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Discourse, identity and change in mid-to-late life: interdisciplinary perspectives on language and ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2009

JUSTINE COUPLAND
JUSTINE COUPLAND*
Affiliation:
Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Justine Coupland, Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Drive, CardiffCF10 3EU, UK. E-mail: CouplandJ@cf.ac.uk
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Abstract

The papers in this special issue contribute to the growing body of research on sociolinguistic and discursive interpretations of mid and later life by investigating some of the identity affordances and constraints associated with ‘being middle-aged’ or ‘being old’. The papers here offer qualitative, contextually based analyses of a broad range of data and use various methodological and theoretical perspectives: narrative theory, critical pragmatics, social theory and discursive psychology. The main focus is on the ways in which change impacts on the ageing individual, and how this change is discursively interpreted and negotiated both by and for or about individuals in diverse social frames. We examine age and change as they interact with personal and social identity in personal diary accounts, in print, on the television and web media, in conversations amongst friends and acquaintances, in interviews and during storytelling. Language and communication are examined as resources for making and interpreting the meanings of ageing, at both the macro (societal) and micro (individual and inter-personal) levels.

Keywords

meanings of ageingqualitative approachestalktextchangeidentity
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 29 , Issue 6: Discourse, identity and change in mid-to-late life: inter-disciplinary perspectives on language and ageing , August 2009 , pp. 849 - 861
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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