Books in the Ageing and the Lifecourse series series

Current social policy recognises that older people should be treated as experts in their own lives and be actively involved in their care. This book explores what can be learned from older people's experiences of managing ageing. Direct connections are made between the everyday experiences and perspectives of older people, related research and theoretical perspectives. This yields an engaging and informative analysis of how older people manage the ageing experience and what this means for policy and practice directed at promoting older people's wellbeing. The book will be of value to undergraduate and postgraduate students in health and social care and practitioners in these fields.

This is the first book to address the issue of ageing after a long life with disability. It breaks new ground through its particular life course perspective, examining what it means to age with a physical or mental disability.

This book focuses on older people as makers of meaning and insight, highlighting the ways older people form part of social and symbolic landscapes and the types of wisdom they can offer.

This much-needed volume, part of the Ageing and the Lifecourse series, combines insights from different disciplines and real-life experiences to argue that the lifecourse perspective helps us understand causes and effects of population ageing.

Taking a broad international perspective, this highly topical book casts light on patterns and processes that either place groups of older adults at risk of exclusion or are conducive to their inclusion.

In the context of global ageing societies, there are few challenges to the underlying assumption that policies should promote functional health and independence in older people and contain the costs of care. This important book offers such a challenge. It provides a critical analysis of the limitations of contemporary policies and calls for a fuller understanding of the relationship between health and care throughout the life-course. Located within the tradition of the feminist ethic of care, the book provides a fresh insight into global policy debates and the impact that these have on people's experiences of ageing. Including international evidence on health inequalities, health promotion and health care, this book will be of interest to a range of social scientists, particularly specialists in gerontology and social policy.

This book offers a unique perspective on ideas about late life as expressed in social policy and socio-cultural constructs of age with lived experience.

How can we understand older people as real human beings, value their wisdom, and appreciate that their norms and purposes both matter in themselves and are affected by those of others? Using a life-course approach this book argues that the complexity and potential creativity of later life demand a humanistic vision of older people and ageing.

This book explores the exchange of support between generations and examines variations in contemporary practice and theory in different societies around the world. It draws on theoretical perspectives to discuss both newly emerging patterns of family reciprocity and more established ones affected by changing issues in contemporary societies.

Based on 40 years' interviewing experience, this book illustrates the variety of religious, spiritual and other beliefs held by older people. It provides models of research procedure, especially in the context of bereavement. Participants include not only British Christians, but also Muslims, Humanists and witnesses of the Soviet persecution of religion. The author argues that both welfare professionals and gerontologists need to pay far more consideration to belief as a constituent of well-being in later life. The book looks to the future and increasing diversity of choice in matters of belief among Britain and Europe's older citizens as a consequence of immigration and globalisation.

Taking a broad international perspective, this highly topical book casts light on patterns and processes that either place groups of older adults at risk of exclusion or are conducive to their inclusion.

Dementia has been widely debated from the perspectives of biomedicine and social psychology. This book broadens the debate to consider the experiences of men and women with dementia from a sociopolitical perspective. It brings to the fore the concept of social citizenship, exploring what it means within the context of dementia and using it to re-examine the issue of rights, status(es), and participation. Most importantly, the book offers fresh and practical insights into how a citizenship framework can be applied in practice. It will be of interest to health and social care professionals, policy makers, academics and researchers and people with dementia and family carers may find it revitalising.

This book explores the exchange of support between generations and examines variations in contemporary practice and theory in different societies around the world. It draws on theoretical perspectives to discuss both newly emerging patterns of family reciprocity and more established ones affected by changing issues in contemporary societies.

This book addresses the shortfall in knowledge regarding older people's attachment to deprived neighbourhoods, offering a re-conceptualisation of environmental gerontology. The author examines new research, challenging the common view that ageing 'in place' is optimal, particularly within areas that present multiple risks to the individual.

This book provides a unique critical perspective on the changing nature of later life by examining the engagement of older people with consumer society in Britain since the 1960s.

This important book addresses a growing international interest in 'age-friendly' communities, examining the conflicting stereotypes of rural communities as either idyllic and supportive or isolated and bereft of services.

Specialist forms of housing with care are becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom, largely as a result of the ageing of the population and the relative wealth of the latest generation of older people. Retirement villages and extra care housing are two models of provision that have seen particularly spectacular growth. This is partly because in many ways they are perceived to promote government agendas for increasing independence and wellbeing for older people. They also aim to meet older people's aspirations for a good quality of life in their retirement years and to live somewhere they feel they belong. Many such housing developments are marketed as 'communities of like minded people', offering security, peace of mind, a range of facilities and new opportunities for friendship and social interaction. This important book investigates changing concepts and experiences of community across the lifecourse and into older age and how they play out in housing with care settings. An overview of how the housing with care sector has developed, both in the UK and internationally, is provided. The book emphasizes the central importance of a sense of community for older people's quality of life and explores the impact of a range of factors including social networks, inclusive activities, diversity and the built environment. The book will be of particular interest to students in the fields of gerontology, social policy, housing, planning, the built environment and community development. It will also appeal to academics, policy makers, practitioners, service providers and researchers, both in the UK and other countries with similar housing with care options, including the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

This important book brings together some of the best known international scholars working within a critical gerontology perspective to review and update our understanding of how the field has developed over and provide a challenging assessment of the complex practical and ethical issues facing older people, and those who conduct research on ageing.

There is no shortage of political and moral commentary on family life. Frequently the underlying theme of these commentaries is the decline of contemporary family commitment, particularly when older people's family experiences are the focus. Family Practices in Later Life challenges many common stereotypes about the nature of family involvement as people age. The book explores diversity and change in the family relationships older people maintain, looking at how family relationships are constructed and organised in later life. It recognises that the emerging patterns are a consequence of the choices and decisions negotiated within family networks, emphasising older people's agency in the construction of their family practices. In exploring such themes as long-term marriage, sibling ties in later life and grandparenthood, the book highlights the continued significance of family connection and solidarity in later life, while recognizing that family relationships are inevitably modified over time as people's social and material circumstances alter. Family Practices in Later Life will be of interest to students, researchers and academics in the fields of social policy, family studies and social gerontology. It provides a valuable contribution to the developing field of critical social gerontology as well as to an understanding of family process.