[Socially significant associations of age(ing) and body: social gerontologically founded theories].

The body is more than a biological basic condition; it is provided with social meanings and used for constructing, defining and describing age(ing) in different contexts. The social significance of the body can, for example, be seen by the fact that it is a bearer of age attributes, serves as a display surface and a knowledge bearer for the "normal" and "natural" aging process. Formal and informal chronological age limits are used to describe, divide etc. ageing, without expatiating that certain interpretations of physical attributes are the basis of this construction. In the scientific discourse and in everyday understanding, dichotomous views on the aging body "old means ill" and "successfully old means active" prevail. After a social constructivism and phenomenology discussion, about these socially significant connections of aging and body they are discussed exemplarily based on two interviews. It excerpts that the body-related significance of ageing turns out to be considerably more differentiated in everyday understanding. Therefore, a first intermediate conclusion for research and practice concerning the social significance of the body in the gerontological field has to be reached.