SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF OLD AGE AMONG
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN TURKEY
Pelin Önder Erol
Ege
University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Sociology
e-mail: pelin.erol@ege.edu.tr
ABSTRACT
Old age as a life stage is a
socially constructed phenomenon though it is determined biologically as it is pointing out
people who are 65 and over. A socially constructed world is not only performed by actors
who are actively constructing their own worlds and but also by those who have influence
upon those worlds through other social interventions. Social agents construct their own
identities through the identity of others; hence in this case old age is constructed
through being young; youth also construct the knowledge of old age. In this regard, an emprical study to grasp the
breadths and limits concerning the old age which is constructed by young people is carried
out in order to illustrate the case in Turkey. The study includes conducting
questionnaires on 156 university students (N=156) at all grades who conceive of old age
fairly different from each other. The conclusions drawn from this quantitative research
foster our argument in which a social constructionist approach is drawn on.
INTRODUCTION
People construct all kind of
knowledge about the social world both through getting involved in it and being the other
for it. In construction of an object of knowledge, otherness is more powerful, yet based
more on perception. Therefore, young people construct old age not by experiencing it,
however as an other within this phenomenon, they produce this knowledge through their
perceptions. They perceive what has been produced, and then reproduce it. As a matter of
fact, according to Haim Hazan (1994) a study of socially constructed old age consists of
two parts: handling old age as a socio-cultural object among the non-old and how old
people construct their own world. In this
point, this paper examines this process in which young people contribute to the creation
of old age in Turkey and how this social construction embodies itself among Turkish
university students.
In societies, the cultures of which
are neither modern nor traditional but positioned somewhere in between, the status of old
people are conceived in a wide variety of ways. Turkish culture is a good examplar for it,
elderly are respected in traditional Turkish culture; yet they are seen as unproductive
especially where capitalist modes of production prevail, such as Turkish metropolises.
Turkish society was an
overwhelmingly agrarian one; in this kind of society wisdom and experience which are
gained through living for long years are precious. However as it is industrialized
rapidly, elderly lost their power since specialization, regardless of the number of years
lived, which is attained through education
gained importance in modern societies. As a result, old people in Turkey interestingly
turned out to be symbolic objects who are respected and mostly cared by their children, if
needed; on the other hand not recognized as social agents.
Turkish youth inherently contains
both this traditionality and modernity when approaching the old age issue. University
students, like other sub-groups in society, are differentiated among themselves mostly on
the basis of their positioning in this sort of transitional period. Turkish society has
been experiencing this transional period since 1980’s, mostly under the effects of
globalization. However they constitute a generation who are not only subject to external
impositions through all kind of means of media, but also experience the transformation
most rapidly thus far. This kind of imposition inevitably brings about cultural
transformation, which means many long-established values get increasingly weaker. This
transformation is most appearant among youth, so in this study the quantitative data was
drawn from questionnaires that are conducted among university students at all grades.
Firstly how they conceive of old age both in terms of today’s elderly and their own
future, secondly how they contribute to the perception that is created by the whole
society and, lastly whether the capitalist discourse which imposes that elderly are
unproductive and inefficient is embodied among them would be analyzed.
OLD AGE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT: A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW
Social world is a semantic area
which is constructed through language. Therefore literature on old age has a significant
influence upon the ways old age is constructed. Being under the effect of functionalist
theory, which dominated the scientific paradigm in the late first half of 20th century in
America, many conventional gerontological theories arised. Disengagement Theory, which is
firstly developed by Cumming and Henry (1961), claims that both old people and society
disengage from each other, which serves for the common good. On the other hand Activity
Theory, which is developed against Disengagement Theory, briefly argues that the more
active the elderly are, the more they satisfy. As it is obvious, it still has a discourse
which subordinates the old people through pointing out that they consist of a segregated
group which has special needs, such as being active. As Hazan (1994:18) notes; “The
notion of the aged as a problem rests on the fundamental assumption that there is an
unbridgeable gap between the ‘aged’ and ‘society’…This
distinction rests, in turn, on the assumption that the aged and the non-aged constitute
two distinct categories of human beings”.
Critical gerontology, which has been
rising for the last few decades, has been born as a necessary response especially to the
scientific discourse which produces and reproduces the depressed and dependent status of
old people. To illustate, “old age dependency ratio” has deep connotations
beneath. In order to make this demographic formula clearer; it is the ratio of elderly
population, namely 65 and over, to economically productive population, namely population
aged between 15 to 64. The formula indicates the number of old people who need to be taken
care of by each person who is actively working. One further step here is the economical
discourse which indicates elderly as a burden. Here, it is obvious that old people are
categorized as unproductive; however the point which needs to be paid attention is the
fact that it is science who recognizes people
over a fixed age as out of productive roles. The ideological reading of old age dependency
ratio is the idea of us versus them. To claim
that something is constructed socially is to deconstruct it;
hence it is argued that old age phenomenon needs to be deconstructed and the
inherent meanings, for instance what old age dependency ratio ideologically means should
be revealed. In fact, Walker (1981:89) states that, the dependency in old age is not
determined by chronological age, but it is created by the social construction of the age.
In this regard, political economy of
aging reveals the inteweaving relationships between dependent status of elderly and mode
of production. As McMullin (2000:520) notes “studies in political economy of aging
consider the socially constructed nature of aging, old age and dependency”.
“That the aged is no longer in the productive sector of the economy is precisely the
point of examination which is critical to political economy approach” (Estes et
al,1982:156). Hence, the perspective of political economy of aging is of great importance
to demonstrate why and how old people are recognized as people having lower status in
societies where capitalist modes of production dominates their economy.
Old age has “not only changed
over time but has also varied among different cultures” (Hareven, 2005: 119). This is
the strongest indicator which explains why old age should be seen as a reality which is
socially constructed instead of a natural phenomenon. According
to Berger and Luckman (1967), reality, in general, is constructed through three stages; externalization, objectification and internalization. The child internalizes the world
of his own significant others in the way his parents form it (Berger and Luckman,
1967:154). That is why the family in which one is born has important effects upon how he
conceives of ageing. The differences among respondents’ views about old age and
ageing can be explained by means of their primary socialization period in which child
externalizes, objectifies and internalizes the reality of old age for the first time; and
by means of their secondary socialization which instutional-based internalization is
performed. As they noted: “The periodization of biography is symbolized at each stage
with reference to the totality of human meanings. To be a child, to be an adolescent, to
be an adult, and so forth- each of these biographical phases is legitimated as a mode of
being in the symbolic universe…[A]s he projects himself into the future, he may
conceive of his biography as unfolding within a universe whose ultimate coordinates are
known” (Berger and Luckman, 1967:117-118).
Discontinuties throughout the whole
life course are resulted from the enterings into new periods. These transitional moments
in the lives of people open up the doors of distinct stages within the life course.
Drawing back from active working life designates a kind of rite of passage in the context
of capitalist society. Being excluded from productive roles, in capitalist sense, old
people are seen as passive and inefficient subjects. In fact, retirement is of great
importance for the perspective of political economy of aging. Social devaluation is
accompanied with superannuation, because people who are retired are devalued not only
economically but also socially. In Hazan’s (1994:42) words “work roles are of
enormous significance in terms of self-image, sense of place in the world, and social
interaction and identity. Upon retirement, the work role dissipates or changes, and the
aged face the loss former sources of power, respect, opporunities for advancement and
social rewards”. However, many old people who still have a potential to be productive
both in economical and social terms, are forced to withdraw from life. For long years
people get educated or trained for working life, and then they get employed and ultimately
they retire. It is clearly indicated here that in contemporary work society, life stages
are determined by work. However, at the end of these evolutionary stages people who had
worked for long years begin to live in a closed enviroment. This makes one feels that he
is useless, and most importantly the person begins to question his social status within
himself, and after a while these imaginations become deeply embedded and ossified at a
societal level. As Walker (1981:88) writes, “the tyranny of age-barrier retirement
provides the motivating force underlying a more general devaluation of the worth of
elderly people in capitalist societies”.
Those people who lose their agency
over their lives in micro and macro scales, immediately find themselves while standing at
“the waiting hall of death”. This is a disagency
process which is implemented by the society as a whole.
So is it a righteous cause to treat old people as if they are living deads having
no social intervention and capacity to transform the social structure? Since “older
people interact with their environment in a reflexive way to create their own social
reality” (Walker,2000:304), the ways non-aged people conceive of old people
determines how old age constructed socially and how those non-aged people contribute to
this socially constructed phenomenon.
SOME EVIDENCES TO ILLUSTRATE THE ARGUMENT
The ways younger generations
conceive of old age is rather valuable data firstly because these generations will become
old in the future. Hence, in order to make projections about how old age phenomenon will
look like after about 50 years, it is effacious to take the considerations of younger
people seriously. In addition, among non-aged generations today’s university age
generation is of great importance because of a feature it has; this generation is heavily
imposed by all kind of means of globalization. Therefore they reflect the realities which
are constructed in a sort of transitional period from traditionality to modernity, and
partly to postmodernity under the impact of globalization.
The questions in the questionnaire
are organized in order to grasp the constructed realities about ageing and old age among
university students. Moreover, it is also significant to keep in mind that people
construct their own identities as the others see us. Thus, it is claimed in this paper
that old age identity is constructed through the identity of other, namely young. It is
the exact reason why young people’s perception is so important in regard to this
issue. “Aging is an intergenerational enterprise which takes place in an
intergenerational space” (Biggs,2008:119). Also parallel with this view, Hazan
(1994:33) states; “According to the concept of the ‘looking glass self’, we
see ourselves as we imagine others see us, and therefore the behaviour of older people and
their attitudes towards themselves are shaped and reinforced by society’s prevailing
images of them. By adopting these images, the elderly in turn confirm and strengthen
them”.
On the other hand, young people,
none of whom had no way to have already experienced the old are before, are too far to the
idea of being old. In fact, a significant number of the respondents have stated that they
had never imagined themselves as old. “De Beauvoir’s (1970) observation that
when we are young, we can hardly conceive of what it is like to be old, yet the way a
society behaves toward its old people reveals often carefully hidden truths about its
principles and aims” (Biggs,2008:118). However, the research which looks at how young
people contribute to construction of old age and how this social construct is reflected to
the responses of these youth provides a meaningful data.
Average age to be old It is considered that attaining a data about the age
when old age begins is a valuable one. Drawing on the responses, the mean age found is 59,
which means that university students are assuming that people become “old” at
about their 59. This is meaningful when life expectancy at birth, which is 71,5[*]
in Turkey, is taken into account, noting that it is not known whether the students
responded so by knowing life expectancy at birth, or not.
Life arrangements of the grandparents The changing profile of family life
in Turkey is an outcome of multiple reasons, the most effective of which is
industrialization. In this period, the traditional extended family is shifted to nuclear
family as a modern way of life. Mostly due to the migration within the country which has
been the case since 1950’s, the number of family members becomes fewer. In fact this
leads to a significant transformation in familial patterns. The responses to the question
whether any of their grandparents live with their family are good evidence for this
argument. 86% of the students responded as their grandparents do not live with their
family.
The age until which the respondents wish to
live is also an
important indicator about how old age is perceived. The mean age until which the students
wish to live is 76. However, the reason why they would like to live until those ages is as
important as the age they specified. Interestingly, the reason why the biggest percentage
of the students (42.2%) would like to live until the ages they specified; but not longer,
is that they do not want to disturb people around them because of self-insufficiency and
ill-health conditions in later life. Another group (34,7%)
responded as they would like to get wiser and see more in life until the ages they
specified. In addition, another group of students (5,4 %) addressed to productivity issues
as reasons for not living longer; they responded that they would like to live as far as
they remain productive.
Consumption patterns of old people Unlike social theorists who argue
that status of old people is based on their position in production which is closely
relevant with work society, some claim that old people are integrated to the rest of the
society to the extent they consume. In modern culture emphasis is on productivity, whereas
in postmodern culture premium is put on consumptivity.
Bauman (2006:92-93) analyzes the individual as an actor in consumer society. According
to him, the contemporary society forms its members in a way it is ordered by the mission
of playing consumer’s role. Moreover consumers are consist of all people regardless
of their age, “years of childhood, adolescence, retirement and elderhood are all
expected to be parts of a human life course in which people consume actively”
(Ritzer, 2000:220).
Specifically in old age issue,
consumer society itself produces a negative image of old age. As Powell and Longino
(2002:222) states “…consumer society tends to reinforce negative language and
images of later life”. Because only through this way can it encourage old people to
behave in the same way young people do. In this context, it is questioned whether students
consider Turkish elderly as having snowbird or golden age lifestyles or not. They are
asked to mark a number between 1 and 5, where 1 indicates the lowest and 5 indicates the
highest degree of agreement in a Likert type scale. In the statement concerning the matter
of consumption, the level of agreement is found as 1,92 at average. It can be inferred
from here that old Turkish people today are not conceived as active consumers, unlike
their European or American counterparts.
Age-appropriate behaviour, “We are seeing an erosion of
the cultural boundaries that separate youth, adulthood and old age, and we have entered a
period in which norms for age-appropriate behaviour are in flux. This new ethos reflects
the spirit of postmodern culture…” (Moody, 1993:xx). When it is asked for
Turkish students to mention their degree of agreement to the statement “Old people
should behave according to their old age identity”, the average degree is found as
3,03 out 5. When this outcome is anayzed in context of Moody’s perspective in which
he focuses on norms for age-appropriate behaviour in postmodern culture, it can be
concluded that in a society which has not been fully modernized yet, this outcome is not
surprising.
A romantic wish for seeing grandchildren 14 out of 156 students, which
points out a substantial number, indicated that they would like to see their grandchildren
and have the opportunity to transfer their knowledge to next generations. Although
“(t)he traditionalist project of finding meaning in family role or tribal membership
stands in contrast to entire modern Western Project of individuality through
self-creation” (Moody, 1993:xxvii), many students perceive grandparenting so
meaningful that they would like to wait until it becomes real. If it is paid attention to
what a 22-year-old female student says, it would be inferred that wisdom and ease are
closely associated. “I would like to go on my
life in ease and tell my life experiences to my grandchildren in a more peaceful life,
after I get retired”. As 21-year-old male student states that he would like to
live long; “[t]o witness that my grandchild
grew, to bring him to parks by holding his hands”.
Living fully It is meaningful to point out to an old age
perception in which the things to be done do not end until the life itself ends. It is
embodied in a 24-year-old female student’s words; “But, I believe that one has many things to do
till the last moment in her life; in other words I am opposed to the idea of
‘sequestering from the world”. A 21-year-old male student mentions that “I would like to live until my 120. Because I
don’t think that I would lose my brain activity. There are many scientific
developments to learn”.
Exploring the later life Some students mentioned that they
would like to live too long since they want to see more in life. “We ought to go beyond 110. In fact a couple of centuries maybe… Why? To
explore”. This 24-year-old female
student is eager to live for centuries to explore those
times. Similarly, a 21-year-old female student mentions that she would like to reach her
100 and adds “It is maybe to have an idea about
different stages of life, to expand life experience”.
Resisting to be old Another perception of old age
is concerning with image of body. A 21-year-old female student states; “I would like to live until 65. Because I
don’t want to get very old. I mean, seeing myself in mirror as very old, with a face
that is decayed and wrinkled with age, would make me sorrowful, that is why, at the first
place, I don’t want to see myself and I don’t want other people to see me like
that”. This statement reminds us that how young people are imposed by negative
images of old bodies and how those young people recreate those images by their attitudes
and discourses. Another young female student who is at the age of 22 states: “In fact, I would like to live just until I feel I
become old. I prefer dying over living as old”. The category of old age as a
social construct is reflected by an 18-year-old student's words; “I would like to live until my 85 at most.
Because, I would not like to live for a long time after I am categorized as old”.
Fear about old age and death as unknown
phenomena. Some
touched upon their fears about old age and death. “Currently, ageing has turned out to be rather fearful.
I disagree to the idea that every age has a beauty in it” says a 23-year-old
female student. In addition, a female student at 19 gives voice to her fear about death
which is generally associated with old age. She mentions “I would like to live as long as a person can live.
Because I am afraid of death”.
These statements all provide
some hidden truths about how young people consider the phenomenon of old age. They do not
only reflect some common views about ageing, but also contribute to those views which in
fact are social constructs.
CONCLUSION
In contemporary capitalist societies
where the premium is put on production, old people who are compelled to withdraw from
productive spheres are not seen as agentic selves. Although sometimes it is not their own
decisions to retire, they are treated as dependent people and also as economic and social
burdens. This is the most common image concerning with old age; in fact the responses get
from univesity students prove this claim. That a significant ratio of respondents pointed
out the “dependency matter” when their reason to live until the age they
specified is asked, is an important indicator that they see old age period as a dependent
life stage. “That the aged are segregated,
constrained and transformed into dependent human beings is not the consequence of
objective difficulties in functioning but the result of fundamental dilemmas concerning
the perception of the aged and the acquision of knowledge about them” (Hazan, 1994:
82). “ [T]he stereotype of the elderly as a homogenous group with special needs has
exerted a considerable influence on both public attitudes and social policies towards this
group”. (Walker,1983:389)
However, knowledge is produced and
reproduced both by the people who are directly involved in those spheres and by those who
contribute to this production as an “other”. However, not only common sense but
also scientific knowledge have tremendous effects upon the ways in which the realities are
constructed. “The result of knowledge-building without a critical spirit serves to
perpetuate structures of domination” (Moody, 1993:xvi). In this point, social
theorists should approach the phenomenon in a critical way that they contribute to
emancipation of old people through gerontological literature. “A great deal of
influential research in social gerontology has tended to treat elderly people as a
detached minority, independent from economic and political systems…”(Walker,
1981:88). This has been the case because most of the early works in social gerontology
drew on functionalist theory which has a tendency to attribute old people’s
dependency to their chronological ages and make biological-based explanations.
“Today the old and young,
members of different historical cohorts, know less and less about each other and share
little of each other’s cultural worlds” (Moody, 1993:xxviii). In this paper, it
is mainly aimed to assess the degree to which young people have an idea about old
people’s worlds. In addition, young people contribute to social construction of old
age phenomenon by participating to this construction as other; but they inherently know
that they are potentially old. Differentiation between young and old is perhaps the only
one in which people of privileged side know that they will turn out to be the unprivileged
one day. However, “a basic, structurally necessary relationship of imagined
intergenerational continuity and support is in decline” (Greenberg &
Muehlebach,2007:199).
Moreover, how university students as
today’s young, but futures’s old people perceive old age and ageing process is
of great importance in foreseeing how ageing will be experienced. “How humans
conceive of their worlds affects profoundly how they anticipate and create their
future” (Atchley, 1993:4). “[F]uture population of older people will be more
culturally and socially diverse than past cohorts of older people, as well as better
educated and in better health, more inclined to maintain active lifestyles, and less
inclined to accept uniform and stereotypical notions of what it means to be old”
(Polivka, 2009: 562). The anticipations about elderly in future are so crucial for
developing social polices in regard to meet the needs of old people.
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[*] Source: TÜIK, 2006; http://nkg.tuik.gov.tr/goster.asp?aile=1