Description
Book SynopsisExplores how the successful aging movement is playing out across five continents. Contributors investigate a variety of people to offer a fresh look at a major cultural and public health movement of our time, questioning what has become for many a taken-for-granted goalûaging in a way that almost denies aging itself.
Trade Review"With public conversation about control of aging at an all-time high, these rich ethnographies from around the globe challenge stereotypes of success, failure, and ageism as they illustrate how vitality and vulnerability, independence, need, and care are resourcefully enacted. A timely corrective, this volume is essential for anyone interested in the diverse practices of interdependence and self-making in the world's ever-aging societies." -- Sharon R. Kaufman * author of Ordinary Medicine *
"Lamb provides incisive deconstruction of modern notions of ‘successful aging,’ offering a wealth of theoretical perspectives on, and ethnographic illustrations of, approaches to aging in different cultural settings across the globe." -- Jeanne Shea * Department of Anthropology and Center on Aging, University of Vermont *
"[A] valuable aspect of
Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession is its global perspective....Lamb has done extensive fieldwork in West Bengal, where, far from being idealized, 'too much independence is commonly regarded as the worst thing that can befall one in old age.'" * This Chair Rocks *
"The book offers insightful and sometimes highly emotional accounts of how we find meaning in the limits of our human condition, making it a delightful read regardless of one’s professional orientation." * Anthropology News *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Successful Aging as a Twenty-first-Century Obsession
Sarah Lamb, Jessica Robbins-Ruszkowski, and Anna Corwin
Part I Gender, Sexuality, and the Allure of Anti-Aging
1 Successful Aging, Ageism, and the Maintenance of Age and Gender Relations
Toni Calasanti and Neal King
2 Opting In or Opting Out? North American Women Share Strategies for Aging Successfully with (and without) Cosmetic Intervention
Abigail T. Brooks
3 Aging Out: Ageism, Heterosexism, and Racism among Aging African American Lesbians and Gay Men
Imani Woody
4 Erectile Dysfunction as Successful Aging in Mexico
Emily Wentzell
Part II Ideals of Independence, Interdependence, and Intimate Sociality in Later Life
5 Beyond Independence: Older Chicagoans Living Valued Lives
Elana D. Buch
6 Growing Old with God: An Alternative Vision of Successful Aging among Catholic Nuns
Anna I. Corwin
7 Aspiring to Activity: Universities of the Third Age, Gardening, and Other Forms of Living in Postsocialist Poland
Jessica Robbins-Ruszkowski
8 Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot? Friendship in the Face of Dementia
Janelle S. Taylor
Part III National Policies and Everyday Practices: Individual and Collective Projects of Aging Well
9 Getting Old and Keeping Going: The Motivation Technologies of Active Aging in Denmark
Aske Juul Lassen and Astrid Pernille Jespersen
10 Foolish Vitality: Humor, Risk, and Success in Japan
Jason Danely
11 Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing
Judith Farquhar and Qicheng Zhang
12 Depreciating Age, Disintegrating Ties: On Being Old in a Century of Declining Elderhood in Kenya
Janet McIntosh
Part IV Medicine, Morality, and Self: Lessons from Life’s Ends
13 Successful Selves? Heroic Tales of Alzheimer’s Disease and Personhood in Brazil
Annette Leibing
14 Comfortable Aging: Lessons for Living from Eighty-five and Beyond
Meika Loe
15 Ageless Aging or Meaningful Decline? Aspirations of Aging and Dying in the United States and India
Sarah Lamb
Epilogue: Successful Aging and Desired Interdependence
Susan Reynolds Whyte
Notes on Contributors
Index
