The Social Construction Of Age

This book explores the social construction of age in the context of EFL in Mexico. It is the first book to address the age factor in SLA from a social perspective. Based on research carried out at a public university in Mexico, it investigates how adults of different ages experience learning a new language and how they enact their age identities as language learners. By approaching the topic from a social constructionist perspective and in light of recent work in sociolinguistics and cultural studies, it broadens the current second language acquisition focus on age as a fixed biological or chronological variable to encompass its social dimensions. What emerges is a more complex and nuanced understanding of age as it intersects with language learning in a way that links it fundamentally to other social phenomena, such as gender, ethnicity and social class.

A watershed event in the field of sociology, this text introduced “a major breakthrough in the sociology of knowledge and sociological theory generally” (George Simpson, American Sociological Review). In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers, Berger and Luckmann go beyond intellectual history and focus on commonsense, everyday knowledge—the proverbs, morals, values, and beliefs shared among ordinary people. When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction,effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.

This book opens the series with a consideration of the social construction of social difference. Taking the body as the point of departure, it deals with the processes through which social problems and social inequalities are constructed. In particular, it examines the shifting ways in which our ideas about issues such as 'disability', 'race' and ethnicity, and sexuality influence the development of social policies.

Although attitudes toward the aged and their care are inherent in any society, gerontology itself is a relatively recent field of study and practice. Gerontology and the Construction of Old Age applies the methods of discourse analysis and textual analysis to texts and documents in this newly evolved and eclectic fi eld. Green explores and identifies the literary methods and discursive regularities through which aging and the aged have been made into objects of study and treatment, and which together form a mode of knowledge production that will infl uence future texts in the field.Because such formats of representation limit rational diagnoses of problems and rational courses of ameliorative action, policy implications in the fi eld of gerontology are a major interest of this study. Another interest is methodological. Within the broader constructionist approach to social reality, Green takes the position of "constitutive realism": the notion that social reality is linguistically constructed, primarily in speech and writing.The book's two aims are to describe analytically the fi eld of gerontology. The field is important both for its growing academic presence and for its practical eff ects on discourse and policy concerning old age. It also hopes to help develop possibilities of inquiry associated with the linguistic, literary, and rhetorical turns of social science in recent years. Gerontology and the Construction of Old Age is a substantive investigation, at considerable theoretical depth, of gerontology itself, as well as a methodological treatise with broader implications for social science as it focuses upon the discourse of various professional fields.

The Becoming of Age is an examination of the ways that aging and old age are represented in popular film. Arguing that the ideas behind cinematic depictions of aging are historical and open to revision, the author looks at how movies both promote negative portrayals of aging and challenge its persistent cultural devaluation. Movies are a site of struggle where the representation and the reality of aging intertwine, and they have the power not only to reflect but to reconstruct our understanding.

This comprehensive and accessible textbook overviews the applications of social psychology to a wide range of problems and issues in contemporary society. With internationally respected contributors who survey the major developments in their fields, this practical guide incorporates advice, examples and reading lists. The first part of the book outlines a number of general frameworks that inform the applications of social psychology, namely language, attitudes, decision-making and survey research; Part Two focuses on major behavioural domains, including health and economic behaviour; Part Three explains the relationship between social psychology and social institutions, highlighting, for instance, the media, law and politics; and the final part addresses the broader social and cultural implications of contemporary social psychology, covering such key concerns as violence, ageing and cross-cultural questions.

Haim Hazan is a leading specialist on old age in anthropology, and has published several books on particular communities of old people. The latest book is an essay on the realities of old age, as it is experienced, as opposed to the ideas about the old current in western societies. It argues that the construction of this world by outsiders is inevitably affected by deeply ingrained social attitudes and structures, such as the spatial segregation of the aged as a population, and the fear of death with which they are associated. By approaching the subject from the social constructionist perspective, and by drawing on a variety of detailed ethnographic accounts, the author describes a unique and nuanced social world. This is a sophisticated and original book, which should have a significant impact on a field still dominated by a 'social problems' approach.

As our aging population grows ever larger, it is increasingly important to understand how adults age and what we can do to provide up-to-date care to ensure their well-being as an integral part of society. Leslie Morgan and Suzanne Kunkel understand that this phenomenon is about much more than just the physical or biological aspects of growing older and have put together a comprehensive text on the impact of society and sociology on the aging process. Use this text to explore the diversity of the aging population and dispel the major stereotypes surrounding the elderly. Learn about aging through all the layers of social context from family life to politics and economics. And through this approach, come to see how aging is more than just an individual process, it is a process that effects the direction of our society as a whole. For the Student: .: Web sites of interest and key terms defined at the end of each chapter.; Real life stories and essays on love, sex, music, medicine, and crime. For the Professor: .: Assignment-ready reading in a One Chapter a Week format.; Questions for discussion and review at each chapter end.; Applying Theory sections place the lesson of each chapter in a clear, real-world setting. Instructor's Guide Now Available! An Instructor's Manual for this textbook is available for those professors who have adopted Aging, Society, and the Life Course, Third Edition and can verify a bookstore order of 7 or more copies. Please email our Marketing Department at [email protected] if you have adopted this text as you will need a password to download the guide. Please provide the name and telephone number of the bookstore that ordered the textbooks. A print version of the Instructor's Manual is also availabl