Medical Sociology and Old Age: Towards a sociology of health in later life

by Higgs; Paul

• ISBN13: 9780415398558
• ISBN10: 041539855X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-11
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Trajectories of chronic illness, biotechnology, social inequality and the restructuring of health care all demonstrate the relevance and importance of health for understanding social change. This book reflects on how our understanding and experience of health, at later ages in particular, can impact on social and technological developments.By integrating the perspectives of medical sociology, with its focus on the failing body, chronic illness, infirmity and mortality, and social gerontology, and by emphasizing the epidemiology of old age and health policy, Higgs and Jones break new ground in the study of ageing. They discuss the key issue of dependency versus success ageing and examine the prospect of a new sociology ' a sociology of health in later life.This book will be essential reading for all students and researchers of medical sociology and gerontology.

Author Biography

Paul Higgs is Professor of the Sociology of Ageing at University College London Ian Rees Jones is Professor of Sociology of Health at Bangor University, Wales

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Medical sociology and old age	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Medical sociology approaching old age	p. 3
Age as a category within medical sociology	p. 7
Later life in the context of a second modernity	p. 11
Conclusion	p. 16
Social gerontology and old age	p. 17
Introduction	p. 17
Structured dependency theory	p. 19
The third age	p. 21
Productive ageing	p. 23
Cultures of ageing	p. 25
Social research and the problematisation of later life	p. 27
Bio-gerontological perspectives	p. 29
Conclusion	p. 32
The body at later ages	p. 34
Introduction	p. 34
Sociology of the body and embodiment	p. 35
Postmodern critiques and realist responses to the loss of meaning	p. 42
The reflexive self, the lived experience of disability and the vicissitudes of ageing bodies	p. 44
Conclusion	p. 47
New developments in social gerontology	p. 49
Introduction	p. 49
Globalised society and old age	p. 49
Critical gerontology	p. 55
Feminist gerontology	p. 58
Postmodern gerontology	p. 61
The cultural turn in gerontology	p. 62
Conclusion	p. 64
The death of old age, critical approaches as undertakers	p. 66
Introduction	p. 66
Bodily appearance	p. 68
Bodily functioning	p. 71
Bodily control	p. 73
Conclusion	p. 80
The birth of a new sociology of health in later life	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
The somatic society at later ages	p. 82
The 'arc of acquiescence'	p. 85
Anti-ageing medicine and technologies	p. 87
Boundaries between the third and fourth ages	p. 90
Death and immortality	p. 95
Conclusion	p. 97
Conclusion	p. 99
Second modernity and later life	p. 100
A research programme for later life in second modernity	p. 104
Conclusion	p. 112
Notes	p. 115
References	p. 117
Index	p. 140
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