Cultural gerontology

As an interdisciplinary field cultural gerontology weaves connections across the humanities and social sciences. Its theories, methods and analyses challenge stereotypes and medical or chronological accounts of ageing through the study of discourses, practices and experiences in everyday life, art and consumption. In this chapter we distinguish cultural gerontology from the neighbouring disciplines humanistic- and critical gerontology and we map the contours of cultural gerontology in three key theoretical ‘moments’ in its development: 1. The turn to culture: deconstructing the cultural meanings attributed to ‘age’ and ‘ageing’ 2. New materialism: Decentring the human and 3. New directions in cultural gerontology. These three moments draw the contours of cultural gerontology as a vibrant and still expanding field continuously creating new insights and rich accounts of how societal norms, values and practices relate to the life conditions of society’s older individuals.