Exclusion Of Older People

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The social construction of age in regards to self and other has influenced the geographies of inclusion and exclusion. People are othered based on their differences in what is perceived to be appropriate in society. In society the middle-aged people are not discriminated against to a large extent compared to the young and older people since they are considered to be the suitable individuals in society. Society has seen young people being othered due to their behaviour and maturity. Similarly, in society, older people are viewed differently compared to the young and middle-aged individuals because of their need to depend on other people.
Society has seen the young and the older people being ‘othered’ and excluded compared to the middle-aged …show more content…

The exclusion of older people appears to run parallel alongside the exclusion of young people in society (Holloway, 2005). Throughout the world, views on older people differ over space and time. An article by Blaikie, 1999 describes how before modern societies older people were given respect but after the establishment of modern societies older people were not given as much respect. For example, in Africa, older individuals are given vast amount of respect due to the amount of wisdom they hold as they have lived a longer life than the younger and middle-aged individuals (Pain, 2001). Compared to western societies, older people are viewed negatively as old age is associated with problems such as the high dependency on others, finance, and health problems (Pain, 2001). Older people become dependent on others as they become physically less capable to look after themselves such as the need to be place in a retirement home but also many do not work for a living after retirement and therefore need money to survive off. Older people can access money through pensions which is given by the state, however as the number of individual classified as ‘old’ increase, conflict can arise between age groups as a result (Pain, 2001). Older people are often othered and excluded throughout the western societies where it is associated to a negative aspect, however this is not always true in some societies where older people are associated to a positive

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