Full Description
Disease and death are a part of life, but so too is being well. The lively voices found in this book are not shy about stating the ways in which the widely held notion that they are in decline has been a far larger problem than many other features of their lives. For students, scholars, and policy makers, the message is to attend to these voices, and to design and build better programs that address the social determinants of healthy aging and social inclusion throughout the life course.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: The Experience of Loss and the Range of Contestation, Janice E. Graham and Peter H. Stephenson
Part I. Overview: Paradigms and Perspectives
1. Age and Time: Contesting the Paradigm of Loss in the Age of Novelty, Peter H. Stephenson
Part II. Local Understanding and Knowledge about Aging: How Seniors See It
2. Losing and Gaining: About Growing Old "Successfully" in the Netherlands, Margaret von Faber and Sjaak van der Geest
3. Empowering Knowledge and Practices of Namaqualand Elders, Robin Oakley
4. La Buona Vecchiaia: Aging and Well-Being among Italian Canadians, Sam Migliore and Margaret Dorazio-Migliore
Part III. Illness, Indignity, and Stigmatization
5. Drunks, Bums, and Deadbeats? A Biographical Perspective on Gender, Aging, and the Inequalities of Men, Cherry Russell
6. Dignity and Loss: Implications for Seniors' Health in Hospitalization Narratives, Christina Holmes and Peter H. Stephenson
Part IV. Embodiments and Disembodiments
7. Embodied Selfhood: Ethnographic Reflections, Performing Ethnography, and Humanizing Dementia Care, Pia C. Kontos
8. The Science, Politics, and Everyday Life of Recognizing Effective Treatments for Dementia, Janice E. Graham
Part V. Practices and Policies
9. "Them" are "Us": Building Appropriate Policies from Fieldwork to Practice, Janice E. Graham
Appendix: Important Web Resources for Students and Researchers
Notes on Contributors
Index
