This paper addresses the absence of the term ‘senescence’ in recent social science literature on ageing. The significance of this omission is considered in light of the emerging standpoint of gero-science, which argues that the central processes defining ageing are concerned with the rising probability of functional decline, development of degenerative disease and death. From this perspective, the separation of ageing and senescence sustains the myth that there exist forms of ageing that are exempt from senescence. The persistence of this myth underlies ageing studies, the sociology of later life and most social gerontology. While there have been undoubted benefits arising from this bracketing out of senescence, the argument of this paper is that the continuing advances associated with this standpoint are outweighed by the need to seriously engage with the consequences of contemporary societal ageing and the centrality of the processes of senescence in establishing an adequate understanding of ageing, its correlates and contingencies and its personal and social consequences.

本文讨论了最近有关老龄化的社会科学文献中缺乏“衰老”一词的问题。这一遗漏的重要性是根据老年科学的新兴观点来考虑的，该观点认为，定义衰老的核心过程与功能衰退、退行性疾病和死亡的可能性上升有关。从这个角度来看，衰老和衰老的分离维持了这样一个神话，即存在着免于衰老的衰老形式。这一神话的持续存在是老龄化研究、晚年社会学和大多数社会老年学的基础。虽然这种将衰老排除在外的做法无疑带来了好处，但本文的论点是，与这一观点相关的持续进步被认真对待当代社会老龄化的后果和老龄化进程的中心性的需要所抵消。衰老，以建立对衰老及其相关因素和意外事件及其个人和社会后果的充分理解。