The intersections of aging, media, and culture are under-explored given trends in population aging, rapid increases in the mediation of everyday life, and the growing cultural significance of media consumption at the global level. This book brings together an international collection of critical scholars, both well-established and up-and-coming, from the various academic disciplines that share a common interest in the future study of aging and media. This anthology of original articles int...

Susanna may be mute, but not stupid. And although she is still a child she can draw wonderful pictures. But as it was in the Soviet Union behind the iron curtain in those days it was not easy to raise a deaf child that didn't fit into the communist ideal, and the state would whisk her swiftly away into a home if they found her. Her mother Antonia had a stroke of luck as she, although a lowly worker in a factory, became a room in a communal apartment that she would share with three older wo...

Mix the latest and most rigorous scientific research, irrepressible old-fashioned entrepreneurship, and the ancient human desire to live forever (or at least a lot longer) and the result is today’s exploding multibillion-dollar antiaging industry. Its achievements are so far mostly marginal, but its promises flow with all the allure of a twenty-first-century fountain of youth. In Eternity Soup, acclaimed science writer Greg Critser takes us to every outpost of the antiaging landsc...

Multigenerational Family Therapy is a book about honoring and helping families. Rich with personal reflections and anecdotes from the author’s many years as a family therapist, this volume’s major strength lies in its precise definition of the process and content of the therapy itself. As the family is the major resource system available to an individual, this important book provides therapists with the keys for helping family members help each other and provides a framework for understand...

Colorful and enlightening vignettes about life by everyday people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties.When social worker Wendy Lustbader was asked to take down the histories of residents in a retirement community, she discovered that "the man with Alzheimer's in room 410" was actually ninety-six-year-old Ole Harlen, a former concert pianist. "The woman who people-watches in the lobby" was really Lila Lane, who eloped to Tijuana with her sweetheart at age sixteen, and who at ...

People are leading significantly longer lives than previous generations did, and the proportion of older people in the population is growing. Residential care for older people will become increasingly necessary as our society ages and, we will require more of it. At this moment in time, the rights of older people receive attention at international and regional levels, with the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the African Union exploring the possibility of establishin...

Popular films have always included elderly characters, but until recently, old age only played a supporting role onscreen. Now, as the Baby Boomer population hits retirement, there has been an explosion of films, including Away From Her, The Straight Story, The Barbarian Invasions, and About Schmidt, where aging is a central theme.The first-ever sustained discussion of old age in cinema, The Silvering Screen brings together theories from...

Do you want to age independently in your own home and neighborhood? Staying home, aging in place, is most people's preference, but most American housing and communities are not adapted to the needs of older people. And with the fastest population growth among people over 65, finding solutions for successful aging is important not only for individual families, but for our whole society. In Independent for Life, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and a team of experts on aging, arc...

Doody's Score: 91, 4 Stars"[This] book's unfading preoccupation with social context, social processes, and social structures distinguishes itself and greatly contributes to the discourse in gerontology."--The GerontologistThis is a comprehensive textbook for both undergraduate and graduate level courses, detailing the impact of societal forces on the aging process. The book focuses on the diversity of the older population, examining it from...

The Politics of Age and Disability in Contemporary Spanish Film examines the onscreen construction of adolescent, elderly, and disabled subjects in Spanish cinema from 1992 to the present. Applying a dual lens of film analysis and theory drawn from the allied fields of youth, age, and disability studies, this study is set both within and against a conversation on cultural diversity—with respect to gender, sexual, and ethnic identity—which has driven not only much of the past decad...

Family members provide the majority of care for individuals with disabilities in the United States. Recognition is growing that family caregiving deserves and may require societal support, and evidence-based practices have been established for reducing stress associated with caregiving. Despite the substantial research literature on family support that has developed, researchers, advocates and professionals have often worked in separate categorical domains such as family support for caregi...

A new study of Egypt's resources for elder care, and an exploration of the cultural and social attitudes that impact this ever-increasing need in modern society The Egyptian society is aging. Families have to find solutions for care-dependent older persons, while at the same time, social changes threaten the traditional system of family care. The society has to adapt to this previously unknown situation and to develop new strategies for meeting the needs of its older members. Based on eigh...