Cross-Cultural and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Social Gerontology

This volume intends to re-establish social gerontology as a discipline that has pragmatic links to policy and practice. Collectively, the chapters enrich public debates about the moral, cultural and economic questions surrounding aging, thereby ameliorating the “problems” associated with aging societies. This volume is uniquely cross-cultural, theory-driven and cross-disciplinary. It fills a gap in the gerontological scholarship of the global south that is predominantly descriptive and empirical. Based on original research, this volume examines in particular the sociological question of inequality and its intersection with age, gender, health, family and social relations. In the process, the studies herein highlight the unique historical, institutional and social systems that govern the subjective experience of aging in diverse contexts globally. Specifically, societies in transition including India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Japan, China, Israel and in Europe are studied while connecting the micro-social experience of aging (loneliness, wellbeing, discrimination, relationships and resilience) with larger temporal and political contexts. This exercise generates intellectual capital that reformulates links between aging research and policy in innovative ways. Overall, the volume echoes the global scientific commitment to understand the socio-cultural process of aging in transitional societies and utilizes rich opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas, disciplines and methods to advance the gerontological promise of critical inquiry, training and practice. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Bridging the Gap: Theory and Research in Social Gerontology....Pages 3-22 Who Will Care for the Elder Caregiver? Outlining Theoretical Approaches and Future Research Questions....Pages 23-43 Social Psychology and Gerontology: Integrating Theory to Explain and Intervene in Age Discrimination Towards Older People in Europe....Pages 45-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Aging and Subjectivity: Ethnography, Experience and Cultural Context....Pages 69-83 Neoliberalism and Resilience Among Older Yoruba People in a Semiurban Community, South West Nigeria....Pages 85-107 Social Capital, Interrupted: Sociological Reflections from Old Age Homes in Ahmedabad, India....Pages 109-124 Engaging the Future as Ethnographic Object: Japan’s Aging Society Crisis, Ontogenesis and Cybernetics....Pages 125-140 Front Matter....Pages 141-141 Antecedents of Subjective Wellbeing Among Older Adults in Kerala....Pages 143-158 Early Life Critical Transitions in the Relationship Between Current Life Stressors and Depressive Symptoms Among Community-Residing Older Lebanese Adults....Pages 159-175 Analysis of Perceived Health Status Among Elderly in India: Gender and Positional Objectivity....Pages 177-202 The Relationship Between Spatial Activity and Wellbeing-Related Data Among Healthy Older Adults: An Exploratory Geographic and Psychological Analysis....Pages 203-219 The Changes of Disability-Free Life Expectancy and Inter-Generation Support for the Elderly in China: 2005–2010....Pages 221-243 Elderly Inpatient Care Utilization and Financing in India: Is There a Gender Difference?....Pages 245-270 Back Matter....Pages 271-273