Culture, multiculturalism and ageing: towards a postmodern interpretation

Nursing care of older people is informed by many different theoretical frameworks. This paper contends that two such frameworks, the lifecourse theory and some aspects of Western medicine are cultural constructs that are often seen as normative therefore obscuring the power relations implicit in these constructions. The paper argues that nurses are implicated in reproducing these cultural constructions but more particularly, these constructions may have no meaning for non-English speaking older people. Finally, the paper suggests that nurses could benefit from a more localised, contextual view of ageing.