Epilogue: The socio-political framing of aging and communication research

Author(s): Coupland, N.

Journal/Book: J Appl Commun Res. 1998; 26: 5105 Backlick Rd, Annandale, VA 22003. Speech Communication Assn. 139-154.

Abstract: This paper reflects on how the new wave of communication and aging research is constituted, theoretically and methodologically. We argue that a reflexive critique is now needed, particularly in order to focus current and future research initiatives as part of an applied research program. Current studies, including those in this special issue, are structured around a small number of core concepts, including: age-defined social groups; communication adequacy/inadequacy; and normal versus abnormal aging. Theory and research designs in communication and aging regularly invoke these concepts, in various configurations, but often uncritically. We question whether any one of the three concepts, as the literature employs them, is robust enough to anchor an applied research program. We also suggest that dominant paradigms, focusing on intergroup conflict, under-emphasize other social dimensions and processes, The paper's main contribution is to suggest that communication and aging research needs to sustain a metatheoretical debate, to assess where our research questions and core concepts derive from, and where our research stands in relation to broader social priorities, tensions and inequalities to do with aging and later life. Current research enacts an anti-agist ideology, but agism itself is another under-theorized concept. Also, we tend not to have explicit strategies to help our research impact on socio-economic policies and everyday practices.

Note: Article Williams A, Univ Wales Coll Cardiff, Sch English Commun & Philosophy, Ctr Language & Commun Res, Cardiff CF1 3XB, S Glam, WALES

Keyword(s): ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE; ADULTS; MODEL

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