Geographies of Subjective Age - Constructions of Age and Identity in European, Swedish and Rural Contexts

Jenny Olofsson , Umeå University
Anna Sofia Lundgren, Umeå University

This project aims to study constructions of subjective age (SA) and how it unfolds on different geographic contexts: European, Swedish and rural. Adding a spatial perspective to the study of SA, we explore SA as an entrance to new knowledge about the impact and extent of spatial rural/urban inequalities regarding identity formation, health and functionality. The aim is to explore constructions of subjective age as they unfold in relation to geographic space in European, Swedish and rural contexts. The project is based on interview and survey data: in-depth interviews with people living in the hinterlands of Northern Sweden; a project-tailored survey in order to explore how subjective age relations are constructed in and through space in Sweden; and SHARE data to explore how subjective age unfolds on national levels in Europe. The project contributes both to the theory development on SA and to new empirical knowledge about how geographic imageries and geographic locales present challenges and opportunities to SA processes and their related outcomes. By extension, the results resonate with contemporary discussions about rural/urban divides and welfare state legitimacy as people identify with subjective age while policy recommendations and lifestyle expectations to date largely build on chronological age.

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 Presented in Session P6. Health, Mortality, and Ageing 2