The "ageless self"? Emplacement of identities in sun belt retirement communities

In this article, I critique the concept of the "ageless self" and illuminat e its expression as a potent societal script in "successful" aging. The age less self plays nicely into the prolongation of midlife as the leitmotif of contemporary society, conveying little about change and what it means to g row old Nowhere is the image of the ageless self more apparent (transparent ) than in the emplacement of identities in Sun Belt retirement communities. The Arizona Office of Senior Living works in partnership with private indu stry in promoting and marketing Arizona as a place where active affluent "s eniors" live in a blissful and perpetual state of mature adulthood My princ ipal argument is that place-based images of aging are mold and mirror of de eply embedded ageist attitudes and societal values. I call for multiple epi stemologies in exploring the spatiality of aging and in forging a geographi cally informed critical gerontology.