Aging, Theory and Globalization

Abstract

This book provides a critical reflection on theory, welfare and aging. An examination on how aging appears to be moving from individualization to a globalized world is provided. This is particularly apparent in a move toward neo-liberal discourses of consumerism which artificially appears to indicate a reallocation of attention from responding to welfare problems such as ‘abuse’, for example to an attempt to define what it is to allegedly ‘age positively’ in an era were older people have never had it so good. This trend is happening in western culture and greatly reconstructs both the formal expectations and personal experiences of later life less in terms of welfare but more in terms of leisure. The book is written against the backdrop of such neo-conservative cultural theories in social gerontology.