Objectives: This project compared the experiences of ageism in countries with and without equality legislation in access to goods and services. Based on an older people-centered approach, the project provided a bottom-up account of how older people experience ageism in enjoying everyday goods and services and critically analyse the relevance and appropriateness of the equality framework in levying the injustice faced by this group.
Results: The project focused on so-called interpretation patterns of ageism, that is the structure of the different descriptions, argumentations and explanations of what ageism is, how it is expressed, what causes and drives it, as well as the normative orientation that guide these patterns. These normative orientations are also the entry point to the core topic of the research project, namely the meaning of anti-discrimination laws for older people in dealing with experiences of age discrimination in accessing services and goods. The initial results provide insights that facilitate a deeper understanding of ageism and reveal the ambivalent role of law in dealing with such experiences. With regard to a deeper understanding of ageism, the project will highlight that ageism not only undermines legal relations of recognition (such as equal rights or basic human rights), but also social relations of recognition, in particular participation in consumer and economic life, which is central to the modern consumer and service society. Ageism must therefore be seen as a threat to fundamental social forms of relationships. However, this effect of ageism is not always explicitly expressed in people’s individual experiences (but the result of the in-depth analysis and methodological comparison of interviews). This is the case, for example, because certain forms of discrimination seem less discriminatory because they are supposedly objectively justified, and consequently the law, which is often only seen as a means of combating forms of discrimination that are described as serious, is often not seen as an appropriate solution. Thus, the project will attempt to show that, on the one hand, legal provisions are dependent on a certain legal consciousness co-shaped in the social sphere in order to increase social sensitivity to certain inequalities and their reprehensibility. On the other hand, the law is needed to provide these interpretations with a legal connotation that is central to modern societies.
Secondment(s)(Months), co-Supervisors: NUIG (8.8m) Dr. Walsh, Dr. Flynn; The secondment was geared to provide ESR with academic exposure to research on policy. Additionally, the secondments was used to conduct field word and complete PhD courses. Facilitation of an intensive academic exchange to support final data analysis, corresponding publications (exploitation of results) and completion of the doctoral thesis.
