DOING AGE AS MARGINALIZATION AND EXCLUSION: ON AGE CODING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AGE NORMALITIES AND AGEISM

Early definitions of ageism as prejudice, attitudes and discrimination tend to stress the cognitive aspects of the processes where groups of people are being marginalized and/or excluded because of their age. This differ from recurrent studies which emphazise social categorization such as age and gender as a dynamic social positioning practice and as a complex form of doing age as marginalization and exclusion. Based on qualitative interviews with eleven men between the ages of 56 and 74, who work with manual labour at a steel company in Sweden, this paper discusses the processes where age normality and ageism are constructed in parallel. Departing from the concept age coding; distinctive practices associating a context or a phenomenon with demarcated ages, it shows the disciplining dimension of ageism. The paper concludes with a reflection on the central position which ageism can have in neo-liberal governance by creating social insecurity among older workers.