ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, research at the intersection of the ageing body and human movement has been slowly shifting from an almost exclusive focus on the health benefits of physical activity in older age (Chodzko-Zajko et al., 2009), to encompass the diverse and situated positions of older adults within a physical culture. Debates and discussions surrounding the intersection of ageing and physicality are taking place across a range of disciplines including social gerontology, sociology of sport, geography and health sciences to name but a few and subsequently incorporates a divergent range of approaches, theoretical positions and methodologies. This work illuminates how the ageing body is a key site for encountering, shaping and displaying the social and cultural context of physicality. It also highlights how individuals’ experiences of physicality can be diverse, shaped by a variety of socio-economic factors and lifestyle choices that cannot be separated from the wider context and culture within which they take place (Gullette, 2004). In this chapter I provide an overview of how, from a sociocultural perspective, the ageing body is currently understood. I then draw attention to three specific strands of research within this domain, which I believe have much to offer physical cultural studies. Finally, I discuss how a focus on the ageing body can continue to contribute towards physical cultural studies as a fluid sensibility between critical scholarship on (in)active embodiment and power relations.
