Negotiating Ageing

Download or read book Negotiating Ageing written by Simon Biggs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is growing older and this is a historically unprecedented phenomenon. Negotiating such change, personally, socially and for governments and international organisations requires an act of cultural adaptation. Two key questions arise: What is the purpose of a long life? and How do we adapt to societies where generations are of approximately the same size? A number of pre-existing narratives can be identified; however, it is argued that contemporary policies have produced a premature answer which may eclipse the potential arising from lifecourse change. In this book Simon Biggs discusses ways of interrogating these questions and the adaptations we make to them. Four major areas, all of which have been suggested as solutions to population ageing, are critically assessed, including work as an answer, the relationship between work, ageing and health, narratives of spirit, belief and wisdom, the body and the natural, anti-ageing medicine, critical approaches to dementia, plus family and intergenerational relations. This book is particiularly useful for those trying to make sense of population ageing and negotiate solutions. It describes a number of concepts that can be used to assess what we are told about a long life and how generations can adapt together. With the cultural landscape moving away from traditional interpretations of old age, the question of adult ageing is of growing interest to a number of groups. This book is essential reading for social and health-care workers, other helping professionals, policy makers, social scientists and all who encounter the prospect of a long life.

Download or read book Ageing Identities and Women’s Everyday Talk in a Hair Salon written by Rachel Heinrichsmeier and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ageing of the world’s populations, particularly in Western developed countries, is a well-documented phenomenon; and despite many positive images of later life, in the media and public discourse later life is frequently depicted as a time of inevitable physical and cognitive decline. Against this background, Heinrichsmeier presents the results of her two-year sociolinguistic study examining how a group of older women of different ages negotiated their way through their own and others’ expectations of ageing and constructed different kinds of older – and other – identities for themselves. Through vivid and nuanced analysis of their chat and practices in a small village hair salon, Heinrichsmeier reveals these women’s subtle and skilful manipulation of stereotypes of ageing and the impact of the evolving talk on their identity constructions. Her study, which provides numerous short extracts of talk in both the hair salon and interview along with more detailed case studies, highlights the importance of such apparently ‘trivial’ sites – for both studying older people’s identity work and as loci for positive identity constructions and well-being in later life. This book will be of particular interest to graduate students and scholars working in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and gerontological studies, as well as those interested in approaches integrating ethnography and language.

Download or read book The Need for Theory written by Simon Biggs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "Need for Theory" speaks to the burgeoning need for critical thinking in social gerontology. The editors have brought together some of the foremost contributors to theoretical advances in the field. This volume incorporates state-of-the-art theorizing with a focus on selected topical areas facing gerontologists around the world. Using their keen insights into substantive issues, the contributors examine personal and structural changes affecting individuals over the life course. Extolling the need for theory is not enough; the contributors focus their insights on a panoply of substantive issues, linking the personal with the political and with the structural parameters that shape the process of aging, no matter where it occurs.

Download or read book Ageing in Sub-Saharan Africa written by Jacobus Retief Hoffman and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-07-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of in-depth ethnographic analyses of the impact of local and global transformations on the care--or lack of care--received by older people in sub-Saharan Africa, this book provides the pan-African evidence and enquiry needed to advance debates about how to address (and who should address) the long-term care needs of this vulnerable population. Contributors from the United Kingdom, the Congo, Kenya, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France use case studies from eighteen different countries in all regions of sub-Saharan Africa to examine formal and informal care, including inter- and intra-generational care and retirement homes, as well as care in the context of poverty, HIV/AIDS, and migration.

Download or read book Age-Friendly Cities and Communities written by Tine Buffel and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important book provides a comprehensive survey of different strategies for developing age-friendly communities, and the extent to which older people themselves can be involved in the co-production of age-friendly policies and practices.

Download or read book Ageing and Technology written by Emma Domínguez-Rué and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2016-01-31 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The booming increase of the senior population has become a social phenomenon and a challenge to our societies, and technological advances have undoubtedly contributed to improve the lives of elderly citizens in numerous aspects. In current debates on technology, however, the »human factor« is often largely ignored. The ageing individual is rather seen as a malfunctioning machine whose deficiencies must be diagnosed or as a set of limitations to be overcome by means of technological devices. This volume aims at focusing on the perspective of human beings deriving from the development and use of technology: this change of perspective - taking the human being and not technology first - may help us to become more sensitive to the ambivalences involved in the interaction between humans and technology, as well as to adapt technologies to the people that created the need for its existence, thus contributing to improve the quality of life of senior citizens.

Download or read book Critical Gerontology written by Meredith Minkler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1999 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.