see Chapters 5 and 6) In recent years geographers have begun to redress this balance, often adopting new theoretical and methodological positions. Boxes 7.4 and 7.5 summarize some important contributions to debates over how best te explore the interrelationships between space and different age identities. As you can see, there are a number of parallel issues in how geographers have recently approached research on older people and children. However, it is worth noting that there is still a far larger literature on children in geography than on older people, and that this work has always been more diverse, including humanistic approaches (eg, Hart, 1979) and radical perspectives (eg. Bunge, |973) These shifts in perspective have been accompanied by new epistemological and methodological positions. The problems of representing these groups are obvious, as academic geographers largely belong to the middle age groups. Research using qualttative and ethnographic methods has helped to elucidate geographies of age and ageing, allowing children and older people to speak for themselves and interpret their own lives. As Matthews and Limb (1999) have recently argued, geograshical research should entail and encourage participation. For example, to get round some of the 149 > & £ 8 8 8 5 z g a Introducing Social Geographies Box 7.4 Rethinking the geography of ageing Ina review of work on geographies of ageing and older people, Harper and Laws (1995) made a number of suggestions. They argued that recent theoretical advances in the social sciences have been neglected in much geographical work on ageing, and that the following perspectives should contribute to the theoretical basis of geographers’ work in ‘order to make it more critical, challenging and relevant: + political economy theory, which highlights the institutionally created status of old age. + feminist theory, which informs accounts of alder women's experiences, the ‘feminization’ of old age, and epistemological issues in researching ‘old age’ postmadernism, which emphasizes the geographical and cultural variability in meanings of ‘old age’, points to a diversity of ‘elderly’ identities, and to the need for exploration cof how relations of age, race, gender, class and sexuality are constructed and lived out differently over time and space. They also argued for further use of qualitative methodologies in order to explore the geographies of older people through their own eyes and voices, (Source: Harper and Laws, 1995) Box 7.5 The geography of children A debate in the journal Area in the early 1990s raised some of the issues and contradictions inherent in studying children’s geographies, Importantly, + the relationship between structure and agency: it is important to examine the influence of adults’ control over children's spaces, but also to acknowledge that children create their own spaces as well as profoundly influencing the geographies of, ‘their parents and other carers. + social difference: the experience of childhood and children’s geographies differ greatly between children of differem ages, classes, gender, ethnicity, places and times, + methodology: achieving a perspective that is truly ‘through children’s eyes’ means not just doing research ‘on’ children, but adopting appropriate methodologies which allow children to speak for themselves. (Gee James, 1990; Sibley, 1991; Winchester, 1991) problems of accessing and representing children in an intensive account of children’s streetlives, McKendrick (/997) has focused on one local street and one child (the street where he lived, and his own daughter). This gave him the benefit of being a participant observer, but at the same time complicated his involvement because as well as researcher he was, as a parent, directly positioned in the power relations which structured the children’s spatial lives. 150 7.3 Space, identity and age The emphasis of geographical research has shifted, then, from spatial patterns to an interest in the spatial construction of age, In the first part of this chapter we outlined some of the ways in which age may be sodally constructed — for example, through limits on labour market participation, or through common ideologies about bodily appearance and function. In the remainder of the chapter, drawing on examples of geographical research, we illustrate how age is also spatially constructed, and suggest that this is an important dimension of age which cannot be separated from its social construction. Just as social geographers consider particular places and spaces to have particular gendered identities, The material spaces and places in which we live, work and engage in leisure activities are oge-graded and, in tun, age is associated with particular places and spaces, Our metephorical social positon also varies with increasing oge as old age is peripheralized (its immense disadvantage) into discrete locaviors, walle ‘youth is everywhere’ (Laws, 1997:91) Whether youth is ‘everywhere’ is perhaps arguable; while it may generally be true of popular culture, there are many other spaces and avenues of power where children and young people are denied access or a voice. However, Laws’ point is that ‘where we are says a lot about who we are ... aged identities are not only the product of particular s, 1997: 93). If we conceptualize ‘age’ in terms of an identity which is socially constructed, rather than a spatialities but ... they also constitute spaces and places’ (Lay category which is stati then space and place have a number of interrelated roles. For example: + People have different access to and experiences of space and place on the basis of their age. + Spaces have their own age identities, which have implications for those who use them. + People may actively create and resist particular age identities through thei- use of space and place. In the rest of this chapter we examine these themes in more detail, illustrating them with recent examples of geographical research on young people, children and older people. 7.3.1 People have different access to and experiences of space and place on the basis of their age The most obvious and visible social geography of age is the different access to space which people have on the basis of their chronological (or apparent) age. In most 1st asanozay!| pue uoiesaued o8y

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