Managing Old Age: The Disciplinary Web of Power, Surveillance and Normalization

Health & welfare have emerged as key vehicles used to legitimize & position the identities that older people adopt in contemporary Western societies. Both health & welfare contain specific yet continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people & the state. Medico-technical & care management discourses have been presented as adding choice & reducing limitations associated with adult aging. However, they also represent an increase in professional control that can be exerted on lifestyles in older age & thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of the life course. Here, a theoretical analysis based on a critical reading of the work of Michel Foucault is presented of the development & consolidation of managerial power in the UK. The interrelationship between managers & older people is discussed in terms of power, surveillance, & normalization, highlighting how & why older people remain the subjects of legitimizing professional gazes. 37 References. Adapted from the source document.