Ageing and Popular Culture

by Andrew Blaikie

Overview

Social theorists have yet to assess the cultural implications of population aging. This book traces the historical emergence of stereotypes of retirement and documents their latter-day dissolution, making striking use of visual sources, especially photography. Policy perceptions, media images and popular understandings are shown to suggest that the extended leisure phase known as the Third Age is breaking down old barriers between mid and later life. However, as the "gray market" perpetuates the quest for eternal youth, the biological realities of deep old age present an increasingly difficult challenge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521551502
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/04/1999
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.87(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: foreign land; 2. The history of old age: popular attitudes and policy perceptions; 3. The transformation of retirement; 4. Altered images; 5. Exploring visual memory; 6. Pictures at an exhibition: representations of age and generation; 7. Beside the sea: collective visions, ageing and heritage; 8. Landscapes of later life; 9. Conclusion: the struggle of memory against forgetting; Postscript - 2158.

Editorial Reviews

"This book traces the historical emergence of stereotypes of retirement and documents their recent demise. Its argument is that, although modernization, marginalization, and medicalization created rigid age classifications, the rise of comsumer culture has coincided with a postmodern broadening of options for those in the Third Age." Ethics, Law, and Aging Review

"The volume should provide foord for thought among sociologists of aging and social gerontologists, excite discussion among graduate students, and perhaps inspire new directions for research on aging." Intimate Relationships, Family, and Life Course, J. Beth Mabry and Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California

From the Publisher