Global Aging: Comparative Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course

Praise for the first edition:

"This book is exemplary in amassing demographic, policy, and sociopsychological data from around the world... The content of the book is rich with current information seldom accumulated into one sourceI recommend this volume to gerontologists, aging studies undergraduate and graduate students... demographers, and global studies scholars."

Dr. Carol A. Gosselink, PsycCritiques

Written by leading scholars, this esteemed text on global aging is distinguished by its unique perspective on universal similarities and sociocultural differences across nations. Fully revised, updated, and reorganized, the second edition presents comprehensive coverage of major topics in social gerontology and expands its treatment of health behavior, health care, families, caregiving, older workers, and retirement. It delivers new information on living environments, religious beliefs and practices; environmental threats; cross-cultural views of dementia; ageism in advertising; age-friendly communities; global immigration and cultural assimilation, and end-of-life caregiving.

The second edition also offers additional case studies, first-person narratives and focused essays to enhance core material and a greater number of non-Western contributors. The topical essays reflect changing mores and current issues affecting societies and the aging experience. Discussion questions conclude each chapter, and an Instructor's Manual and PowerPoint slides are available to instructors. Print version of the book includes free, searchable, digital access to entire contents.

New to the Second Edition:
• Expanded content on health beliefs and health behavior, religious belief and practice, environmental threats, housing and living environments, physical security, consumer control of health care, family life, and more
• Additional topics on global immigration and cultural assimilation, age portrayals in advertising, voluntarism, and the use of social media in caregiving
• Abundant new and expanded essays
• New case studies and first-person narratives
• Many more non-Western contributors

Key Features:
• Delivers comprehensive coverage of major topics in gerontology
• Uses a unique comparative, cross-national perspective
• Authored by world-renowned aging scholars
• Includes case studies/essays/personal narratives to enliven core information
• Provides the most comprehensive demographic data on aging around the world

Frank J. Whittington, PhD, is professor emeritus of gerontology, Department of Social Work, at George Mason University, and professor emeritus of sociology at Georgia State University (GSU), where he was both a faculty member (1973-95) and director (1995-2008) of the Gerontology Institute. His research interests focus on the social dimensions of health and health care of older persons, especially African Americans. His publications include 11 books and more than 60 articles and chapters on health behavior, medication use, long-term care, and global aging. Based on research funded by the National Institute on Aging, he coauthored, with five colleagues at the GSU Gerontology Institute, Communities of Care: Assisted Living for African Americans, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2005. More recent projects include The International Handbook on Aging, coedited with Erdman Palmore of Duke University and Suzanne Kunkel of Miami University, and the first edition of Global Aging: Comparative Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course, coauthored with Suzanne Kunkel and Scott Brown of Miami University. Dr. Whittington has served as the president of the Southern Gerontological Society, from which he received the Gordon Streib Academic Gerontologist Award in 2009; he also received the 2010 Clark Tibbitts Award for outstanding contributions to academic gerontology from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.

Kate de Medeiros, PhD, is the O'Toole Family Professor of Gerontology in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology and a Scripps Research Fellow at Miami University. Dr. de Medeiros's research is broadly focused on understanding the experience of later life using narratives and other qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Research topics include storying later life, the meaning of home, suffering in old age, generativity, moral development in later life, and friendships and social connectivity among people living with dementia. She has authored or coauthored more than 45 research articles and book chapters and is the author of two books on aging--The Short Guide to Aging and Gerontology (Policy Press, 2017) and Narrative Gerontology: Theory, Research and Practice (Springer Publishing, 2013)--and is the series editor for the Emerald Publishing series, The Humanities and Later Life: Exploring Contexts and Meanings of Growing Old. Working with The Hastings Center for bioethics, she recently coedited a special volume, What Makes a Good Life in Late Life: Citizenship and Justice in Aging Societies. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Brookdale Foundation.

Suzanne Kunkel, PhD, is University Distinguished Professor of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. Her research is broadly focused on the social determinants of health, including the system of programs and services designed to support older adults in their goals to remain healthy, active, and engaged in their communities for as long as they choose. She has been supported by more than $7.5 million in external research funding to assess the implementation and effectiveness of these programs, including innovations such as consumer self-direction and dementia-friendly communities, and the role of cross-sectoral organizational partnerships in enhancing population health. Dr. Kunkel has published widely on the results of these projects, and on gerontology education. With Frank Whittington and Kate de Medeiros, she authored the second edition of Global Aging: Comparative Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course, a Springer textbook released in 2020. Kunkel is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE); she has served as President of AGHE, and Treasurer of GSA. She is the recipient of the Clark Tibbitts Award for contributions to the advancement of gerontology as a field of study.