Amanda Grenier is Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster University, Canada. She holds the Gilbrea Chair on Aging and Mental Health, and is Director of the Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging. She is also affiliated with the Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology at the CSSS Cavendish, the McGill School of Social Work, and is Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Life Course Studies at Keele University. Her research focuses on the intersections of policy, organisational practice and lived experience in relation to ageing, frailty and care.

"This slender volume provides a succinct and readable introduction to some of the key debates in critical gerontology and would therefore be a useful purchase for any students interested in learning about experiences of growing older." Sue Davies, Journal of Ageing and Society "The book offers an independent and sometimes radical voice as it combines a review of theory, policy and practice." - Canon James Woodward "Grenier challenges assumptions that underlay most gerontology theories, policies and services, concluding that models of successful ageing deny the reality of physical decline that shapes the experiences of all who survive into late old age. This book is a must read for those concerned with the implications of global ageing." Sheila M. Neysmith, Associate Dean of Research, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Professor & RBC Chair in Applied Social Work Research, University of Toronto

• Part One: The context of growing old: The study of transition in late life; Critical perspectives on ageing and the lifecourse; Multidisciplinary approaches to transition; The intersections of policy, practice, and experience; Socio-cultural constructs of late life; Part Two: Contested models of ageing and late life: Narratives of transition on ageing and late life; Rethinking transition; Social location and 'othered' constructs of age; The fourth age: impairment in late life; Future directions