Manaal Syed
Age-based forms of exclusion are key subject areas in aging studies. Yet the epistemological roots of the discipline&s;s prominent aging frameworks and their enduring impact on theorizing Canada&s;s diverse, aging population remain underexplored. To address this gap in the scholarship, this chapter provides a conceptual analysis of the epistemologies informing major aging perspectives and their impact on the contemporary knowledge base on aging. This foundation is then paralleled with one key epistemic site in society (i.e., the news media) and examines how it cultivates exclusionary social representations of diverse aging and older adults. Using an epistemic injustice theoretical framework anchored in contributory injustice, illustrative examples from studies of news media coverage and a media event case example are analyzed. Implications for social work practice are then proposed, including the need for new and/or reformed epistemic resources that can expand and diversify the knowledge base on aging through rich, alternative forms of epistemic knowledge representation by diverse older adults. The chapter concludes by articulating an ethics and value base of social justice where older adults’ agency as the “knowers” and “tellers” of their own stories is prioritized in order to resist the epistemic boundaries that attempt to confine their aging.