Lexington Books
Pages: 194
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-7391-4777-1 • Hardback • January 2012 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-0-7391-4778-8 • Paperback • January 2012 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
Jason L. Powell is divisional head of social sciences at University of Central Lancashire.
John Martyn Chamberlain is a lecturer in criminology and social policy at Loughborough University.
Chapter 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
Social 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.
— Chris Phillipson, Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University, UK
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