ABSTRACT
Providing a critical humanities approach to ageing, this book addresses new directions in age studies: the meaning and workings of "ageism" in the twenty-first century, the vexed relationship between age and disability studies, the meanings and experiences of "queer" aging; the fascinating, yet often elided work of age activists; and, finally, the challenges posed by AI and, more generally, transhumanism in the context of caring for an ageing population.
Divided into four parts: Part I: What Does It Mean to Grow Old? Part II: Aging: Old Age and Disability Part III: Aging, Old Age, and Activism Part IV: Old Age and Humanistic Approaches to Care the volume provides an innovative, two-part structure that facilitates rather than merely encourages interdisciplinary collaboration across the humanities and social sciences. Each essay is thus followed by two short critical responses from disciplinary viewpoints that diverge from that of the essay’s author.
Drawing on work from across the humanities - philosophy, fine arts, religion, and literature, this book will be a useful supplemental text for courses on age studies, sociology and gerontology at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |14 pages
Introduction
part I|84 pages
What Does It Mean to Grow Old?
section Response 1|9 pages
Abstracting Ageist Perceptions, Societal Ills, and Racist Burdens on the Psychological Well-Being of Black Women: Is “Successful” Aging Still an Option?
chapter 2|10 pages
There Is No Such Thing as “the Elderly”
section Response 2|7 pages
Intersectionality and Age
section Response 3|6 pages
Philosophical Approaches to Dementia: Some Further Reflections on Agency and Identity
section Response 4|9 pages
The Art of Bending the Successful Aging Paradigm: Contemporary Older Artists and Their Continuing Creative Practices
part II|80 pages
Aging: Old Age and Disability
section Response 5|4 pages
Fuchs's Case for Stranger Visions
section Response 6|11 pages
Fears Generating Ageism and Ableism Are Well-Founded in a Society That Does Not Seek or Support Full Inclusion of All Persons
section Response 7|7 pages
Aging and Caring Amid Words, Stories, and Texts 1
section Response 8|5 pages
What We Miss
part III|59 pages
Aging, Old Age, and Activism
chapter 10|9 pages
Aging in the Anthropocene
section Response 10|6 pages
Aging in the Anthropocene: Geological Time, Generational Place
section Response 11|7 pages
The Age of (Relentless) Responsibility
part IV|81 pages
Old Age and Humanistic Approaches to Care
section Response 12|7 pages
Toward a Deeper Understanding of Care in Later Life
section Response 13|6 pages
Developing New Forms of Care: From Individual to Collective Agency
section Response 14|5 pages
Only Persons Can Provide Person-Centered Care for People Living With Dementia: “Walter Prime” and His Ilk Miss the Mark
section Response 15|6 pages
Valuing Risk in Residential Long-Term Care: Setting an Important Ethical Standard for Supporting and Nurturing Human Flourishing