NotNormativelyHuman 229
viewed as something like a clearing house for all manner of research
concernedwithlivinginandovertime,andtheconcernunitingitsmany
sub-disciplines has been the development over time of non-normative
factorsinhumanphysicalityandsociality.^69
Withinthisbroadcontext,anidentifiablesetofresearchagendashas
establisheditselfwhichcircumscribessignificantformsandpracticesof
legitimategerontologicalinquiry:
Thefirstsetofissuesconcernstheaged:cohortswhocanbecategorized
as elderly in terms of their length of life of expected lifespan... The
vast majority of gerontological studies in recent decades have
concentrated on the functional problems of aged populations, seen in
human terms as medical disability or barriers to independent living. A
second set of problems involveaging as a developmental process...
Here the focus is on how individuals of a species grow up and grow
old—theprocessesofdevelopment,growth,andsenescenceovertime... a third problem involvesthe study of ageas a dimension of structure
and behavior within species.... The phenomena to be explained here
concern how age is taken into account by social institutions; examples
include the labor market, retirement, pension systems, and health care
organizations.(Bengtsonetal.9;emphasisoriginal)
In this perspective, the construction of a discursive field called
"gerontology" articulates an understanding of "age" in terms of
identifiablepopulationcohortsandtheirobservedorexpectedcorporeal
condition and public presence. Much in gerontology is
programmatically, even unabashedly empirical, taking for granted the
existenceofaunifiedcohortofoldpeoplewhicharemoreorlessalike:
"[i]ndeed, the most important contributions thus far have been in the
area of measurement, not theory-building" (Hendricks and Achenbaum
31). Aside from the production of knowledge on later life, gerontology
has also always sought to describe and, if possible, intervene in the
(^69) Katzemphasizesthehistoricaldimensionofsuchinquiries:"Inthenineteenth
century,... [t]he aged body became the articulation point for social, scientific,
and practical discourses about old age. Hence, the disciplining of knowledge
about old age followed from the disciplining of aged bodies" (DiscipliningOld
Age22).