‘What Can I Plan at This Age?’ Expectations Regarding Future and Planning in Older Age

Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková and Eva Soares Moura
Additional contact information
Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková: Charles University, Czech Republic
Eva Soares Moura: Charles University, Czech Republic

Sociological Research Online, 2024, vol. 29, issue 1, 120-136

Abstract: Time has become one of the most researched topics in the field of sociological, but especially psychological, research. While broad attention has been paid to the impact of chronological age on planning and the perception of time, much less is known about these processes in (advanced) old age. Drawing on 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with people aged above 70 years (half of which are conducted with people aged above 80 years), this article explores the type of plans people make in older age and how they relate to the idea of planning face-to-face the shortening time perspective. This research indicates the significant ambivalences in how older people relate to plans and the future. While making short-term plans represents an essential part of their lives, the participants problematise the idea of planning as unreasonable concerning their chronological age. Two dominant approaches to formulating plans are identified: (1) framing future plans referring to the future achievement of a loved one and (2) emphasising ‘living in the present’. The findings also indicate that the social imaginary of the fourth age plays a vital role in how older adults frame the time ahead of them. In conclusion, we summarise our findings and argue that mortality represents just one of the horizons accompanied by other possible milestones structuring the time remaining and redefining the meanings attached to such time.

Keywords: ageing; fourth age; planning; socioemotional selectivity theory; third age; time perspective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231158989 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:120-136

DOI: 10.1177/13607804231158989

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().