Aged experience – A cultural developmental investigation

The social representation of elder people is one of decline and loss. This is supported by psychological research that works on the level of functions. In this paper, the theoretical lens of functions is replaced with a cultural developmental lens. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Cultural Life Course, the paper sets out to explore aged life as it is experienced and made by elder persons, who all join the community of Danish Grandparents. In the analysis I include the characterization made of and by the community: “We speak with an authority borne of age, experience and long perspective”, as this articulates a contrasting point of view of aged living, voiced from within. The analysis of six life-courses will in this paper be presented through one life course, exemplifying the phenomenon under investigation. When looking through the lens of Cultural Life Course theory, the object formerly characterized as decay and loss reappears as a developmental phenomenon on both personal and collective cultural levels.