Sociological Forum, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1998 Act Your Age! Chery! Laz? With the aim of contributing to a sociology of age, this essay develops a frame- work for understanding age as accomplished ie. as something that is both The common ex- Pression “act your age " provides the useful metaphor of Performance. He age more general nour actions and ineracons our beliefs and words and feelings, our social policies. This exsay fers So. pehiies to the oncareiae et age is accomplished. The ae involves drawing Gxe and the study of gender. The second route uses existing scholarship, which recognizes that age is far more social than chronological. I draw on work in the social constructionist, symbolic interactionist, and life course traditions to develop the framework of age-as-accomplished and to show its potential to Organize much of what we already have learned about age and aging. KEY WORDS: age; aging; gender; symbolic interaction; performance. INTRODUCTION ‘TD laypersons (and to many sociologists in their unguarded moments) it seems almost absurd to think about age as anything but a chronological fact and as something every individual simply is. Like race and gender, for most people most of the time, age is unproblematic. When asked “How old are you?” we offer the number of years since our birth. When someone directs us to act our age, we know what age is (the number of years since our birth), usually know what is being demanded of us, and often are pre- pared to account for our “misbehavior.” We assume that as people get older, they will fulfill different roles in a predictable sequence. When the 1An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the American Sociological Association meeting August 1996. Department of Sociology, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine 04104-9300.86 Laz sequence or the timing is altered, we linguistically mark the discrepancy (teenage mothers, nontraditional students), and we want an explanation, an account, for being “off time.” As with race and gender, the apparently objective and factual nature. of age make it ideal for sociological inquiry. Sociologists now understand race as a social construction rather than a biological “fact.” Race is defined by and constituted within social groups (How much “blood” makes one black or Native American?), and it is accomplished by individuals (What does it mean to “pass” as one race and not another?). Moreover, a socio- logical understanding of race has led us to appreciate more fully the rela- tions of power and the pervasive normative ideas that create and sustain the supposedly biological “fact” of race. Similarly, sociologists understand gender as a social construction and individual accomplishment. Gender is defined and constituted within social groups (What does masculinity entail for a heterosexual steelworker? a gay bank manager?), and it is accomplished by individuals in interaction (How does a woman in a male-dominated job “act” feminine?). Further, norma- tive cultural ideas traditionally have equated gender with women. We view the dominant group, in this case men, as if its members had no gender. There is much to suggest that age, like race and gender, is anything but natural and involves much more than the number of years since one’s birth. “Act your age. You’re a big kid now,” we say to children to encourage independence (or obedience). “Act your age. Stop being so childish,” we say to other adults when we think they are being irresponsible. “Act your age; you're not as young as you used to be,” we say to an old person pur- suing “youthful” activities. The sanctioned actions vary, but the command “Act!” remains the same. When we say “act your age” we press for behavior that_conforms to_norms. However, the saying also expresses_a_common- sense_understanding that_age is not_natural or fixed, and it implies that age_requires work, i.c., physical or mental effort, As such, the saying en- capsulates a fundamentally sociological view of age and provides us with the useful metaphor of performance. Age is an act, a performance in the Sense_of something requiring activity and labor, and age is normative, Whether we do it well or poorly, according to the dominant rules or not, our accomplishment of age—indeed age itself—is always collective and so- cial. However, age is not simply shaped by social forces; it is constituted in interaction and gains its meaning in interaction and in the context of larger social forces. We all perform or enact age: we perform our own age con- _Stantly, but we also give meaning to other ages and to age in general in our actions and interactions, our beliefs and words and feelings, our social policies,‘Act Your Age 87 This essay develops a framework with which to understand age as ac- complished. “Accomplish,” and the closely related “perform,” can refer to ongoing actions as well as to actions finished or carried through to com- pletion. In this essay, I emphasize accomplishment not as the full or final_ et : i ; Oa -Social_and public, (Although it also may be private, the accomplishment of age is never only private.)? Accomplishing age involves often routine, some- times impressive, but always ongoing, recurring work. The framework of age-as-accomplished is grounded in sociological theories of symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969), ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967; Heritage, 1984; West and Zimmerman, 1987), social phe- nomenology (Schutz, 1970), and the more recent social constructionism (Lorber, 1994; Gubrium ef al., 1994). Following Blumer (1969:2), three Premises are central: 1. Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. 2. The meaning of such things—objects, people, categories of persons, institutions, activities—is derived from, or arises out of, social in- teraction. 3, Those meanings are handled in, and modified through, an inter- pretive process used by the person in dealing with the things he or she encounters. Symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and phenomenology are espe- Cially useful for their emphasis on agency and creativity. More recent social constructionist work (West and Zimmerman, 1987; Lorber, 1994) expands this by examining how the taken-for-granted concepts of symbolic interac- tionism (self, role) are themselves cause and consequence of interactional Practice. In addition, more recent work attends more carefully to the dy- namics of power and privilege and the social structural context within which meaning making, interpretation, and action occur. The idea of age-as-accomplished also depends on recent work on the life course and life course transitions (Kohli, 1986; Mayer and Miller, 1986; framework I develop here seeks t to integrate two emphases in life course scholarship. One line of research, represented by Mayer and Miiller (1986) and Guillemard (1996), examines how the life course has been shaped by macro historical and societal forces (rationalization, the state, This use of accomplishment resembles R. W. Connell’s (1995) concepts of gender projects and practice and J. Butler's (1990) idea of performative acts.ss Laz work, and the economy). A second kind of work, represented by Kohli (1986), Meyer (1986), and Gubrium et al. (1994), explores how—at the mi- cro level—discourse and assumptions about the life course shape the self. Finally, the view of age-as-accomplished benefits from recent work in anthropology (Fry, 1980a; Keith and Kertzer, 1984; Fry and Keith, 1986) that highlights the importance of culture and meaning. Anthropologists rec- ognize the duality of culture as providing ideals, values and norms, and as consisting of actual behavior and beliefs. As in anthropology, the view of age-as-accomplished_ posits people as active and skilled creators and users of culture and requires us to value “emics” (the “inside” view_ of, culture which the and judgments of i investigated). Lastly, like anthropology, this framework aims at holism: un- derstanding meaning and experience in its context. sea beara the ee of at I make five ies os frequent studied and aught than the sociology of aging. And while the view of race and gender as socially constructed and accomplished may be familiar, sociologists’ understanding of age as similarly constructed is less well-developed. I am not suggesting sociologists never conceptualize age as a social construction. Some most certainly do.‘ Still, much sociology is dominated _by a focus on aging (defined as a time following an early period “growth and development” and a middle period of “maturity”) and Latina age (the elderly, the aged, older Persons, later life, ete.). Second, ag th 6 studies of particular age categories (especially old ace) and from gerontol- ogy. Third, assumptions which haunt the sociology of aging—age as an ob- jective chronological fact, age as an individual attribute, old age and aging as social problems, and age as either self-determined or overdetermined— Ampede our ability to conceptualize age as_a social construction. In this alam bas study of age has a in common ae the ee og gender. homens eienny aaeerreepar ry apap idea of age as accomplished. This essay is not intended as a comprehensive review of the literature on age or aging; rather, I draw selectively from existing literature to build the framework of age-as-accomplished and to show its potential to organize much of what we have already learned about age and aging. ‘Among those who treat age as a social construction are Gubrium (1977, 1993), Gubrium et al, (1994), Guillemard (1996), Hazan (1992), Karp and Yoels (1982), and Karp (1991),Act Your Age 9 SOCIOLOGY OF AGE AND SOCIOLOGY OF AGING The sociology of age is less well theorized and researched, and less frequently taught, than the sociology of aging. The American Sociological Association (ASA) supports a section on aging but none on age,> and the word “aging” appears much more frequently than “age” in monographs, journal titles, textbooks, and courses in the ASA’s Teaching Resources guide.® More significantly, the word “aging” frequently functions as a syno- nym for “old age.”” As a eee aah the sociology of aging as a field overlaps extensively and is indistingui 7 ogy. In additi iologi i . | lescence, etc. Finally, as Passuth and Bengtson (1988) observe, the study of aging itself lags behind sociological theory in general. They attribute this to the influence of gerontology on sociological theories of aging (in particular to the concern in gerontology with studying predictors of elderly life satisfac- tion) and to the dominance of structural-functionalism in social gerontology (1988:346).8 Despite the emphasis on aging and “old” people, recent theoretical developments provide the foundation for a sociology of age distinct from (but drawing on and overlapping with) sociological studies of aging, old age, childhood, and other age categories. For example, stratification theory developed by Matiiia Riley. Anne Foner. and their colleagues examines of age categories. Work on the social construction 1 of the life course simi- 5In 1997, section members voted to change the name of the section from “Section on Aging” to “Section on and the Life Course.” “Journals that publish social-scientific work on age/aging include The Gerontologist, Journal of Aging Studies, Aging, Aging and Society, Research on Aging, Aging and Human Age and Aging, Journal of Women and Aging and Journals of Gerontology. Of the 30 syllabi included in the 1991 edition of the ASA’s Teaching Sociology @ of Aging | (Cdited by Diana K Harris and Erdman B. Palmore), only one is for a course called “The Sociology of Age”; several others Tovut om the fe course and life course wasnt The wajoniy, however’ are courses with a primary focus on social gerontology, aging, “later life,” “the graying of Amer- ica,” “the elderly,” and “old age.” Major tert also tend to focus on aging and old age; they include Soclology of Aging (Harris) Aging in Mass Society (Hendricks and Hendricks), Soci (Hooyman and Kiyak), Social Forces and Aging (Atchi ey) Handbook of Aging nd the Social Sciences (edited by Binstock and George), Aging (edited by Moody), and Aging the Twenty-First Century (edited by Quadagno and Street). is one prominent example) and of cataloging systems, such as the one used by our state university library system. "Others also have lamented the state of theory on age and aging (Moody, 1988:23).Lad Laz larly addresses a broad range of age categories as it secks to understand how the life course is produced in the context of macro social forces and 9 concept and i institution is created, maintained, challenged, and transf ormed; how assum and beliefs abot it in general and it particular age categorit inform and i insti- tuti and ; and experiences even as individuals accomplish age, In proposing a distinctive sociology of age, I do not want to minimize the value of scholarship on aging or on particular age categories. Rather, following Matilda Riley, I suggest that a focus on age broadens the scope of study and has the po- tential to reshape sociology. As Riley concludes in her-1986 Presidential Address to the ASA, I see the emergent field of age as reflecting the sociological vision and as illustrating how a single sociological specialty can contribute to its realization. Like other special It can revitalize dormant areas of sociology and speed the work in rapidly developing areas. It can help dramatize the sociological perspective and stimulate its utilization. But the task is only beginning. (Riley, 1987:11) I thus propose that we use available resources inside the field cur- rently designated as “the sociology of aging” and outside of it, especially in the sociology of gender, to conceptualize age as an accomplishment. To fully exploit these resources, we need first to attend to assumptions that limit our ability to see age as socially constructed. In the next section, I outline these assumptions and draw parallels to the sociology of gender. The parallels with gender study—probably familiar terrain for most read- ers—illustrate how recognizing these assumptions is preliminary to theo- retical advances. AGE AND GENDER Four overlapping assumptions haunt sociologists’ understanding of age: age as objective chronological fact, age as individual attribute, age and ag- ing as social problems, and age as self-determined or as overdetermined. Like shadowy figures, they are difficult to see and hard to capture. But examining assumptions is crucial since they provide ways of seeing that guide behavior and interaction at the micro level and at the macro level shape public policy and academic discourse (Dannefer, 1988; Hockey andAct Your Age 1 James, 1993). Their implicit and often unacknowledged presence impedes the development of a sociological understanding of age.? Let me be very clear. I am not suggesting that all sociologists adopt all of these assump- tions. Quite the contrary. There is much work in sociology, some of which T highlight below, that critiques these premises and/or offers alternatives. Age as Objective Chronological Fact Embedded _in_sociology is tl i is jecti chronological fact, Coupled with this is the more sociological insight that chronological ages have attached to them diverse _and variable cultural meanings. The distinction between “objective fact” and social and cultural Meaning is analogous to the distinction made in the 1960s and 1970s be- tween sex and gender. Sex, we told students, was an ascribed characteristic and an objective fact; it referred to the anatomy, chromosomes, and hor- mones fixed by biology. Gender, in contrast, was an achieved status that involved learning the social and cultural expectations for biological males and females (Stockard, 1997:213; Farley, 1998:117). In relation to sex and gender, the distinction began to break down in the 1970s, and by the 1980s, maintaining it became increasingly untenable.'° “The relationship between biological and cultural processes was far more complex—and reflexive—than we previously had supposed,” (West and Zimmerman, 1987:126). The “objective” biological “fact” of sex, it turns out, is premised on shared (cultural) understandings of masculinity and femininity," and “certain structural arrangements, for example, between work and family, actually produce or enable some capacities, such as to mother, that [were] formerly associated with biology” (West and Zimmer- man, 1987:126). The end result in the sociology of gender was to see both gender and sex as products of ongoing, continuous, conceptual, social, and cultural work (West and Zimmerman, 1987; Lorber, 1994). A similar process of understanding the reciprocal relationship between “objective facts” and cultural meanings has begun in the study of age. Laypersons treat age as an objective fact defined chronologically by the The necessity for the study of age and aging to be self-reflexive is the impetus for critical iBerontcogy as itis described by Moody (1988) and Luborsky and Sankar (1 996). some highly respected sociologists still maintain the distinction (for example, Ep- as 1988:5-6) "For ‘example, ‘iuzanne Kessler (1990) shows that the designation of the (biological) sex of intersexed infants rests as much on cultural understandings of masculinity and femininity as on the actual anatomical characteristics of the infant. Emily Martin (1991) demonstrates how cultural ideas about passive females and heroic and aggressive males are being written in to “objective” descriptions of egg and sperm in biology and medical textbooks.2 Lat number of years a person has lived. Social scientists sometimes do this (as when they use age as a variable or use designations like “elderly” or “the aged” unproblematically) but increasingly recognize the social nature of chronology. Some Fesearchers (Rose, 1980; Kastenbaum ef al, 1980) use. measures of “functional” 1 tween the ni T_of years \d_a_person’s physical functioniny diloal ea sacs While such measures incorporate social distinction between “sul ” or Scone age and “objective” (i,¢., chronological) age, and they assume that chronological age is unambiguous. More recently, anthropologists, social_constructionists, and life course rist ology for granted—to treat it as an in particular social and historical contexts and i in interaction, Gubrium a al. (1994), for example, describe non-Western, nonchronological ways to conceptualize time to show that “[w]estern notions of an aging process are based on several fundamental assumptions about chronology,” especially assumptions about age as passing in a linear fashion (1994:35). Their point is not that chronology does not Cee rather, they argue, we sive chronolowy, (Kohli, 1986, Chudacoff, 1989; Keith, 1990). Problematizing chronology and refusing to see it as natural or objective enables sociologists to raise important questions about the meaning of age and the experiences over the life course. Guillemard (1996), for example, argues that changes in the mechanisms that regulate labor force withdrawal have “deinstitutionalized” and “dechronologized” the life course by eroding the organization of the life course into three distinct periods (education, work, and leisure). of the work that i ing the just i Sociologists can extend the analysis ‘of oe time and age 7 exploring how, at the micro level, we feel about and act on the basis of the shared meanings of chronological time. A parallel with gender study is instructive. West and Zimmerman show that designation of sex and gender in everyday interaction involves more than the simple determination of anatomical “fact.” Most people assume genitals are the crucial feature differentiating females from males; yet, in everyday interaction we almost never observe genitals before making attri-‘Act Your Age 93, butions of sex. Instead, we rely on “identificatory” displays or appearance (posture, gesture, clothing) that are usually, but not always, consistent with genitals (West and Zimmerman, 1987:127).'2 West and Zimmerman thus distinguish between (biological) sex (itself a social category, though often treated as “natural”) and sex category (a classification in which we use dis- Plays rather than genitals to make our determination). ‘We can similarly distinguish between chronological age and age cate- gory, Chronological age, like sex. is treated as if it were an objective fact, ~fnd this is true-even when we appreciate its historical specificity Culturally and articulated i le, cl le, hair Sor, psre sol ole are ed Seo oe ale and to guide behavior. In everyday interaction, we do not ask to see a birth certificate or some other “proof” of chronological age before we categorize and treat an individual as a child, an age peer, an elder. We rely on visible cues and social statuses.'? Sometimes, however, people can and do dress, appear, act, and feel older or younger than their chronological age (and may even be an age other than that evidenced by a birth certificate or other generally accepted indicator of age such as a driver's license). Ex- pressions such as “S/he looks so old” or “But you don’t look . . .” and our emotional reactions (admiration, disbelief, sympathy, surprise) come from the mismatch between chronological age and age category. Of course in other contexts (applying for a driver’s license or Social Security benefits), “proof” of chronological age is required,!* just as “proof” of sex is required in some settings (for example, in athletic competition; see Lorber, 1994:41). In sum, just as sociologists have distinguished the “objective” and the “social” components of sex and gender and at the same time analyzed their Teciprocal relationships, so we have begun this same line of analysis i in age study. my Westen sosiey gated as an obletve fact, Following the lead of sender study, sociologis' examine how indivi js tive fact_of age to locate themselves and others in age categories and to "24 female may dress or appear “male,” and it is also possible that individuals may actually be a sex other than that apparently indicated by genitalia. The case of Agnes is the classic gxample (Garfinkel, 1967; Kessler and McKenna, 1978). ‘Christine Fry has used techniques of multidimensional scaling to investigate how individuals cognitively organize age into categories. These techniques enable researchers to determine lethnographically and empirically how individuals conceptualize age categories and their con- sfents (Fry, 1980b, 1986). The state has designated birth certificates as unambiguous sources of “proof” of chrono- logical age even though they are not infallible sources. Howell (1986) details problems with and possible solutions to estimating age in the absence of reliable written records.4 Laz act accordingly (and to study how, under what conditions, and with what consequences individuals refuse to “act their age”). Age as an Individual Attribute Because age, like gender, is not fixed or natural, sociologists have used the concepts of status, role, norm, and socialization to understand age and gender as cultural and learned, rather than as biological and given. Biology sets the outer limits; then with expectations provided by culture and learned through socialization, men become masculine and women become feminine; children become teenagers; teenagers become adults; adults become elderly. In this view, age and gender become attributes of individuals as they learn, internalize, and ultimately act in accordance with norms associated with par- ticular roles. Age and gender become objective and factual characteristics of individuals—something people are. Viewing age and gender as consisting of statuses and roles to which ial i categories—women, men, the young, the middle aged, the elderly. Such categorization highlights and exaggerates differences and minimizes similarities among groups. The_socialization framework and “individual attributes” view have been influential in the study of gender and age. We teach students about the per- vasive and often unconscious process of gender (or sex) role socialization in which girls and boys learn the expectations of femininity and masculinity, internalize those norms, and ultimately act as feminine and masculine people (Lips, 1995). (Neuganen ar al, 1965). Ghhors Innent the absence of effective socialization to norms among “the elderly” (Rosow, 1974). Still others look forward to the disappearance of age norms (Riley and Riley, 1994). While they disagree on the significance of age norms and roles, the framework of roles and sociali- zation retains #8 appeal. At some level, of couree, this framework is an socurate 1SPannefer examines the concepts of development and socialization as they are used to un- derstand aging. While he is critical of the effects of the use of these concepts, he nonetheless acknowledges that “something like each of them is necessary in the study of aging, for each of them attempts to describe something real and fundamental about human experience over time” (1988:364; emphasis in original text).‘Act Your Age 95 is i! ras individual attributes Sead ion of di } I some troublesome results, One consequence of viewing age as an individual Attribute is that age, especially old age, serves as_an independent variable (@annefer, 1984:104). Although sociologists know not to mistake correla- tion_for causation, when it comes to age. such cautions often_are over- looked. Age is used to e) plain other henomena (for example, voting i in fact, we might well investi- ‘Sate_how social structural forces result in associations between age and the particular phenomena (Riley, 1987:2). Using age as a variable in this way encourages descriptive work (for example, on age differences) “while de- flecting attention from the need for a more explanatory emphasis that would seek to identify the processes underlying descriptive outcomes,” (Dannefer, 1988:366). A second consequence of viewing age as an individual attribute is that age becomes the property of older people, as something inherent in only a part of the population, just as gender was something that only women had and race was of concern only to blacks. (This probably accounts for the emphasis on “old age” in the sociology of aging.) The roles-and-socialization framework has been critiqued as inade- quate for theorizing gender (Epstein, 1988; Mcllwee and Robinson, 1992; Thorne, 1993); it is similarly inadequate for theorizing age (Marshall, 1980; Dannefer, 1988). Gender and age do not consist simply of roles “located in a particular site or organizational context. In practice, they often serve as ‘master statuses’ (Hughes, 1945), cutting across a variety of social situ- ations,” (West and Fenstermaker, 1993:154). Moreover, the _norms_associ- ated le) ¢ roles are not necessarily internalized, nor must i i ler for ne to_act in accordance with them. als, but that attribute is realized in interaction, n. Assumptions about age and gender pervade and organize all interaction, institutions, practices, and policies. A focus on age norms, roles, and socialization makes it dif- fi a age shape: ial organizatio1 Social institutions and practices. We might instead explore the way that the. meanin of is i it structs in interaction.Age as a Social Problem A “social problems” approach has dominated the sociological study of aging. This approach focuses on old people, often regarding old age as negative and consisting of decline and debilitation. The tendency is to see elderly people as “a mass of material exigencies” (Hazan, 1994:15) and to focus attention on the various difficulties (economic, social, psychological, physical, etc.) confronting old people. This view is accompanied by the ob- servation that for aging to be seen as a social problem, “it had to be defined as such by influential and powerful people,” (Conner, 1992:45). Ironically, what results is the simultancous critique and embrace of age as a social problem. For example, Conner recognizes that social problems are created or constructed, and simultaneously contributes to that construction by ac- cepting as legitimate the social problems framework for understanding age/aging.'6 This same irony has marked gender study. For instance, liberal femi- nism often has focused on “women’s issues” (discrimination in the work- place, sexual harassment and violence, unequal division of labor within households, negative cultural images) which can be remedied by providing women with civil rights and educational opportunities equal to those af- forded men. At the same time, they recognize that “women’s issues” is a misnomer which falsely implies that discrimination, harassment, etc. only affect women. Moreover, even when feminists take issue with liberal femi- nism as a theoretical framework, many nonetheless support the policies which follow from it. The social problems approach undoubtedly has some positive effects; applied to the study of age or gender, it can increase awareness of inequal- ity and dispel stereotypes and can stimulate pragmatic social change. Lib- eral feminism undergirds pay equity, affirmative action policies, and policies guiding educational equity. The social problems approach to age has pro- duced a variety of services for older people including transportation, hous- ing, and social services. However, the social problems approach also has some less benign ef- fects. Even with the recognition that social problems must be defined as such, this approach reinforces the view that age and aging are issues (in- deed, difficulties) for a selected segment of the population. Aging becomes a_synonym for old just_as, until the mid-1980s, gender was seen as a code 16] am describing general tendencies; there are notable exceptions. For example, those who adopt a political economic approach to age “attempt to turn curent thinking about the prob- Jem of aging on its head, examining first and foremost the assumptions underlying our current problem definitions and our attempted solutions to those problems, Viewed in such a way, the problem becomes not ‘the aged’ but the needs of capitalist society” (Minkler, 1984:20).‘Act Your Age ” word for “women” and “men [thought] of themselves as genderless, as if gender did not matter in the daily experiences of [their] lives,” (Kimmel and Messner, 1992:3). Second, in highlighting old people for special attention, the social_ problems approach reinforces their difference from the not elderly. It makes similarities between older and younger people difficult or impossible to see, and obscures heterogeneity among old people (Dannefer, 1988). These tendencies are reinforced by the use of categories such as “the aged” and “the elderly” to refer to older people. Such terminology reinforces the view of age as objective chronological fact and reifies categorizing people by (chronological) age to the exclusion of other characteristics.!” This issue of difference—whether it is “best” to see women and men as essentially similar or different—has long divided gender study. Cynthia Fuchs Epstein frames the issue as a debate between the “maximalists” and the “minimalists.” Maximalists emphasize the distinctions between women and men and tend to see the differences as deeply rooted and unchange- able, that is, “natural.” Minimalists stress the similarities between women and men and argue that the differences are deceptive in that they are so- cially produced and thus changeable (Epstein, 1988:25). In an attempt to bridge the two sides, Barrie Thorne describes a “gender-sensitive” perspec- tive that “recognizes that in some situations and circumstances we may need to emphasize gender in order to promote equality” (1993:171). Although the debate is far from resolved when it comes to gender theory and gender politics, in the sociology of age, it is scarcely recognized as an issue. inally, a soci ive, in ination wi indivi h whose job it is authority of those, like social workers and medical personnel. i to “help” “the aged.”!* At the same time, this perspective denies legitimacy and power to the subjects. Stereotypes of the aged as helpless, dependent, and passive are embodied in and reinforced by this social problems approach. ‘Age and aging may be viewed—as in gerontology—as social problems. Lpr weve logists_can_fe ir_attention, not_how aging- ial- is but r: it is socially construc "Using multidimensional scaling techniques, Christine Fry (1980b) has found that chrono- logical age does predominate in U.S. society, even though other “age-sensitive” characteristics (including marital status, status of children, residential status, educational and career status) iBflect the cognitive organization of age. Karp and Yoels (1982:71) describe the process through which psychological and medical experts have contributed to the contemporary definition of aging as a problem to be solved.Age as Self-Determined and Age as Overdetermined Sociologists have long struggled with the theoretical and practical links between the individual and society or between agency and structure. In- deed, this may be the central problematic in current sociological theory. Some work—more common in gerontology— overstates agency. At the ex- treme, age becomes self-determined; vou are only as old as you feel. Geron- tologists (and advertisers) stress choices (“mature” or “older”) individuals can make to enhance their likelihood of “successful” aging. These choices include “lifestyle factors” like exercise, diet, not smoking, and long-term planning, especially for retirement. The message is “you have the potential to make the future what you want it to be,” (Ageless America, 1984). -Structure; age is overdetermined. Experiences of aging (fer example, physi- cal and psychological health, social and economic well-being) are patterned by race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and ultimately by political and eco- nomic forces that give rise to the institutions, practices, and policies that create and reinforce these patterns (George, 1990:190; Dannefer, 1984). Neither view is incorrect, Indeed, one thing that sociologists studying age and aging seem to agree on is the need to theoretically integrate micro processes and macro structures (Sherrod and Brim, 1986; Kohli, 1986; Dan- nefer, 1988; Passuth and Bengtson, 1988; Moody, 1988), though they dis- agree about how to do this. Since our discipline is probabilistic, sociologists are well placed to bridge this gap between agency and structure and to conceptualize age in a way that avoids the reductionism of self-determina- tion and the reductionism of overdetermination. In the sections that follow, I briefly outline West and Zimmerman’s notion of “doing gender.” I then develop an analogous framework for “doing age” and highlight existing work to suggest how the idea of age- as-accomplished provides a useful way to organize what we have already learned about age, aging, and the life course. “DOING GENDER” In “Doing Gender,” Candace West and Don Zimmerman argue that gender is an accomplishment: an emergent feature of social situations that is both an outcome of and a rationale for the most fundamental division of ee = Sites and Fenstermaker, 1993: 5). Rather_than viewingAct Your Age ” vant or unrelated to interaction. Casual conversation (Henley and Freeman, 1989), making dinner (Devault, 1991), working as an engineer (Mcllwee and Robinson, 1992) or a flight attendant (Hochschild, 1983) are occasions for doing gender at the same time that they are conversations, meals, and work. This distinctively socioloy w_is grounded in ethnomethodology, which “proposes that the properties of social life which seem objective, al, and _transsitua al, are actually managed accomplishments _o ‘achievements of local processes” (Zimmerman, 1978, cited in West and Fenstermaker, 1993:152). To see “the objective reality of social facts as an ongoing accomplishment,” ethnomethodologists and other sociologists treat the commonplace and unproblematic as unfamiliar or “anthropologi- cally strange” (Garfinkel, 1967:vii). West and Zimmerman show how even the most taken-for-granted as- pects of social life (like the “fact” that there are two, and only two, sexes) are actually the result of socially guided conceptual, interactional, and mi- cropolitical processes (1987:126). That we describe, explain, rationalize, jus- tify—account—for ourselves and our actions is central to these processes (Heritage, 1984:136). Further, we act with an eye toward accountability; that j a = i ized i rst or jat_will_mini- ‘mize the need for accounting (since accounting _holds the possibilities of being misunderstood, discounted, or_contradicted). As a result, we often inant norms and conceptualizations, including those related to_age rt 19 In West and Zimmerman’s view, when individuals do gender “right” (i.c., in accordance with dominant beliefs about women and men, masculinity and femininity), gender becomes invisible. As we collectively “do it right,” domi- nant assumptions about gender become natural. Indeed, gender itself is natu- ralized. Moreover, “If we do gender appropriately, we eously sustain, yduce. and render legitimate the institutional a g that _a . .. (Ultimately,] an understanding of how gender is produced in social situations will afford clarification of the interactional scaf- folding of social structure and the social control processes that sustain it,” (West and Zimmerman, 1987:146-147). West and Zimmerman are, in the end, less interested in the production of a gendered self than they are in the Production of gender itself. They intend for this formulation to overcome the Garfinkel has shown that actors are not required to internalize norms as a condition for Action, “[A]ll that is required is that the actors have, and attribute to one another, a reflexive awareness of the normative accountability of their actions,” (Heritage, 1984:117). Put another way, internalizing norms is neither necessary nor sufficient for action. What is necessary is that we recognize (and attribute the knowledge to others) that, whether or not we abide by the norms, we may have to account (offer explanations or excuses) for our behaviors.100 Laz twin dangers of self-determination and overdetermination by pointing out the reciprocal relationship between interaction and social structure, between choice, negotiation, and constraint. DOING AGE West and Zimmerman explain how gender is constituted in and through interaction and how its accomplishment : sustains social organization and social order. = something completed, but in the sense of something “brought to pass” or . In accomplishing age, we create and maintain selves, roles, and identities. But_we also participate in_and constitute a larger shared universe in which we impart meaning to age in ways that influence but transcend us as individuals. In this section, I outline the idea of age- ‘as-accomplished in relation to the assumptions about age described earlier. Although age often feels like something we simply are, it feels this way because we enact age in all interactions. Since we usually act our age jictable —predictable given the particular = invisible. We make age seem natural. Of course, age is not always invisible; occasionally it comes to the fore- front of our consciousness and we must deliberately make sense of age, often in the context of particular events or milestones (birthdays, anniversaries, deaths of parents), changes in our physical appearance or physical condition, or social roles and norms (Eisenhandler, 1991; Karp, 1991). David Karp de- scribes between ages 50 and 60 as “a decade of reminders . . . during which people, more sharply than before, are made to feel their age. . . . Contextual events giving rise to distinctive consciousness are correlated with age, but not determined by age” (1991:67, 69). At these moments, age is momentarily denaturalized; its meaning cannot be taken for granted. Feminists in the 1970s referred to moments when gender or sex in- equality was foregrounded in individual consciousness as a “click.” “Clicks” are significant because they represent the point at which one can no longer take existing knowledge, relations, and practices as “givens.” Others have discussed similar moments. In relation to gender and sexuality, Denzin describes “epiphanies” or turning point experiences “which radically alter and shape the meanings per- sons give to themselves and their life projects . . . [focusing on epiphanies} seeks those mo- ments of existential crisis when a person's sexuality and gender identity are forcefully and dramatically called into question. . . . In these epiphanic moments, the gender order is re- vealed in ways that are normally not seen” (Denzin 1993:206). I am not concerned here with the particulars of how age is brought to the forefront of our consciousness or of how we make sense of age once it is foregrounded. My purpose here is to observe that such clicks— which at least in my circle of acquaintances are fairly common—reveal the work involved in “doing age.”Act Your Age 101 While such reminders may be more frequent and intense at later ages, younger people are not exempt. During informal conversations over the past several years, colleagues not infrequently share their “age-click” an- ecdotes. One colleague (now in her mid-40s) confessed that the first time she refused to tell someone her “real” (i.e., chronological) age, something clicked; she was forced to examine what age meant to her personally and to women in general in the context of her social circles and in the larger society. Another relates the following anecdote. “Fifteen or 20 years ago (that makes me 30-35) I was sitting on the front step with D— and A—, and one of the children came up asking for a conflict resolution. I was all of a sudden struck by the fact that we were the ‘grown ups.’ I was shocked.” Perhaps the click comes from realizing that we are not acting our age or from noticing how effectively and unconsciously we have been acting our age. Or maybe we realize that we are “ahead of” or “behind time” (for example, more or less advanced in our careers or family lives in com- parison to other people of the same chronological age or of the same co- hort; observe the multiple ways to measure age). “Clicks” often require us to offer accounts to others or to ourselves, and accountability is social and interactional. Sociologists can study disruptions of “the normal,” like the “clicks” described above, to explore how normalcy is accomplished, how “the natural” becomes natural chronolo} Rather, a enables sociol ists to examine the process by which al” _and to view the consequences of our actii as if. chronology were natural, Moreover, viewing age-as-accomplished_ does not require rejecting the concepts of age norms or roles. Rather, it enables us to clarify how norms and roles work in social situations. Norms and roles are resources that individuals draw on in interaction. Th among the tools we use to act our age; they do not themselves constitute age. Conceptualizing age-as-accomplished also helps bridge the self-deter- mined/overdetermined dichotomy by making explicit the “interactional scaffolding of social structure and the social control processes that sustain it” (West and Zimmerman, 1987:146-147). The reciprocal relationship be- tween actors acting and structural factors constraining and enabling action is central. Finally, the idea of age-as-accomplished radically transforms the notion of age as a problem. If age is accomplished, then it is not a social problem in the sense of a troublesome condition requiring solution. It is, instead, a problem in the sense of a situation that presents uncertainty or difficulty that can be managed or negotiated, at best temporarily resolved, though never permanently eliminated.102 Laz RESOURCES FOR DOING AGE If age is something everyone does, then how to act one’s age is a “prob- lem” each of us faces in innumerable encounters every day. How we act our age in any given situation is the product of the interpretations and choices (often unconscious) we make among available individual, cultural, and insti- tutional resources. What are the resources from which we may choose? How do we choose among them? What shapes our accomplishment of age? Ann Swidler has proposed “the image of culture as a ‘tool kit’ of sym- ies, rituals, and world-views, which le may use in varying con- figurations to solve different kinds of problems” (1986:273). When people solve problems they construct strategies of action—persistent (but not fixed or immutable) ways of ordering action through time. Culture is significant, “not in defining ends of action [i.e., providing values or goals], but in pro- viding cultural components that are used to construct strategies of ac- tion. . . . To adopt a line of conduct, one needs an image of the kind of world in which one is trying to act, a sense that one can read reasonably accurately . . . how one is doing, and a capacity to choose among alterna- tive lines of action” (Swidler, 1986:273, 275). and skilled users of culture, rather than as pasive “cultural doves,” oun 1986:277). It_has the advantage of seeing how “action is necessarily inte- grated into larger assemblages [strategies of action]” (Swidler, 1986:276) rather than seeing actions as something people choose one at a time ac- cording to their values or interests. It admits the potential for using culture in new, challenging, or unpredictable ways at the same time that it explains continuities and order. And it bridges the self-determined/overdetermined dichotomy by positing active and skilled users of culture who nonetheless construct persistent ways of ordering action. The Tool Kit Our culture provides us with multiple images of and resources for do- ing age. These images and resources shape our consciousness of age, our ‘tions about the life course_and li Uy and feelings about our experiences, and our life chances?! We draw on one another. Empirical work has d ted the effects of gender (Roa, 1985; Shaw, 1996) nd race and ettaicty (Gelfand and Barri 1987; Markides et al., 1987) on the life course and age-related events.Act Your Age 103 resources of different types from the most individual and personal—our bodies and interpersonal relations—to the organizational and institutional. are not si “out there” waiting to be used in identical say al ater. ininstasion ws a on nd av mening orale ide to action. Arlie Hochschild’s work on the sociology of emotions helps us understand how we make use of the available resources. Hochschild argues that emotions are culturally shaped and publicly displayed; the choice of display is constrained by macro social and cultural forces and by individual concerns for impression man- agement and self-concept. Actors do “emotion work” in deciding how to feel and act in particular situations. In addition, Hochschild (1989) argues that emotions mediate between what people believe, say, and actually do; feelings mediate between ideals, goals, values, and actions and thus are crucial for understanding “strategies of action.” In short, emotions function to transform available resources for acting one’s age into the actual accom- plishment of age. I visualize available “age resources” as a set of concentric circles with the inner circle(s) consisting of personal and highly individualized re- sources—the body and interpersonal relationships. The outer circles con- sist of cultural, bureaucratic, institutional, and structural factors available to larger groups of people. Since individuals draw simultaneously on more personal (and possibly idiosyncratic) resources and impersonal bureau- cratic and structural resources as they actively construct strategies of ac- tion, their strategies are ultimately patterned by age without being determined by age. Sociologists can thus generalize about age categories and age-related behaviors and statuses and at the same time appreciate variation and “deviance.” and changes) are a source of age of consciousness and a_resource for doing age. We interpret “internal” messages conveyed by bodies (stiffness in the morning, decreased agility) in the context of age. In addition, we get “ex- ternal” messages about bodies (people comment on the presence or absence of grey hair or wrinkles). But the resources provided by our bodies require interpretation, and the experience and interpretation of bodies in relation to age is situational. For the “aging” table dancers—most in their late teens and early twenties—studied by Carol Ronai (1992), setting and situation, more than chronological age, give meaning to “old.” Studies of nursing home residents (Gubrium, 1977, 1993; Diamond, 1992) also illustrate how the body and its functions are variously interpreted and acted upon.” These examples have been selected to illustrate how different, but overlapping, kinds of resources are used in accomplishing age. For each kind of resource, innumerable other ex-104 Laz Interpersonal interactions ide resources for i accom ent of age. For example, Gubrium et al. (1994:139) show how juvenile delinquents “act their age” in encounters with the police. Officers exercise a great deal of discretion and, in interaction with juveniles, de- meanor is a crucial factor shaping officer response. “Those who act their age—appearing neither overly immature nor worldly beyond their years— are generally not seen as problems,” (Gubrium et al, 1994:139). In this example, not acting one’s age appropriately—appearing too immature or too worldly—might very well get one taken into custody. In the field of aging, research on housing and living arrangements (e.g., Margolis, 1990), care giving (c.g., Abel, 1991), and nursing homes (Gubrium, 1977; Ross, 1977; Hazan, 1992) shows the ways that formal and informal attachments within and to social organizations and networks provide the setting for in- terpersonal relations and interaction, influence our feelings about age, and ultimately shape how we act our age. Qur_culture, in the forms of language and cognitive and conceptual categories, provides yet another resource for accomplishing age. Hockey and James (1993:10) show how metaphors of childhood (with their assump- tions of dependency) provide frames of reference for everyday encounters with people in multiple age categories and lay the foundation for treating physically dependent adults as childlike. Gubrium et al. (1994) examine the ways that images of the life course are used by mental health and social service professionals with serious consequences (hospitalization or release, course of treatment, etc.) for individuals. Institutions such as the media, advertising, education, medicine, and -teligion depend on and sustain our consciousness of age. and thev provide us with additional resources. For example, from the mass media we get images of different age categories with which to compare ourselves. These messages are not always consistent, nor are they necessarily desirable or attractive, as studies of ageism and stereotyping (Butler, 1996; Scrutton 1996) have shown. Yet, we situate ourselves vis-a-vis these images and as a consequence feel guilty or proud, ashamed or delighted, at our ability to “measure ue. imimeatae duriuea cnet aes parang to name 3 just a few ex. amples. Law. public policy. and bureaucratic requirements provide a_re- source for age consciousness and for actually accomplishing age since amples and citations might have been provided. I remind readers that this is not intended as a review of the literature. Rather, I want to affirm the utility of existing research for understanding age 2s accomplished and suggest how the idea of age-as-accomplished can be used to reframe earlier work.‘Act Your Age 105 form: ui) ¢) and straii tegies of action (Buchmann, 1989). For instance, much of how kids accomplish age is shaped by the requirements of teachers and administrators, the school day, and the aca- demic year (and this is historically specific; see Chudacoff, 1989). In addi- tion, their accomplishment of age outside of school also is patterned by compulsory education. For example, for kids, getting older means getting to stay up later at night. But getting older also means an earlier start to the school day. During the school week, then, a 14-year-old’s ability to act “grown up” and stay awake late is circumscribed. ‘Trends in the economy, employment, and labor markets influence life chances and the meaning and accomplishment of age. For example, the creation and extension of Social Security and employer pension plans make it possible (though not inevitable) to think of oneself as a retiree or future retiree. Conversely, assumptions about age, the typical life course, and life course transitions (especially education, marriage, child- bearing, work, and retirement), in conjunction with assumptions about class, race/ethnicity, and gender, shape labor market practices and public policies such as Social Security. In her studies of changes in labor force participation rates and early withdrawal (through disability, unemployment, and pension systems), Guillemard (1996) has found that “the age when persons stop working has been lowered significantly” in many Western industrialized countries. “The chronological thresholds used both to determine personal identities throughout the life course and to organize the transition to old age have been torn up during the last fifteen years” (Guillemard, 1996:180). Guillemard argues that together welfare systems and work/retirement policies have had the effect of reorganizing the life course (1996:181). Mayer and Miller (1986) argue that both the moder, bureaucratic welfare state and the contemporary life course are joint products of the same processes of so- cietal development (rationalization, social differentiation, and social control). Choosing from Among the Tools Life course scholars offer mixed assessments about the changes they describe. In general, the focus is on the way that macro societal forces >For example, Guillemard (1996) sees changes in labor force withdrawal as possibly leading to greater age specialization and less orderly (and less clearly demarcated) transitions into and out of the labor force. She concludes that workers may have more flexibility in formerly age-related transitions without necessarily having more freedom. Mayer and Miller view the state as segmenting the life course and turning the transitions into public life events at the same time that the state integrates and interlocks “organizationally and functionally differ- entiated institutional domains of society as people flow through them” (1986:242).