Continuing to Get Out of Line: Reflections on Ageing Activism and Moral Agency. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barnes, Marian
• Is Part Of: Ethics & social welfare. Volume 12:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 204
• Page End: 215
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Ethics of responsibility -- ethics of care -- Margaret Urban Walker -- activism -- remembrance; Social service -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; Public welfare -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; 361.3
• DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2018.1505927
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-6535

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Margaret Urban Walker's essay 'Getting out of line' questions gendered assumptions about moral agency in old age and its assumed links to the concept of a 'career self.' In this article I develop and apply her critique to consider what forms ageing activism might take. This focuses on recognising and remembering the value of connections with people and with struggles that may both pre-date and outlive the individual. I suggest that we need to think of remembering as future as well as past oriented and as political as well as personal. In developing my argument I draw from experience of working with old people in initiatives focussed on achieving change in health and social care services, on accounts of feminist activists of different generations and on personal reflections of contacts that embody both awareness of different vulnerabilities and of shared struggles for change.