The Peter Townsend Reader

Alan Walker is Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology at The University of Sheffield. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, holds lifetime achievement awards from the British Gerontological Society and the Social Policy Association and was the ESRC’s first Impact Champion (2013). He directed the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme 2005-14.

David Gordon is Professor of Social Justice and Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristolat the University of Bristol.

Ruth Levitas is Professor of Sociology and (from 2006) Head of Department at the University of Bristol, UK.

I am a social anthropologist based within Newcastle Sociology, and throughout my career much of my research has been collaborative - working particularly with other social scientists and epidemiologists. Since my PhD, most of my writing has been either on health-related topics or on environmental politics, and sometimes at the intersection of the two. I retired in 2015 and now hold the position of Visiting Professor of Social Anthropology.

Chris Phillipson is Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. He has published a number of general books in the field of ageing as well a number of papers on age-friendly issues.