Sociological imagination for the aged society

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore how the sociological imagina- tion may generate new insights regarding the dangers and possibilities that arise when an old order disintegrates and a new one has to be created. The new or- der is theorized as the "aged society". The aged society is demarcated by rad- ical population aging that also constitutes our main challenge, especially when coupled with globalization and new technological developments. In this article, the questions and challenges of the aged society, as an emergent world, are not perceived as purely TimesNewRomanPSMT.-1.c191nancial, neuroscientiTimesNewRomanPSMT.-1.c191c, biological, or technological ones, but as issues of freedom and reason. Contemplating the aged society, however tentative it might be since it regards social realities that are still becoming, might enable us to reconsider and reassess presuppositions of most current aging stud- ies in terms of these values at risk. © Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie.