From Neoliberalism To The Symbolic Exchange of Care: COVID-19 and Representations of Later Life in Ontario, Canada

Developing and extending radical Durkheimian sociology, this dissertation examines individual and collective representations shaping the constitution of retirement, old age, and aging (ROAA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada. The research employs contextual and semiological analyses of culture found in news media, and a photovoice study with six participants aged 70+ about the impact of retirement and the pandemic on their social identities. The findings of this multimethod approach reveal tensions and contradictions about ROAA in the conscience collective. While the pandemic brought substantial changes to the everyday lives of older persons, the underlying neoliberal order that prioritizes individual responsibility, productivity, and the perpetual deferral of dependency persisted, continuing to shape cultural attitudes, judgments, perceptions, and social practices related to later life. In effect, the pandemic is a catalyst, again intensifying and revealing enduring moral imperatives about ROAA, structured through a social binary that contrasts the heroic, self-sufficient neoliberal older subject with the abject dependent. These moral threads illustrate how neoliberal cultural logic continues to shape the symbolic, material, and experiential framing of later life. The valorization of productivity and self-management, coupled with the marginalization of those deemed “burdens” on the socioeconomic order, creates continual pressure on older persons to prove their capacity to embody the heroic ideal, driven by the fear of slipping into the abject position. Neoliberal cultural logic erodes the social mechanisms for altruistic forms of care, reconstituting these practices into a form of fatalistic altruism, where care becomes transactional and governed by capitalist principles. The analysis destabilizes the hegemony of neoliberal rationality, creating a discursive space to re-articulate socio-political frameworks about dependency and care in line with radical Durkheimianism. This dissertation develops an alternative symbolic exchange of care approach that re-imagines care in light of the fundamental societal need for non-economic social relations, interdependency, and reciprocal moral obligation. Such social conditions also facilitate the realization of core aspects of social democracy and social rights that can serve as a framework for policy development, cultural attitudes, morality, and justice. The symbolic exchange of care framework subjects the commodification of care to sociological critique and encourages exploring contemporary practices and rituals that support genuine social solidarity.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.