Biilliards, rhythms, collectives - Billiards at a Danish activity center as a culturally specific form of active ageing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biilliards, rhythms, collectives - Billiards at a Danish activity center as a culturally specific form of active ageing

AU - Lassen, Aske Juul

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Through an ethnographic study of older men playing billiards at an activity centre and a document study of how the concept of activity has changed during the last 60 years, this article argues that active ageing policies overlook that activities are culturally significant forms of practise situated in socio-material collectives. The active ageing policies create a hierarchy between activities, wherein constant physical activity is at the core of a healthy old age. But in billiards activity and passivity are meticulously composed into a rhythm that enables the players to play for hours and produces a collective practise. The article concludes that activity and passivity are entangled and that billiards contains some qualities that could be translated into active ageing policy.

AB - Through an ethnographic study of older men playing billiards at an activity centre and a document study of how the concept of activity has changed during the last 60 years, this article argues that active ageing policies overlook that activities are culturally significant forms of practise situated in socio-material collectives. The active ageing policies create a hierarchy between activities, wherein constant physical activity is at the core of a healthy old age. But in billiards activity and passivity are meticulously composed into a rhythm that enables the players to play for hours and produces a collective practise. The article concludes that activity and passivity are entangled and that billiards contains some qualities that could be translated into active ageing policy.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - aging

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0425-4597

JO - Ethnologia Europaea. Journal of European Ethnology

JF - Ethnologia Europaea. Journal of European Ethnology

ER -