Special Issue JRAI “Ageing time beings: Temporality and ethics in old ages”

Proposing to understand humans as time beings, this special issue of the JRAI invites readers to explore the intricate relationship between ageing and time through particular experiences of ageing time beings. What can we learn about time and general anthropological theory by taking seriously experiences of ageing time beings from different places in the world? Drawing on ethnographic insights from Canada, Denmark, India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, and the USA, the collection challenges conventional representations of ageing by examining diverse modes of experiencing and measuring time. It probes how large-scale historical changes, institutional time regimes, intimate rhythms, and singular moments of lived experience intertwine to reveal the multiplicity – and inherent groundlessness – of temporal realities. By engaging with dominant narratives such as ‘active ageing’ and ‘filial piety’, as well as less conventional values and poetics of ageing and time, the issue foregrounds both the uncertainties and the possibilities of ‘the good’ that may emerge in later life.