The Contingencies of Exercise Science in a Globalising World: Ageing Chinese Canadians and their Play and Pleasure in Exercise

Abstract

Growing concern over the ‘greying’ of North America, and in particular the construction of ageing bodies as an imminent threat to already over-stressed health care systems, has challenged gerontologists and policy makers who pose physical activity as the ‘positive’ against which the ‘negative’ forces of dependency, illness and loneliness in old age may be mitigated (Katz, 2000). In recent years, especially, scientists are trying to identify the correct dose of exercise required to prevent or reverse cognitive decline, as well as the best type and amount to promote independent living in older adults (Peterson et al., 2010; Sofi et al., 2011). Framed this way, physical activity fits nicely within the Western gerontological model of ‘successful ageing’ that, as Cruikshank (2009) points out, brings business standard measures to a complex human process along with a homogenous perspective that overlooks the very important role that class, race and gender plays in determining how healthy we are in old age.