Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores biomedical and sociological theories of aging and their inter-relationship to historical, contemporary and future issues affecting social welfare and older people.
Trade ReviewSocial Welfare, Aging and Social Theory provides a significant critique of dominant theories in social gerontology. It covers a wide range of theoretical perspectives whilst offering a coherent perspective based around Foucauldian ideas. The links drawn between theory and practice are especially welcome and should ensure a wide readership.
Social Welfare, Aging, and Social Theory is a book which lives up to its ambitious title. Now, more than ever, we need a book which can help us connect the dots and make sense of our lives in an aging society. This book delivers on that promise. -- Harry R. Moody, Director of Academic Affairs, AARP
This important book locates aging at the heart of social theory and challenges many taken-for-granted assumptions in gerontology as well as popular culture. It provides a powerful antidote to dominant biomedical and behavioral science models of aging as inevitable decline and should be read by all students of gerontology and social theory. -- Alan Walker, University of Sheffield
Table of ContentsChapter 1: The Relationship of Social Theory and Aging: A Critical Exegesis Part I. Modern Constructions of Aging Chapter 2: From Galen to the Clinic: the Birth of Biomedicine Chapter 3: Occidental Modernity, the Biomedical Gaze, and Aging Chapter 4: Theorizing Aging: Critical Explorations of Modernist Sociological Approaches Part II. Postmodern Deconstructions of Aging Chapter 5: Postmodernism, Culture, and the Aging Body Chapter 6: The "Foucault Effect" and Aging: Relations of Power, Surveillance and Governmentality Chapter 7: Aging in the "Risk Society" Chapter 8: Narrative and Aging Chapter 9: Reconstructions of Aging: The Case of Global Aging Chapter 10: Conclusion: Reconstructions of Aging
