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This paper explores the contrasts and complementarities of two different sets of archived data, life history interviews and diaries. Both are well-tried methods of data collection in the social sciences, but little attention has been given to ways of using them in combination. We begin with an outline of how we went about collecting data for archiving: recruiting 12 families, interviewing people aged 75 and over, and collecting diaries from other family members. We go onto present examples of the data from one particular family. We then compare what the interviews and diaries, analysed in combination, contributed to our understanding of time, concluding with comments on the relevance of different temporalities to current debates on family and intergenerational relationships. The archived data offer researchers interested in qualitative longitudinal investigations a complex and many-faceted understanding of temporality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we experience ageing, how do we interpret changes in our lives and what do we say about the passage of time? The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal evidence about the personal and social significance of birthdays in adult life and, in particular, how birthdays contribute to a sense of ageing. The primary source of data is the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex. Members of its panel of 'ordinary' people living in the United Kingdom were in 1990 invited to write anonymously about celebrations, and in 2002 they were invited to write more specifically on the topic of birthdays. A total of 120 accepted both invitations and 55 included accounts of their last birthday in both submissions. As a consequence, it is possible to compare what they wrote on the two occasions and how this reflects their unfolding experience and changing feelings about age. The analysis reveals the personal salience of the date of a birthday and of continuity in how birthdays are celebrated. Who remembers birthdays and who participates in their celebration reflect the generational structure of families and age-related patterns of friendship. Birthdays are used to celebrate collective continuity more than individual change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a paper in the January issue of this volume of Ageing & Society, Eric Midwinter argued that ‘much can be learned from re-drawing the demographic map with social rather than chronological contours’. This opinion reflects a widespread view among social gerontologists that chronological age is an ‘empty’ variable, even though it is central to the construction of social identities, both in bureaucratic contexts and in less formal social interaction. This paper draws on material stored in the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, England. A large panel of ‘ordinary people’ was asked to write about ‘growing older’ in 1992 and about ‘birthdays’ in 2002. An analysis of the ways in which they revealed their age demonstrates that the revelation of chronological age is unproblematic in certain contexts that are deemed appropriate. Difficulties arise as a result of the association of age with various more nebulous statuses such as ‘middle-aged’ and ‘old’. The implications for the concept of ‘the third age’ are discussed and it is concluded that social gerontology should pay more attention to the theoretical significance of chronological age and age-identity and less to age statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two approaches to defining ageism are discussed. The significance of chronological age, both for bureaucratic procedures and for research, is considered. This demonstrates how birthdays are associated not just with changing status regarding employment and retirement, but also cultural transformations. The relevance of research based on age categories is critically discussed. It is argued that, while such research provides essential evidence of ageism, it inevitably tends to homogenize, particularly when open-ended“oldest” categories are used. The article concludes with a discussion of four alternative frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based upon our experience of commissioning diaries to be kept by research subjects. First the paper reviews some previous research based on diaries, then it outlines the aims of our research and the method of data collection. Then the paper goes on to evaluate the design and use of a diary that participants in our research completed. In particular we consider the ways in which the diary may have biased our sample, caused the participants difficulties and generated poor data. There is also a discussion on how it may have affected behaviour and on the ethical issues that are raised by commissioned diaries. In conclusion, observations are made about the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as an investigative tool with a wider applicability. The diary proved particularly revealing and we recommend that other researchers consider diaries as a method of investigating everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the issue of how gerontologists theorize their own personal experience of aging. Concept of old age; Agelessness; Study of later life and the meaning of words; Need for anti-ageist gerontology to promote a relativist vocabulary rather than an absolutist one.

This paper presents the outcome of a preliminary study of the various images of the life course that are conveyed in published obituaries. Following a review of recent developments in the obituary columns of national newspapers in the United Kingdom, we present our analysis of the 86 obituaries that were published in The Guardian in June 1995. We pay particular attention to the ways in which obituaries cover the biography, age, ill-health, death and personal relationships of the deceased. We conclude that, although the sampled obituaries as a whole feature the mid-life careers of men, they also reflect common expectations, fears and prejudices about age, illness and death. We would suggest that a more substantial study comparing obituaries in a wide range of contrasting publications and cultures would reveal important differences in dominant images of the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern with the state of theory in gerontology has led to growing interest in biography and in ordinary theorising about age. This article analyses two published volumes of letters in order to identify how the experience of ageing is interpreted and theorised in process rather than retrospectively. They provide evidence of a degree of complex theorising which is relevant to a more critical understanding of ageing as a social phenomenon. Gender is found to be highly pertinent, not least in the editorial processing of such biographical material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speculates on the role of the concept of experience in gerontology. Definitions given to the word `experience'; Association between age and experience; Ageing and the accumulation of experience; Ethnographic approach to the study of experience in later life.