The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Is age by itself inclusive enough to make sense of changes and transitions over the life course? The Need for Theory explores how best to alloy the standard analytic techniques employed by social gerontologists to provide a more effective, nuanced, and insightful view of the assumptive realities thought to characterize the later years. Readers will come away from this book a little less sanguine about the nature of cause and effect within the experience of aging.

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. Building on a discerning overview of conceptual questions in contemporary gerontology, from social constructionism, to feminism, to social-psychological, structural, and political economy perspectives, the authors map key issues, paradoxes, and contradictions facing gerontology now and in the future. Their discussions are sure to engage readers who are themselves concerned with developing explanatory frameworks that reach beyond facile descriptions of existing practices.


About the Authors:

Simon Biggs is professor of social gerontology, Keele University, United Kingdom. He has worked as a community psychologist and as a social work policy adviser, and has written widely in the areas of aging identity, social policy, and social theory. In addition to formal academic publications, he has authored training materials, including Confronting Ageing and Understanding Elder Abuse. From 1989 until 1993, he coordinated a National Community Care program, and he has also been a consultant on a number of initiatives in the areas of health and social care. Biggs is an executive committee member of the European Master's Degree in Gerontology. His latest book is The Mature Imagination: The Dynamics of Identity in Midlife and Beyond.

Ariela Lowenstein is professor of gerontology and director of the Center for Research and Study of Aging, Faculty of Welfare and Health Studies, University of Haifa, Israel. She has written extensively in the areas of aging and family, intergenerational relations, family care giving, educational gerontology, and social theory. She works closely with national and international organizations in the field of aging and has produced several interdisciplinary manuscripts and training manuals. Lowenstein currently coordinates a five-country research study of family relations and quality of life. She is past chair of the Israeli Gerontological Society and currently serves as chair of the Behavioral, Social Science and Research Section, International Association of Gerontology, European Region. She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America.

Jon Hendricks is dean of University Honors College, Oregon State University. He has published widely in social gerontology. He is past president of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, past chair of the Section on Social Gerontology and the Life Course of the American Sociological Association, and past chair of Behaviors and Social Sciences, Gerontological Society of America. Hendricks is currently co-editor-in-chief of Hallym International Journal of Aging and serves on the editorial boards of four other journals. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

SYNOPSIS

Comparing most approaches towards understanding the experience of aging as a form of "theoretical stamp collecting" that simply involves the continual shuffling of categories and classifications, Biggs (Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele U., UK), Lowenstein (Center for Research and Study of Aging, U. of Haifa, Israel), and Hendricks (Oregon State U., US) call for the use of a dialectical critical theory that looks for underlying power relations that uphold the status quo. They present 12 chapters that collectively examine the possibilities for a critical theorizing about social gerontology on micro and macro levels, touching upon such topics as aging effects on our relationship with our bodies, the inadequacy of static models of aging, the impact of postmodernity, the sources of inequality in later life, and contemporary social policy toward aging in the Western world. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Marquis D. Foreman - PhD, RN, FAAN(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing), Doody Publishing Weekly Updates

Received a 5 star rating from Doody Publishing Weekly Updates!

"This provocative book presents a different, and hopefully, more productive discussion about theory and theorizing in gerontology. Most books review contemporary theories of aging and their uses. This one presents a critical evaluation of those theories, identifies key issues and contradictions, and work and thinking that must be undertaken to gain a more coherent understanding of adult aging, and for the multidisciplinary field of gerontology to come of age.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Marquis D. Foreman, PhD, RN, FAAN (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing)Description: This book, part of Baywood's Society and Aging Series, is a critical evaluation of the state of theory and theorizing in gerontology.Purpose: The various chapters outline key issues and contradictions around adult aging; provide implications for research, policy, education, and practice; and potentially offer a new way to think about aging-work that is fundamental to realizing a coherent understanding of adult aging.Audience: The audience for this book is implicit in the introductory and concluding remarks by the editors: the global multidisciplinary community of scholars, students, providers, and policy makers of aging adults.Features: This book consists of three sections ordered to reflect the principal concerns of the authors. In their introductory remarks, the editors set the context for the need for theory and theorizing in gerontology as well as for ensuing discussion. Section one, entitled "Theorizing gerontology," consists of four chapters in which the patterns and directions of theorizing in gerontology are examined and observations of strengths and weaknesses are provided. Section two, entitled "Theorizing micro relations," consists of four chapters, in which individual and interpersonal issues of aging are explored. The third section, "Theorizing macro relations," also consists of four chapters analyzing structural relations and their influence on the construction of aging. The book ends with concluding remarks by the editors in which they address where theory is headed and what theory shouldaccomplish.Assessment: This provocative book presents a different, and hopefully, more productive discussion about theory and theorizing in gerontology. Most books review contemporary theories of aging and their uses. This one presents a critical evaluation of those theories, identifies key issues and contradictions, and work and thinking that must be undertaken to gain a more coherent understanding of adult aging, and for the multidisciplinary field of gerontology to come of age.

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