The Sociology of the Life Course

5- Mature adulthood and the demographic transition

Accompaniment to the superb Giddens and Sutton (2013) (left) Chapter 9, with an assortment of additional accompanying resources and activities

Contents

5 The sociology of mature adulthood and the demographic transition

Also in the series…1 How do people age? 2 The sociology of childhood3 The sociology of youth and adolescence4 The sociology of young adulthood and the demographic

transition6 The sociology of later life

The life stages in socio-historical perspective:

3- Mature adulthood and the demographic transition

see Giddens and Sutton 2013:352

“Mature adulthood” covers from around 40 to 60

By this stage, most people

have been ‘settled down’ for some time,

with dependant children and a

long-term

partner

Activity:

Do you know any over-50s who have never “settled down”? How do they seem to feel about this?

Despite the increased

‘liberation’ of young

adulthood from traditions

regarding settling down…

…by 40, most

of those who haven’t done

so generally worry about it

greatly

Activity:

If one is worried about being childless at 55, do you think this is biologically driven, or socially constructed?

However, despite the eternal social

norm of –eventually- settling down…

…the experience of

mature adulthood in late modernity differs from

that in previous eras in many ways

Activities:

(i) What is late modernity? (Review)

(ii) How might mature adulthood in late modernity be more diverse than in previous eras?

In pre-modern times and

spaces, reaching what we now know as “mature adulthood” (around

40) could not be as taken for granted as it is in late-modern (i.e. “developed”)

societies…

Activity:

Why was survival to the 21st century’s “mature adulthood” rarer in pre modernity? Is it that we are evolving as a species in Darwinian terms? Give reasons for your answer.

…and for this reason, the

experience and

meaning of being e.g. 50 years of age is very different today

Activity:

Do you already have any ideas as to how the experience and meaning of being 50 for the late-modern individual might be different to that of pre-modernity?

In pre-modern settings,

Activity:

Use GapMinder world to view the relationship between life expectancy and development

Those in what we would today call

“mature adulthood” would be

much nearer the end of their lives, as

life expectancy was much lower than today.

They would almost always be

grandparents already; whereas many today are still

childless!

…and women in

particular were at risk because of the high rates of

mortality in childbirth.”

Giddens and Sutton (2013:352)

Activity:

Do you agree that it is ironic that, historically and today, fertility rates fall at around the point when it becomes far less dangerous?

Being 50 in pre- and even

early-modern times meant you

were ‘one of the lucky ones’- death

rates for all age groups were far

higher than today…

Today, people between 40 and 55 are

loosely regarded as “middle-aged”, and even 60-year-olds can look forward to a few more

healthy decades to come Activity:

Do you recognise either of these two gentlemen (below right)? What is the connection between them?

Knowledge of how to lead a

healthy lifestyle…

Late-modern medicine and

healthcare…

…and plastic surgery…

…all help many of today’s

developed-world

over-60s feel –and look- a lot

healthier; and live a lot

longer than even just a few decades ago

However, as our health and

longevity improves, other, more

complex “strains” upon the

individual take their place…

Activities:

(i) What do we mean by a “strain on the individual”?

(ii) Can you guess any examples of what they might be, for today’s mature adults?

Late modernity brings uncertainty,

flux and entirely new types of risks –

not only for our global society but also the

individualActivities:

(i) What is “empty nest syndrome”?

(ii) What (related) common phenomenon do the two pictures on the left represent?

“…today, there are major uncertainties in work,

personal relationships and

marriage, family life, and many other contexts….

…individuals increasingly have to

‘make’ their own lives, much more so than in the past”.

Giddens and Sutton (2013)

Arranged marriages are

now extremely rare in

the developed world, and

divorce is now

socially acceptable.

Today, many mature adults have children, parents, siblings and

friends

dispersed around

the world

…in late modernity, the more affluent one’s

society, the less

permanent and stable

his or her career, family life, and

geographical location

And whilst this does liberate the individual from

traditional constraints….

Activity:

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/05/good-old-days/

Have a look at the review of this book. What problems does it mention concerning mature adults?

“While

individual choice can be experienced as the

freedom to decide…

…the responsibility to

have to choose imposes

its own pressures.”

Activity:

In your everyday life, do you ever experience the insecurity of an obligation to choose between too many options?

In other words, mature adults can

no longer be

guaranteed stable

careers, or a

family…

Activity:

Today, more mature adults work in the service industry than “traditional” heavy industry jobs. These are often much less secure; and for many, less meaningful. What can be the consequences of this for the experience of mature adulthood?

…and often feel torn between being

“young” and

“old”.

Careers reach

dead-ends, and many come to realize that they will

never fulfill their

lifelong dreams

Activity:

By what age would you like to have found your “dream job”, or job that will most define your career? How would you feel if you had never quite found this by age 60?

“Yet growing older need not lead to bleak despair, and , for some, a release from childhood dreams can actually be

liberating”

Activity:

Create two fictional characters:

(i) A 55-year old suffering from a ‘mid-life crisis’.

(ii) A 57-year-old experiencing liberation in mature adulthood

…whereby those on the older side of “middle aged” (i.e. around 50) become

more consumerist,

and even more obsessed with looking “youthful” than those in previous times and spaces.

Featherstone (1989): we have now a

“new middle age” in

adulthood…

Activity:

Review how the experience of being middle aged is more varied in late-modernity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsR7L5nnmFYBBC interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMAwnA5WvLc TED talk

The SENS Foundation are a scientific organization dedicated to eliminating the “medical condition” of ageing and death in old age; in other words, they are spending millions of dollars researching super-longevity i.e. hoping to make people live much, much longer. The implication is that we can all be prevented from being “old and frail” at 80 or 100 but rather fit and able to work and play a full, active role in human society; living for hundreds of years through the constant replacement of “worn out parts”- like a car might.

Their “chief science officer and co-founder” is Aubrey DeGrey (pictured). On this 19-minute TED talk and 20-minute BBC HardTalk interview with Steven Sakur, DeGrey makes the case for eliminating ageing and increasing human longevity significantly.

Would you like to live for 200 years or more?

Extension activity:

 1) Would you like to live to 200? 500? 1000? 2) What would it mean to demographics in the 21st and 22nd century, at a time of (i) “over-population” and (ii) longer-term ageing populations and eventual population decline?  3) At around 16 minutes, the interviewer asserts that the general public will have two main worries about the society this technology implies; a lack of (i) R _________ es and (ii) J__s 4) How does DeGrey respond to the above concerns?  5) An interesting part of the BBC interview is when the interviewer asks DeGrey “Do you have children yourself?”, to which DeGrey replies “No”. Many viewers on the YouTube comments thread highlight this. (i) Does his reply surprise you? Why/why not? (ii) What accusation do you think people will make based on this?  6) What demographic problems would “people living to 300” potentially solve? 7) What problems might it cause? 8) Will everybody be able to afford such treatment? If not, what might the implications be for global society?

Extension Activity: The SENS Foundation

Watch the BBC HardTalk interview with Aubrey DeGrey