Issues and Persyectivbes for Research on Living Environment of ‘The Third Age’ -focusing on Social constructionism approach-

Mid of 1980s witnessed the beginning of a new trend regarding the elderly as the Third Age Group, which is capable of positive selection for their later life. These changes are caused not only by the rising cost of caring them as the dependent to the society, but also by paradigm shift from the clinical and biomedical model to political economy and critical gerontology. The paradigm shift is based on the social constructionism as a perspective on the later life. In this communication the development of social constructionism is reviewed as an approach on the living environment for later life through literature survey. Emphases were made on the anti-ageism instead of ageism in the analysis of the social constructionism perspective for living environment in later life. Individual practice, influencing the practice of others, influencing agency policy, and developing theory were addressed and emphasized for the practice of anti-ageism. This study found the importance of the development of the social constructionism perspective on the study and practice regarding living environment for ‘the Third Age’ in Korean situation.

제3의 연령기의 공간환경연구를 위한 관점과 쟁점 -사회구성주의적 접근을 중심으로-