disparity of experience

• Hepworth & Featherstone - Disparity of experience

  All of the discussions on inequality & difference need unpicking.The groups of elderly & youth are too simplistic.
• Marsh & Keating - Disparity of experience


  Noted that different cultures attach different cultural meanings & values to different age groups
• Social Action theorists


  Remind us statistics ae too simplistic to take at face value. As age inequality is socially constructed. It changes due to different factors in society.
• Gender & youth


  Young females suffer specific inequality not suffered by males. 'Harmful practices, including FGM, femicide, gender-based violence & damage to girls' physical being & self-worth by reinforcing gender-based marginalisation.'
• Education, youth & gender

  Countries such as Pakistan state that education is the right of all, yet statistics show there is a huge disparity in gender & schooling.
• Mala Yousafzai


  Fights for females to gain equality in education.
• Other rights are gendered, according to culture, whether it be the right to work, go out without a chaperone.
• Elderly females are likely to be worse off then elderly males.
• Ideas about getting older vary from culture to culture & over time. This means ageing is socially constructed - ideas about age are not based on biology alone, rather age is defined through the culture a person lives in.
• Gerontocracy


  A from of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leader who are significantly older than most of the adult population. EG. In Saudi Arabia, the Saud family have all the power, largely all being in their 80s & above.
• Kagan - Age & culture around the world


  'Activity & aging in a Colombian peasant village' study.Observed that the old tended to remain socially & economically active, as far as physically possible, throughout old age.They didn't constitute a gerontocracy, but were nevertheless seen as valued & respected members of their communities.
• Nomadic societies


  The elderly are a burden to the rest of society when they are unable to follow the nomadic lifestyle. The old are frequently neglected or even killed once they start to become a hindrance.
• Geronticide


  Abandonment to death, suicide or killing of the elderly. Not widely practices in the contemporary world, some parts of Tamil Nadu in southern India are said to still practise it.
• Gentlemen - Age & culture around the world


  Outlines a day in a care home .Shows how, even with good care & a safe environment, the lack of visits from relatives & the monotony make it an unpleasant experience.The day of a resident is marked by getting up, eating or taking medicine.
• A young Iraqi nurse who was interviewed by Gentlemen explained that this was a new cultural experience to him as in Iraq families look after their elderly.
• Age is socially constructed idea - A comparison of a tribe where a boy of 3 is given a knife & allowed to hunt with a child in the UK who cannot be convicted of a crime until the age of 10 shows this.
• Digital generational gap


  A growing gap between young & old, commonly used to discuss financial divides born out of differential access to technology there is a clear gap between young & old due to the ability to use technology, this causes problems for employment, as older people may be less comfortable using technology.
• The 'digital divide'


  Can hinder the young & old understanding each other, as so much of youth culture is linked to new technology.
• Dowd - The digital generational gap


  Increase in technology can cause some elderly to feel they are becoming 'strangers in their own land'
• Silver surfers


  Show 2 things: There are those who are post-65 accessing & using digital technology & that as new generations grow up with technological skills, the digital gap may change.