This provocative, intellectually charged treatise serves as a concise introduction to emancipatory gerontology, examining multiple dimensions of persistent and hotly debated topics around aging, the life course, the roles of power, politics and partisanship, culture, economics, and communications. Critical perspectives are presented as definitions for reader understanding, with links to concepts of identity, knowledge construction, social networks, social movements, and inequalities. With today’s intensifying concentration of wealth and corporatization, precarity is the fate for growing numbers of the world’s population. Intersectionality as an analytic concept offers a new appreciation of how social advantage and disadvantage accumulate, and how constructions of race, ethnicity, class, ability, and gender influence aging. The book’s entries offer a bibliographic compendium, crediting the salience of early pioneering theorists and locating these within the cutting-edge of research (social, behavioral, policy, and gene–environment sciences) that currently advances our understandings of human development, trauma, and resilience. Accompanying these foundations are theories of resistance for advancing human rights and the dignity of marginalized populations.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction A New York Times Bestseller Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner of the WSU AOS Bonner Book Award Winner of the 2022 At Home With Growing Older Impact Award As revelatory as Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, physician and award-winning author Louise Aronson's Elderhood is an essential, empathetic look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life. For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we've made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. Reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy--a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself. Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author's own words, "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being."

Physical Activity and the Aging Brain: Effects of Exercise on Neurological Function is a complete guide to the manifold effects of exercise and physical activity on the aging brain. Cognitive decline and motor impairment, onset of diseases and disorders, and even changes in family structure and social settings that occur as we age can all impact activity levels, yet continued physical activity is crucial for successful neurological functioning. This book examines the role that exercise and physical activity play in halting or modulating the deleterious effects of these numerous aging concerns by first examining the current state of research into how exercise manifests physical changes in the brain. It then discuss how physical activity combines with other lifestyle factors to benefit the aging brain, including nutrition, computerized brain training, and social engagement. Most significantly, it also covers how physical activity can serve as therapy to help alleviate the symptoms of various neurological diseases impacting aging populations, with particular emphasis on Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline. The book provides broad coverage of the effects of exercise and physical activity on the aging brain, its therapeutic effects, and the many factors that influence the aging process. - Presents research scientists with a complete understanding of the role of exercise in healthy brain aging - Considers the roles of nutrition, the mind-body connection, and other lifestyle factors - Presents a major resource for exercise and physical activity in the neurological health of older adults - Provides a synopsis of key ideas associated with the many aspects of physical activity, along with lifestyle factors that can modify neurological diseases and age-related neurological decline

The book is comprised of correspondence between Susan Scott in Johannesburg, South Africa and Susan E. Schwartz in Phoenix, Arizona. Aging has both in its radar. Each feels the shifts on emotional, psychological, mental and physical levels. Many losses occur at this stage of life, with friends and family dying, broken or failed partnerships, illness or incapacitation on the doorstep for many. They address and reflect on these levels, many unsaid, in an in-depth and soulful way bringing forth their own experiences and those of others. The value of myths, dreams and tales are also referenced as these indicate the enduring trials and tribulations in our contemporary lives. The authors challenge the view that the older woman has little to offer. Rather, aging is an opportunity to express a more rounded out personality as the tug towards becoming authentic becomes more persistent and real. Just as many reflections occur allowing for growth and new ventures to happen.This book will be inspiring for those wanting more expansive outlooks challenging the status quo.

Faced with the possibility of a significantly extended lifespan, many Americans can expect to enjoy continued growth and development well past the traditional age of retirement. Elderlearning examines the important role of learning in maintaining the health, quality of life, and longevity of older adults, and in providing opportunities for them to take on new roles in society. This book includes the results of the first comprehensive survey on the topic of adult learning in men and women over the age of 55. The authors provide key data on the sources, topics, and extent of the current learning activities of older adults, as well as on their preferred learning modes. Adult learning is viewed from the perspective of providers of learning services, as well as from the viewpoint of individual learners. This information is based on extensive interviews with elderlearners and with learning services providers across the country. The authors also discuss the policy implications of the elderlearning phenomenon at the federal, state, and institutional levels. They conclude the book with a recommended eight-point agenda for improving service to this rapidly growing segment of the population. Elderlearning will be a valuable aid to anyone involved in developing - or teaching - programs designed to meet the needs of older adults, as well as to elderlearners themselves.

How can Aging be a Good thing? Aging all too often feels like drift, downhill to a place we don't want to go. But each year new doors open with opportunities, even while others close with loss. We have the power to prepare, to become stronger, more resilient, and navigate these challenges. Will we turn toward the opportunities, and find new joy and meaning in life? How can we make the most of this time, and develop into deeper, wiser people? With the same warmth, humor, and wisdom that draw thousands to their innovative workshops on aging, Rabbi Rachel Cowan and Dr. Linda Thai give us the tools we need, delivering practical, real-world suggestions. No subject is off-limits; Rabbi Cowan and Dr. Thai tackle a wide range of issues head-on, including: Relationships with adult children and spouses Romance and sexuality, Living with loss, Cultivating well-being, Shaping our legacy, Whether reading this alone, with a partner, or in a group, Wise Aging will inspire and inform, and show us ways to grow into wisdom with resilience and joy. Book jacket.