Hardback
Rethinking the Sociology of Ageing
Towards a Sociology of Later Life
9781802202113 Edward Elgar Publishing
In this important book, Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard demonstrate how an invigorated sociology of later life is crucial for understanding the role of later life in 21st century societies.
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Critical Acclaim
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In this important new book, Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard demonstrate how an effective sociology of later life is critical for understanding the ageing societies of the twenty-first century.
Rethinking the Sociology of Ageing situates ageing firmly within the discipline of sociology. Adopting a global lens, the authors explore later life in relation to contemporary social theory as it relates to social institutions and the increasing role of forms of capital. Key topics covered include generation, households, lifestyle, ‘cosmopolitanisation’, health and risk. The book contends that the sociology of later life is a key element in the changing nature of a globalised, late, reflexive or second modernity. The social space of later life is a hitherto neglected prism through which to examine changes in contemporary society.
This book will be invaluable for students and researchers specialising in sociology and sociological theory, comparative social policy, ageing studies, family and gender. Throwing a critical light on many age-based inequalities, it will also be of interest to policymakers and think tank specialists engaging with the contemporary salience of an ageing world.
Rethinking the Sociology of Ageing situates ageing firmly within the discipline of sociology. Adopting a global lens, the authors explore later life in relation to contemporary social theory as it relates to social institutions and the increasing role of forms of capital. Key topics covered include generation, households, lifestyle, ‘cosmopolitanisation’, health and risk. The book contends that the sociology of later life is a key element in the changing nature of a globalised, late, reflexive or second modernity. The social space of later life is a hitherto neglected prism through which to examine changes in contemporary society.
This book will be invaluable for students and researchers specialising in sociology and sociological theory, comparative social policy, ageing studies, family and gender. Throwing a critical light on many age-based inequalities, it will also be of interest to policymakers and think tank specialists engaging with the contemporary salience of an ageing world.
Critical Acclaim
‘Higgs and Gilleard have delivered yet another ambitious book that offers a conceptual breakthrough in our understanding of later life as a social space. Crucially, it prompts a necessary rethinking in the sociological canon of aging in late modernity to make sense of the seeming contradictions and complexities of the social world.’
– Tannistha Samanta, FLAME University, India
‘Higgs and Gilleard make a compelling case for a sociology of later life, carving this out as a distinct field in its own right. To do this, they draw particularly on the “new sociological canon”, including Bauman, Beck, Bourdieu and Giddens, addressing the global social changes in late modernity that intimately shape the place and experience of later life and at the same time addressing the omissions of that new canon in overlooking the importance of age and later life almost entirely. The result is a magisterial account which weaves together grand theory with meticulously gathered empirical material from across the globe and, as always with these scholars, is courageous and original in breaking with orthodoxies where they deem it to be necessary. A must-read for those interested in social theory, in mainstream sociology and in the fields of age studies, the sociology of ageing and social gerontology.’
– Susan Pickard, Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, University of Liverpool, UK
‘“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” Higgs and Gilleard, in light of emergent circumstances of aging in the 21st century, rightly challenge us to engage with frameworks from contemporary social theory in order to revitalize sociology’s read on later life.’
– David J. Ekerdt, University of Kansas, USA
– Tannistha Samanta, FLAME University, India
‘Higgs and Gilleard make a compelling case for a sociology of later life, carving this out as a distinct field in its own right. To do this, they draw particularly on the “new sociological canon”, including Bauman, Beck, Bourdieu and Giddens, addressing the global social changes in late modernity that intimately shape the place and experience of later life and at the same time addressing the omissions of that new canon in overlooking the importance of age and later life almost entirely. The result is a magisterial account which weaves together grand theory with meticulously gathered empirical material from across the globe and, as always with these scholars, is courageous and original in breaking with orthodoxies where they deem it to be necessary. A must-read for those interested in social theory, in mainstream sociology and in the fields of age studies, the sociology of ageing and social gerontology.’
– Susan Pickard, Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, University of Liverpool, UK
‘“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” Higgs and Gilleard, in light of emergent circumstances of aging in the 21st century, rightly challenge us to engage with frameworks from contemporary social theory in order to revitalize sociology’s read on later life.’
– David J. Ekerdt, University of Kansas, USA
