Critical Future Studies and Age
Attending to Future Imaginings of Age and Ageing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.3156Keywords:
ageism, critical future studies, Cultural Gerontology, Ninni Holmqvist, Speculative Fiction, John WyndhamAbstract
This paper draws on cultural gerontology and literary scholarship to call for greater academic consideration of age and ageing in our imaginations of the future. Our work adds to the development of Critical Future Studies (CFS) previously published in this journal, by arguing that prevailing ageism is fuelled by specific constructions of older populations as a future demographic threat and of ageing as a future undesirable state requiring management and control. This paper has two parts: the first considers the importance of the future to contemporary ageist stereotypes. The second seeks potential counter representations in speculative fiction. We argue that an age-aware CFS can allow us not only to imagine newfutures but also to reflect critically on the shape and consequences of contemporary modes of relations of power.
References
Aldiss, Brian (2015): “John Wyndham,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://www.oxforddnb.com (accessed 01/05/20).
Aldiss, Brian (1973): Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Anon (2020): “John Wyndham,” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, http://www. sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wyndham_john (accessed 01/05/20).
Attebery, Brian (2002): Decoding Gender in Science Fiction, Abingdon: Routledge.
Attridge, Derek (2004): The Singularity of Literature, Abingdon: Routledge.
Atwood, Margaret (2011): In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination, London: Virago.
Baccolini, Raffaella & Tom Moylan (2003): Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination, New York: Routledge.
Ballard J. G. (1962): “Which Way to Inner Space?” New Worlds, 118: 2-3, 116-18.
Boudiny Kim (2013) “Active Ageing: From Empty Rhetoric to Efficient Policy Tool,” Ageing and Society, 6:1077–1098.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984): Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Calasanti, Toni. M. (2020): “Brown Slime, the Silver Tsunami, and Apocalyptic Demography: The Importance of Ageism and Age Relations,” Social Currents, 7: 3, 195-211.
Carney, Gemma. M (2018): “Towards a Gendered Politics of Ageing,” Journal of Women and Ageing, 30: 3, 242-258.
Coleman, Rebecca (2017): “A Sensory Sociology of the Future: Affect, Hope and Inventive Methodologies,” The Sociological Review, 65: 3, 525–543.
David Coleman, Stuart Basten & Francesco C. Billari (2015): “Population—The Long View,” Population Studies, 69, sup1: S1-S9.
Coupland, Justine (2009): “Time, the Body and the Reversibility of Ageing: Commodifying the Decade,” Ageing & Society, 29: 953–976.
Crawford, Robert (1980): “Healthism and the Medicalization of Everyday Life,” International Journal of Health Services, 10: 3, 365–388.
Delgado, Ana, Kjetil Rommetveit, Miquel Barcelo, & Louis Lemkow (2012): “Imagining High-Tech Bodies: Science Fiction and the Ethics of Enhancement,” Science Communication, 34: 2, 200-240.
Domingo, Andreu (2008): “Demodystopias: Prospects of Demographic Hell,” Population and Development Review, 34: 4, 725-45.
Edelman, Lee (2004): No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Edström, Maria (2018): “Visibility Patterns of Gendered Ageism in the Media Buzz: A Study of the Representation of Gender and Age over Three Decades,” Feminist Media Studies, 18: 1, 77-93.
Ellison, Kirsten (2020): “Upgraded to Obsolescence: Age Intervention in the Era of Biohacking,” Engaging Science, Technology and Society, 6: 39-44.
Evans, Robert G., Kimberlyn. M. McGrail, Steven. G. Morgan, Morris. L Barer & Clyde Hertzman (2010) “Apocalypse No: Population Aging and the Future of Health Care Systems,” Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement, 20 (S1), 160-191.
Erlich, Paul (1968): The Population Bomb, Cutchogue, N. Y.: Buccaneer Books.
European Commission (2018): “The 2018 Ageing Report: Economic & Budgetary Projections for the 28 EU Member States (2016-2070),” Institutional Paper 079, May, https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/ip079_en.pdf (accessed 15/02/21)
Gee, Ellen (2002): “Misconceptions and Misapprehensions about Population Ageing,” International Journal of Epidemiology, 31: 750-753
Genette, Gerard (1980) Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, trans. Jane E. Lewin, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Gilbert, Sophie (2017) “The Swedish Novel That Imagines a Dystopia for the Childless,” The Atlantic 25 July https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/ archive/2017/07/the-unit-review-ninni-holmqvist/534651/(accessed 22/07/20)
Godhe, Michael & Luke Goode (2018): “Critical Future Studies: A Thematic Introduction,” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 10: 2, 151-162.
Goode, Luke & Michael Godhe (2017): “Beyond Capitalist Realism – Why We Need Critical Future Studies,” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 9:1, 108-129.
Gullette, Margaret Morganroth (2011): Agewise: Fighting the New Agism in America, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hanson, Clare & Susan Watkins (2017): The History of British Women’s Writing Vol IX: 1945-1975, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harper, Sarah (2018): Demography: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holmqvist, Ninni (2006; 2010): The Unit, trans. Marlaine Delargy, London: Oneworld.
Horne, Alastair (2004): “John Wyndham,” Proquest Biographies, https://searchproquest-com (accessed 01/05/20).
Ishiguro, Kazuo (2005): Never Let Me Go, London: Faber and Faber.
Iversen, Sara Mosberg & Monika Wili?ska, (2020): “Ageing, Old Age and Media: Critical Appraisal of Knowledge Practices in Academic Research”, International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 14: 1, 1-29.
Katz, Stephen (2005): Cultural Aging: Life Course, Lifestyle and Senior Worlds. Peterborough: Broadview Press.
Lafontaine, Céline (2009): “Regenerative Medicine’s Immortal Body: From the Fight against Ageing to the Extension of Longevity,” Body and Society, 15: 4, 53- 71.
Lezard, Nicholas (2008): “Apocalypse Then,” Guardian, 23 August 2009: https:// www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/23/fiction (accessed 01/05/20)
Liberini, Federica, Andrew J. Oswald, Eugenio Proto & Michela Redoano (2017): “Was Brexit Caused by the Unhappy and the Old?”, IZA Discussion Papers, No. 11059, Bonn: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
Link, Miles (2015): ““A Very Primitive Matter’: John Wyndham on Catastrophe and Survival,” The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, 14, 63-80.
Liorsi, Benedetta (2019): “The Ante-Tempus Novel: Prevention and Patienthood in Recent Speculative Fiction,” Textual Practice, 33: 6, 983-1003.
Luckhurst, Roger (2005): Science Fiction, London: Polity Press.
Lundgren. Anna Sofia & Karin Ljuslinder (2011): “ ‘The baby-boom is over and the ageing shock awaits’: Populist Media Imagery in News-Press Representations of Population Ageing,” International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 6: 2, 39-71.
Macia, Enguerran, Dominique Chevé & Joann M. Montepare (2019): “Demographic Ageing and Biopower,” Journal of Ageing Studies 51, 100820.
Mangum. Teresa (2002): “Longing for Life Extension: Science-Fiction and Later Life,” Journal of Ageing and Identity, 7: 69-82.
Marshall, Barbara L. (2018): “Happily Ever After? ‘Successful Ageing’ and the Heterosexual Imaginary”, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 21: 3, 363–381.
Marmot, Michael (2020): “Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On,” The British Medical Journal, 368: m693.
Miller, T. S. (2012): “Lives of the Monster Plants: The Revenge of the Vegetable in the Age of Animal Studies,” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 23: 3, 460-479. “Ninni Holmqvist”, http://www.nordinagency.se/clients/fiction/ninni-holmqvist/ (accessed 01/05/20)
Nelson, Todd, D (2005): “Ageism: Prejudice Against our Feared Future Self,” Journal of Social Issues, 61:2, 207-221.
Parcei, Natasha (2019): “The Representation of Older Women in Twenty-first Century Horror: An Analysis of Characters Played by Jessica Lange in American Horror Story,” Steven Gerrard, Samantha Holland & Robert Shail (eds.) Gender and Contemporary Horror in Television, Bingley: Emerald Publishing, 47-57.
Petersen, Alan (2018): “Capitalising on Ageing Anxieties: Promissory Discourse and the Creation of an ‘Anti-Ageing Treatment’ Market,” Journal of Sociology, 54: 2, 191–202.
Pfaller, Larissa & Mark Schwed (2019): “Excluded from the Good Life? An Ethical Approach to Conceptions of Active Ageing,” Social Inclusion, 7:3, 44-53.
Pickard, Susan (2014): “Biology as Destiny? Rethinking Embodiment in ‘Deep’ Old Age,” Ageing and Society, 34, 1279-1291.
Pickard, Susan (2019): “Age War as the New Class War? Contemporary Representations of Intergenerational Inequity,” Journal of Social Policy, 48:2, 369-386
Raisborough, Jayne, Marian Barnes, Flis Henwood & Lizzie Ward (2014): “Stretching Middle Age: the Lessons and Labours of Active Aging in the Makeover Show,” Media, Culture & Society, 36:8, 1069-1083.
Roberts, Adam (2000): Science Fiction, London: Routledge.
Samuelson, David M. (2009): “Hard SF”, The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction, Abingdon: Routledge. https://search-proquest-com (accessed 01/05/20)
Schulz, Markus S. (2015): “Future Moves: Forward-Oriented Studies of Culture, Society, and Technology,” Current Sociology, 63:2, 129-139.
Segal, Lynne (2013): Out of Time. London: Verso.
Slusser, George, Gary Westfahl, & Eric S, Rabkin (1996): Immortal Engines: Life Extension in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Athens: G.A.: The University of Georgia Press.
Smallwood, Steve (2019): “Why Demography Matters; Demography: A Very Short Introduction,” Population Studies, 73: 2, 291-294.
Teitelbaum. Michael. S (2015): “Political Demography: Powerful Trends Under-Attended by Demographic Science,” Population Studies, 69: sup1, S87-S93.
Traies, Jane (2016): The Lives of Older Lesbians: Sexuality, Identity and the Life Course. London: Palgrave.
Twigg, Julia & Wendy Martin (2015): “The Challenge of Cultural Gerontology,” The Gerontologist, 55: 3, 353–359.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019): “World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights (ST/ESA/ SERA/423),” New York, https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/ WPP2019_10KeyFindings.pdf (accessed 15/2/21).
Wälivaara, Josefine (2018): “Marginalized Bodies of Imagined Futurescapes: Ableism and Heteronormativity in Science Fiction,” Culture Unbound, 10: 2, 226–245.
Wasson, Sara (2015): “Scalpel and Metaphor: The Ceremony of Organ Harvest in Gothic Science Fiction,” Gothic Studies, 17: 1, 104-123.
Watkins Susan (2020): Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Westwood, Sue (ed.) (2019): Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social Justice Perspectives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Woodward, Kathleen (2019): “Afterword: Literary Antidotes to the Toxin that is Ageism,” Studies in American Fiction, 46: 2, 373–381.
World Health Organisation (2018): “Ageing and Health: Fact Sheet,” 5th February, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health (accessed 13/9/19).
Wyndham, John (1960; 2008): Trouble with Lichen, London: Penguin.
Wyndham, John (1951; 2008): The Day of the Triffids. London: Penguin.
Yeates, Robert (2016): “Gender and Ethnicity in Post-Apocalyptic Suburbia,” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 27: 3, 411-434.
Ylänne Virpi (ed.) (2012): Representing Ageing: Images and Identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Jayne Raisborough, Watkins Susan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
