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geography and history to find mutual grounds for conversation. Age implies a life history. Their older subjects communicated with great precision not only details of their lives, but also exchanged common beliefs about the value of money, the state of transport, and matters which served to validate the authen- ticity of their common experience as older people. Interview research by Kaufman with older people confirms how continuity in a life does not arise spontaneously.12 As with other aspects of social life, it must be achieved. Individuals must actively seek continuity as they conduct their daily lives and interpret the circumstances of their everyday existence in a way that produces a sense of continued personal identity. Kaufman s research subjects demonstrate the active search for continuity as they apply, adapt and reformulate existing themes to new contexts so that a familiar and unified sense of self emerges and is sustained on a daily basis. She suggests that this may well be true of elderly groups in general. Claims made by groups to an authentic identity are derived from common experience. Pronouncements are frequently made in the form of we are a real group, and you would know this had you had the same experiences as us or you don t know what it is really like unless you are a XX . You can substitute almost any identity from female to Welsh or teenager into the category. These claims to authentic experience are also claims for indepen- dence or autonomy by the group. They justify why others should consumerism, identity and old age 121 not legislate for them. Those who do not share the same experi- ences, it is claimed, cannot therefore understand fully or represent the group. Cohort experience, common, lived-through history, can provide authentication of identity. A generation can make a claim to be a group, and a claim to recognition and autonomy by reference to the particular lived common experiences of that generation. Old age embeds historical and biographic identities unavailable to other parts of the life course. This foregoing analysis of the relationship between age, time and identity may be used as a basis for developing a critique of simplistic accounts of consumption and identity. Distinctive cohorts generations have different lifestyles. These differences are not very convincingly explained by fickle consumer choice. They might in general be explained by a growth in consumer capitalism, but as specific cultural phenomena the differences are rather embedded in the past experiences and opportunities of the members of different generations. CONSUMPTION AND IDENTITY Consumption is the definitive cultural activity of postmodern society. In post-industrial society the processes leading to cultural fragmentation have made identity and culture into commodities. Things are bought not because of their use value how efficient or fit for purpose they are but for their sign value what they indicate about the owner. Increasingly what marks individuals out is the way they consume rather than any intrinsic quality they may be ascribed with. However, I would disagree with Gilleard and Higgs that this applies as much to age and ageing as it does to any other socialised attribute.13 In their eyes ageing has become a much more reflexive project; one involving conscious choice between alternatives available to purchase. However, old age has some special characteristics which mean that it is less susceptible to the ephemera of postmodern consumer identities than Gilleard and Higgs would have us believe. 122 consumerism, identity and old age The irony is that culturally dominant consumer capital- ism, with unprecedented technical ability to reproduce and communicate images and messages, portrays youth as a central value and image, yet demographically most people experiencing these newly diverse consumer opportunities are over age 50. The people exploring postmodern society through new roles and creating new lifestyles are (in the large part) those experi- encing old age in an unprecedented form. Much of the emphasis on identity performance centres on consumption of clothes, styles, bodies and music. Home is also a major site of cultural performance and identity creation. Older people s homes can illustrate these issues of consumption and identity. There may be a few older people having their homes remodelled by interior designers in a complete make-over. Most older people s homes express the continuity of their lives. They are full of furniture and nick-nacks accumulated over a lifetime. There are pictures of family, children and grandchildren. If older people have to move into residential care, they are encouraged to take personal items with which to symbolically re-create their home, and thus help avoid the loss of individual identity associated with institutionalisation. The image of the consumer is the image of an individual; it represents a social isolate meeting with other social isolates within the hypothetical social relationship of the free market. In reality people are not social isolates; they have a culture and a social history and interact in a variety of institutions through which they obtain the things they consume. To use Warde s words, people belong to groups that have a collective history of consumption and, thus, do not enter the department store naked. 14 Warde makes this point as part of a convincing demonstration that stylistic ephemera are a weak basis for membership or solidarity. Many ethnographies and studies of urban life have identified the complex processes that lie beneath group formation. Identification with the group involves more than acquiring a visual style through purchases. Warde suggests that consumerism, identity and old age 123 specialized language, affirmation of authenticity through talk and interaction, nonchalant familiarity with a practical culture and shared judgement serve to distinguish members from pretenders.15 Although consumption is clearly highly significant for identity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |