Ambassadors of Active Aging: Analysis of Agency of Old-Age Leaders and Activists in the Optics of Structuration Theory

Abstract

Despite systemic efforts to promote active aging policy in Russia, the level of public participation of a significant part of older Russians remains low. The article reveals the role of leaders and activists of social participation practices who belong to the older generation as ambassadors of active longevity, translating its constructs into actual everyday practices. The purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms of interaction of these activists with social institutions in the framework of Anthony Giddens's structuration theory and its modern interpretations (e.g., William H. Sewell Jr. and Rob Stones). A deductive thematic analysis of 26 in-depth interviews with leaders and activists of social practices from different regions of Russia aged 65 and older revealed a complex dialectic of the interaction of agency and structures. State institutions act as a source of both restrictions and support. Leaders do not enter into conflict with structures, preferring a strategy of pragmatic compromise and “completing” formal systems through creative practices. Inequality in access to resources paradoxically stimulates the agency and mobilization of alternative assets (volunteering, barter, social capital). The agency of senior activists is manifested in creative adaptation and “settling in” rather that the destruction of structures. As ambassadors of active longevity and the “creative class,” they use, reproduce, and transform social structures, constructing new models and meanings of aging.

Article in Russian