ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines key forces behind the growing interest in emotion and the body. It focuses on everyday spaces where interest in embodiment and emotion has grown, albeit largely in line with a neoliberal agenda and not without reinforcing ageist stereotypes. The chapter presents developments and debates in humanist, feminist and non-representational geographies that influence and place limitations on how we view emotions. It examines how emotion and affect can enhance our understanding of older people's being and well-being in the world. Using research on dementia as an example, the chapter argues that careful attention to embodied experiences and feelings may help us get closer to understanding complex experiences of ageing from the inside as well as in relation to other people and places. A growing body of dementia research in the social sciences illustrates that a focus on embodiment and emotion can help us challenge the narrative of loss that pervades popular discourse around ageing, in general, and dementia.
