The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology (Society and Aging Series) - Hardcover

Biggs, Simon; Hendricks, Jon; Lowenstein, Ariela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895032775 ISBN 13: 9780895032775

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

The "Need for Theory" speaks to the burgeoning need for critical thinking in social gerontology. The editors have brought together some of the foremost contributors to theoretical advances in the field. This volume incorporates state-of-the-art theorizing with a focus on selected topical areas facing gerontologists around the world. Using their keen insights into substantive issues, the contributors examine personal and structural changes affecting individuals over the life course. Extolling the need for theory is not enough; the contributors focus their insights on a panoply of substantive issues, linking the personal with the political and with the structural parameters that shape the process of aging, no matter where it occurs.

About this title

About the Author

Simon Biggs is professor of social gerontology, Keele University, United Kingdom. He has worked as a community psychologist and as a social work policy adviser, and has written widely in the areas of aging identity, social policy, and social theory. In addition to formal academic publications, he has authored training materials, including Confronting Ageing and Understanding Elder Abuse. From 1989 until 1993, he coordinated a National Community Care program, and he has also been a consultant on a number of initiatives in the areas of health and social care. Biggs is an executive committee member of the European Master’s Degree in Gerontology. His latest book is The Mature Imagination: The Dynamics of Identity in Midlife and Beyond.

Ariela Lowenstein is professor of gerontology and director of the Center for Research and Study of Aging, Faculty of Welfare and Health Studies, University of Haifa, Israel. She has written extensively in the areas of aging and family, intergenerational relations, family care giving, educational gerontology, and social theory. She works closely with national and international organizations in the field of aging and has produced several interdisciplinary manuscripts and training manuals. Lowenstein currently coordinates a five-country research study of family relations and quality of life. She is past chair of the Israeli Gerontological Society and currently serves as chair of the Behavioral, Social Science and Research Section, International Association of Gerontology, European Region. She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America.

Jon Hendricks is dean of University Honors College, Oregon State University. He has published widely in social gerontology. He is past president of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, past chair of the Section on Social Gerontology and the Life Course of the American Sociological Association, and past chair of Behaviors and Social Sciences, Gerontological Society of America. Hendricks is currently co-editor-in-chief of Hallym International Journal of Aging and serves on the editorial boards of four other journals. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895032775
• ISBN 13: 9780895032775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268