Pandemic Precarity: Aging and Social Engagement

Abstract

Social isolation of older adults was identified as a key public health issue prior to the onset of COVID-19. The current crisis raises serious questions about how societies are organized and function in relation to aging populations. Drawing on resources in critical gerontology on “precarious aging” (Butler, 2009; Grenier & Phillipson, 2018) and an intersectional approach (Crenshaw, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1(8), 139–167, 1989) that recognizes aging as an axis of oppression, we will (1) outline how this pandemic provides opportunities for candid dialogue about systemic institutional failures within leisure and social services sectors as they relate to older adults, taking important intersections of race, class, gender and ability into account; (2) examine how leisure and the arts have been positioned in response to social isolation of older people during a pandemic and (3) explore the risks of further marginalization inherent in these activities even as they are potentially crucial and transformative social lifelines for older adults. We call the further marginalization of older adults already precariously positioned “pandemic precarity.”.