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​​​ISSN NO. 0972-9445

 

Emerging Trends in Development Research

​Vol. 31, No. 1 & 2, 2024

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The New Realities of Ageing: A Socio-Demographic Study on the Male-elderlies 
and their Life-Course Perspective

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Oishika Ghosh

Master's in Sociology from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, oishika744@gmail.com

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Abstract
Age remains one of the most overlooked yet fundamentally significant variables in sociological inquiry. The formation of socio-personal identity is deeply intertwined with age, and without its dynamics, such identity loses its foundational grounding. It is often noted that the earliest and final stages of life entail substantial healthcare expenditures. However, a closer examination of the elderly population reveals that ‘ageism’ pervades both medical practice and thought, underscoring the complex interplay between age, health, medicine, and sociology.
Within this broader discourse, ‘Gerontology,’ though situated within Sociology, is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing from multiple academic domains. My paper, therefore, seeks to explore how a life-course perspective enables us to trace both synchronic and diachronic distributions across an individual’s lifetime, alongside the diminishing social mobility that accompanies aging. While the scope of my study is specifically limited to elderly men, I have focused on individuals aged 60–70 years, as defined by the Indian Census Report.
This research incorporates data from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources include books, research papers, websites, newspapers, and magazines, while primary data has been gathered through select interviews with respondents chosen in alignment with the study’s objectives. I have endeavored to conduct a comprehensive literary analysis of relevant secondary sources, providing an exhaustive exploration of the topic and its associated concepts. The study is primarily qualitative in nature.
Keywords: Depression, Old age, Sociability, Life-Course Perspective, Masculinity

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Full Article: PDF