Description: Aging and Everyday Life presents a balanced and realistic view of the aging experience. The research in this book reveals that much, if not most, of the triumphs and trials experienced in later years are not unlike those confronted at other points in life. Just like younger people, the elderly experience both change and stability, shedding old roles and entering new ones. The process takes place in varied spheres of life: the worlds of home and family, work, and friendship.
This thoughtful, engaging text brings together twenty-eight essays by leading researchers in social gerontology to explore the everyday aspects of aging. Readers will come away viewing the elderly as people whose lives are as complex and diverse, and therefore as nuanced as any.
Review Quotes: "Teachers wanting a more comprehensive edited volume, offering superb critical, qualitative readings that correspond with many of the rubrics central to textbook chapters, will warmly welcome Gubrium and Holstein's Aging and Everyday Life." (Teaching Sociology, 1 October 2010)
"This comprehensive Reader brings together an impressive group of the foremost scholars on aging. Gubrium and Holstein's distinctive constructionist approach to everyday life presents an array of classic and contemporary readings, providing profound insights into what it means to be older in contemporary society." Sara Arber, University of Surrey
"Gubrium and Holstein have contributed many advances to our understanding of age and aging over the past several decades. For this volume they have assembled an impressive and accessible collection of essays that should be required reading for any introduction to gerontology class." Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California