Il ruolo della regolazione istituzionale nell’intersezione tra aging, genere e generazione

The wide demographic, economic and cultural changes experienced over the last 50 years in Italy, as in most Western societies, call for reflection on the new meanings assumed by aging, considered as a multifaceted process facing both individuals and society with the complexities of life and death. The tension between the variety and vitality expressed by the baby boom generation, promptly seized by the market and the media industry, and the persistence of a standardized definition of aged people, depicted as a fragile group ever more burdening the active population in face of increased life expectancy and declining fertility rates, becomes striking in moments of economic crises or health emergencies, challenging intergenerational solidarity bonds. The author argues that this tension is better understood with reference to the macrolevel of regulation, seeing the shift between the life course institutionalized during the golden age of welfare states, centered around the figure of the salaried male adult worker, and its de-institutionalization following the weakening of welfare state provisions and the increasing influence of neoliberal ideology. In leaving individuals free to deal with choices regarding the management of their life, neoliberal policies offer the illusion of self-sufficiency, shifting responsibility of aging from the collective to the individual level, while avoiding wider issues over structural inequalities. While among old feminists forms of solidarity in aging are sought, their potential drive to the construction of more equal societies seems still limited by intergenerational barriers between feminist waves.