Aging, Society, and the Life Course

Front Cover
Springer Publishing Company, Mar 15, 2011 - Social Science - 376 pages

Doody's Score: 91, 4 Stars

"[This] book's unfading preoccupation with social context, social processes, and social structures distinguishes itself and greatly contributes to the discourse in gerontology."--The Gerontologist

This is a comprehensive textbook for both undergraduate and graduate level courses, detailing the impact of societal forces on the aging process. The book focuses on the diversity of the older population, examining it from micro/macro perspectives in order to understand aging and the life course as social phenomena.

This latest edition examines significant changes in the field of social gerontology, such as the paradigms of aging and the life course, the baby boomer cohorts as they approach retirement and later life, the growing interest in global aging, and civic engagement. This text encourages students to examine aging from personal, familial, community, societal and global perspectives, including both the positive and negative realities of aging.

Key Features:

  • Provides websites of interest at the end of each chapter
  • Presents provocative essays on love, sex, music, medicine, and crime to further expand on chapter contents
  • Provides review questions and key terms as study guides at the end of each chapter
 

Contents

Aging and Society
1
Studying Aging
21
An Aging World Demographic Perspectives
51
The Aging Individual in Social Context
77
Aging and the Family Personal and Institutional Contexts
97
Work and Retirement in the Life Course
125
Chapter 7 Economics and the Aging of Society
157
Aging and Health Individuals Institutions and Policies
185
Politics Government and Aging in America
219
Global Aging
247
Baby Boomers and the Changing Landscape of Aging
271
The Dynamics of Aging in Our Future
293
References
313
Index
345
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2011)

Leslie A. Morgan, PhD, codirector of the Gerontology Doctoral Program, and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Suzanne Kunkel, PhD, is University Distinguished Professor of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. Her research is broadly focused on the social determinants of health, including the system of programs and services designed to support older adults in their goals to remain healthy, active, and engaged in their communities for as long as they choose. She has been supported by more than $7.5 million in external research funding to assess the implementation and effectiveness of these programs, including innovations such as consumer self-direction and dementia-friendly communities, and the role of cross-sectoral organizational partnerships in enhancing population health. Dr. Kunkel has published widely on the results of these projects, and on gerontology education. With Frank Whittington and Kate de Medeiros, she authored the second edition of Global Aging: Comparative Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course, a Springer textbook released in 2020. Kunkel is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE); she has served as President of AGHE, and Treasurer of GSA. She is the recipient of the Clark Tibbitts Award for contributions to the advancement of gerontology as a field of study.

Bibliographic information