age and youth in identity

• age as a marker of identity;

  -> 'when' you become an adult is a social construct. age and the identities that come with it are constructed by society.
• in traditional societies; older people are seen as wide, knowledgeable and respected.

  in western societies; older people are seen as out of touch with the present, a burden etc.
• Aries (1973): childhood in the middle ages as a category did not exist

  -> children were seen as little adults and weren't pampered or protected like now as they grew up aside the adults.
• in our culture; we put people in different age categories - infant, youth, middle age, old age etc. these boundaries are not always clear.

  such expectations influence our sense of identity (youth in Europe stops in 30-40s)
• older people are stereotyped that after they hit a certain age they do not want to have sex anymore and get separated in their old folks homes (different rooms for women and men)
• British social attitude survey (2010): found that age is the most important factor to find a sense of belonging more than gender, colour etc.
• Bradley (1995): found that age as an identity was most significant among teenagers and young people and then again of those of retirement age
• old people in our culture are seen in a rather negative light -> slow, inefficient, a burden and conservative. when it comes to retirement you suddenly go from having a title like doctor to just being a grandparent. this is a huge loss of professional identity
• even when children move out, parents lose their feeling of being a parent (identity of a parent)
• the point at which we are becoming 'old' is changing, people are staying longer at work, living longer, living healthier lifestyle and engaging in activities that keep them young. society needs to rethink their thought on 'old age'
• Spijker and MacInnes (2013): rising life expectancy means older people e.g. before 60 years old was the average age of death but now its mid 80s
• factors such as health, income, gender, social class, and social participation all have an impact on one's identity and experience of old age
• Laslett (female) (1989): the concept of the third age, active aging - to refer to the trend of older people to remain active in life to not feel old.
• Marhankova (2011): without the constraints of work and now having economic stability and good health, the elderly have a third age ahead of them once they retire -> able to find activities and hobbies etc.
• Whether the elderly have a fun time as elderly is based off of their social class and their income. 22.3% of the elderly in Malta (65+) are at risk of poverty – poverty line (your total money could be at the risk of not being enough for stability and close to being titled as poor). 17.5% of European elderly is close to the poverty line
• ageism; mostly affects the elderly e.g. ageist to make people stop working at 65 years old because the law assumes that all elderly wont be capable
• youth in identity;

  • most likely to build an identity around their peer group and what they have in common
  • surrounded by people who are similar in age -> leads us to link to music, clothing etc
  • could be formed from youth subculture
• youth subculture: symbols, hairstyles, music, language which distinguishes them from mainstream subcultures plus any other subculture.
• these subcultures usually fall under bricolage - they tend to show hostility to mainstream culture
• theories from youth culture; functionalists.

  young people cope from transition from childhood to adulthood, extended dependence on parents and education leads to status frustration. You have a desire to establish your own identity away from parents, school etc. but at the same time society still makes it that you are still subject to the rules and dependency on your parents
• functionalists see this as a short and normal transitional phase
• Parsons and Bales (1956): functionalists get criticism for saying it is just a phase because they neglect issues such as differences in styles, class, gender and ethnic differences as well as their negative elements such as drugs, racism, sexism etc.
• functionalists get criticised for their take on status frustration as they forget about the long term effects on your identity
• Marxists; they tend to see subcultures as a form of resistance -> young people tend to have cultures of resistance, look at main stream society and dominant social classes and go against them (conflict theory)
• Marxists do not agree with the functionalists as they look for the 'why' in everything while functionalists see everything as having a function in society
• Hall and Jefferson (1976): saw the subcultures of teddy boys, sin heads, and punks in this light. [teddy boys -> listen to Elvis and big curls]
• Brake (1985): young working class people get together as a form of resistance against the dominant classes which destroyed traditional working class culture
• Hebdige (1976): punk subculture was a means of defying dominant values and norms. in the 70s and 80s - wide spread capitalism. music would have a lot of swearing, graffiti everywhere etc.
• Cohen (1972): saw working class youths cultures as an attempt to recreate a traditional working class culture (class community, solidarity) which faded in unemployment. nothing says teenage rebellion like going against the norms and their parents
• Marxists were criticised heavily for focusing on the experience of the white working class cultures and ignoring middle class youth/girls/ethnic groups. Is it true that all subcultures are resistant. Giving central importance to class and resistance assumes that youth is resistant or not caring of class