SOCY 344 Lecture 8: W5a Inequality Based on Age
8 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Population trends: the senior population (aged 65+) has been increasing steadily over the past 40 years. (statscan 2012. Canada year book 2012: from 1971 to 2011, the proportion of seniors in the population grew from 8% to. 14%: the proportion of seniors will rise to 25% of the population by 2050. Ageing was a decline but not a pathology. Integral to life, not a distinct stage within it. Imbued with spiritual meaning, status: modern thought: Ageing as disorder, disability, passage to death. Senescence = the biological aging of an organism as it lives beyond its maturity, usually accompanied by organic changes. Ageism and age-based myths: myth 1: seniors tend to be incapacitated physically and mentally. Reporting of good health declines with age, but half of those with a university degrees report very good health (kendall, p. 93). Dementia and disability are not an inevitable part of ageing: myth 2: seniors have little to contribute to society.
