1st Edition

Critical Perspectives on Aging The Political and Moral Economy of Growing Old

By Meredith Minkler, Carroll Estes Copyright 1990
    362 Pages
    by Routledge

    372 Pages
    by Routledge

    This unique volume brings together 20 critical essays on aging within the context of the broad social, political, and economic factors that help shape and determine the realities of growing old. Rather than viewing aging in isolation, it explores the social creation of old age dependency and the profound influence of race, gender, and social class on what it means to grow old. It looks too at such topics as the "biomedicalization" of aging; the role of business and the media in changing societal images of the old; the fact and fiction behind "senior power"; the multibillion dollar nursing home industry; and the role of advanced capitalist nations in creating economic dependency among elders in the Third World.

    Introduction: The Unique Contributions of This Volume Vicente Navarro

    Part I: Introduction
     Overview  Meredith Minkler
    The New Political Economy of Aging: Introduction and Critique  Carroll L. Estes
    Political and Moral Economy: Not Such Strange Bedfellows  Meredith Minkler and Thomas R. Cole
    Dependency or Empowerment? Toward a Moral and Political Economy of Aging  Jon Hendricks and Cynthia A. Leedham

    Part II: New Images of the Old and the Debate over Resource Allocation
     "Generational Equity" and the New Victim Blaming  Meredith Minkler
    Gold in Gray: Reflections on Business' Discovery of the Elderly Market  Meredith Minkler
    A Lamb in Wolf's Clothing? The Reality of Senior Power and Social Policy Steven P. Wallace, John B. Williamson, Rita Gaston Lung, and Lawrence A. Powell

    Part III: Apocalyptic Demography and the Biomedicalization of Aging
     The Biomedicalization of Aging: Dangers and Dilemmas  Carroll L. Estes and Elizabeth A. Binney
    The Politics of Alzheimer's Disease: A Case Study in Apocalyptic Demography Ann Robertson

    Part IV: Critical Perspectives on Market Economy Health Care
     The Nursing Home Industry: A Structural Analysis  Charlene Harrington
    The Political Economy of Mental Health Care for the Elderly  Elizabeth A. Binney and James H. Swan
    The Short Life and Painful Death of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act  Martha Holstein and Meredith Minkler

    Part V: Race, Class, Gender, and Aging
     Older Women in the Post-Reagan Era  Terry Arendell and Carroll L. Estes
    Community Care Policies and Gender Justice  Suzanne E. England, Sharon M. Keigher, Baila Miller, and Nathan L. Linsk
    Gender, Race and Class: Beyond the Feminization of Poverty in Later Life  Paula L. Dressel
    The Political Economy of Health Care for Elderly Blacks  Steven P. Wallace

    Part VI: Retirement, Social Security, and Economic Dependency
     Retirement and the Moral Economy: An Historical Interpretation of the German Case  Martin Kohli
    Postwar Capitalism and the Extension of Social Security into aRetirement Wage  John Myles
    Dependency among Third World Elderly: A Need for New Direction in the Nineties  Sheila M. Neysmith

    Part VII: Conclusion
     Future Prospects for Aging Policy Reform  Judith Shindul-Rothschild and John B. Williamson
    Epilogue  Carroll L. Estes
    Contributors
     Index

    Biography

    Meredith Minkler (Author) ,  Carroll L. Estes (Author)