The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the age-related life experiences of elderly retired people and in relation to this to problematise ageism as an analytical concept in order to present a more dynamic understanding of the phenomenon of ageism in everyday life. Related to the overall objective three overarching research questions are addressed. How do elderly individuals relate to “age” in life and how do they express this in contexts in which standpoints are made in relation to age-codes? What can be generally said to represent the foundation of elderly people’s experiences of ageism? What all-embracing picture of ageism and age-coding is made visible when the phenomenon is examined using different kinds of methods for collecting and analysing empirical material? Research within the field of ageism is presented in terms of how it has been examined: as an ideology, as an “ideology” that is possible to deconstruct and as manifestations in everyday life. The hegemonic way of defining ageism is to associate it with prejudice, stereotyping and discriminationbased on age. This is viewed to be insufficient in order to understand ageism in everyday life. The positioning of the thesis in relation to the research field is therefore seen as problematising ageism as an analytical concept. The thesis consists of three different studies that are based on three different empirical materials. Life-stories, a questionnaire and focus group interviews are used to collect empirical material on the subject of elderly people’s age-related life experiences. The empirical materials and the studies connected to them are distinct ways of investigating ageism. Tentatively, methodtriangulation is applied in order to analyse the topic of ageism in everyday life from differenttheoretical perspectives. The most important conclusion is that ageism can be understood more dynamically as a practise that is exceptionally close to us individuals in everyday life. It is suggested that ageism is not only associated to age. Informants use alternative age-markers or time-markers in relation to which theyascribe meaning. When individuals tell their life-story the experiences are for example not tied to age. Age is hardly ever mentioned. In its place meaning is constructed around and ascribed to timemarkers such as for example “young”, “old”, “year”, “month”, “elderly” and so on. The use of and ascription of meaning to time-markers is also applicable in the other studies in the thesis. These alternative time-markers are suggested as something that also indicate ageism. Experiences and meaning are not solely focused on age. However, the meaning constructed in relation to the alternative markers is not unanimous, even if it sometimes appears to be. The experienced meaning takes many different forms and can by no means be fixated once and for all. An important conclusion is also that we cannot disregard gender in the understanding of ageism. It seems imperative to practice intersectional reasoning in order to understand the dynamics of ageism. Gendered ageism or gendered time-coding is essential in comprehending what people experience in everyday life.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur ålder beaktades, användes och konstruerades hos yrkesverksamma socionomer. Studien hade utgångspunkt i teorierna och begreppen ålderism, ålderskodning och social identity theory. I studien intervjuades fem yrkesverksamma socionomer från olika platser i Sverige om deras föreställningar av ålder och dess betydelse samt påverkan inom det sociala arbetet. Resultatet analyserades genom ett diskursanalytiskt perspektiv med betoning på både det explicita och implicita som förmedlades under intervjuerna. Resultatet visade hur ålder kunde kodas till specifika beteenden, där det även existerade olika förväntningar av beteenden för olika åldersgrupper som primärt bestod av de gamla och de unga. Resultatet visade även att den kronologiska åldern besatt starka värdeladdningar som gav uttryck i hur respondenterna betraktade sig själva och sin omgivning, samtidigt som det existerade en problematik i att inte känna sig som sin kronologiska ålder. Olika åldersgrupper förmedlades besitta olika värden beroende på vilken kontext de sattes inom där yngre besatt en hög status i samhället men en låg status inom det sociala arbetet. Det framkom att erfarenhet värderades som en viktig resurs inom professionen som var starkt kodad till en äldre ålder. Ålder beskrevs vara ett objekt för grupptillhörighet samt utanförskap inom arbetsplatser vilket var en av flera grunder för åldersdiskriminering primärt riktad mot de yngre socionomerna. Åldersdiskriminering framgick även vara förekommande inom det sociala arbetet på ledningsnivå. En slutsats som drogs var att ålderism och ålderskodning tolkades ha en närvaro i det sociala arbetet.

RESUME My dissertation follows the subject of coding procedure. It focuses on the graphical coding, which naturally reveals within the child's artwork development. The dissertation aims at the transformation of 2D to 3D, vice versa. The four to five years old children are observed how they decode the three dimensional (3D) structure consisted of cubes into a two dimensional (2D) squared network. Observed children are offered various activities to prove whether they are able to accept the code, using the code to decode their own structure and finally build the structure using this code. My dissertation does not only represent an overview of commonly used symbols and methods and their records, but in particular brings interesting results and analyses of tests and comparations between individual children and kindergartens.