Ageing in Risk Society; Examining the Problematic Aspects of the Ageing Experience

Iranian society has undergone various changes in recent decades that have affected the everyday life of older people, and it is important to discover the problematic aspects of the ageing experience. In this study, using qualitative research techniques such as in-depth and semi-structured interviews with older people and some specialists in the field of ageing, an analysis of the everyday life of older people in the context of social changes is presented. The results indicate that ageing in the transition of social changes is a narrative of ageing in a risky society; A society with economic changes as well as social and cultural changes and in the absence of government support as a social and supportive institution, ageing becomes an unsafe and risky experience, and in such society, the poor older people suffer the most. In a risky society, the weak and insecure pension system and the poverty of the support system and social assistance are the most important features of the social policies of ageing. In an inflationary, unstable and insecure economy, older adults experience the social consequences of inflation, such as subsistence poverty, a necessity-oriented lifestyle and the consequences of the commodification of health. Finally, the Iranian family is not immune to the process of commodification and the dominance of economic logic, and older adults experience the insecurity of intergenerational interactions, elder abuse and loneliness. In such social conditions, the social policy of ageing in Iranian society is very necessary.