Intergenerationality and Anticipation at Older Age: An Engaged Phenomenological Study

Abstract

In this thesis, I complement insights from age studies with philosophical phenomenology to develop an account of ‘older age’ by heeding insights offered by older participants in qualitative interviews. In particular, I focus on the topics of intergenerationality and anticipation. I explore how participants experienced tensions between ‘keeping an open mind’ at older age, intergenerational shifts in cultural norms, and social separation between generations—interpreting this as a rupture in the intergenerational habitus. I also argue that public health anticipations pertaining to older age can be understood as co-constitutive of older people’s outlook on their future, and that the participants’ perspectives show just how difficult—or indeed impossible—it can be to know in advance what the best approach to successful ageing is. These investigations intertwine concepts from both age studies and phenomenology, including the notion of the ‘decline narrative,’ the ‘successful ageing’ framework, the ‘third vs. fourth age’ distinction, and phenomenology of embodiment, habit, and habitus-formation.

This thesis is informed by principles of engaged research, and its content and development has been shaped in dialogue with a number of older people. The fundamental phenomenological research is led by this engagement. The thesis also sets out an original methodological perspective for future engaged phenomenological projects—drawing from critical and generative phenomenology, as well as literature on engaged and participatory practices. This approach to research, which I call engaged phenomenology, explores (1) how the social, political, and institutional context of a research project frames its operative concepts and concerns, and (2) how best to meaningfully work together with communities whose experiences are foregrounded in a study. I argue that adopting these approaches can enable phenomenologists to more effectively realise the critical and generative potential of phenomenological methodology more broadly.