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Social Theory, Aging, and Health and Welfare Professionals: A Foucauldian "Toolkit"

University of Liverpool, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: J.L.Powell{at}liverpool.ac.uk.

	Abstract

Health and welfare have emerged as pivotal drivers used to position the identities that older people adopt in contemporary Western societies. Both contain continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people and care professionals. However, they also represent an increase in professional control that can be exerted on lifestyles in old age, and thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of the life course. The article presents a theoretical analysis of gerontology based on a critical reading of the work of Michel Foucault. It identifies the interrelationship between managerialism and older people in terms of a conceptual toolkit of (a) "medical power," and (b) "assessment," "surveillance," and "resistance"; the key point is that they are relevant in theorizing power relations between health and welfare professionals and user groups such as older people.

First published on July 7, 2009, doi:10.1177/0733464809335596

Journal of Applied Gerontology 2009;28:669.

A more recent version of this article appeared on December 1, 2009


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This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Svihula Gerontological Theory: A Commentary on Powell's Foucauldian Toolkit Journal of Applied Gerontology, December 1, 2009; 28(6): 690 - 696. [PDF]

				J. L. Powell A Response to Castle, McDaniel, and Svihula Journal of Applied Gerontology, December 1, 2009; 28(6): 697 - 701. [PDF]