Gerontogovernmentality and the governance of aging in contemporary societies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65598/rps.6027Keywords:
Gerontogovernmentality, Biopolitics, Aging, Old ageAbstract
A series of narratives have emerged around the aging of the population, describing this process as a silent revolution, a crisis, or a window of opportunity. The plurality of existing narratives are specific ways of problematizing and managing aging and old age as an object of knowledge, calculation, and intervention. Taking Foucault's analysis of biopolitics and governmentality as a starting point, this article elaborates, proposes, and justifies the concept of gerontogovernmentality as a critical tool for analyzing the contemporary governance of aging and aged bodies. Based on a genealogical reconstruction of the emergence of aging as a population problem, particularly in Chile, it shows how these new rationalities, techniques, and devices have focused on the aging and old age of the population, extending and reconfiguring biopolitical logics. The argument we propose focuses on the difference between gerontogovernmentality and broader notions such as the governance of old age, demonstrating its analytical productivity in observing, for example, pension policies, social participation, empowerment, and health promotion as artifacts for the calculation and management of the aging population. Finally, we discuss the theoretical, methodological, and political implications of gerontogovernmentality, suggesting future lines of empirical research that address the tensions between care, control, and resistance in the governance of old age.
Downloads
References
Burch, J. B., Augustine, A. D., Frieden, L. A., Hadley, E., Howcroft, T. K., Johnson, R., Khalsa, P. S., Kohanski, R. A., Li, X. L., Macchiarini, F., Niederehe, G., Oh, Y. S., Pawlyk, A. C., Rodriguez, H., Rowland, J. H., Shen, G. L., Sierra, F. & Wise, B. C. (2014). Advances in geroscience: impact on healthspan and chronic disease. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 69(1), S1-S3. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glu041
Chovar, A., Vásquez, F., y Paraje, G. (2014). Desigualdad e inequidad en la utilización de servicios médicos según grupos etarios en Chile, 2000-2011. Revista panamericana de salud pública, 36(3), 171-178. https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/9858
EAEA. (2025, junio 26). Active Ageing: European frameworks and progress. https://eaea.org/2025/06/26/active-ageing-european-frameworks-and-progress/
Escamilla, F. (2023). Biopoder y gubernamentalidad de la vejez en México. TRAMAS. Subjetividad Y Procesos Sociales, 33(57), 17-44. https://doi.org/10.24275/tramas/uamx/20225717-44
European Commission. (2012, Enero, 13). Active ageing and solidarity between generations: A statistical portrait of the European Union 2012. Publications Office of the European Union. Disponible en: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/ks-ep-11-001
Fletcher, J. R. (2020). Anti-aging technoscience & the biologization of cumulative inequality: Affinities in the biopolitics of successful aging. Journal of Aging Studies. 55, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2020.100899
Foucault, M. (2007). Seguridad, territorio y población. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Foucault, M. (2008). Nacimiento de la biopolítica. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Foucault, M. (2012). Historia de la sexualidad. 1. La voluntad de saber. Siglo XXI Editores.
Foucault, M. (2021). Defender la sociedad. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Gilleard, C. & Higgs, P. (2000). Cultures of ageing: Self, citizen and body. Prentice Hall.
Kalache, A. & Gatti, A. (2003). Active ageing: a policy framework. Advances in gerontology. 23(2), 7-18
Katz, S. (1996). Disciplining old age: The formation of gerontological knowledge. University of Virginia Press.
Kennedy, B. K., Berger, S. L., Brunet, A., Campisi, J., Cuervo, A. M., Epel, E. S., Franceschi, C., Lithgow, G. J., Morimoto, R. I., Pessin, J. E., Rando, T. A., Richardson, A., Schadt, E. E., Wyss-Coray, T., & Sierra, F. (2014). Geroscience: linking aging to chronic disease. Cell. 159(4), 709-713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.10.039
López-Otín, C., Blasco, M. A., Patridge, L., Serrano, M. & Kroemer, G. (2013). The Hallmarks of Aging. Cell. 153(6), 1194-1217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.039
Mbembe, A. (2011). Necropolítica. Melusina.
Minkler, M. & Estes, C. (1999). Critical gerontology: Perspectives from political and moral economy. Baywood Pub.
Moya, M. O. (2013). Genealogía de una vejez no anunciada: biopolítica de los cuerpos envejecidos o del advenimiento de la gerontogubernamentalidad. Polis, Revista Latinoamericana, 12(36), 431-451. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-65682013000300019
Neilson, B. (2003). Globalization and the Biopolitics of Aging. CR: The New Centennial Review, 3(2), 161-186. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41949391
Neilson, B. (2006). Anti-Ageing Cultures, Biopolitics and Globalisation. Cultural Studies Review. 12(2), 149-164. https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v12i2.2341
Pieper, J. (2008). Salvar vidas y gestar la modernidad: Médicos, mujeres y programas de planificación familiar en Chile. En M.S. Zárate (Comp). Por la salud del cuerpo. Historia y políticas sanitarias en Chile. (pp. 189-228). Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
Rose, N. (2001). The politics of life itself. Theory, Culture & Society. 18(6), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632760122052020
Rose, N. (2012). Políticas de la vida. Biomedicina, poder y subjetividad en el Siglo XXI. UNIPE: Editorial Universitaria.
Sierra, F. & Kohanski, R. A. (2013). Geroscience Offers a New Model for Investigating the Links Between Aging Biology and Susceptibility to Aging-Related Chronic Diseases. Public Policy & Aging Report, 23(4), 7-9. https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/23.4.7
Talay, A., Belikov, A. V., To, P. K. P., Alfatemi, H. H., Alon, U., Deelen, J., Ewald, C. Y., Gems, D., Gorbunova, V., Gruber, J., Hägg, S., Hemming, J., Horvath, S., Kaya, A., Lewis, C. J., Maier, A. B., Marinova, M. B., Pawelec, G., Peleg, S., Rattan, S., … de Magalhães, J. P. (2025). Open problems in ageing science: a roadmap for biogerontology. GeroScience. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01964-4
WHO. (2020, diciembre 14). Década de Envejecimiento Saludable 2020-2030. Disponible en: https://www.who.int/es/publications/m/item/decade-of-healthy-ageing-plan-of-action?sfvrsn=b4b75ebc_25
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Authors retain copyright and transfer to the journal the right of first publication and publishing rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Those authors who publish in this journal accept the following terms:
-
Authors retain copyright.
-
Authors transfer to the journal the right of first publication. The journal also owns the publishing rights.
-
All published contents are governed by an Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Access the informative version and legal text of the license. By virtue of this, third parties are allowed to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal. If you transform the material, you may not distribute the modified work. -
Authors may make other independent and additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., inclusion in an institutional repository or publication in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.
- Authors are allowed and recommended to publish their work on the Internet (for example on institutional and personal websites), following the publication of, and referencing the journal, as this could lead to constructive exchanges and a more extensive and quick circulation of published works (see The Effect of Open Access).
