The Ageing Body and the Ontology of Ageing: Athletic Competence in Later Life

This article will propose new understandings of ageing bodies in late modern societies, underpinned by a concern to find ways of resisting the erosion of social and cultural capital which accompanies bodily ageing, not predicated on thedenial of ageing. This analysis is necessary as theorizing older bodies has been and, I would argue, is still underdeveloped. This is not to deny the existence of important developments in theorizing later life, particularly in the last 20 years,with the emergence of critical gerontology. However the extent to which they take account of the body on the one hand and, on the other, show the way towards effective ways of resisting bodily ageing (both as a social and as a phenomenological process) needs to be addressed.