ABSTRACT
It is possible if we take each pattern of inequality (class, race, gender and age) to see that for each there is a characteristic pattern of domination and of differentiation. However, we can also see that there are common elements in these two patterns. If we take class, the pattern of domination is usually called capitalism, and processes by which this form of domination has been reproduced have been discussed extensively and include processes of exploitation and processes of hegemony (the dominance of particular ways of thinking). If we look at gender, the pattern of domination is usually called patriarchy, but processes of exploitation and hegemony have also been used to explain this pattern of domination. The domination involved in ethnicity has been called nationalism or perhaps imperialism or racialism. Again in this case the reproduction of these patterns of dominance has been through exploitation, hegemonic domination and processes conceptually similar to those that operate for gender and class. If we then look at domination on the basis of age we can see that this can either be a form of patriarchy (as discussed in Ch. 5) and associated with the kinship order in society, or, in modern industrial society, it is more likely to be expressed as ageism. In Chapter 5 I illustrated how exploita-
tion can be seen to work in the case of old age; and in Chapter 4, how the cultural/ideological construction of old age works and can thus also be interpreted as a hegemonic process. Both lead to domination.
