1st Edition

Age Structuring in Comparative Perspective

Edited By David I. Kertzer, K. Warner Schaie Copyright 1989
    294 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    294 Pages
    by Psychology Press

    This volume studies age as a basis for social organization by uniting research from the social science disciplines while implementing both cross-cultural and historical perspectives. The contributors, a distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars, advance our understanding of age structuring by relating the changing societal level processes and individual aging experiences, and examining retirement practices, age and power in society, and cultural conceptions of age.

    Contents: M.W. Riley, Foreword. Part I:Introduction. D.I. Kertzer, Comparative and Historical Perspectives on Age Structuring. Part II:Age and Power. W.H. Sangree, Age and Power: Life Course Trajectories and Age Structuring Power Relations in East and West Africa. J. Keith, Cultural Commentary and the Culture of Gerontology. D.L. Featherman, L.K. Selbee, K.U. Mayer, Social Class and the Structuring of the Life Course in Norway and West Germany. D.P. Hogan, Institutional Perspectives on the Life Course: Challenges and Strategies. Part III:Ideological Aspects of Age Structuring. C. Ikels, Becoming a Human Being in Theory and Practice: Chinese Views of Human Development. C. Usui, The Ideology of Individualism Versus the Ideology of Corporate Groupism: Japanese Conceptions of Human Relations. F.O. Ramirez, Reconstituting Children: Extension of Personhood and Citizenship. C. Schooler, Levels and Proof in Cross-Disciplinary Research. Part IV:Comparative Perspectives on Retirement. A. Plakans, Stepping Down in Former Times: A Comparative Assessment of "Retirement" in Traditional Europe. A.B. Sorensen, Old Age, Retirement, and Inheritance. M.A. Vinovskis, Stepping Down in Former Times: The View from Colonial and Nineteenth-Century America. A. Inkeles, C. Usui, Retirement Patterns in Cross-National Perspective. K.U. Mayer, G. Wagner, D.L. Featherman, Methodological Problems in Doing Cross-National Research on Retirement.

    Biography

    David I. Kertzer, K. Warner Schaie

    "Taken as a whole, this volume is an excellent example of the value of the cross-fertilization of ideas from several disciplines....the inclusion of critical discussion of the major essays is thought-provoking. Most important, the essays move forward the analysis of issues related to the age structure of society."
    Contemporary Sociology

    "For serious students of age stratification and age structuring of both society and the life course, the book will inevitably and quickly become dog-eared through use!"
    Matilda White Riley
    From the Foreword