AGEING AS FUTURE 2nd CONFERENCE, 12th to 14th of May 2021

Long lives in an uncertain world: lifecourse commodification and the strange case of dementia

Everyone wants a long life, yet few want to grow old. Dementia is at the extreme end of this continuum, something that no one wants to happen to them and yet has somehow come to represent old age in the public mind.
This state of affairs has been amplified by a wider process of commodification that affects the value attributed to the adult lifecourse, which may reduce the possibilities for empathic engagement and accelerate a shift from intrinsic to instrumental value. A commodified lifecourse can be populated by activities which fill otherwise ‘empty’ space. If old age pushes us to the outskirts of social life, dementia introduces a wilderness of being lost to society where there are few search parties and no guarantees that one will be found.
This argument will be elaborated through research findings that reveal: a tension between discourses on person-centredness and emotional labour; that dementia actively generates forms of social exclusion; plus a simultaneous desire for interpersonal and social engagement from others.
Such seemingly contradictory findings, can perhaps be held together by critically situating them in a wider debate on the value of a long life, which challenges a dominant public discourse with a series of experiential counter narratives.

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Narrative and Well-Being in Later Life: How eScience Technologies Contribute to Methodological Advances

It is a well-established research finding that older adults maintain their well-being despite a more negative balance between losses and gains in later life. Narratives are important developmental devices in this process as they support people in attributing meaning to their past, present, and future. They thereby contribute to their mental health and well-being. This is further corroborated by the increasing evidence that narrative interventions, like life review therapy, support the well-being and mental health of older adults who have difficulty in finding meaning in their lives. The field of e-science, i.e., the use of digital technologies in research, poses interesting possibilities to advance our insights in these processes. This will be demonstrated in two applications. First, the use of natural language processing will be discussed to analyze therapeutic change processes in life review therapy: which patterns of language use by clients and counselors are related to therapeutic adherence and success? Second, the use of affective computing will be discussed in detecting emotions in stories about personal memories: which (non)verbal, multimodal aspects of emotional expression are related to qualities of personal memories like valence and vividness? It is concluded that digital tools cannot be merely applied to data, but raise substantial theoretical questions about processes of storytelling and well-being in ageing persons.

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The End of Life: New Directions in Theory, Research and Policy

Over the past century, death has transitioned from a sudden and unexpected event, perceived as beyond human control, to a protracted, anticipated, and partially controllable transition that follows a chronic illness diagnosis, usually in very old age. Historical changes in when, where, and from what causes people die have set the stage for the emergence of a new life course stage: the end of life. For most older adults, the end of life, or the prolonged period between the onset of major illness and death, encompasses experiences that include physical discomfort, difficulty breathing (dyspnea), reliance on life-extending but often intrusive technologies, waning mental acuity, and existential questions about one’s purpose and legacy. Family members must grapple with exhausting caregiving responsibilities, distress from watching a loved one suffer, and anxiety regarding medical decisions. In this presentation, I show how the end of life is a uniquely contemporary social construction, reflecting historical, technological, institutional, and cultural contexts. Yet the end of life differs from other established life course stages in that it lacks a definitive or agreed-upon starting point. I identify challenges and ambiguities in identifying when an individual enters the end of life, describe key components of well-being among dying patients and their families, and highlight racial and socioeconomic disparities therein. I show how two practices in the U.S., advance care planning (ACP) and hospice use, can enhance well-being at the end of life. I suggest new avenues for theory, research, and policy innovations.

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Designing Later Life: Technology, Planning, and the Politics of Longevity

This presentation explores the fields of gerontechnology and longevity to critique the interventions of corporate design in later life. Gerontechnology promises to ameliorate isolation, disconnection, inactivity, and cognitive decline among older people. However, issues of personal data protection in surveillance, monitoring, and tracking devices have also arisen, as have ageist and sexist biases in designs for efficiency, speed, and convenience in digital consumer products. Further, while sensor clothing, home surveillance cameras, health-tracking appliances, or robotic companions may be helpful in the care field, they can contribute to status divisions connected to wider austerity programs and social disparities. Discussion of these matters is supported by data collected at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019, where rhetorics of ‘smartness’, ‘fitness’ and ‘wellness’ shape senior health and lifestyle marketing. The second part of the presentation looks at related designs of longevity ‘planning.’ While the prospects for longevity have historical roots in rejuvenation medicines as well as fantasy literatures, as the human lifespan has increased (by 30 years) in prosperous countries over the last century, it has inspired financial industries (promoting ‘longevity products’), patient autonomy groups (promoting ‘advanced healthcare planning’) and retirement community real estate (promoting heavenly late-life existence) to converge into a economic field of planned longevity. The gerontological sciences also depict longevity as a ‘revolution’ with its own social ‘dividends.’ Examples of this convergence are drawn from popular images and texts that highlight the power of planning in designing extendable life worlds and their relation to the politics of longevity. Conclusions consider how such politics privilege certain aging futures to the exclusion and abandonment of others.

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