This volume studies age as a basis for social organization by uniting research from the social science disciplines while implementing both cross-cultural and historical perspectives. The contributors, a distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars, advance our understanding of age structuring by relating the changing societal level processes and individual aging experiences, and examining retirement practices, age and power in society, and cultural conceptions of age.

This volume studies age as a basis for social organization by uniting research from the social science disciplines while implementing both cross-cultural and historical perspectives. The contributors, a distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars, advance our understanding of age structuring by relating the changing societal level processes and individual aging experiences, and examining retirement practices, age and power in society, and cultural conceptions of age.

This book examines a central element of social welfare, old age security, exploring the history of policies in both developed and underdeveloped countries to assess their structure, ideology and effectiveness. The authors test five theoretical perspectives on old-age security policy in four industrial nations (the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany) and three developing countries (India, Nigeria, Brazil), challenging the view that old age policy is the outcome of class conflict between capital and labour. Instead, the authors adopt a neo-pluralist perspective which emphasizes the influence of ethnic religious and regional groups, as well as "the grey lobby", over that of class-based groups. The authors attempt to test ideas derived in part from these historical case studies by analysing quantitative data from a broader sample of countries (18 industrial nationa and 32 developing nations), and they use these results to anticipate future policy developments in the U.S.

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Democracy and justice are often mutually antagonistic ideas, but in this innovative book Ian Shapiro shows how and why they should be pursued together. Justice must be sought democratically if it is to garner legitimacy in the modern world, he claims, and democracy must be justice-promoting if it is to sustain allegiance over time. Democratic Justice meets these criteria, offering an attractive vision of a practical path to a better future. Wherever power is exercised in human affairs, Shapiro argues, the lack of democracy will be experienced as injustice. The challenge is to democratize social relations so as to diminish injustice, but to do this in ways that are compatible with people's values and goals. Shapiro shows how this can be done in different phases of the human life cycle, from childhood through the adult worlds of work and domestic life, retirement, old age, and approaching death. He spells out the implications for pressing debates about authority over children, the law of marriage and divorce, population control, governing the firm, basic income guarantees, health insurance, retirement policies, and decisions made by and for the infirm elderly. This refreshing encounter between political philosophy and practical politics will interest all those who aspire to bequeath a more just world to our children than the one we have inherited.

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.