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Preface

As we prepared this 10th edition of Aging: Concepts and Controversies, we were keenly aware of the many significant national and global issues that dwell in the background: worsening climate change; the immigration crisis in North America and Europe; the resurgence of totalitarianism, populism, and racism; public health emergencies; and ongoing economic and political instability. While none of these issues are “aging issues” per se, they are inarguably large scale human issues that can have immediate and long-term impact at both the individual and collective levels in terms of access to resources, opportunity structures, and quality of life as we travel through the life course.

Since the previous edition of this book, the oldest members of the baby boom generation have begun collecting Social Security, and the process of population aging is well under way. Given current demographic trends, it is likely that tens of thousands of Americans born after the year 2000 will live to see the dawn of another century, the 22nd. Many of you who are reading this book will spend the greatest part of your lives experiencing dramatic changes already evident in telecommunications, biotechnology, and genetics. This ever-accelerating change will produce even more debate and controversy about how we are to live and participate in an aging society and in the 21^st century.

In this edition of the book, we use the same unique approach that inspired earlier editions in order to consider and respond to perennial and new public debates and social conditions that shape how we think about and experience aging. This approach entails presenting key ideas and content from gerontology as opportunities for critical thinking. Our aim is to encourage you to not only encounter basic ideas but also reflect more deeply on issues raised by the study of aging.

As we move further into the 21^st century with a population growing older not only in North America but also globally, we all have a stake in developing a better understanding of the subject (Perkinson, 2013). In this book we intentionally focus on issues of interest to all of us as citizens and as educated human beings, not just as potential gerontologists or professional service providers. From the opening chapter, we encourage you to see aging not as a fixed period of life but as a process beginning at birth and extending over the entire life course. This open-ended quality of human aging is a theme woven throughout the book: from biological experiments on extending the lifespan to difficult choices about allocation of health care resources, to questions about the meaning of becoming and “older person.”

The multiple possibilities for how we might age both as individuals and as a society create complex choices that are important for all of us. New thinking is needed if we are to grasp and respond to the issues at stake. That is why the pedagogical design of this book focuses on controversies and questions, rather than on assimilating facts or coming up with a single “correct” view about aging or older people. We selected the supplemental readings to accentuate contrast and conflict and to stimulate faculty and students to think more deeply about what is at stake in the debates presented here. In contrast to most textbooks, we direct your attention toward original sources and encourage you and your instructor to construct the perspectives for responding to the claims made in those original texts.

The point is not to find the single “right answer” raised in the contrasting perspectives and debates about the controversies we feature in this book. Rather, as you become engaged in the debates, you will appreciate the need for having the factual background necessary to make responsible judgments and interpretations. That is the purpose of the three major chapters, the Basic Concepts sections, around which the book’s controversies are organized. The data and conceptual frameworks offered in these chapters will help you make sense of the controversies, understand their origin, engage in critical thinking, and, finally, develop your own views. The introductions preceding each controversy and the questions that follow reinforce the essential link between factual knowledge and interpretation at the heart of the book. This book, then, can best be seen as a textbook constructed to provide drama and compelling interest for the reader. It is structured to encourage a style of teaching and learning that goes beyond conveying facts and methods. The goal is nothing more, or less, than critical thinking about gerontology.

An Invitation to Think Critically About Gerontology (and About This Book!)

In this book, we offer an introduction to the major foundational concepts and perspectives in the field of gerontology. In addition, we pose provocative questions about different aspects of aging at the individual and societal levels. These questions point to perennial and contemporary “controversies” about aging.

You will soon notice that there are multiple, often contrasting or contradictory answers to the questions we pose about these controversies, such as rationing health care for older people or the meaning of old age. You might also notice that for many of the topics we discuss, the research is far from conclusive; in fact, knowledge about aging is always emerging and is at best partial and provisional. Why? Because aging is a complex, multifaceted process that unfolds over the entire human life course, and the study of aging is complex as well.

We invite you to approach this complexity as an opportunity to practice critical thinking. When we think critically, we move beyond the surface of the information presented and dig more deeply to discover the underlying assumptions beneath the information, as well as to consider the implications of putting the information into action. Critical thinking embraces open-mindedness about new or confusing perspectives and empathy to imagine how it is that others might come to their beliefs, opinions, and assumptions about aging. Critical thinking can also be used as a tool to reflect on one’s own ideas about aging and to be more actively engaged in learning about gerontology.

Other, more specific features of the book reinforce this pedagogical approach. The Focus on Practice sections demonstrate the relevance of the controversies for human services work in our society. The Focus on the Future sections make us ever mindful of the accelerating pace of change in our society and its implications. The Global Perspective and Urban Legends of Aging sections provide additional opportunities for expansive and critical thinking. The appendix offers guidance for researching and writing term papers on aging, and the online resources provided as part of the book’s ancillary package open up access to many additional digital resources. Whether you go on to specialized professional work or you never take another course in gerontology, our aim is directed at issues of compelling human importance, now and in the future. By returning again and again to those questions of perennial human interest, we express our hope that both teachers and students will find new excitement in questions that properly concern us all, whatever our age.

What Is New to This Edition?

This new edition builds on the unique approach adopted in earlier editions. There is a close link between concepts and controversies in each of the three broad domains of human aging: the life course, health care, and socioeconomic trends. This link proved to be so teachable in earlier editions that this organization has been reinforced in the current edition. We have also updated and augmented the figures and graphics in the book, using effective illustration and current data wherever appropriate. Information cited has been made as up-to-date as possible to reflect the most recent data and perspectives available. In addition, each chapter of controversies contains a feature section highlighting comparable issues in different countries around the world. These feature sections acknowledge the way in which aging is increasingly a global phenomenon with lessons of international significance. We’ve also included learning objectives at the beginning of each Basic Concepts chapter as well as a separate glossary of key terminology used throughout the book. To support students who intend to work in the field of aging or who want to be well prepared to work in any capacity in an aging society, we’ve updated the concluding chapter that explores new and emerging careers as well as questions about where the field of gerontology is heading now and in the future. In addition, instructors using this book can now receive at no cost a monthly electronic newsletter, Human Values in Aging, which provides resources and insights about the multiple dimensions of the experience of age. A subscription to this e-newsletter is available by contacting hrmoody@yahoo.com.

Ancillaries

Teaching Resources

This text includes an array of instructor teaching materials designed to save you time and to help you keep students engaged. To learn more, visit sagepub.com or contact your SAGE representative at sagepub.com/findmyrep.

Student Resources

This text includes access to select student learning resources. To learn more, visit sagepub.com or contact your SAGE representative at sagepub.com/findmyrep.