`An imaginative collection of articles and papers.... It is a real pleasure to recommend this very pleasing collection, which is a welcome addition to any gerontology library, personal or public.′ - Baseline`This book offers a wealth of valuable information together with a collection of fascinating insights into ageing and later life. Although its scope it extremely ambitious, it manages to highlight the most salient aspects of social gerontology and will appeal to readers at all levels in this subject.... In summary, this is an extremely enjoyable and very informative book which should have wide appeal and represents excellent value.′ - Update`From personal accounts to academic treatise, with the thoughtful fiction of Alan Bennett cheek by jowl with commentary on the place of old age in Agatha Christie, one is able to observe the full range of possibility. Image, value, policy, power; these, and other perspectives, are fluidly present. It embraces, then, like the course it supports, a multi-disciplinary approach.... The Open University strikes again.... it has truly been in the production of texts, in respect both of content and presentation, that the Open University has made so significant a mark. The re-designed course, An Ageing Society, not least its accessible reader, is yet another contribution.′ - Ageing and Society

• IntroductionPART ONE: PERSONAL ACCOUNTSLook Me In the Eye - Barbara MacDonaldComing Out of the Age Closet - Maxine MyersThe Ageing of Mary Berenson - Bill BythewayHome From Home? - Evan MarshMrs Hatter - Janet Ford and Ruth SinclairMr and Mrs Cosgrove - Jeremy SeabrookEpilogue to - Agatha ChristieAn AutobiographyPART TWO: IMAGES AND IDENTITYOld Age in Crime Fiction - Mike HepworthA Cream Cracker Under the Settee - Alan BennettHave the Men Had Enough? - Margaret ForsterThe Photographic Image - Kathleen WoodwardAgeing with a Disability - Gerry ZarbAgeing and Cultural Stereotypes of Older Women - Jay Ginn and Sara ArberAgeing and Ethnicity - Ken BlakemorePART THREE: ILL-HEALTH AND WELL-BEINGThe Health of Older Asians - Liam Donaldson and Marie JohnsonOsteoporosis in Women - Jean ShapiroDepression in Later Life - Elaine MurphyFrames of Reference for an Understanding of Dementia - Tom KitwoodLove, Sex and Aging - Edward M BrecherAge Discrimination in Health Care - Melanie HenwoodPART FOUR: INTERVENTION AND THERAPYDoes Group Living Work? - Julia JohnsonA Holistic Approach in the Ward - Helen PassantElderly People, Their Medicines and Their Doctors - Drugs and Therapeutics BulletinAssessing Risk - Alison NormanVulnerable to Abuse - Olive StevensonBaffle Locks - Grainne SheridanIn Whose Best Interest?Freedom to Wander - Peter BlackburnPART FIVE: POWER AND CONTROLObstacles to the Development of User-Centred Services - Tim BoothRest Assured - Leonie Kellaher and Sheila PeaceNew Moves in Quality Assurance for Residential CareA Powerhouse for Change - Phyllida Parsloe and Olive StevensonEmpowering UsersApproaches to Advocacy - Chris PhillipsonThe Pensioners′ Movement - Andrew BlaikieFederation, Consolidation, Fragmentation, 1938-48On Being a Woman in the Pensioners′ Movement - Zelda CurtisPART SIX: CONCEPTS AND VALUESAgeism - Julia Johnson and Bill BythewayConcept and Definition`Us′ and `Them′? Feminist Research, Community Care and Disability - Jenny MorrisPhilosophical Perspectives on Quality of Life - Andrew SixsmithReligion and Aging - David O MobergGerontological Approaches to Quality of Life - Beverley HughesMeasuring Quality of Life - Michael Bury and Anthea HolmePART SEVEN: POLICY AND POLITICSIdeology and the Private Sector of Welfare - Roy ParkerHousing and Community Care - Robin MeansWorkers versus Pensioners - Paul Johnson, Christoph Conrad and David ThompsonThe New Prospects for Retirement - Michael Young and Tom SchullerOlder People in Europe - Alan Walker and Jens AlberSocial and Economic PoliciesPART EIGHT: PASTSBorn 1898 - Mark AbramsA Brief Group BiographyOral History as a Social Movement - Joanna BornatReminiscence and Older PeopleHistory of Migration to the United Kingdom - John Young and James GeorgeGlimpses of a Lost History - Paul ThompsonSocial Services for Elderly People - Robin MeansFrom Beveridge to ThatcherThe Historical Development of Geriatric Medicine as a Specialty - Helen EversHistory of Old Age in Western Culture and Society - George MinoisPART NINE: FUTURESThe Politics of Age - Russell A WardAgeing in Developing Countries - Alex KalacheHas it Got Anything to Do with Us?Paths for Future Population Ageing - Jill GrigsbyCan We Survive the World Revolution? - Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider

`An imaginative collection of articles and papers.... It is a real pleasure to recommend this very pleasing collection, which is a welcome addition to any gerontology library, personal or public.′ - Baseline`This book offers a wealth of valuable information together with a collection of fascinating insights into ageing and later life. Although its scope it extremely ambitious, it manages to highlight the most salient aspects of social gerontology and will appeal to readers at all levels in this subject.... In summary, this is an extremely enjoyable and very informative book which should have wide appeal and represents excellent value.′ - Update`From personal accounts to academic treatise, with the thoughtful fiction of Alan Bennett cheek by jowl with commentary on the place of old age in Agatha Christie, one is able to observe the full range of possibility. Image, value, policy, power; these, and other perspectives, are fluidly present. It embraces, then, like the course it supports, a multi-disciplinary approach.... The Open University strikes again.... it has truly been in the production of texts, in respect both of content and presentation, that the Open University has made so significant a mark. The re-designed course, An Ageing Society, not least its accessible reader, is yet another contribution.′ - Ageing and Society

• IntroductionPART ONE: PERSONAL ACCOUNTSLook Me In the Eye - Barbara MacDonaldComing Out of the Age Closet - Maxine MyersThe Ageing of Mary Berenson - Bill BythewayHome From Home? - Evan MarshMrs Hatter - Janet Ford and Ruth SinclairMr and Mrs Cosgrove - Jeremy SeabrookEpilogue to - Agatha ChristieAn AutobiographyPART TWO: IMAGES AND IDENTITYOld Age in Crime Fiction - Mike HepworthA Cream Cracker Under the Settee - Alan BennettHave the Men Had Enough? - Margaret ForsterThe Photographic Image - Kathleen WoodwardAgeing with a Disability - Gerry ZarbAgeing and Cultural Stereotypes of Older Women - Jay Ginn and Sara ArberAgeing and Ethnicity - Ken BlakemorePART THREE: ILL-HEALTH AND WELL-BEINGThe Health of Older Asians - Liam Donaldson and Marie JohnsonOsteoporosis in Women - Jean ShapiroDepression in Later Life - Elaine MurphyFrames of Reference for an Understanding of Dementia - Tom KitwoodLove, Sex and Aging - Edward M BrecherAge Discrimination in Health Care - Melanie HenwoodPART FOUR: INTERVENTION AND THERAPYDoes Group Living Work? - Julia JohnsonA Holistic Approach in the Ward - Helen PassantElderly People, Their Medicines and Their Doctors - Drugs and Therapeutics BulletinAssessing Risk - Alison NormanVulnerable to Abuse - Olive StevensonBaffle Locks - Grainne SheridanIn Whose Best Interest?Freedom to Wander - Peter BlackburnPART FIVE: POWER AND CONTROLObstacles to the Development of User-Centred Services - Tim BoothRest Assured - Leonie Kellaher and Sheila PeaceNew Moves in Quality Assurance for Residential CareA Powerhouse for Change - Phyllida Parsloe and Olive StevensonEmpowering UsersApproaches to Advocacy - Chris PhillipsonThe Pensioners′ Movement - Andrew BlaikieFederation, Consolidation, Fragmentation, 1938-48On Being a Woman in the Pensioners′ Movement - Zelda CurtisPART SIX: CONCEPTS AND VALUESAgeism - Julia Johnson and Bill BythewayConcept and Definition`Us′ and `Them′? Feminist Research, Community Care and Disability - Jenny MorrisPhilosophical Perspectives on Quality of Life - Andrew SixsmithReligion and Aging - David O MobergGerontological Approaches to Quality of Life - Beverley HughesMeasuring Quality of Life - Michael Bury and Anthea HolmePART SEVEN: POLICY AND POLITICSIdeology and the Private Sector of Welfare - Roy ParkerHousing and Community Care - Robin MeansWorkers versus Pensioners - Paul Johnson, Christoph Conrad and David ThompsonThe New Prospects for Retirement - Michael Young and Tom SchullerOlder People in Europe - Alan Walker and Jens AlberSocial and Economic PoliciesPART EIGHT: PASTSBorn 1898 - Mark AbramsA Brief Group BiographyOral History as a Social Movement - Joanna BornatReminiscence and Older PeopleHistory of Migration to the United Kingdom - John Young and James GeorgeGlimpses of a Lost History - Paul ThompsonSocial Services for Elderly People - Robin MeansFrom Beveridge to ThatcherThe Historical Development of Geriatric Medicine as a Specialty - Helen EversHistory of Old Age in Western Culture and Society - George MinoisPART NINE: FUTURESThe Politics of Age - Russell A WardAgeing in Developing Countries - Alex KalacheHas it Got Anything to Do with Us?Paths for Future Population Ageing - Jill GrigsbyCan We Survive the World Revolution? - Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider