ABSTRACT
It is necessary to link together the two themes of social construction of identity and meaning and the production of inequality. This will produce both a better view of inequality and a better understanding of the social significance of age. Both these elements are required for an adequate theoretical formulation. Hence the stress in this chapter on social differentiation (which draws on the constructionist themes) and dominance (which draws on materialist themes). However, I do not see these two processes as independent and equivalent. The constructionist processes of differentiation take place within the historical sequence of life courses, they are therefore subject to power relationships-the patterns of domination that are historically received at any given time. The problem is specifying accurately the relationship between them.
