Reclaiming Aging: Editorial Introduction

This editorial introduction proposes a legal-semiotic framework for rethinking aging as a symbolic, cultural, and normative construction rather than a purely biological or demographic condition. Drawing on legal semiotics and semioethics, the article examines how law produces meaning through categories such as dependency, vulnerability, and active aging, revealing their role in shaping social imaginaries and institutional expectations surrounding older persons. The text situates contemporary aging within broader demographic transformations, emphasizing longevity as a structural feature of modern societies that challenges traditional life-course divisions and calls for renewed ethical and legal reflection. Through the overview of the contributions included in the special issue, the editorial highlights three central themes: the persistence of ageist assumptions embedded in legal language and interpretive practices; the emergence of a “grey digital divide,” including both the right to digital participation and the right to disconnection; and philosophical reflections on compulsory retirement and the labor of finitude as a source of renewed agency. Ultimately, the article argues that aging must be understood as a deeply semiotic phenomenon, where legal frameworks actively construct subjectivity, distribute autonomy, and mediate intergenerational relations, thus requiring interdisciplinary approaches that integrate legal theory, cultural analysis, and ethical inquiry to reclaim aging as a space of meaning, autonomy, and social transformation.