Age

• Cumming and Henry (1961) - theory of disengagement of older people (functionalism)

  • with ageing, a person‘s abilities deteriorate
  • roles are not carried out as well by the elderly, and block opportunities for younger people
  • older people give up their roles in society and gradually withdraw from wider society
  • disengagement is inevitable and functionally beneficial for society
• Criticisms of Cumming and Henry (age)

  • falsely assumes the elderly and willing to disengage from society
  • may waste valuable experience and skills for society
  • the elderly may still fulfil important roles which the theory ignores, eg. the grandparent role
• Marxism (1867) - the reserve army of labour

  • the young provide a cheap pool of flexible labour that can be hired and fired as necessary
  • youths are willing to work for low wages
  • the lack of experience of youths legitimates low pay
  • competition for jobs keeps wages low
• Kidd (2001) - marxist

  • the elderly are seen as a drain on capitalist resources through their use of welfare and healthcare
  • the elderly are more likely to be in poverty and to experience ill-health due to poverty
• Oakley - feminism (age)


  both women and children are treated as minority groups, thus lack status and rights in society due to patriarchal attitudes
• Turner (1989) - age

  • the young and elderly are marginalised and stigmatised
  • the young and old lack the resources to gain high status as they do not have access to material goods
  • the young and old have low status as are dependent on others
  • ageing perceived as negative compared to other societies, eg. in Asia age has a higher status
• Hockey and James (age)

  • older people treated as children, infantilisation
  • age as a social construct
  • children are defined as being in a state of dependency on the family
• children in the media represented as an issue

  • demonstrates youth crime, gangs, and anti-social behaviour
  • media led moral panics, eg. Cohen on Mods VS Rockers
• Age Concern (2000)

  old people represented as -

  • a burden
  • mentally challenged
  • grumpy

  old people labelled more negatively than youths in the media
• Davis and Moore (1945) - meritocracy

  • functionality occurs when the most capable do the most important jobs
  • older people perform jobs that youths can’t do
  • older people stay in jobs for too long
• Infantilisation 


  elderly treated as if they are a baby, eg. hypersensitivity
• Corner (1999) - age

  • language used about elderly identity in the media was negative
  • elderly feel like burdens
  • older bodies are seen as ugly due to socialisation
• Hockey and James (1993) - infantilisation of the elderly

  • studied a care home for over 220 hours
  • older generations put into child-orientated settings, eg. use of toys, loss of privacy, and baby-talk
  • found negative outcomes of self-identity, well-being and social interactions
• Palmer (2006) - age

  • children now have far greater choice in what they do
  • this has led to a toxic childhood where children spend too much time on devices and eat too much junk food
• Cohen (1972) - age

  • media representation of young people remain stereotypical
  • young people seen as folk devils
  • there still exists evidence of moral panics
• Dowd (1986) - age

  • the increase of technology use has led to older people feeling more isolated due to their lack of tech. literacy
  • the increase of social media use has allowed for youths to explore freedom of their identity
• Postman (1994) - the disappearance of childhood 


  the distinction between childhood and adulthood is narrowing due to children sharing the same rights of adults
• Jenks (2006) - 'paranoid parenting'


  moral panics cause parents to think children need increased protection, eg. screentime allowances
• Hunt - Postmodernist view on age

  the ability to fight the signs of ageing means that older people do not have to see their age as being important anymore
• Johnson and Bytheway (1993) - age in employment

  • ageism is ‘an offensive exercise of power’
  • institution based, eg. age for jobs
  • legal practices, eg. minimum wage varied
  • prejudice behaviours, eg. categorisation (all teens are deviant)
• Itzin (1990) - feminism

  • older women are often doubly devalued by society because their status is devalued after the menopause (because they can no longer have children) as well as after retirement age
  • ageing women face a double standard, women have an expectation to stay young looking  
• Ray et al (social action theory)

  negative labelling about old age can impact on the way people react to ageing themselves, they can view themselves as useless and unable to learn