CONTENTS:- Introduction; I. International perspectives; The United Nations and ageing; Cross-culturally comparative structural constraints affecting the social aspects of aging; Centenarians in France, Georgia, Hungary and Sweden: social characteristics/Gillis Samuelsson, Mary Ann Johnson and Michel Allard; Discourses, voices and visions on aging in Mexico city; Uniqueness of the Israeli over 70 age group; Demography of ageing and pattern of old age security in Bangaldesh; Changing family networks and relationships in two Swiss Cohorts of elderly (1979-1994); Family and community care for elderly people in Spain; Community care and social support for older persons in UK, USA and China: an international perspective; Social Isolation, loneliness, and the health of older adults in Manitoba, Canada; Successful aging-dependent on cultural and social capital? Reflections from Finland; Ageism at school: images and stereotypes of ageing and the old age in Argentina; Coping in old age: considerations from the point of view of case studies from Brazil; The forgotten majority: images of older women and their lives in Italy; Reconstructing life after a death: psychological adaptation and social role transition in the medium and long term for older widowed men and women in the UK; The assessment of functional fitness and attitudes towards physical fitness of Greek elderly people; The global ecology and the older adult in the 21century: senior involvement in sustainability achievement; II. Indian perspectives; Population ageing in India: demographic and health dimensions; Integration of strategies for the care of older persons: a cross cultural study; Integenerational issues in elder care; Intergenerational households of Indian-Americans: the elder's experience; Instiutional care of the aged; Life satisfaction among institutionalised and non-institutionalised elderly; Institutionalisation of elderly and quality of life; On being old and female: some issues in quality of life of elderly women in India; Personality characteristics of working and retired aged people; Elderly and the community mental health; Role adjustment and status of aged: a case study of Bengali population of Meghalaya; Influence of the old on the perspectives of the young on human life; Leisure time activities and Indian elderly; Sex differences in psycho-physical effects of psychotropic drugs among the elderly; Euthanasia and psychiatry; Death, dying and living.
DESCRIPTION
Ageing of global society and its impact on human development is a major concern of the twenty-first century. More than any other social phenomenon, ageing, in its varied ramifications, particularly its socio-psychological dimensions, have acquired unprecedented significance both nationally and internationally. This compendium on ageing is an outcome of the academic euphoria generated by the UN International Year of Older persons (1999) and reflects voices and visions of scholars focussing their attention, analysis and discourses on as many as 19 countries across the globe. Cogently argued essays, based on primary as well as secondary data, provide a valuable framework to assess the problems and the status of elderly in a global cross-cultural perspective, making the book a worthy source material not only for sociologists, psychologists, gerontologists and social work scholars but also the NGOs working in the field.
