Towards a gerontology of everything: A more-than-human perspective

Abstract

Engaging with the special issue's theme of ‘The growing older of humans, non-humans and more-than-humans’, this commentary provides an overview of how social theory has engaged with the ageing body. Beginning with discussion of initial scholarship in the sociology of the body, the commentary provides thoughts on how more-than-human theory, both ‘old’ and ‘new’ materialisms, can contribute to a deeper understanding of how human bodies age alongside nonhuman living things, situated in place and space. This approach acknowledges the distributed forces, agencies and capacities that are generated with and through the relational encounters of humans with nonhuman agents as they move through the life course. The commentary ends with some suggestions for incorporating a ‘gerontology of everything’ perspective into ageing studies as a step towards more-than-human mutual flourishing.