Aging, Nationalism, and Politics
subjectCourse Description
This course explores the intersection of aging, ethnicity, and nationalism to understand why older adults are often drawn to exclusionary political movements—and what nationalism offers them in return. Topics include the emotional appeal of nationhood, how life course experiences structure political worldviews, and the role of everyday practices in reproducing nationhood. Drawing on empirical examples from North America and Europe, we analyze right-wing and liberal expressions of nationalism among seniors, from border activism and gun rights to campaigns for public pensions and racial justice. Designed for students in sociology and related disciplines, this course invites reflection on the politics of aging and the ways older adults navigate belonging, loss, and identity in changing societies.
task_altKey Learning Objectives
Subject Mastery
Examine how life course experiences and later-life transitions shape national belonging and political worldviews.
Evaluate the emotional and everyday dimensions of nationhood
Assess how affect, memory, and routine practices reproduce nationalism among older adults.
Compare political mobilization across ideological contexts
Analyze left- and right-wing political movements involving seniors
Apply sociological theory to empirical cases of aging and politics
Use theories of nationalism, ethnicity, and aging to interpret empirical research on older adults’ political participation.
event_noteCourse Schedule & Topics
Introduction, Defining Terms, and Subfields of Aging and Nationalism
Introduces key concepts in the sociology of aging and nationalism, with attention to life course theory and the social construction of nationhood.
Banal Nationalism, Everyday Nationhood, and Getting Old
Examines how everyday practices and symbols reproduce nationhood and shape older adults’ experiences of belonging and identity.
Feeling the Nation in Later Life
Explores the emotional, sensory, and affective dimensions of nationalism as experienced in later life, including nostalgia, memory, and loss.
Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Community-Building in Later Life
Analyzes how ethnicity and place structure community formation, cultural continuity, and national identification among older adults.
Life Course Experiences and Sociopolitical History
Examines how historical events and cohort-based life experiences shape political attitudes and national attachments over the life course.
Seniors and Politics I—Activating the Political Left
Explores progressive and left-oriented political mobilization among older adults, including welfare-state activism, feminist movements, and solidarity.
Seniors and Politics II—Borders, Guns, and the Political Right
Analyzes older adults’ participation in right-wing and exclusionary political movements, focusing on nationalism, security, and moral citizenship.