Presentation: Aging and Leaving a Mark: A Social History of the Working-Class Life Cycle

Abstract

Work, old age, mobility… These are the threads that weave together this section and its two articles: “Old Age, the ‘Social Question,’ and Migration: Some Historiographical Considerations for 20th-Century Argentina,” by Mirta Zaida Lobato, and “Legislative Permits, Census Forms, and Police Records: Clues for a Social History of Working-Class Old Age,” by Andrea Andújar, Laura Caruso, and Silvana Palermo. The first article presents a range of perspectives on how old age has been studied as a sociocultural phenomenon; the author revisits previous research to rethink the histories and trajectories of migration and aging. The second is a collaborative piece that offers a methodological reflection on legislative permit applications, census forms, and police records—three specific types of public (in the first case) and state (in the latter two) records—examined through the lens of questions central to the social history of working-class old age.