Introduction

Having seen how our project participants came to be gerontologists, and what this has meant to them subsequently in career terms, we focus now on the intersections between the professional and the personal. Given that, to date, relatively few gerontologists have interrogated their own experiences of ageing, the invitation to do so as part of the project was a unique opportunity. Participants were asked to consider the ways in which personal ageing may have affected their work lives, and, vice versa, in terms of whether professional knowledge and awareness has been a help or a hindrance when it comes to navigating one's own ageing, or the ageing of close family and friends. This chapter explores both these dimensions. It looks first at the sources and nature of professional knowledge that people draw on and, as a consequence, at the range of practical strategies and activities they have put in place to manage their own and others’ ageing. It then addresses the ways in which experiences of ageing have affected participants’ professional lives. Again, this includes very practical examples relating to teaching, researching and writing, as well as reflections on key issues such as the nature of caring, end of life, and ageing without children. In the last part of the chapter, participants reflect more on the disappointments, surprises and challenges that accompany their personal and professional experiences. We also highlight the complexities of the interrelationship between these two dimensions, showing that the distinction is something of a false dichotomy. Indeed, personal and family experiences of ageing hold up a mirror to professional knowledge and awareness that may be challenging and uncomfortable.

Reflexive gerontologists

With some notable exceptions, relatively few UK gerontologists have yet chosen to examine the links between their personal experiences of ageing and their professional involvements, although, as Cathrine Degnen (2015: 110) suggests, there is now an entire cohort of (cultural) gerontologists – shaped by a particular time and place in history – who are able to reflect differently on the ageing process, including their own ageing.