Ageing and Popular Culture - Hardcover

Blaikie, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521551501 ISBN 13: 9780521551502

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Social theorists have yet to assess the cultural implications of population aging. This book traces the historical emergence of stereotypes of retirement and documents their latter-day dissolution, making striking use of visual sources, especially photography. Policy perceptions, media images and popular understandings are shown to suggest that the extended leisure phase known as the Third Age is breaking down old barriers between mid and later life. However, as the "gray market" perpetuates the quest for eternal youth, the biological realities of deep old age present an increasingly difficult challenge.

About this title

Review:

"This book traces the historical emergence of stereotypes of retirement and documents their recent demise. Its argument is that, although modernization, marginalization, and medicalization created rigid age classifications, the rise of comsumer culture has coincided with a postmodern broadening of options for those in the Third Age." Ethics, Law, and Aging Review

"The volume should provide foord for thought among sociologists of aging and social gerontologists, excite discussion among graduate students, and perhaps inspire new directions for research on aging." Intimate Relationships, Family, and Life Course, J. Beth Mabry and Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0521551501
• ISBN 13: 9780521551502
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260