Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines data from Advertising Age, a well-known trade journal targeted to the advertising industry, to explore how age is discussed from 1965 to 2005. A discourse analysis shows increased market segmentation over the years, as age classifications become more specific and targeted. The data show new markets emerging as particular age groups, such as children or older adults, come to be seen as viable target audiences over time. The data continue to show changes in how audiences are constructed by showing how these new markets create new boundaries around these more established markets. Finally, the data show that youth continues to valued over old age and that this is consistent throughout all five decades.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper, we elaborate a political mediation model of the impacts of social movements on states. We appraise this model by way of examining the influence of the U.S. old-age pension movement of the 1930s on two sets of old-age policy outcomes. One involves the development of Old Age Assistance spending in the states in the wake of the 1935 Social Security Act. A second is an analysis of voting for Social Security Act Amendments in the late 1930s. We address the influence of campaigns led by the Townsend Plan, the main national old-age pension organization, as well as a variety of old-age pension organizations at the state level. We employ both quantitative and formal qualitative methods on issues. In the quantitative analyses, we employ control variables regarding influences on social policy, including the influence of public opinion. Both analyses show influence of the old-age pension organizations on policy outcomes and provide support for the political mediation model.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Drawing on the author's ethnographic and textual analysis research over a five-year period in the United States, the paper observes that older generations of workers are getting used to the new models of technology-driven communication but may not feel "at home" in them. The author suggests steps for policy makers to stimulate and reward older workers, whose roles in the "new work" are both vital and threatened. Proceeding from data suggesting that work status often drives home computer and Internet competencies and usage in the lives of Americans over 50, the author acknowledges that the advancing age of Baby Boomers will cause some generational differences in competency and usage to disappear, but cultural differences among elders will persist. Effective public policy for curing the Digital Divide must include attention to older Americans on the margins, many of whom are single women, racial minorities, and residents of central-city or rural areas, the author claims. Recommendations include:
1. Tailor retirement systems for individual differences.
2. Make employment sectors elder friendly.
3. Make the educational system non-discriminatory.
4. Eliminate ageist practices inside the academy.
5. Strengthen policies to deter age discrimination by employers.
6. Encourage inclusive images of older workers.
7. Stop retrofitting facilities to "shoehorn" in disabled (often older) workers.
8. Encourage intergenerational learning communities.
9. Pursue age studies and intergenerational research.
The author concludes that citizens must assume a collective responsibility for re-creating social environments that will accommodate unprecedented complexities of intergenerational living in today's world.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We examine frequency of church attendance by marital status, children, and religious preference. Using panel data from the 1975 and 1992 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, ordered logit models determine probabilities of church attendance in middle and older age. Findings support prior notions that the presence of children increases probabilities of church attendance at middle age. However, the findings also show the presence of children increases probabilities of high-level church attendance in older age. We also find support for prior notions that divorce and separation decrease probabilities of high-level church attendance at middle age, but our findings also show divorce and separation decrease probabilities of high-level church attendance in older age, and contrary to prior findings, the decreased probabilities are more severe for Catholics in both middle and older age.

Supporting Publications:
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Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores aging from a variety of perspectives: biological, psychological, narrative. We explore the positive aspecting of aging in relation to teaching and to the world.