Paper long abstract:

As global ageing populations continue to pose challenges to societal models, healthcare systems and welfare states, the ageing body has come under intense scrutiny. Clinical trials examining the intrinsic biological ageing process, the potentials of human longevity and the benefits of lifestyle factors pose the ageing body as a model organism apt for modification and ready for change.

Drawing on the idea of the 'athlete as model organism' proposed by Andi Johnson (2013), we wish to explore how ageing bodies are examined, performed and configured in laboratory work. The ageing body is different from the athlete body as a model organism on a range of parameters (fitness, level of expertise, accommodation of laboratory techniques, reasons for participating), but there are also important similarities. Firstly, the ageing body is human and interacts with the scientists in contrast to mice or fruit flies. Secondly, elderly are often easily accessible for the scientists, as one of the reasons that they are interesting model organisms is that they are in abundance.

By using ethnography from two Danish research projects on healthy ageing, we argue that the ageing body is a model organism with specific requirements and needs in the laboratory setting. We propose that ethnographic exploration of the ageing bodies as they travel from everyday life to the lab and back is crucial in order to understand how the 'modelling' effects the ageing body, and how the ageing body lets itself be an object of such scrutiny.