Who Gets to Grow Old Well? With Didier Eribon

How does social inequality shape the experience of growing older? This evening philosopher Didier Eribon, one of the most influential French thinkers of his generation, will speak about the intersections of class, ageing, and inequality.

When his mother was 87, Didier Eribon took her to a nursing home. Living at home was no longer an option. But once there, her situation quickly deteriorated. She let her children know that she was deeply unhappy. Seven weeks later, she had died.

People in nursing homes do not exist as a political class, Eribon argues. They do not vote, cannot organize themselves, let alone take to the streets. Yet their situation is often deeply distressing and lonely. And the number of very old people is growing. As a society, we give too little thought to old age, Eribon argues. Young people believe it has nothing to do with them, while older people find it depressing.

Eribon’s work Returning to Reims (2018) became an international reference point for understanding class, social mobility, and inequality. In his latest book, The Life, Old Age, and Death of a Working-Class Woman (2024), Eribon turns his attention to the final stage of life. Reflecting on the decline and death of his mother, he explores how ageing, dependency, and care are deeply shaped by social inequalities.

Didier Eribon is a writer, philosopher and sociologist. He was born in Reims into a working-class family and was the first in his family to complete secondary school. His personal and sociological book Returning to Reims became a major international bestseller. He has published extensively on philosophy, gender, education, homosexuality, nationalism, racism, poverty and politics. He has had a major influence on intellectual debate in France.

Hans-Georg Eilenberger is a philosopher and an assistant professor at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht. His research focuses on the existential significance of aging, with a particular emphasis on the role of the body and the experiences of older people with queer or trans backgrounds. In his dissertation, Embodying Age: A Phenomenology of the Older Body, he demonstrates how the aging body serves as a source of meaning and explains why aging well is inextricably linked to issues of social justice.