Unmasking Age
The Significance of Age for Social Research
Distributed for Policy Press at the University of Bristol
“Bytheway reviews his research, which spans four decades, to explore the dynamic process of aging rather than the more static notion of age as an unchanging construct. In this way, Bytheway seeks to ‘unmask’ age by exploring how aging subjects reflect upon their lives as they live them. He offers numerous details and examples of his work that uses rich data from diaries, fiction, demography, and market research to provide a nuanced and accessible review of how his interaction with the subject has evolved over time.”--Choice
Acknowledgements
1. Introducing age
Background
The concept of 'age'
Featured research
The chapters that follow
2. Researching age
Research in gerontology
research methods
How old are you?
3. Age and time
Timescapes
Everyday life
Biography and history
The seasons
Returning
4. Representations of age
Words
Images
Representation
5. Growing older in an ageing body
Experience
The sight of the body
Birthdays
Transformations
6. Being older
Parents and children
Siblings
Couples
Networks
Succession
7. A great age
A centenarian
Approaching a 100th birthday
8. The ageing population
Age groups and generations
Age as a variable
Chronological age and mortality
Demographic statistics
Living alone
Bureaucracy
9. Gerontologists and older people
Reacting to need
Older people and involuntary retirement
The disintegration of age-related social worlds
10. Getting real
Behind the mask
Relations, groups and divisions
Social research
Theorising age
Postscript
Notes
Appendix
References
Index
Sociology: Social Gerontology
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