ABSTRACT

‘Active Ageing’ is a dominant discourse in the promotion of active lifestyles for older adults. Its emphasis upon adoption of a positive mind-set and ‘good’ lifestyle choices has resulted in active ageing policies becoming associated with ‘neoliberal’ tendencies. Conversely, we suggest the tendency to equate active ageing policy with a totalising concept of ‘neoliberalism’ can obscure interpretational nuance. We conducted Foucauldian Discourse Analysis upon 31 policy documents outlining provision of active ageing services in Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark, traditionally a communitarian policy environment. Both textual and visual data were analysed. Focus was made upon the construction of active ageing as an object of policy, and subsequent discursive constructions of the active ageing subject. The application of ‘active ageing’ created several contradictions in this policy environment. Services were promoted as ‘open to all,’ yet Municipal support was discursively constructed as an imperative of care for the most needful. Personal choice was promoted, yet meaningfulness and freedom was situated in the community, and shared-ownership, active citizenship and voluntarism were emphasised. The older subject was discursively constructed as an ethical, responsible, self-sufficient and active citizen who was both a producer and consumer of active ageing programmes. Such subjects were imagined to inhabit localised communities of primarily white, slim, non-disabled, visibly happy and healthy over-65 year olds. Hence, whilst empowerment and programme flexibility were promoted, the conceptualisation of a homogenous ‘elderly’ community appeared less conducive to respect for diversity, promoting cross-generational cooperation and maximising the ‘preventative’ potential of active ageing programmes.

摘要

“积极老龄化”是促进老年人积极生活方式的主要论述。它强调采用积极的心态和“良好”的生活方式选择，导致积极的老龄化政策与“神经质”倾向相关联。相反，我们建议将积极的老龄化政策等同于“新自由主义”概念的趋势会掩盖解释上的细微差别。我们对31份政策文件进行了Foucauldian话语分析，这些文件概述了在丹麦哥本哈根市（传统上是社群主义政策环境）中提供积极的养老服务的情况。文本和视觉数据都进行了分析。重点讨论了将主动衰老作为政策的目标，以及随后对主动衰老主体的话语建构。在这种政策环境中，“主动老龄化”的应用产生了一些矛盾。服务被宣传为“向所有人开放”，但是，市政支持被谨慎地构建为最需要帮助的人的关怀。个人选择得到了促进，但社区中存在着意义和自由，强调了共有制，积极公民权和自愿主义。年龄较大的受试者被认为是一个道德，负责，自给自足，积极进取的公民，既是积极衰老计划的生产者又是消费者。可以想象这样的对象居住在以白人，苗条，无障碍，明显快乐和健康的65岁以上的白人为主的本地化社区中。因此，在促进授权和计划灵活性的同时，