"In society at large, lives have been drastically altered over this century--as a consequence of increased longevity, advances in science and education, the gender revolution, improvements in public health, and other historical trends and events--but numerous inflexible social structures, roles, and norms have lagged behind. There is a mismatch or imbalance between the transformation of the aging process from birth to death and the role opportunities or places in the social structure that could foster and reward people at the various stages of their lives. While the twentieth century has experienced a revolution in human development and aging, there has been no comparable revolution in the role structures of society to keep pace with the changes in the ways people grow up and grow old. The lag involves not only institutional and organizational arrangements, but also the many aspects of culture that, in addition to being internalized by people, are built into role expectations and societal mores and laws. For the future, then, structural changes will be needed if people are to find opportunities to spread leisure and work, as well as education, more evenly over the life course, and to make room for family affairs." --from Age and Structural Lag

As our aging population grows ever larger, it is increasingly important to understand how adults age and what we can do to provide up-to-date care to ensure their well-being as an integral part of society. Leslie Morgan and Suzanne Kunkel understand that this phenomenon is about much more than just the physical or biological aspects of growing older and have put together a comprehensive text on the impact of society and sociology on the aging process. Use this text to explore the diversity of the aging population and dispel the major stereotypes surrounding the elderly. Learn about aging through all the layers of social context from family life to politics and economics. And through this approach, come to see how aging is more than just an individual process, it is a process that effects the direction of our society as a whole. For the Student: .: Web sites of interest and key terms defined at the end of each chapter.; Real life stories and essays on love, sex, music, medicine, and crime. For the Professor: .: Assignment-ready reading in a One Chapter a Week format.; Questions for discussion and review at each chapter end.; Applying Theory sections place the lesson of each chapter in a clear, real-world setting. Instructor's Guide Now Available! An Instructor's Manual for this textbook is available for those professors who have adopted Aging, Society, and the Life Course, Third Edition and can verify a bookstore order of 7 or more copies. Please email our Marketing Department at [email protected] if you have adopted this text as you will need a password to download the guide. Please provide the name and telephone number of the bookstore that ordered the textbooks. A print version of the Instructor's Manual is also availabl

This open access book provides a comprehensive perspective on the concept of ageism, its origins, the manifestation and consequences of ageism, as well as ways to respond to and research ageism. The book represents a collaborative effort of researchers from over 20 countries and a variety of disciplines, including, psychology, sociology, gerontology, geriatrics, pharmacology, law, geography, design, engineering, policy and media studies. The contributors have collaborated to produce a truly stimulating and educating book on ageism which brings a clear overview of the state of the art in the field. The book serves as a catalyst to generate research, policy and public interest in the field of ageism and to reconstruct the image of old age and will be of interest to researchers and students in gerontology and geriatrics.

A comprehensive overview of current aging policies. As the average age of the U.S. population continues to increase, age-related policies have come under intense scrutiny, sparking heated debates. In the past, older people were seen as a frail, dependent population, but major policies enacted or expanded on their behalf have made them major players in electoral and interest-group politics. This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Robert B. Hudson’s The New Politics of Old Age Policy not only explains the politics behind the country’s age-based programs and describes how those programs work but also assesses how well—or poorly—they meet the growing and changing needs of older Americans. Essays by leading experts in political science, sociology, law, social work, and gerontology address, among other things, theoretical approaches to age-based policy; population dynamics and the impact of growing diversity within the older population; and national, state, and local issues associated with major age-based programs. More than any other source, this book presents the most current information on growing older in the United States, including in-depth analyses of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, housing initiatives, the Older Americans Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and tax policy. Detailed new chapters focus on financial security and retirement in the context of the Great Recession, diversity and inequality in aging populations, and implications of the Affordable Care Act. Scholars, students, and policymakers will appreciate the volume’s timely overview of the evolution of aging policy.

The demographic phenomena of increased life expectancy, increasing global population of older adults, and a larger number of older people as a proportion of the total population in nations throughout the world will affect our lives and the life of each person we know. The changes will result in challenges and benefits for societies and people of all ages. These events need to be understood, explained, and their consequences addressed; sociological theories about aging are an essential part of this process. In Understanding Aging and Diversity: Theories and Concepts, Patricia Kolb presents important sociological theories and concepts for understanding experiences of older people and their families in a rapidly changing world. She explores concepts from phenomenology, critical theory, feminist theory, life course theory and gerotranscendence theory to explain important issues in the lives of older people. This book investigates similarities and differences in aging experiences, focusing in particular on the effects of inequality. Kolb examines the relationship of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation and social class to international aging experiences. This book explores the relationships between older people and social systems in different ways, and informs thinking about policy development and other strategies for enhancing the wellbeing of older adults. It will be useful for students and scholars of sociology, gerontology, social work, anthropology, economics, demography and global studies.

In recent years, theoreticians, researchers, and practitioners have become increasingly interested in older adults and the aging process. This volume draws on related disciplines to better understand the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging. Social Work with the Aged and Their Families covers areas of central interest to those coping with the needs of an aging population. Among the topics addressed are assessment of the aging, taking into account biological age, psychological age, and socio-cultural and spiritual age. Greene also considers the importance of the family system, family roles and development, functional-age individual and family intervention, and group and community interventions. The scientific and systematic study of aging is known as gerontology. Geriatric social workers are those who have applied established social work theories in an attempt to find suitable techniques for working with their elderly clients. The need for specialized services has given birth to various services and programs. For example, meals-on-wheels and home health care services have been designed to meet specific physical needs of older adults. However, mental health services have lagged far behind as practitioners struggled to adapt such specialties as family therapy to families of later years. A major contribution of this book, now in its third edition, is the functional-age model of intergenerational treatment (FAM), which is an outgrowth of that demand. The functional-age model of intergenerational treatment is an integrative theoretical framework for social workers interested in clinical social work practice with older adults and their families. Since its initial construction in 1986, the model has been augmented by more recent concepts related to successful aging, spirituality, and resiliency. These additions, together with the original assessment and intervention strategies, present the major converging conceptual trends that constitute a model for twenty-first century social work practice in the field of aging.

The field of gerontology has often been criticized for being "data-rich but theory-poor." The editors of this book address this issue by stressing the importance of theory in gerontology. While the previous edition focused on multidisciplinary approaches to aging theory, this new edition provides cross-disciplinary, integrative explanations of aging theory: The contributors of this text have reached beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to partner with researchers in adjacent fields in studying aging and age-related phenomena. This edition of the Handbook consists of 39 chapters written by 67 internationally recognized experts in the field of aging. It is organized in seven sections, reflecting the major theoretical developments in gerontology over the past 10 years. Special Features: Comprehensive coverage of aging theory, focusing on the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging A section dedicated to discussing how aging theory informs public policy A concluding chapter summarizing the major themes of aging, and offering predictions about the future of theory development Required reading for graduate students and post doctoral fellows, this textbook represents the current status of theoretical development in the study of aging.