Aging and Everyday Life

by Gubrium, Jaber F.; Holstein, James A.

• ISBN13: 9780631217084
• ISBN10: 0631217088
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Aging and Everyday Life presents a balanced and realistic view of the aging experience. The research in this book reveals that much, if not most, of the triumphs and trials experienced in later years are not unlike those confronted at other points in life. Just like younger people, the elderly experience both change and stability, shedding old roles and entering new ones. The process takes place in varied spheres of life: the worlds of home and family, work, and friendship.This thoughtful, engaging text brings together twenty-eight essays by leading researchers in social gerontology to explore the everyday aspects of aging. Readers will come away viewing the elderly as people whose lives are as complex and diverse, and therefore as nuanced as any.

Author Biography

Jaber F. Gubrium is Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida. He is editor of the Journal of Aging Studies and the author or editor of twenty books, including Oldtimers and Alzheimer's (1986), Speaking of Life (1993), and Living and Dying at Murray Manor (1997).

James A. Holstein is Professor of Sociology at Marquette University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Court-Ordered Insanity (1993), Reconsidering Social Constructionism (1993), and Social Problems in Everyday Life (1997). He also is co-editor of the research annual Perspectives on Social Problems.

The editors have previously collaborated on What is Family? (1990), The Active Interview (1995), The New Language of Qualitative Method (1997), Constructing the Life Course (2000), and The Self We Live By (2000).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	viii
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(12)
Jaber F. Gubrium
James A. Holstein
Part I Conceptualizing the Aging Experience	13	(50)
The Cultural Trap: The Language of Images	15	(4)
Haim Hazan
The Personal Trap: The Language of Self-Presentation	19	(6)
Haim Hazan
Further Thoughts on the Theory of Disengagement	25	(15)
Elaine Cumming
A Current Theoretical Issue in Social Gerontology	40	(7)
Arnold M. Rose
A Continuity Theory of Normal Aging	47	(16)
Robert C. Atchley
Further Reading to Part I	62	(1)
Part II Aging and Identity	63	(50)
A Decade of Reminders: Changing Age Consciousness between Fifty and Sixty Years Old	65	(22)
David A. Karp
Identity Foreclosure: Women's Experiences of Widowhood as Expressed in Autobiographical Accounts	87	(16)
Deborah Kestin Van Den Hoonard
The Ageless Self	103	(10)
Sharon R. Kaufman
Further Reading to Part II	112	(1)
Part III Work and Retirement	113	(40)
Retirement as a Social Role	115	(10)
Robert C. Atchley
The Unbearable Lightness of Retirement: Ritual and Support in a Modern Life Passage	125	(13)
Joel Savishinsky
``One of Your Better Low-Class Hotels''	138	(7)
Joyce Stephens
``Making It''	145	(8)
Joyce Stephens
Further Reading to Part III	151	(2)
Part IV Interpersonal Relationships	153	(62)
Friendship Styles	155	(20)
Sarah H. Matthews
The Significance of Work Friends in Late Life	175	(18)
Doris Francis
Filial Obligations and Kin Support for Elderly People	193	(22)
Janet Finch
Jennifer Mason
Further Reading to Part IV	214	(1)
Part V Living Arrangements	215	(60)
Parental Dependence and Filial Responsibility in the Nineteenth Century: Hial Hawley and Emily Hawley Gillespie, 1884-1885	217	(14)
Emily K. Abel
An Old Age Community	231	(24)
Arlie Russell Hochschild
Resisting Institutionalization: Constructing Old Age and Negotiating Home	255	(20)
Pia C. Kontos
Further Reading to Part V	273	(2)
Part VI The Aging Body	275	(54)
Managing Aging in Young Adulthood: The ``Aging'' Table Dancer	277	(11)
Carol Rambo Ronai
Narratives of the Gendered Body in Popular Autobiography	288	(18)
Mary M. Gergen
Kenneth J. Gergen
Stigmatizing a ``Normal'' Condition: Urinary Incontinence in Late Life	306	(23)
Linda S. Mitteness
Judith C. Barker
Further Reading to Part VI	328	(1)
Part VII The Aging Mind	329	(42)
Geriatric Ideology: The Myth of the Myth of Senility	331	(9)
James S. Goodwin
Bringing the Social Back In: A Critique of the Biomedicalization of Dementia	340	(17)
Karen A. Lyman
The Mask of Dementia: Images of ``Demented Residents'' in a Nursing Ward	357	(14)
Hava Golander
Aviad E. Raz
Further Reading to Part VII	370	(1)
Part VIII Caring and Caregiving	371	(44)
The Dependent Elderly, Home Health Care, and Strategies of Household Adaptation	373	(13)
Steven M. Albert
The Unencumbered Child: Family Reputations and Responsibilities in the Care of Relatives with Alzheimer's Disease	386	(15)
Judith Globerman
Nursing Homes as Trouble	401	(14)
Timothy Diamond
Further Reading to Part VIII	413	(2)
Part IX Death and Bereavement	415	(52)
A Death in Due Time: Conviction, Order, and Continuity in Ritual Drama	417	(23)
Barbara Myerhoff
Death in Very Old Age: A Personal Journey of Caregiving	440	(12)
Betty Risteen Hasselkus
The Social Context of Grief Among Adult Daughters Who Have Lost a Parent	452	(15)
Jennifer Klapper
Sidney Moss
Miriam Moss
Robert L. Rubinstein
Further Reading to Part IX	466	(1)
Index	467