As We Are Now: The Construction of the Self through the Body and Biopolitics in Old Age
Summary
This thesis elaborates on the construction of the Self through the aging body and biopolitics among elderly individuals living in a care center. It argues that this care center is a place, symbolically and spatially excluded from society by virtue of bounded space, lack of communication and the aging body. Biopolitics comes to the fore in practices of care and materiality and organization of the institution. Biopolitics and the aging body may contribute to degrading notions of the self. Yet, elderly individuals cope by constructing an alternative reality, in which they experience safety and security and are not continuously challenged in their autonomy and their self.