Critical Perspectives on Aging

Critical Perspectives on Aging
Author: Meredith Minkler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1991
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Brings together 20 critical essays on aging within the context of the broad social, political, and economic factors that help shape and determine the realities of growing old. This work explores the social creation of old age dependency and the profound influence of race, gender, and social class on what it means to grow old.

Women in Late Life

Women in Late Life
Author: Martha Holstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2015-03-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1442222883

Contemporary old age is fraught with contradiction and complexity—women portrayed either as incompetent and cuddly grandmothers or as young women trapped in old bodies, images that rarely reflect how women actually see themselves. Women in Late Life explores the thorny issues related to gender and aging, including prevailing but problematic cultural expectations, body image, ageism, the experience of chronic illness, threats to Social Security and the very possibility of a secure retirement while challenging a long-term care system that disadvantages women. Author Martha Holstein writes from a critical feminist perspective, drawing on her many years of experience in gerontology, as well as interviews and personal experience as a woman now in her seventies. The book highlights how women’s experience of late life is shaped by the effects of lifelong gender norms, by contemporary culture—from gender stereotypes to ageism—and by the political context. The book blends critique with proposals aimed at resisting damaging inequities resulting from being simultaneously old and a woman. She focuses on changes needed on multiple levels—societal, cultural, political, and individual. This interdisciplinary look at key questions around gender and aging is nuanced and beautifully written.

Successful Aging

Successful Aging
Author: John Wallis Rowe
Publisher: Random House Large Print Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Aging
ISBN: 9780375701795

Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.

Rural Gerontology

Rural Gerontology
Author: Mark Skinner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2020-12-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000338363

This book provides the first foundation of knowledge about the intellectual traditions, contemporary scope and future prospects for the interdisciplinary field of rural gerontology. With a focus on rural regions, small towns and villages, which have the highest rates of population ageing worldwide, Rural Gerontology is aimed at understanding what it means for rural people, communities and institutions to be at the forefront of twenty-first-century demographic change. The book offers important insights from rural ageing studies into today’s most pressing gerontological problems. With chapters from more than 65 established and emerging rural ageing researchers, it is the first synthesis of knowledge about rural gerontology, harnessing a burgeoning interdisciplinary scholarship on the rural dimensions of ageing, old age and older populations. With a view to advancing a critical understanding of rural ageing populations, this book will have an overreaching impact across the social sciences by drawing on advancements in understandings of rural ageing from social, environmental, geographical and critical gerontology to facilitate a comprehensive exploration of the diversity, complexity and implications of the ageing process in rural settings. Bringing together valuable international perspectives, this book makes a timely contribution to gerontology, rural studies and the social sciences, and will appeal to scholars and researchers across USA and Canada, UK and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, China and countries in Africa, South America and South-East Asia.

Critical Gerontology

Critical Gerontology
Author: Meredith Minkler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 390
Release: 1999
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780895031846

This refreshing book uses broad political and moral economy perspectives to explore the intersections of race, class, gender and aging and how these help determine the experience of aging and growing old. The twenty chapter volume includes new contributions by many of the top names in critical gerontology. Both political and economic factors, and those shared norms about fairness and obligation that help shape our aging policies, are examined in relation to a wide range of contemporary issues in gerontology.

Aging, Globalization and Inequality

Aging, Globalization and Inequality
Author: Jan Baars
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2016-11-03
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1351845918

This book is a major reassessment of work in the field of critical gerontology, providing a comprehensive survey of issues by a team of contributors drawn from Europe and North America. The book focuses on the variety of ways in which age and ageing are socially constructed, and the extent to which growing old is being transformed through processes associated with globalisation. The collection offers a range of alternative views and visions about the nature of social ageing, making a major contribution to theory-building within the discipline of gerontology. The different sections of the book give an overview of the key issues and concerns underlying the development of critical gerontology. These include: first, the impact of globalisation and of multinational organizations and agencies on the lives of older people; second, the factors contributing to the "social construction" of later life; and third, issues associated with diversity and inequality in old age, arising through the effects of cumulative advantage and disadvantage over the life course. These different themes are analysed using a variety of theoretical perspectives drawn from sociology, social policy, political science, and social anthropology. "Aging, Globalization and Inequality" brings together key contributors to critical perspectives on aging and is unique in the range of themes and concerns covered in a single volume. The study moves forward an important area of debate in studies of aging, and thus provides the basis for a new type of critical gerontology relevant to the twenty-first century.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Aging

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Aging
Author: Lynn M. Tepper, MA, MS, EDM,EdD
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2004-09-28
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780826125767

In this multidisciplinary text, noted leaders from a variety of fields provide students and professionals with a big picture approach to the best possible care for todayís growing aging population. Addressing the extensive concerns that have arisen out of an increased life expectancy and the ìelder-boomî of aging baby boomers, the contributors point to changing care and housing needs; health, mental health, and wellness concerns; and financial, ethical, and legal issues in elder care. Contributors include Eileen Chichin, Catherine DeLorey, Marshall Kapp, Gary Kennedy, William Smith, Patricia Miller, and Thomas Campbell Jackson.

Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies

Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies
Author: Miriam Bernard
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This important new book brings together some of the best known international scholars working within a critical gerontology perspective. Together, they review and update our understanding of how the field has developed over the last twenty-five years and, through the lens of 'passionate scholarship', provide a challenging assessment of the complex practical and ethical issues facing older people, and those who conduct research on ageing, in the 21st century. The contributions extend the critical gerontological approach conceptually, methodologically and practically. They offer close and scholarly analysis of policies affecting the lives of older people and provide insights into why research is done in particular ways. Special attention is paid to feminist contributions and new approaches to working in partnership with older people; age discrimination and ageism; the impact of neo-liberal policies and the passage of various human rights instruments; the re-medicalisation of later life; the participation of older people in research; and justice between generations. The editors and contributors offer suggestions for promoting change, and an exciting set of visions and perspectives for the renewal and development of critical gerontology in the years ahead."Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies" will be a valuable resource for all students, academics and practitioners interested in ageing and the life course.

Preventing Dementia?

Preventing Dementia?
Author: Annette Leibing
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1789209102

The conceptualization of dementia has changed dramatically in recent years with the claim that, through early detection and by controlling several risk factors, a prevention of dementia is possible. Although encouraging and providing hope against this feared condition, this claim is open to scrutiny. This volume looks at how this new conceptualization ignores many of the factors which influence a dementia sufferers’ prognosis, including their history with education, food and exercise as well as their living in different epistemic cultures. The central aim is to question the concept of prevention and analyze its impact on aging people and aging societies.

Rural ageing

Rural ageing
Author: Keating, Norah C
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2008-05-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1847424031

This important book addresses a growing international interest in 'age-friendly' communities. It examines the conflicting stereotypes of rural communities as either idyllic and supportive or isolated and bereft of services. Providing detailed information on the characteristics of rural communities, contributors ask the question, 'good places for whom'? The book extends our understanding of the intersections of rural people and places across the adult lifecourse. Taking a critical human ecology perspective, authors trace lifecourse changes in community and voluntary engagement and in the availability of social support. They illustrate diversity among older adults in social inclusion and in the types of services that are essential to their well being. For the first time, detailed information is provided on characteristics of rural communities that make them supportive to different groups of older adults. Comparisons between the UK and North America highlight similarities in how landscapes create rural identities, and fundamental differences in how climate, distance and rural culture shape the everyday lives of older adults. Rural ageing is a valuable resource for students, academics and practitioners interested in communities, rural settings and ageing and the lifecourse. Rich in national profiles and grounded in the narratives of older adults, it provides theoretical, empirical and practical examples of growing old in rural communities never before presented.