Worlds of difference: inequality in the aging experience
- 2nd ed.
- New Delhi Pine Forge Press 1997
- 353p.
Worlds of Difference is designed to enhance the inclusiveness of the undergraduate curriculum in social gerontology. We believe this is important for two reasons. First, undergraduate students today represent greater diversity in gender, race, and social class than did undergraduates in previous decades, and pedagogical research has demonstrated that students become engaged in curricula that "give voice" to their experiences. Second, projected increases in diversity within the elderly population over the coming decades demand that people working in the field of gerontology be knowledgeable about the experiences of people of different genders, races, ethnic groups, and social classes. Designing an inclusive curriculum is not just a matter of fairness or affirmative action; it is a central component of educating people to live and work in the twenty-first century (Moses, 1992). In preparing the introductory essays and selecting the readings, we were guided by several principles. First, we believe it is essential to move beyond conceptions of gender, race, and class as attributes of individuals that must be controlled statistically or experimentally J. S. Jackson, 1989). Instead, we conceptualize these categories as social constructs, as classifications based on social values that influence identity formation, opportunity structures, and adaptive resources. We visualize these social constructs as interlocking hierarchies that create systems of privilege as well as disadvantage. Too often, the experience of people who are disadvantaged along one or more hierarchies is contrasted with the experience of the dominant group, which is presented as the "norm." Supported by the ideology of a meritocracy, this approach masks the structural foundations of privilege. Too frequently, it is assumed that only people of color have "race," that only women have "gender," that only the poor have "social class," and that only recent immigrants have "ethnicity" (Higginbotham, 1989). Our emphasis on the intersections of these multiple systems of inequality is designed to help students understand that older people can experience disadvantage along one dimension but privilege along others. As Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins (1992) explain, "Race, class and gender are part of the whole fabric of experience for all groups, not just women and people of color"