This chapter outlines social and cultural constructs that influence everyday contemporary experiences of growing older. It considers the contemporary strands of thinking that are available in public policy and socio-cultural discourses as sources that reflect ‘what is known’ about late life and can inform interpretations and practices. Drawing on the critical perspective outlined in Chapter Two, and the related methodological approach outlined in Chapter Four, this chapter explores key discourses that form the backdrop for expectations of transition in late life – that is, it focuses on the qualities attributed to older people, and the behaviours expected from older populations. Rather than discuss the examples of retirement and widowhood that characterise the transitions literature, this analysis is primarily concerned with the discourses related to health and illness in late life. As such, it refers to the transitions that mark movement into ‘old age’, as well as the changes older people are expected to experience once they are considered ‘old’. Focusing on these issues through the lens of transition raises questions of whether such broad-based expectations of health and success are possible, and for whom. In doing so, this analysis moves the state of knowledge on transitions beyond models that rely on social integration or conflict, toward understandings of the socio-cultural and personal processes that take place in a complex contemporary context.

The link between policy, socio-cultural discourse and experience, is a central aspect of this analysis. Notions of transition that are prevalent in socio-cultural discourses and public policies on ageing contain tensions between earlier theoretical thinking of ageing as age- or stage-based, such as dependency for example, and more recent ideas about continuous or discontinuous experiences across the lifecourse. At a superficial level, policies, and the resulting organisational and institutional practices, can be taken to reflect two prominent types of discourse: the biomedical aspects of ageing as decline, and the social aspects of ageing framed around productivity and success. Yet, on closer examination, these seemingly contradictory discourses intersect in the structures and practices related to health and illness in late life. The polarisation of health and decline, and the reinforcement that occurs between them, results in conflicting messages about ageing. On the one hand, older people are instructed on healthy and successful ageing, and on the other, the inevitable decline and loss of autonomy.