Tony Warnes and Judith Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861348906
- eISBN:
- 9781447302001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861348906.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter reviews progress in critical gerontology from a British perspective. Drawing on an examination of the first 25 years of the journal Ageing and Society, together with a case study of the ...
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This chapter reviews progress in critical gerontology from a British perspective. Drawing on an examination of the first 25 years of the journal Ageing and Society, together with a case study of the interaction between the members and officials of the Welsh Assembly and gerontological advisers, the chapter clarifies who the variety of interest groups now are in the gerontological enterprise; how gerontology has grown and expanded; and what the strengths and weaknesses of current research are. A number of important challenges for gerontology and gerontologists include the paucity of theoretical development in gerontology; the persistent tension for gerontologists about whether to commit to gerontology or to their base discipline or research field; and the often difficult relationship between research and policy formulation and the dominance of biomedical and problem-oriented perspectives.Less
This chapter reviews progress in critical gerontology from a British perspective. Drawing on an examination of the first 25 years of the journal Ageing and Society, together with a case study of the interaction between the members and officials of the Welsh Assembly and gerontological advisers, the chapter clarifies who the variety of interest groups now are in the gerontological enterprise; how gerontology has grown and expanded; and what the strengths and weaknesses of current research are. A number of important challenges for gerontology and gerontologists include the paucity of theoretical development in gerontology; the persistent tension for gerontologists about whether to commit to gerontology or to their base discipline or research field; and the often difficult relationship between research and policy formulation and the dominance of biomedical and problem-oriented perspectives.
Ann Leahy
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781447357155
- eISBN:
- 9781447357193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447357155.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This Chapter compares key theoretical perspectives on disability and on ageing, engaging especially with critical or cultural studies. It also engages with other areas of scholarship where theorising ...
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This Chapter compares key theoretical perspectives on disability and on ageing, engaging especially with critical or cultural studies. It also engages with other areas of scholarship where theorising on disability and ageing could meet. The discussion starts with social theories of ageing, followed by social theories of disability, and then goes on to discuss an aspect of theorising within the sociology of health and illness and, finally, lifecourse perspectives. The Chapter shows how these various fields currently engage, or fail to engage, with the issue of disability in older age, as well as where there may be room for more conversations across them. It concludes that critical studies encompass a range of perspectives in both disability and ageing and often use similar paradigms to explore ageing and disability. However, the two fields largely progress on separate tracks. There is also a need for more exploration of subjective experiences associated with disability in later life.Less
This Chapter compares key theoretical perspectives on disability and on ageing, engaging especially with critical or cultural studies. It also engages with other areas of scholarship where theorising on disability and ageing could meet. The discussion starts with social theories of ageing, followed by social theories of disability, and then goes on to discuss an aspect of theorising within the sociology of health and illness and, finally, lifecourse perspectives. The Chapter shows how these various fields currently engage, or fail to engage, with the issue of disability in older age, as well as where there may be room for more conversations across them. It concludes that critical studies encompass a range of perspectives in both disability and ageing and often use similar paradigms to explore ageing and disability. However, the two fields largely progress on separate tracks. There is also a need for more exploration of subjective experiences associated with disability in later life.
Chris Phillipson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847427151
- eISBN:
- 9781447302353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847427151.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This chapter assesses Peter's role as the founder in the UK of the sociology of ageing and his influence on the development of critical gerontology. It notes that the article published in the first ...
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This chapter assesses Peter's role as the founder in the UK of the sociology of ageing and his influence on the development of critical gerontology. It notes that the article published in the first issue of Ageing and Society in 1981 represented a systematic attempt to provide a new theoretical framework for the study of ageing. It notes that Peter sought to shift the debate from individual approaches to the social processes that led to the structured dependency of people in later life. It then goes on to consider three major issues for structured dependency theory and critical gerontology more generally: the transformation of retirement; the impact of privatisation and deregulation; and finally, the influence of globalisation. It makes a powerful case for a break with the past and for research and policy on older people to be central to wider debates within social policy, sociology and political science, in the overall.Less
This chapter assesses Peter's role as the founder in the UK of the sociology of ageing and his influence on the development of critical gerontology. It notes that the article published in the first issue of Ageing and Society in 1981 represented a systematic attempt to provide a new theoretical framework for the study of ageing. It notes that Peter sought to shift the debate from individual approaches to the social processes that led to the structured dependency of people in later life. It then goes on to consider three major issues for structured dependency theory and critical gerontology more generally: the transformation of retirement; the impact of privatisation and deregulation; and finally, the influence of globalisation. It makes a powerful case for a break with the past and for research and policy on older people to be central to wider debates within social policy, sociology and political science, in the overall.
Miriam Bernard and Thomas Scharf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861348906
- eISBN:
- 9781447302001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861348906.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
It is an interest in ageing with explicit critical gerontological focus that provides a unique set of understandings about ageing and later life in the 21st century. This chapter describes critical ...
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It is an interest in ageing with explicit critical gerontological focus that provides a unique set of understandings about ageing and later life in the 21st century. This chapter describes critical perspectives on ageing societies. Close scholarly analysis of policies affecting the lives of older people offer challenges to gerontologists and ageing individuals. In addition to the life course orientation, other themes thread their way throughout this book. This chapter notes three particular themes and sets of commitments that stand out in all these explorations. First, all the contributors in the book are committed to illuminating and extending the critical gerontological approach conceptually, methodologically and practically. Second, they are all committed to the importance of research and to the full and proper involvement and participation of older people. Third, they demonstrate an engagement with the ‘passionate scholarship’ which, at heart, aims to bring about change.Less
It is an interest in ageing with explicit critical gerontological focus that provides a unique set of understandings about ageing and later life in the 21st century. This chapter describes critical perspectives on ageing societies. Close scholarly analysis of policies affecting the lives of older people offer challenges to gerontologists and ageing individuals. In addition to the life course orientation, other themes thread their way throughout this book. This chapter notes three particular themes and sets of commitments that stand out in all these explorations. First, all the contributors in the book are committed to illuminating and extending the critical gerontological approach conceptually, methodologically and practically. Second, they are all committed to the importance of research and to the full and proper involvement and participation of older people. Third, they demonstrate an engagement with the ‘passionate scholarship’ which, at heart, aims to bring about change.
Amanda Grenier, Chris Phillipson, and Richard A. Settersten
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The chapter sets the foundation for the exploration of precarity and aging from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, critical perspectives, and contexts. It begins by outlining the concept of ...
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The chapter sets the foundation for the exploration of precarity and aging from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, critical perspectives, and contexts. It begins by outlining the concept of precarity and precariousness in fields such as geography and labour studies, examines how the concept has been applied to late life, and considers its relevance to the field of ageing. It establishes precarity as lens for drawing attention to insecurity and risk in later life. The chapter then poses a series of questions to guide reflection and ground the debates pursued by authors throughout the book, followed by a brief overview of the chapters ahead.Less
The chapter sets the foundation for the exploration of precarity and aging from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, critical perspectives, and contexts. It begins by outlining the concept of precarity and precariousness in fields such as geography and labour studies, examines how the concept has been applied to late life, and considers its relevance to the field of ageing. It establishes precarity as lens for drawing attention to insecurity and risk in later life. The chapter then poses a series of questions to guide reflection and ground the debates pursued by authors throughout the book, followed by a brief overview of the chapters ahead.
Alisoun Milne
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447305729
- eISBN:
- 9781447311904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447305729.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Chapter 3 explores the contribution of the lifecourse approach and social gerontology to understanding mental health outcomes in later life. It also explores the role played by health and social ...
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Chapter 3 explores the contribution of the lifecourse approach and social gerontology to understanding mental health outcomes in later life. It also explores the role played by health and social inequalities. By bringing these perspectives together the Chapter makes visible the ways in which lifecourse inequality and adversity e.g. childhood abuse, create and/or amplify risks to mental health in later life. It also exposes the embedded and structural nature of causative mechanisms. Health inequalities have profound implications for mental health. People from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds suffer disproportionately from common mental disorders, such as depression, across the whole lifecourse. They are also exposed to higher levels of chronic psychosocial stress which, independently and additively, undermines mental wellbeing. These effects are cumulative over the longer term and in more unequal societies; also by exposure to discrimination and oppression. These arguments challenge the dominance of the ‘inevitable decline’ model of ageing exposing a more nuanced complex set of intersecting risks to mental health that are structurally located and socially produced. The role of policy in addressing health inequalities and their social determinants was a key dimension of mental health policy until 2011; since then it has become increasingly uncoupled from the policy agenda.Less
Chapter 3 explores the contribution of the lifecourse approach and social gerontology to understanding mental health outcomes in later life. It also explores the role played by health and social inequalities. By bringing these perspectives together the Chapter makes visible the ways in which lifecourse inequality and adversity e.g. childhood abuse, create and/or amplify risks to mental health in later life. It also exposes the embedded and structural nature of causative mechanisms. Health inequalities have profound implications for mental health. People from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds suffer disproportionately from common mental disorders, such as depression, across the whole lifecourse. They are also exposed to higher levels of chronic psychosocial stress which, independently and additively, undermines mental wellbeing. These effects are cumulative over the longer term and in more unequal societies; also by exposure to discrimination and oppression. These arguments challenge the dominance of the ‘inevitable decline’ model of ageing exposing a more nuanced complex set of intersecting risks to mental health that are structurally located and socially produced. The role of policy in addressing health inequalities and their social determinants was a key dimension of mental health policy until 2011; since then it has become increasingly uncoupled from the policy agenda.
Chris Phillipson, Amanda Grenier, and Richard A. Settersten
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The chapter summarises the importance of ideas associated with precarity and precariousness for understanding later life. The discussion is framed within the context of the development of critical ...
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The chapter summarises the importance of ideas associated with precarity and precariousness for understanding later life. The discussion is framed within the context of the development of critical gerontology. The chapter considers how the concept of precarity extends our understanding of the range of insecurities faced in later life. It also considers how the example of a human rights perspective can be used to challenge some of the vulnerabilities experienced by older people.Less
The chapter summarises the importance of ideas associated with precarity and precariousness for understanding later life. The discussion is framed within the context of the development of critical gerontology. The chapter considers how the concept of precarity extends our understanding of the range of insecurities faced in later life. It also considers how the example of a human rights perspective can be used to challenge some of the vulnerabilities experienced by older people.
Ann Leahy
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781447357155
- eISBN:
- 9781447357193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447357155.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The Chapter briefly summarises the book’s chief arguments and those of each of its Chapters. It argues for a broadening out of enquiry across the fields of ageing and disability towards engagement ...
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The Chapter briefly summarises the book’s chief arguments and those of each of its Chapters. It argues for a broadening out of enquiry across the fields of ageing and disability towards engagement with ageing that is multifaced. It argues that critical gerontology could benefit by adopting an interactional or biopsychosocial model of disability, consistent with human rights approaches to disability. It points to areas within critical scholarship on disability and ageing and within lifecourse perspectives that represent starting points in opening conversations across the two fields. The Chapter outlines some future directions for scholarship and approaches to public policies on ageing. It points to theorising of personal meaning in life from a humanist perspective as offering potential to better communicate understandings of how a sense of value and meaning is achieved at any stage of life. It argues for a more realistic engagement with what it is to age and to live a life of meaning at all of life’s stages, for a more complete picture of the diverse experiences that are involved in disability and ageing, and for development of more realistic societal engagement with disability as an issue relevant to all human beings.Less
The Chapter briefly summarises the book’s chief arguments and those of each of its Chapters. It argues for a broadening out of enquiry across the fields of ageing and disability towards engagement with ageing that is multifaced. It argues that critical gerontology could benefit by adopting an interactional or biopsychosocial model of disability, consistent with human rights approaches to disability. It points to areas within critical scholarship on disability and ageing and within lifecourse perspectives that represent starting points in opening conversations across the two fields. The Chapter outlines some future directions for scholarship and approaches to public policies on ageing. It points to theorising of personal meaning in life from a humanist perspective as offering potential to better communicate understandings of how a sense of value and meaning is achieved at any stage of life. It argues for a more realistic engagement with what it is to age and to live a life of meaning at all of life’s stages, for a more complete picture of the diverse experiences that are involved in disability and ageing, and for development of more realistic societal engagement with disability as an issue relevant to all human beings.
Ruth E. Ray
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861348906
- eISBN:
- 9781447302001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861348906.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Drawing on ethnographic studies with older adults, as well as the work of feminists from different disciplines, this chapter presents a compelling argument for the need for ‘age research’ to include ...
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Drawing on ethnographic studies with older adults, as well as the work of feminists from different disciplines, this chapter presents a compelling argument for the need for ‘age research’ to include the researcher him/herself as a subject of observation, analysis and critique. Couched firmly within a critical gerontology perspective and the ‘passionate scholarship’ endorsed in this book, this chapter discusses the relationship between personal and social transformation and describes ethnographic methods that gerontological scholars might use to reflect on their position as researchers, their relationship to older adults, the ethics of their research practices, and the value of their studies beyond academe.Less
Drawing on ethnographic studies with older adults, as well as the work of feminists from different disciplines, this chapter presents a compelling argument for the need for ‘age research’ to include the researcher him/herself as a subject of observation, analysis and critique. Couched firmly within a critical gerontology perspective and the ‘passionate scholarship’ endorsed in this book, this chapter discusses the relationship between personal and social transformation and describes ethnographic methods that gerontological scholars might use to reflect on their position as researchers, their relationship to older adults, the ethics of their research practices, and the value of their studies beyond academe.
Ann Leahy
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781447357155
- eISBN:
- 9781447357193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447357155.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The book explores how older people experience physical or sensory disability, taking a critical approach to gerontology. It also draws on critical disability studies, aspects of medical sociology and ...
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The book explores how older people experience physical or sensory disability, taking a critical approach to gerontology. It also draws on critical disability studies, aspects of medical sociology and lifecourse studies. The book is informed by an empirical study with two groups rarely considered together in empirical or theoretical work – people first experiencing disability with ageing and people ageing with long-standing disability. Despite the fact that older people experiencing impairment are rarely considered ‘disabled’, the book shows that study participants could feel disabled by a range of factors including inaccessible environments and disablist interactions with others, as is the experience of disabled people generally. Often experienced in combination with losses of intimates, this can represent a challenge to a sense of value and meaning in life. Older people can also respond dynamically, engaging in challenging processes of interpretation and reinterpretation that are underappreciated in dominant understandings of later life lived with disability as a residual category encompassed in concepts such as ‘fourth age’. The book argues that the extent to which constructions of ageing and of disability, and the social devaluation of each, are intertwined and linked to fears of human vulnerability means that these issues would benefit from approaches that address them across the life span. It points to areas of scholarship offering potential for conversations across the fields of ageing and disability, arguing for an engagement with disability in older age as a personal, embodied, social, cultural, political and socio-economic phenomenon.Less
The book explores how older people experience physical or sensory disability, taking a critical approach to gerontology. It also draws on critical disability studies, aspects of medical sociology and lifecourse studies. The book is informed by an empirical study with two groups rarely considered together in empirical or theoretical work – people first experiencing disability with ageing and people ageing with long-standing disability. Despite the fact that older people experiencing impairment are rarely considered ‘disabled’, the book shows that study participants could feel disabled by a range of factors including inaccessible environments and disablist interactions with others, as is the experience of disabled people generally. Often experienced in combination with losses of intimates, this can represent a challenge to a sense of value and meaning in life. Older people can also respond dynamically, engaging in challenging processes of interpretation and reinterpretation that are underappreciated in dominant understandings of later life lived with disability as a residual category encompassed in concepts such as ‘fourth age’. The book argues that the extent to which constructions of ageing and of disability, and the social devaluation of each, are intertwined and linked to fears of human vulnerability means that these issues would benefit from approaches that address them across the life span. It points to areas of scholarship offering potential for conversations across the fields of ageing and disability, arguing for an engagement with disability in older age as a personal, embodied, social, cultural, political and socio-economic phenomenon.
Jan Baars, Joseph Dohmen, Amanda Grenier, and Chris Phillipson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781447300908
- eISBN:
- 9781447307822
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300908.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The volume discusses the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. It prepares the common ground for these two paradigms that have developed separately with each drawing on their ...
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The volume discusses the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. It prepares the common ground for these two paradigms that have developed separately with each drawing on their own traditional resources. The purpose of this volume is to explore the extent to which they presuppose and complement each other: as structural analysis and articulations of interpersonal meanings in later life. This general theme is explored with a changing focus on specific themes, such as globalization, the post-traditional society, autonomy and interdependence; interpersonal meanings in ageing, agency and the fourth age; dementia, spirituality and self development; autonomy and social isolation; social work with older people and participatory action research. The volume is completed by a critical commentary on some of its main themes.Less
The volume discusses the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. It prepares the common ground for these two paradigms that have developed separately with each drawing on their own traditional resources. The purpose of this volume is to explore the extent to which they presuppose and complement each other: as structural analysis and articulations of interpersonal meanings in later life. This general theme is explored with a changing focus on specific themes, such as globalization, the post-traditional society, autonomy and interdependence; interpersonal meanings in ageing, agency and the fourth age; dementia, spirituality and self development; autonomy and social isolation; social work with older people and participatory action research. The volume is completed by a critical commentary on some of its main themes.
Jan Baars and Chris Phillipson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781447300908
- eISBN:
- 9781447307822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300908.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter introduces the issue that will be discussed in the chapters of the volume: the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. The volume prepares the common ground for ...
More
This chapter introduces the issue that will be discussed in the chapters of the volume: the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. The volume prepares the common ground for these two paradigms that have developed separately with each drawing on their own traditional resources. The purpose of this volume is to explore the extent to which they presuppose and complement each other: as structural analysis and articulations of interpersonal meanings in old age.Less
This chapter introduces the issue that will be discussed in the chapters of the volume: the interrelationship between critical and humanistic gerontology. The volume prepares the common ground for these two paradigms that have developed separately with each drawing on their own traditional resources. The purpose of this volume is to explore the extent to which they presuppose and complement each other: as structural analysis and articulations of interpersonal meanings in old age.
Marvin Formosa and Paul Higgs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447300588
- eISBN:
- 9781447310945
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300588.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Social class in Later Life: Power, Identity and Lifestyle advances contemporary debates on class dynamics in later life. Focusing attention on various spheres of class analysis, it provides the most ...
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Social class in Later Life: Power, Identity and Lifestyle advances contemporary debates on class dynamics in later life. Focusing attention on various spheres of class analysis, it provides the most up-to-date collection of emerging research relevant to the relationship between class, culture, and ageing. The book develops an empirical understanding of the interface between social class and later life, with chapters presenting data which demonstrate an inverse relationship between class background and various forms of capital. Social Class in Later Life addresses the paradox that, while many retirees have benefited from the structures and stability of a first modernity, their current circumstances are much more contingent on what Beck calls the ‘side effect principle’, where decisions that affect their situations and opportunities are often the consequences of structures placed well outside their individual agency. Indeed, the coming of late capitalism did not result in the end of traditional forms of inequalities, but only a growth of new inequalities alongside the continuation of traditional social divisions. Chapters highlight how lifelong class dynamics have major implications for ageing policies, and that rather than calling for the class concept to be written off as an artefact of a superseded form of social organisation, it is more sensible that sociologists and gerontologists alike perceive it as a social category in need of considerable re-articulation.Less
Social class in Later Life: Power, Identity and Lifestyle advances contemporary debates on class dynamics in later life. Focusing attention on various spheres of class analysis, it provides the most up-to-date collection of emerging research relevant to the relationship between class, culture, and ageing. The book develops an empirical understanding of the interface between social class and later life, with chapters presenting data which demonstrate an inverse relationship between class background and various forms of capital. Social Class in Later Life addresses the paradox that, while many retirees have benefited from the structures and stability of a first modernity, their current circumstances are much more contingent on what Beck calls the ‘side effect principle’, where decisions that affect their situations and opportunities are often the consequences of structures placed well outside their individual agency. Indeed, the coming of late capitalism did not result in the end of traditional forms of inequalities, but only a growth of new inequalities alongside the continuation of traditional social divisions. Chapters highlight how lifelong class dynamics have major implications for ageing policies, and that rather than calling for the class concept to be written off as an artefact of a superseded form of social organisation, it is more sensible that sociologists and gerontologists alike perceive it as a social category in need of considerable re-articulation.
Amanda Grenier
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Over the last 15 years, frailty has emerged as one of the most powerful constructs in gerontology, geriatrics, and health care delivery. Yet the dominant portrayal and response to frailty tends to ...
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Over the last 15 years, frailty has emerged as one of the most powerful constructs in gerontology, geriatrics, and health care delivery. Yet the dominant portrayal and response to frailty tends to mask that frailty is experienced by older people and is historically situated. This chapter suggests that the lens of precarity can be used to focus on the risks and insecurities experienced by older people and convey complex understandings of need in late life. It outlines key lines of thinking with regards to frailty and sketches emerging work on precarity with regards to aging. It then points to two angles to reconsider ‘frailty’ in late life: the politics of frailty, and vulnerability as a means to resituate the response to ‘frail’ subjects. It follows this by outlining the contributions that can be made through an analysis of precarity and concludes with suggestions for theoretical and methodological development.Less
Over the last 15 years, frailty has emerged as one of the most powerful constructs in gerontology, geriatrics, and health care delivery. Yet the dominant portrayal and response to frailty tends to mask that frailty is experienced by older people and is historically situated. This chapter suggests that the lens of precarity can be used to focus on the risks and insecurities experienced by older people and convey complex understandings of need in late life. It outlines key lines of thinking with regards to frailty and sketches emerging work on precarity with regards to aging. It then points to two angles to reconsider ‘frailty’ in late life: the politics of frailty, and vulnerability as a means to resituate the response to ‘frail’ subjects. It follows this by outlining the contributions that can be made through an analysis of precarity and concludes with suggestions for theoretical and methodological development.
Ann Leahy
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781447357155
- eISBN:
- 9781447357193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447357155.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This Chapter introduces the book, explaining that it is about how older people experience physical or sensory disability. It positions the book’s approach within critical gerontology but engaging ...
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This Chapter introduces the book, explaining that it is about how older people experience physical or sensory disability. It positions the book’s approach within critical gerontology but engaging with disability studies, aspects of medical sociology and lifecourse studies. The Chapter outlines the rationale for the book, introduces the empirical study that informs it, and refers to its key findings. Its rationale arises from the fact that the meaning that older people give to processes of disablement are largely overlooked, with biomedical approaches dominating approaches to ageing, and with even social science approaches tending to be dominated by concern with ‘third age’ or with older people without impairment. A further rationale relates to the separation of the fields of disability and ageing in public policies, activism, conceptualisation of disability and theorising, despite how disabled people age, and most people who are ageing will experience disability. The empirical study is introduced, outlining how it involved two groups usually considered to be categorically different, one being older people ageing with long-standing disability, the other, older people first experiencing disability with ageing.Less
This Chapter introduces the book, explaining that it is about how older people experience physical or sensory disability. It positions the book’s approach within critical gerontology but engaging with disability studies, aspects of medical sociology and lifecourse studies. The Chapter outlines the rationale for the book, introduces the empirical study that informs it, and refers to its key findings. Its rationale arises from the fact that the meaning that older people give to processes of disablement are largely overlooked, with biomedical approaches dominating approaches to ageing, and with even social science approaches tending to be dominated by concern with ‘third age’ or with older people without impairment. A further rationale relates to the separation of the fields of disability and ageing in public policies, activism, conceptualisation of disability and theorising, despite how disabled people age, and most people who are ageing will experience disability. The empirical study is introduced, outlining how it involved two groups usually considered to be categorically different, one being older people ageing with long-standing disability, the other, older people first experiencing disability with ageing.
Alisoun Milne
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447305729
- eISBN:
- 9781447311904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447305729.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Despite much emphasis on mental illness in later life, limited work has focused on mental health. This book aims to address this deficit by exploring, and explaining, mental health outcomes in later ...
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Despite much emphasis on mental illness in later life, limited work has focused on mental health. This book aims to address this deficit by exploring, and explaining, mental health outcomes in later life through the lens of critical social gerontology and via the conduit of life course analysis. It adopts an approach underpinned by a commitment to understanding, and making visible, the role of lifecourse, and age related inequalities in creating or amplifying risks to mental health, as well as exploring those issues that afford protection. It aims to offer a critical review of existing discourse and disrupt the ‘taken for granted’ paradigm, including in the dementia arena. This approach not only recognises that mental health in later life is a complex multi-dimensional issue that cuts across time, cohort, social categories and individual experiences but that it is affected by a wide range of lifecourse and age related issues. It also encourages the development of understanding that adopts a wide lens of analysis and of policy and service related responses that reduce risks to mental health during the lifecourse and in later life itself. Further, it engages with the potential to learn from older people’s perspectives and lives.Less
Despite much emphasis on mental illness in later life, limited work has focused on mental health. This book aims to address this deficit by exploring, and explaining, mental health outcomes in later life through the lens of critical social gerontology and via the conduit of life course analysis. It adopts an approach underpinned by a commitment to understanding, and making visible, the role of lifecourse, and age related inequalities in creating or amplifying risks to mental health, as well as exploring those issues that afford protection. It aims to offer a critical review of existing discourse and disrupt the ‘taken for granted’ paradigm, including in the dementia arena. This approach not only recognises that mental health in later life is a complex multi-dimensional issue that cuts across time, cohort, social categories and individual experiences but that it is affected by a wide range of lifecourse and age related issues. It also encourages the development of understanding that adopts a wide lens of analysis and of policy and service related responses that reduce risks to mental health during the lifecourse and in later life itself. Further, it engages with the potential to learn from older people’s perspectives and lives.
Marvin Formosa and Paul Higgs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447300588
- eISBN:
- 9781447310945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300588.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Social class is a critical factor influencing how people experience later life, and, in particular, the quality of lives they lead. Nevertheless, the sociology of class is firmly located in, and ...
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Social class is a critical factor influencing how people experience later life, and, in particular, the quality of lives they lead. Nevertheless, the sociology of class is firmly located in, and around, the younger and adult ‘territories’ of the life course. Although lip-service is frequently paid to ‘age’ as one of a number of bases of stratification, older people remain excluded from sociological studies of class. When necessary, the class position of older persons is commonly located through their final occupations before retirement. Whilst this strategy may have been valid in the past when most individuals died either before or soon after statutory retirement age, nowadays it is surely limiting to assume that the class career terminates with the onset of retirement, considering that the latter normally signals the start a phase of life characterised by increasing levels of leisure participation and identity reframing. There is no doubt that the expansion of critical gerontology to encompass globalisation, the de-institutionalisation of the life course, and the emergence of a consumer-driven are all highly welcome. Yet, the significance of class in retirement is still a topic that needs addressing.Less
Social class is a critical factor influencing how people experience later life, and, in particular, the quality of lives they lead. Nevertheless, the sociology of class is firmly located in, and around, the younger and adult ‘territories’ of the life course. Although lip-service is frequently paid to ‘age’ as one of a number of bases of stratification, older people remain excluded from sociological studies of class. When necessary, the class position of older persons is commonly located through their final occupations before retirement. Whilst this strategy may have been valid in the past when most individuals died either before or soon after statutory retirement age, nowadays it is surely limiting to assume that the class career terminates with the onset of retirement, considering that the latter normally signals the start a phase of life characterised by increasing levels of leisure participation and identity reframing. There is no doubt that the expansion of critical gerontology to encompass globalisation, the de-institutionalisation of the life course, and the emergence of a consumer-driven are all highly welcome. Yet, the significance of class in retirement is still a topic that needs addressing.
Stephen Katz
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447335917
- eISBN:
- 9781447335955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447335917.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter introduces the book and the historical background of and current relationship between ageing and everyday studies. It reviews relevant literature leading up to the explanation of the ...
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This chapter introduces the book and the historical background of and current relationship between ageing and everyday studies. It reviews relevant literature leading up to the explanation of the book’s organization on materialities and embodiments and outlines how the book’s chapters address and innovate research in the authors’ respective areas. The introduction claims everyday ageing, with its roots in sociology, is today an expansive interdisciplinary field that includes cultural studies, the Humanities, media and cinema, spatial and consumer fields, and health and technology areas, which in their combination emphasize the extent to which experience and identity for older people are represented, mediated and activated in local contexts.Less
This chapter introduces the book and the historical background of and current relationship between ageing and everyday studies. It reviews relevant literature leading up to the explanation of the book’s organization on materialities and embodiments and outlines how the book’s chapters address and innovate research in the authors’ respective areas. The introduction claims everyday ageing, with its roots in sociology, is today an expansive interdisciplinary field that includes cultural studies, the Humanities, media and cinema, spatial and consumer fields, and health and technology areas, which in their combination emphasize the extent to which experience and identity for older people are represented, mediated and activated in local contexts.
Stephen Katz (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447335917
- eISBN:
- 9781447335955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447335917.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This book is a timely collection of interdisciplinary and critical chapters about the fields of ageing studies and the sociology of everyday life as broadly conceived to explore the meaningful ...
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This book is a timely collection of interdisciplinary and critical chapters about the fields of ageing studies and the sociology of everyday life as broadly conceived to explore the meaningful connections between subjective lives and social worlds in later life. The scope of the writing expands beyond traditional approaches in these fields to engage with cross-cultural, feminist, spatial, ethnographic, technological, cinematic, new media and arts research. Readers will find the detailed attention to everyday experiences, places, biographies, images, routines, intimacies and temporalities illuminating, while appreciating the wider critiques of ageism and exclusion that inform each chapter. The book also contributes to the growing international area of ‘critical gerontology’ by comprising two parts on ‘materialities’ and ‘embodiments’, foci that emphasize the material and embodied contexts that shape the experiences of ageing. The chapters on ‘materialities’ investigate things, possessions, homes, technologies, environments, and their representations, while the complementary chapters on ‘embodiments’ examine living spaces, clothing, care practices, mobility, touch, gender and sexuality, and health and lifestyle regimes. Overall, in both its parts the book contests the dominant cultural narratives of vulnerability, frailty and disability that dominate ageing societies today and offers in their place the resourceful potential of local and lived spheres of agency, citizenship, humanity and capability.Less
This book is a timely collection of interdisciplinary and critical chapters about the fields of ageing studies and the sociology of everyday life as broadly conceived to explore the meaningful connections between subjective lives and social worlds in later life. The scope of the writing expands beyond traditional approaches in these fields to engage with cross-cultural, feminist, spatial, ethnographic, technological, cinematic, new media and arts research. Readers will find the detailed attention to everyday experiences, places, biographies, images, routines, intimacies and temporalities illuminating, while appreciating the wider critiques of ageism and exclusion that inform each chapter. The book also contributes to the growing international area of ‘critical gerontology’ by comprising two parts on ‘materialities’ and ‘embodiments’, foci that emphasize the material and embodied contexts that shape the experiences of ageing. The chapters on ‘materialities’ investigate things, possessions, homes, technologies, environments, and their representations, while the complementary chapters on ‘embodiments’ examine living spaces, clothing, care practices, mobility, touch, gender and sexuality, and health and lifestyle regimes. Overall, in both its parts the book contests the dominant cultural narratives of vulnerability, frailty and disability that dominate ageing societies today and offers in their place the resourceful potential of local and lived spheres of agency, citizenship, humanity and capability.
Suzanne Cahill
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447331377
- eISBN:
- 9781447331391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447331377.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter provides an introduction to the topic of human rights and dementia. It briefly traces the history of the human rights movement and discusses the significance of the UN Declaration on ...
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This chapter provides an introduction to the topic of human rights and dementia. It briefly traces the history of the human rights movement and discusses the significance of the UN Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and how the latter has helped shape other human rights treaties including the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities. The latter is a tool which will be used as a compass for analysis throughout the book. The chapter differentiates between human rights and human needs. It critically reviews negative and positive rights in the context of people living with dementia and describes the three generation of rights all people possess by virtue of being human. It argues for the application of a rights based framework to be used by practitioners in dementia care and points to the usefulness of using a social justice /rights based lens to interrogate dementia, extend the contemporary debate and ultimately attempt to improve quality of life and quality of care for all those living with dementia. The main aim of the book, the critical perspectives informing it and some of its distinctive features are highlighted.Less
This chapter provides an introduction to the topic of human rights and dementia. It briefly traces the history of the human rights movement and discusses the significance of the UN Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and how the latter has helped shape other human rights treaties including the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities. The latter is a tool which will be used as a compass for analysis throughout the book. The chapter differentiates between human rights and human needs. It critically reviews negative and positive rights in the context of people living with dementia and describes the three generation of rights all people possess by virtue of being human. It argues for the application of a rights based framework to be used by practitioners in dementia care and points to the usefulness of using a social justice /rights based lens to interrogate dementia, extend the contemporary debate and ultimately attempt to improve quality of life and quality of care for all those living with dementia. The main aim of the book, the critical perspectives informing it and some of its distinctive features are highlighted.