Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Jan Baars, Dale Dannefer, Chris Phillipson, Alan Walker

ABOUT THE EDITORS Jan Baars, Ph.D., studied sociology and philosophy in Amsterdam and is Professor of Interpretive Gerontology at the University for Humanistics in Utrecht and Professor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences and the Humanities at Tilburg University, Netherlands. He has published and (co-)edited a dozen books and published many articles on philosophical and gerontological subjects in English, German, French, Finnish, and Dutch. His main interests are theoretical and practical presuppositions in approaches to aging, especially conceptions of time and temporality. He has lectured at many universities in Europe and the United States and chaired gerontological symposia in Australia, the United States, and Japan.Dale Dannefer's scholarly work is concerned with the links between social dynamics and life course processes. A pioneer in developing cumulative advantage theory as an explanatory life-course framework, he has published more than 60 articles, monographs, and chapters in sociology, psychology, human development, education, and gerontology. Dannefer's current scholarship focuses on the effects of globalization on life course patterns and the problem of age segregation. He has just completed a large-scale empirical study of "culture change" in long-term care settings. He teaches courses on life course and human development, the sociology of work and education, and social theory. He has been a research fellow in the Social Control program at Yale University, at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California, and at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education in Berlin.Chris Phillipson is Professor of Applied Social Studies and Social Gerontology at the University of Keele, United Kingdom; he is also Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning and Academic Development) for the University. He has published extensively in the field of critical gerontology and related areas, and is currently undertaking research on issues relating to social exclusion in old age and the impact of urbanization on the lives of older people. His books include Reconstructing Old Age; The Family and Community Life of Older People (co-authored) and Women in Transition: A Study of the Experiences of Bangladeshi Women Living in Tower Hamlets (co-authored).Alan Walker is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, and is Director of The European Research Area in Ageing. Previously he was Director of the Economic and Social Research Council's Growing Older Programme and the European Forum on Population Ageing Research. He is co-founder and chair of the European Foundation on Social Quality. Walker was a member of the Technical Committee responsible for drafting the 2002 U.N. Plan of Action on Ageing, and he chaired the European Commission's Observatory on Ageing and Older People. He has been researching and writing on aging, social policy, and related issues for nearly 30 years and has published more than 20 books and 300 scientific papers. Recent books include The New Generational Contract; Ageing Europe; Combating Age Barriers in Employment; The Politics of Old Age in Europe; and Growing Older: Quality of Life in Old Age.

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ABOUT THE BOOK This book is a major reassessment of work in the field of critical gerontology, providing a comprehensive survey of issues by a team of contributors drawn from Europe and North America. The book focuses on the variety of ways in which age and aging are socially constructed, and the extent to which growing old is being transformed through processes associated with globalization. The collection offers a range of alternative views and visions about the nature of social aging, making a major contribution to theory-building within the discipline of gerontology. The different sections of the book give an overview of the key issues and concerns underlying the development of critical gerontology. These include: first, the impact of globalization and of multinational organizations and agencies on the lives of older people; second, the factors contributing to the "social construction" of later life; and third, issues associated with diversity and inequality in old age, arising through the effects of cumulative advantage and disadvantage over the life course. These different themes are analyzed using a variety of theoretical perspectives drawn from sociology, social policy, political science, and social anthropology. Aging, Globalization and Inequality brings together key contributors to critical perspectives on aging and is unique in the range of themes and concerns covered in a single volume. The study moves forward an important area of debate in studies of aging and thus provides the basis for a new type of critical gerontology relevant to the twenty-first century.

Aus dem Klappentext

ABOUT THE BOOK This book is a major reassessment of work in the field of critical gerontology, providing a comprehensive survey of issues by a team of contributors drawn from Europe and North America. The book focuses on the variety of ways in which age and aging are socially constructed, and the extent to which growing old is being transformed through processes associated with globalization. The collection offers a range of alternative views and visions about the nature of social aging, making a major contribution to theory-building within the discipline of gerontology. The different sections of the book give an overview of the key issues and concerns underlying the development of critical gerontology. These include: first, the impact of globalization and of multinational organizations and agencies on the lives of older people; second, the factors contributing to the "social construction" of later life; and third, issues associated with diversity and inequality in old age, arising through the effects of cumulative advantage and disadvantage over the life course. These different themes are analyzed using a variety of theoretical perspectives drawn from sociology, social policy, political science, and social anthropology. Aging, Globalization and Inequality brings together key contributors to critical perspectives on aging and is unique in the range of themes and concerns covered in a single volume. The study moves forward an important area of debate in studies of aging and thus provides the basis for a new type of critical gerontology relevant to the twenty-first century.

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Aging, Globalization, and Inequality

BAYWOOD PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

Contents

Dedication..................................................................................................................................................................vAcknowledgments.............................................................................................................................................................viiINTRODUCTION1. Introduction: Critical Perspectives in Social Gerontology Jan Baars, Dale Dannefer, Chris Phillipson, and Alan Walker...................................................1SECTION 1: DIMENSIONS OF CRITICAL GERONTOLOGY2. Beyond Neomodernism, Antimodernism, and Postmodernism: Basic Categories for Contemporary Critical Gerontology Jan Baars.................................................173. Aging and Globalization: Issues for Critical Gerontology and Political Economy Chris Phillipson.........................................................................434. Reexamining the Political Economy of Aging: Understanding the Structure/Agency Tension Alan Walker......................................................................595. Critical Feminist Perspectives, Aging, and Social Policy Carroll Estes..................................................................................................816. Reciprocal Co-Optation: The Relationship of Critical Theory and Social Gerontology Dale Dannefer........................................................................103SECTION 2: CRITICAL DIMENSIONS OF MEDICALIZATION: AGING AND HEALTH AS CULTURAL PRODUCTS7. From Chronology to Functionality: Critical Reflections on the Gerontology of the Body Stephen Katz......................................................................1238. Empowering the Old: Critical Gerontology and Anti-Aging in a Global Context Neil King and Toni Calasanti................................................................1399. Dementia in the Iron Cage: The Biopsychiatric Construction of Alzheimer's Dementia Kathryn Douthit......................................................................159SECTION 3: AGE AND INEQUALITY: LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL DYNAMICS10. The Emerging Postmodern Culture of Aging and Retirement Security Larry Polivka and Charles F. Longino, Jr..............................................................18311. Dynamics of Late-Life Inequality: Modeling the Interplay of Health Disparities, Economic Resources, and Public Policies Stephen Crystal................................20512. Health, Aging, and America's Poor: Ethnographic Insights on Family Co-morbidity and Cumulative Disadvantage Linda M. Burton and Keith E. Whitfield.....................21513. Culture, Migration, Inequality, and "Periphery" in a Globalized World: Challenges for Ethno- and Anthropogerontology Sandra Torres.....................................23114. Globalization and Critical Theory: Political Economy of World Population Issues John A. Vincent........................................................................245Contributors................................................................................................................................................................273Index.......................................................................................................................................................................277

Chapter One

Jan Baars, Dale Dannefer, Chris Phillipson, and Alan Walker

This book is the product of our shared conviction that mainstream social gerontology has paid insufficient attention to the degree to which age and aging are socially constituted (Baars, 1991) and to the ways in which both age and aging are currently being transformed as a result of the set of social forces surrounding processes of globalization. The neglect of critical analysis has weakened attempts to understand the social processes involved in shaping age and the life course and, consequently, the creation of alternative conceptions and visions about the future of old age. This failure must itself be linked to general inadequacies of theory building within gerontology, a deficiency shared across both European and North American studies of aging (Bengtson & Schaie, 1999; Biggs, Lowenstein, & Hendricks, 2003; Birren & Bengtson, 1988; Lynott & Lynott, 1996).

Despite its explosive development over the last half-century, social gerontology has been characterized by an imbalance between the accumulation of data and the development of theory (Bengtson, Rice, & Johnson, 1999; Hendricks & Achenbaum, 1999; Riley & Riley, 1994). Researchers interested in aging have relentlessly collected mountains of data, often driven by narrowly defined, problem-based questions and with little attention to basic assumptions or larger theoretical issues. An absence of theoretical development is surely not surprising for a fairly young enterprise that seeks to capture a complex empirical reality; especially one that draws from many disciplines, and that is preoccupied with urgent practical problems (Hagestad & Dannefer, 2001). Yet the lack of attention to theory has meant that research questions have often been informed by an uncritical reliance on images and assumptions about aging drawn from popular culture or from traditions and paradigms of theory that are considered outdated within the broader discourses of behavioral and social theory. When such assumptions are used to guide the formulation of research questions and research designs, the result can be what has been termed "dust-bowl empiricism" (Birren, 1988), unintended reductionisms or other fallacies that misspecify the level of analysis and, therefore, missed opportunities to pursue the most revealing aspects of the subject matter in question (Hendricks, 1999).

Yet without question, several major gerontological paradigms of the late 20th century have contributed fundamental insights to inform theoretical development. These include, for example, the principles underlying cohort analysis and the interplay of demographic and economic forces, which in turn reflect the importance of history and social structure. These paradigms have included age stratification (Riley, Johnson, & Foner, 1972), life-course theory (Elder, 1974), life-span development (Baltes, 1987), and the first paradigmatic source of critical gerontology, political economy (Estes, 1979; Minkler & Estes, 1999; Phillipson, 1982; Walker, 1980, 1981).

Although these important traditions of thought have contributed organizing principles that have become classic in their influence upon both theoretical and methodological questions, with the exception of political economy approaches they do not claim to provide specific theoretical guidance. Instead, they provide some bedrock elements that must be included in any adequate theory, such as the importance of cohort flow and cohort succession, the tension between agency and structure, and the complexities involved in the articulation of individual and social change.

Moreover, almost all of these approaches have been appropriately criticized for their lack of attention to the actual experience of aging. By definition, such approaches give little attention to interpretive phenomena, such as the rich and complex fields of...