This series of presentations are an accompaniment to terrific textbook 'Sociology, 7th edition' by Giddens and Sutton (2013). There is a very strong focus on visuals, with many additional short activities designed to foster interaction between teachers and students. The text from Giddens and Sutton is usually paraphrased and reworded to aid the comprehension of students, particularity those of lower language ability than Giddens and Sutton had in mind. The sociology of the age and the life course is the perfect embodiment of contemporary sociology as a whole, and a branch of the discipline with direct relevance to every individual in late-modern capitalist industrial societies. Sociology is the study of how the structure of any particular society largely dictates how individuals must live; the analysis of the plight of the modern individual in a rapidly changing world. By using this frame of reference, we often reveal social phenomena previously regarded as "natural" and eternal as -in actual fact- "social constructions" that are completely dependent on the socio-historical era for their own existence. The sociology of the life course looks at how the meanings attached to something as fundamental as a "stage of life" (e.g. childhood) change across time and space; in other words, in different historical eras and -still today- in different places around this complex and diverse planet, the expectations attached to -say- being pre-teen, a teenager, or someone over the age of 50 are products of capitalist, industrial modernity and therefore very, very recent developments in our 800,000 year human history. This series begins with an introduction to the different aspects of ageing, with an emphasis on the development of social self (looking-glass self), which is something all humans do regardless of time and space; it is part of the psychological process of growing up in all societies. We then establish what social ageing is; the fundamentals of the sociology of ageing. Later chapters of the series analyze the different stages of life, in turn, in socio-historical perspective; beginning with what we would today call "childhood" (pre-teen), before looking at "youth", "young adulthood", "mature adulthood" and finally "later life".

1. The Sociology of
the Life Course
5- Mature adulthood and the
demographic transition
Accompaniment
to the superb
Giddens and
Sutton (2013)
(left) Chapter 9,
with an
assortment of
additional
accompanying
resources and
activities

2. Contents
5 The sociology of mature adulthood and the demographic transition
Also in the series…
1 How do people age?
2 The sociology of childhood
3 The sociology of youth and adolescence
4 The sociology of young adulthood and the demographic transition
6 The sociology of later life

3. The life stages in socio-historical perspective:
3- Mature adulthood
and the demographic transition
see Giddens and Sutton 2013:352

4. “Mature adulthood” covers
from around 40 to 60
By this stage, most people have
been ‘settled
down’ for some time, with
dependant
children and a long-term
partner
Activity:
Do you know any over-50s
who have never “settled
down”? How do they seem
to feel about this?

5. Despite the increased
‘liberation’ of young
adulthood from traditions
regarding settling down…
…by 40, most of
those who haven’t done so
generally worry
about it greatly
Activity:
If one is worried about
being childless at 55, do
you think this is
biologically driven, or
socially constructed?

6. However, despite the eternal social norm of –
eventually- settling down…
…the experience of mature
adulthood in late
modernity differs from that
in previous eras in many ways
Activities:
(i) What is late modernity? (Review)
(ii) How might mature adulthood in
late modernity be more diverse
than in previous eras?

7. In pre-modern timesand
spaces, reaching what we now know
as “mature adulthood” (around 40) could
not be as taken for granted
as it is in late-modern(i.e.
“developed”) societies…
Activity:
Why was survival to the 21st
century’s “mature adulthood”
rarer in pre modernity? Is it that
we are evolving as a species in
Darwinian terms? Give reasons
for your answer.

8. …and for this reason, the
experience and
meaningof being e.g. 50 years
of age is very different today
Activity:
Do you already have any ideas as to
how the experience and meaning of
being 50 for the late-modern individual
might be different to that of pre-modernity?

10. In pre-modern settings,
Activity:
Use GapMinder world to
view the relationship
between life expectancy
and development
Those in what we would today call
“mature
adulthood” would be much
nearer the end of their lives, as life
expectancy was much
lower than today.
They would almost always
be
grandparents
already; whereas many today
are still childless!

11. …and womenin
particular were at risk because of
the high rates of
mortality in
childbirth.”
Giddens and Sutton (2013:352)
Being 50in pre- and even early-modern
‘one of the lucky
ones’- death rates for all
age groups were far
higher than today…
Activity:
times meant you were
Do you agree that it is
ironic that, historically
and today, fertility rates
fall at around the point
when it becomes far
less dangerous?

12. Today, people between 40 and 55 are loosely
regarded as “middle-aged”, and
even 60-year-olds can look forward to a few
more healthy decades to
come
Activity:
Do you recognise either of these two
gentlemen (below right)? What is the
connection between them?

13. Knowledge of how to lead a
healthy lifestyle…
Late-modern medicineand
healthcare…

14. …and plastic surgery…
…all help many of today’s
developed-worldover-
60s feel –and look- a lot
healthier; and live a lot longer
than even just a few decades ago

15. However, as our health and
longevity improves, other, more
complex “strains” upon the
individual take their place…
Activities:
(i) What do we mean by a
“strain on the
individual”?
(ii) Can you guess any
examples of what they
might be, for today’s
mature adults?

16. Late modernity brings uncertainty,
fluxand entirely new types of risks –not
only for our global society but
also the individual Activities:
(i) What is “empty
nest
syndrome”?
(ii) What (related)
common
phenomenon
do the two
pictures on the
left represent?

17. “…today, there are major
uncertainties in work, personal
relationships and marriage, family life,
and many other contexts….

18. …individuals increasingly have to
‘make’ their own
lives, much more so than in the past”.
Giddens and Sutton (2013)
Arranged
marriages are now
extremely rarein the
developed world, and
divorceis now
socially acceptable.
Today, many mature
adults have children,
parents, siblings and
friends
dispersed
around the
world

19. …in late modernity, the more
affluent one’s society,
the lesspermanentand stable
his or her career, family life,
and geographical
location
And whilst this does liberate the
individual from
traditional
constraints….
Activity:
http://www.bakade
suyo.com/2013/05/
good-old-days/
Have a look at the
review of this book.
What problems
does it mention
concerning mature
adults?

20. “While individual
choice can be
experienced as the
freedomto decide…
…the responsibility to
have to choose imposes its own
pressures.”
Activity:
In your everyday life, do you
ever experience the
insecurity of an obligation to
choose between too many
options?

21. In other words, mature adults can no
longer be guaranteed
stable careers, or a
family…
Activity:
Today, more mature adults work in
the service industry than
“traditional” heavy industry jobs.
These are often much less secure;
and for many, less meaningful.
What can be the consequences of
this for the experience of mature
adulthood?

22. …and often feel torn
between being
“young” and
“old”.

23. Careersreach dead-ends,
and many come to realize
that they will neverfulfill their
lifelong dreams
Activity:
By what age would you like to
have found your “dream job”, or
job that will most define your
career? How would you feel if you
had never quite found this by age
60?

24. “Yet growing older need not lead to bleak
despair, and , for some, a release from
childhood dreams can actually be
liberating”
Activity:
Create two fictional characters:
(i) A 55-year old suffering from a
‘mid-life crisis’.
(ii) A 57-year-old experiencing
liberation in mature adulthood

25. …whereby those on the older side of “middle
aged” (i.e. around 50) become
more
consumerist, and
even more obsessed with
looking “youthful” than
those in previous times and spaces.

26. Featherstone (1989): we
have now a
“new
middle
age” in
adulthood…
Activity:
Review how the
experience of being
middle aged is more
varied in late-modernity

27. Extension activity:
Would you like to live for 200 years or more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsR7L5nnmFY BBC interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMAwnA5WvLc TED talk
The SENS Foundation are a scientific organization dedicated to eliminating the “medical
condition” of ageing and death in old age; in other words, they are spending millions of dollars
researching super-longevity i.e. hoping to make people live much, much longer. The
implication is that we can all be prevented from being “old and frail” at 80 or 100 but rather fit
and able to work and play a full, active role in human society; living for hundreds of years
through the constant replacement of “worn out parts”- like a car might.
Their “chief science officer and co-founder” is Aubrey DeGrey (pictured). On this 19-minute
TED talk and 20-minute BBC HardTalk interview with Steven Sakur, DeGrey makes the case
for eliminating ageing and increasing human longevity significantly.

28. Extension Activity: The SENS Foundation
Watch the BBC HardTalk interview with Aubrey DeGrey
1) Would you like to live to 200? 500? 1000?
2) What would it mean to demographics in the 21st and 22nd century, at a time of
(i) “over-population” and (ii) longer-term ageing populations and eventual
population decline?
3) At around 16 minutes, the interviewer asserts that the general public will have
two main worries about the society this technology implies; a lack of (i) R
_________ es and (ii) J__s
4) How does DeGrey respond to the above concerns?
5) An interesting part of the BBC interview is when the interviewer asks DeGrey
“Do you have children yourself?”, to which DeGrey replies “No”. Many viewers
on the YouTube comments thread highlight this. (i) Does his reply surprise you?
Why/why not? (ii) What accusation do you think people will make based on
this?
6) What demographic problems would “people living to 300” potentially solve?
7) What problems might it cause?
8) Will everybody be able to afford such treatment? If not, what might the
implications be for global society?