ABSTRACT
In a thought-provoking essay, Améry describes ageing as a conglomeration of symbols and associations which, all together, indicate decrement and the end of an era. In times of demographic changes in the Western world, most importantly ageing societies, the structuring concept of age, as well as the boundaries between young and old, functions as one of the main categories among which social struggles manifest themselves. The concept of ageing describes much more than a continuous process of time passing over the life-course. Taken-for-granted categories such as child, adult, youth, middle age or old age mark and describe particular stages during life, which entail specific associations. Aggregation, that is, the presentation of people as numbers or unities, fulfils several functions. Apart from physical functions, people's mental capacities and performances are an important component of the construction of the group of the elderly.
