100 books like Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

By Danan Gu (editor), Matthew E. Dupre (editor),

Here are 100 books that Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging fans have personally recommended if you like Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Aging: Concepts and Controversies

Andrzej Klimczuk Author Of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II: Putting Theory into Practice

From my list on public policy on ageing.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a student, one day, I noticed that something was wrong with our world. Older people are separated from younger ones and sometimes almost invisible. I decided to focus on researching whether and how older people organize themselves into groups and influence important areas of social, economic, and political life. The study of the social capital of older adults led me to research on age discrimination, intergenerational relationships, age-friendly communities and cities, social innovation, co-design, citizen science, and public policy on ageing. I am convinced that only multi-sectoral and multi-level cooperation can lead to the implementation of constructive responses to today’s global challenges.

Andrzej's book list on public policy on ageing

Andrzej Klimczuk Why did Andrzej love this book?

This is probably the most unconventional textbook in the field of social gerontology.

It does not just provide introductions to topics that are usually linked to population ageing, such as care, health, and pensions. Moody and Sasser go further by provoking readers with a mix of basic concepts and related controversies.

The book focuses on discussing various questions, such as “Should older people be protected from bad choices?” and “Should we ration health care for older people?”

Of course, reading all chapters lead readers to ask even more questions.

By Harry R Moody, Jennifer R Sasser,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Aging as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Aging: Concepts and Controversies is structured to encourage a style of teaching and learning that goes beyond conveying facts and methods. This innovative text focuses on controversies and questions rather than on assimilating facts or creating a single "correct" view about aging or older people. Drawing on their extensive expertise, authors Harry R. Moody and Jennifer R. Sasser first provide an overview of aging in three domains: aging over the life course, health care, and socioeconomic trends. Each section then includes data and conceptual frameworks, helping readers to make sense of the controversies and understand their origin, engage in critical…


Book cover of International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy

Andrzej Klimczuk Author Of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II: Putting Theory into Practice

From my list on public policy on ageing.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a student, one day, I noticed that something was wrong with our world. Older people are separated from younger ones and sometimes almost invisible. I decided to focus on researching whether and how older people organize themselves into groups and influence important areas of social, economic, and political life. The study of the social capital of older adults led me to research on age discrimination, intergenerational relationships, age-friendly communities and cities, social innovation, co-design, citizen science, and public policy on ageing. I am convinced that only multi-sectoral and multi-level cooperation can lead to the implementation of constructive responses to today’s global challenges.

Andrzej's book list on public policy on ageing

Andrzej Klimczuk Why did Andrzej love this book?

This quite heavy volume covers a wide range of 37 chapters that focus on the most important topics related to global ageing.

Contributions delivered by experts from areas such as sociology, economics, demography, social policy, public health, and public administration are divided into two categories: challenges and practitioner perspectives.

On the one hand, the authors provide introductions to studies and policy contexts on demographic change, pensions, health, and welfare.

On the other hand, the collection contains a selection of international case studies, policy innovations, and examples of the involvement of civil society in responding to challenges related to ageing population.

Both sides are good starting points for anyone who wants to go more in-depth in the field of ageing policy.

By Sarah Harper, Kate Hamblin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With the collective knowledge of expert contributors in the field, The International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy explores the challenges arising from the ageing of populations across the globe.

With an expansive look at the topic, this comprehensive Handbook examines various national state approaches to welfare provisions for older people and highlights alternatives based around the voluntary and third-party sector, families and private initiatives. Each of these issues are broken down further and split into six comprehensive sections:

- Context
- Pensions
- Health
- Welfare
- Case Studies
- Policy Innovation and Civil Society

Academics interested in policy…


Book cover of Aging A-Z: Concepts Toward Emancipatory Gerontology

Andrzej Klimczuk Author Of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II: Putting Theory into Practice

From my list on public policy on ageing.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a student, one day, I noticed that something was wrong with our world. Older people are separated from younger ones and sometimes almost invisible. I decided to focus on researching whether and how older people organize themselves into groups and influence important areas of social, economic, and political life. The study of the social capital of older adults led me to research on age discrimination, intergenerational relationships, age-friendly communities and cities, social innovation, co-design, citizen science, and public policy on ageing. I am convinced that only multi-sectoral and multi-level cooperation can lead to the implementation of constructive responses to today’s global challenges.

Andrzej's book list on public policy on ageing

Andrzej Klimczuk Why did Andrzej love this book?

This provocative book is constructed in the form of a dictionary instead of a set of typical thematic-oriented chapters.

The reader can accept the challenge and arrange the pieces of the puzzle on their own. Estes and DiCarlo provide introductions to a variety of topics from the perspectives of the political economy of ageing and critical gerontology.

Following these approaches led to defining a new discipline of emancipatory gerontology that cover a vast set of challenges related to, among others, social networks, social movements, and inequalities.

Also, the volume explains how ageing is combined with constructions of race, ethnicity, class, ability, and gender.

Finally, it focuses on recommendations regarding advancing human rights and combating social issues.

By Carroll L. Estes, Nicholas B. DiCarlo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Aging A-Z as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This provocative, intellectually charged treatise serves as a concise introduction to emancipatory gerontology, examining multiple dimensions of persistent and hotly debated topics around aging, the life course, the roles of power, politics and partisanship, culture, economics, and communications. Critical perspectives are presented as definitions for reader understanding, with links to concepts of identity, knowledge construction, social networks, social movements, and inequalities. With today's intensifying concentration of wealth and corporatization, precarity is the fate for growing numbers of the world's population. Intersectionality as an analytic concept offers a new appreciation of how social advantage and disadvantage accumulate, and how constructions of…


Book cover of Economics and Ageing: Volume IV: Political Economy

Andrzej Klimczuk Author Of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II: Putting Theory into Practice

From my list on public policy on ageing.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a student, one day, I noticed that something was wrong with our world. Older people are separated from younger ones and sometimes almost invisible. I decided to focus on researching whether and how older people organize themselves into groups and influence important areas of social, economic, and political life. The study of the social capital of older adults led me to research on age discrimination, intergenerational relationships, age-friendly communities and cities, social innovation, co-design, citizen science, and public policy on ageing. I am convinced that only multi-sectoral and multi-level cooperation can lead to the implementation of constructive responses to today’s global challenges.

Andrzej's book list on public policy on ageing

Andrzej Klimczuk Why did Andrzej love this book?

Iparraguirre made an extreme effort and contributed with probably the first comprehensive textbook focused on relationships between economics and ageing.

The final volume covers topics essential for the field of public policy on ageing. The analyses start with measurement and policies concerning happiness and quality of life.

Further, the volume undertakes crucial questions regarding inequalities, poverty, intergenerational relationships, housing, behavioral economics, the political economy of ageing, the silver economy, and the consumer society.

By Jose Luis Iparraguirre,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Economics and Ageing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This upper level textbook provides a coherent introduction to the economic implications of individual and population ageing. Placing economic considerations into a wider social sciences context, this is ideal reading not only for advanced undergraduate and masters students in health economics and economics of ageing, but policy makers, professionals and practitioners in gerontology, sociology, health-related sciences, and social care.
This volume introduces topics in the economics of happiness, quality of life, and well-being in later life. It also covers questions of inequality and poverty, intergenerational economics, and housing. Other areas described in this book include behavioural economics, political economy, and…


Book cover of Popularizing Dementia: Public Expressions and Representations of Forgetfulness

Julian C. Hughes Author Of Thinking Through Dementia

From my list on personhood and dementia.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an old age psychiatrist, I was naturally interested in dementia. But I’m also trained to doctoral level in philosophy. I’ve been both an honorary professor of philosophy of ageing (at Newcastle) and a professor of old age psychiatry (at Bristol). Whilst training in psychiatry at Oxford, I came across the work of Tom Kitwood. Subsequently, I’ve become great friends with Steve Sabat. His work and Kitwood’s brought home to me the complexity of personhood and its relevance to how we care for and think about people living with dementia. And the more you consider it, the more the notion of personhood broadens out to include citizenship and human rights.

Julian's book list on personhood and dementia

Julian C. Hughes Why did Julian love this book?

To be honest, I might have overlooked this book had I not had the good fortune to meet Mark, one of its editors, at various very enjoyable academic events in Europe – made exciting by Mark’s incisive contributions. The book exemplifies the movement I have previously gestured at. The broadening effect here is achieved by situating dementia as a cultural phenomenon. How is dementia represented in popular culture: in fiction, in art, film, the media, and so forth? More importantly, how are we to understand and what sort of critiques can be applied to the narratives that emerge from these cultural representations and expressions? There is much to be gained from approaching dementia from an aesthetic viewpoint. The variety of topics in this book and their treatment is refreshing and incredibly stimulating.

By Aagje Swinnen (editor), Mark Schweda (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Popularizing Dementia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How are individual and social ideas of late-onset dementia shaped and negotiated in film, literature, the arts, and the media? And how can the symbolic forms provided by popular culture be adopted and transformed by those affected in order to express their own perspectives? This international and interdisciplinary volume summarizes central current research trends and opens new theoretical and empirical perspectives on dementia in popular culture. It includes contributions by internationally renowned scholars from the humanities, social and cultural gerontology, age(ing) studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and bioethics. Contributions by Lucy Burke, Marlene Goldman, Annette Leibing and others.


Book cover of Dementia Reconsidered, Revisited: The Person Still Comes First

Julian C. Hughes Author Of Thinking Through Dementia

From my list on personhood and dementia.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an old age psychiatrist, I was naturally interested in dementia. But I’m also trained to doctoral level in philosophy. I’ve been both an honorary professor of philosophy of ageing (at Newcastle) and a professor of old age psychiatry (at Bristol). Whilst training in psychiatry at Oxford, I came across the work of Tom Kitwood. Subsequently, I’ve become great friends with Steve Sabat. His work and Kitwood’s brought home to me the complexity of personhood and its relevance to how we care for and think about people living with dementia. And the more you consider it, the more the notion of personhood broadens out to include citizenship and human rights.

Julian's book list on personhood and dementia

Julian C. Hughes Why did Julian love this book?

Kitwood’s seminal work was first published in 1997. This new edition, just over 20 years later, contains commentaries on each of Kitwood’s chapters to bring the work up to date. But, candidly, the original remains compelling. I gobbled it up, even if I disagreed with bits of it. It introduced me to the new culture of dementia care. It was refreshing, with its talk of a ‘malignant social psychology’, which is sadly still pervasive. It also introduced many people to Dementia Care Mapping, an observational technique now used all over the world to improve the care of people living with dementia. At the centre of Kitwood’s considerations was the importance of the person, seen as a psychosocial being, not simply a biomedical one. What a surprisingly revolutionary idea!

By Tom Kitwood, Dawn Brooker (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dementia Reconsidered, Revisited as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The original Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First by Tom Kitwood was published by Open University Press in 1997. It was a seminal text in the field of dementia studies and is still cited and referenced as core reading on person-centred dementia care. Tom died unexpectedly, just 12 months after the book was published. This book continues to inspire many people to challenge simplistic paradigms about dementia. Since the original book was written, however, there have been many changes in our understanding of dementia.

The editor of this new edition, Dawn Brooker was mentored by Tom Kitwood. She has drawn…


Book cover of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

Katharine Esty Author Of Eightysomethings: A Practical Guide to Letting Go, Aging Well, and Finding Unexpected Happiness

From my list on aging well and flourishing as you age.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I turned 80, I was in a bit of a funk until I began interviewing people in their eighties for my book. I was astonished to find how happy the vast majority of them were and what active and exciting their lives were leading. I realized that life after 70 and 80 was not the same today as in the past. As a psychotherapist, a social psychologist, a writer, a mother of four, and a grandmother of 10, I realized I was the perfect person to write about this good news. And for the last 8 years my mission has been to spread the word about aging today.

Katharine's book list on aging well and flourishing as you age

Katharine Esty Why did Katharine love this book?

Ashton Applewhite, an expert on ageism, shows how most of us have internalized negative images of old age and we have also misproven stereotypes of older people go unchallenged. This book opened my eyes to my own ageism and how it limited me and it book will probably open your eyes as well. The book is lively and full of interesting facts as well as solidly researched. I found Applebaum’s vision of a world without ageism to be inspirational.

By Ashton Applewhite,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked This Chair Rocks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on the basis of age.

In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world and olders…


Book cover of The Care of Older People Practice Manual

Neil Thompson Author Of The Social Worker's Practice Manual

From my list on promoting social justice.

Why am I passionate about this?

My father died when I was a young child, and so my uncle became the nearest I had to a father figure. He was a trade unionist and strongly committed to social justice. I was so enamoured by the compassion he showed towards socially disadvantaged people and the struggles they encounter through no fault of their own that I became an advocate for social justice from an early age. That passion for fairness and inclusion has stayed with me throughout my career and therefore figures strongly in my writings and, over the years, in my teaching, training, and consultancy work.

Neil's book list on promoting social justice

Neil Thompson Why did Neil love this book?

When it comes to the literature relating to social justice, class, race, and gender tend to take the lion’s share of interest and coverage.

This means that ageism, which can have devastating effects on older people's lives is often left out of the picture. And, even when it is covered, it tends to be addressed in theoretical and policy terms, with little or nothing said about the practical challenges of tackling ageism on a day-to-day basis.

This book is the clear exception. The author is evidently a passionate champion of treating older people with dignity as part of an overall strategy of anti-ageist practice. Clearly written, with a lovely blend of theory and practice, this is a gem of a book.

By Sue Thompson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Care of Older People Practice Manual as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Caring effectively for older people is a major challenge in today’s pressurized times. Making sure that each and every older person is treated with dignity and as a unique individual in their own right is a fundamental requirement for good practice. This manual, written by a highly experienced former nurse, care manager, social worker, tutor and researcher, provides a foundation of knowledge and practical guidance for building best practice. If you work in any aspect of providing care for older people, then this manual will be an invaluable learning resource to guide your practice.

Endorsments

This is a long overdue…


Book cover of Aging and the Indian Diaspora: Cosmopolitan Families in India and Abroad

Michele Ruth Gamburd Author Of Linked Lives: Elder Care, Migration, and Kinship in Sri Lanka

From my list on migration and aging.

Why am I passionate about this?

My mom was an anthropologist, and when I was two, she took me to Sri Lanka, the island off the tip of India. After years of insisting that I wanted nothing to do with any social science, let alone anthropology, I ended up in graduate school studying… anthropology. Long story. Having taken up the family mantel, I returned to the village where I lived as a child and asked what had changed in the intervening years. Since then, my Sri Lankan interlocutors have suggested book topics that include labor migration, the use and abuse of alcohol, the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the challenges of aging. 

Michele's book list on migration and aging

Michele Ruth Gamburd Why did Michele love this book?

This ethnographic work delves into the lives of elders in Calcutta, India, including those who age in place with family nearby, those whose children have migrated abroad, and those who follow their family members to the US. I particularly love the way the author roots the work in traditional South Asian concepts of age and family relationships while dealing simultaneously with social changes such as India’s urbanization and economic liberalization, the out-migration of skilled tech workers, and the introduction of old folks’ homes in urban areas. The sensitive portrayal of life histories made me both laugh and cry. 

By Sarah E. Lamb (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Aging and the Indian Diaspora as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The proliferation of old age homes and increasing numbers of elderly living alone are startling new phenomena in India. These trends are related to extensive overseas migration and the transnational dispersal of families. In this moving and insightful account, Sarah Lamb shows that older persons are innovative agents in the processes of social-cultural change. Lamb's study probes debates and cultural assumptions in both India and the United States regarding how best to age; the proper social-moral relationship among individuals, genders, families, the market, and the state; and ways of finding meaning in the human life course.


Book cover of Dynamic Aging: Simple Exercises for Whole Body Mobility

Liisa Kyle Author Of Making the Most of Your Retirement: Ways to Foster Health, Happiness & Fulfillment at Any Age

From my list on if you are thinking about retirement.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a life coach and author of two dozen self-help books, I’ve spent the past twenty years helping people prepare for, plan, and go through major life changes, such as the transition to retirement. I’ve interviewed dozens of retirees about the challenges and opportunities they’ve experienced during their retirement. I’ve designed this guide so you can be strategic in choosing your path, overcome challenges, and make adjustments to make the most of this chapter of your life.

Liisa's book list on if you are thinking about retirement

Liisa Kyle Why did Liisa love this book?

Retirement is the time to give attention to your health. The more you move, the healthier you will be and the longer you will live. This is a practical book designed to show you safe, simple exercises you can do at home to improve your alignment, flexibility, and mobility. Your feet are your body’s foundation and you will be surprised at how well they will respond to Katy Bowman’s prescribed regime. 

By Katy Bowman, Joan Virginia Allen, Lora Woods , Shelah M. Wilgus , Joyce Faber

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dynamic Aging as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As seen on the Today Show!

Dynamic Aging isn't that same old "senior fitness," "senior stretching," "senior strength" book you've seen again and again. This book is about using simple exercises to feel better and get back to living vitally no matter your age.

"Don't blame your age if you're feeling creaky. It could just be the way you're using (or not using) your body." Washington Post on Dynamic Aging as a "Book for the Ages"

Movement is a powerful tool and changing how you move can change how you feel, no matter your age. Dynamic Aging is an exercise…


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