Reimagining the Future in Older Age

In June 2016 after the UK had voted to leave the European Union, the UK press published several articles on how older leave voters had 'stolen the futures' of younger remain voters. The Times columnist Giles Coren wrote that 'The wrinkly bastards stitched us young 'uns up good and proper... they reached out with their wizened old writing hands to make their wobbly crosses and screwed their children and their children's children for a thousand generations' (Coren 2016: 28). In The Guardian, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett wrote that 'unless our scientists somehow miraculously discover how to halt the ageing process ... within 10 years, many of those who voted for Brexit will either be dead or in care homes that millennials will be subsidising' (Cosslett 2016). What was striking about these articles was, firstly, the assumption that older people have no stake in the future. Secondly, the apparent inability of people who did not consider themselves to be 'old' to imagine a future in which they would be old.

So why do we assume that the future matters less to older people, and why should we be concerned about this? How does the future matter to older people? This project addresses these questions and challenges dominant, ageist assumptions that older people do not belong in the future. The undervaluing of older people's futures is revealed in political and media narratives where the future time of older people is collectivised, such that the sum of potential years left to be lived in older age is represented as a 'problem' to be addressed, and where older people's futures are predominantly regarded in terms of 'cost rather than potential' (Cruikshank 2003: 7). Cultural narratives of older people are similarly pessimistic, with older characters typically being 'stuck in the past' (Small 2007). We use cultural narratives as resources to inform our own ideas about what kind of people we think we are, or who we would like to be. In the absence of positive cultural narratives about the future in older age, how can we construct meaningful futures in our own lives?

As most of us can expect to live into old age, it is in all our interests to have a sense of belonging in the future. Not recognising the value of older people's futures can perpetuate ageist practices and elder abuse, and failing to attach value to our own futures as older people could result in apathy. This project gives a voice to older people and allows them to tell their own stories about what the future means to them. The research is designed to elicit intra and intergenerational connection. The reading groups can foster intergenerational solidarity, and the participatory forum theatre asks older participants to create shared futures. In doing so, it will provide policy makers and third sector organisations with the resources to think more imaginatively about supporting older people in ways that will address their aspirations rather than just their needs. The project findings will also contribute empirical, theoretical and methodological knowledge to understanding the relationship between future time and older age, an area which is under-developed.

The project has three stages. The first aims to understand existing narratives of future time in older age by conducting an interdisciplinary literature review of the relationship between old age and future time, and secondary analysis of narratives concerning time and age that were elicited through the Mass Observation (MO) project. The second aims to deconstruct narratives of future time and older age by asking intergenerational reading groups to explore how fictional representations of old age and future time can be used to imagine a society in which older people's futures are more valued. The third will create narratives of future time and older age by using forum theatre to allow older volunteers to create and perform their own 'narratives of the future'.

This research will benefit several groups: third sector organisations that support and advocate for the rights of older people in Scotland; members of the public of all ages; academics, including early career researchers, from a range of disciplines.

The research will identify narratives of ageism in policy and culture that imply that older people do not have a meaningful future, and do not have a stake in what the future ought to look like. Alternative narratives of the future as created by older people themselves can inform third sector organisations in their campaigns and lobbying work to policy makers. Three tangible outputs from the project are designed to help third sector organisations embed project findings into campaigns and processes and discussions that inform policy. Firstly, a film will be made of Stage 3 - the development and performance of new narratives of the future using forum theatre. Secondly, I will produce a briefing document which lists the project's key findings and practical recommendations for policy makers. Thirdly, I will create a toolkit for advising organisations on how to embed utopian methods and ideas into policy and practice. These will be made available to third sector organisations for them to disseminate in their networks to influence policy makers about what older people desire from the future.

Age Scotland and the Scottish Older People's Assembly (SOPA) support this project and will provide representatives to sit on the Project Advisory Group (PAG). The project findings will help them to improve the lives of older people in Scotland by identifying stigmatising and discriminatory ageist content, and suggesting alternative messages that they can use in their campaigns and to lobby the Scottish Government. The project's findings will aid Age Scotland's work on assisting organisations' workforce planning and ensuring that they have well developed age inclusive employment practices, as Scotland's population ages and more workers intend to work well beyond current retirement ages. The members of SOPA represent large communities of older people across Scotland and their representative on the PAG will assist in accessing diverse and hard-to-reach participants for the forum theatre and reading groups. This will benefit SOPA by ensuring that the project is relevant to older people from various backgrounds, thus addressing inequalities that exist within different populations of older people. As members of the PAG, Age Scotland and SOPA will have close involvement with the project and will advise on what knowledge they would like to have from the project, and how to generate most impact from the findings.

Members of the public of all ages will benefit through being exposed to alternative messages about ageing and more positive representations of later life. The theatre performance will feature at the 2021 Luminate Scottish creative ageing festival which is open to all. The older participants involved in the theatre work will benefit directly through being able to create and perform their own narratives, and be given the opportunity to reflect on, and actively challenge ageist assumptions which typically render older people as passive and powerless.

Academics interested in age and time from a range of disciplines will benefit from new research on a neglected topic. Early career researchers (ECRs) working in ageing will particularly benefit. The RF on the project will be able to build on the research findings and impact to develop their own academic career, through co-writing papers, conference papers, and co-organising impact activities. Other ECRs will benefit from a workshop that we will run at the ESRC-funded Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Summer School in summer 2021, on using utopian and arts-based methods in ageing research. Students at the University of Stirling will benefit through my incorporation of the findings and theoretical approach into my teaching.