Age Studies

Chapter 1: Age Studies: What is it and why do we need it? Chapter Two: Class stratification and age Chapter Three: Gender Studies as a Paradigm for Age Studies Chapter Four: Constructing and deconstructing ages and stages of the life course Chapter Five: Identity and age Chapter Six: Age and Embodiment Chapter Seven: Sexuality through the life course Chapter Eight: Health, illness and normality through the life course Chapter Nine: Representing Ages and Stages Chapter Ten: Ages and Generations in interaction Chapter Eleven: Telling our own stories: Developing age consciousness and authentic age identities Chapter Twelve: Concluding Thoughts References

Susan Pickard is breathing life of cultural studies in aging studies which is to be applauded. It is an excellent, thought provoking and timely text. -- Jason Powell Powerful use of text and images to engage students with key concepts and aims of the book. -- Irene Hardill Susan Pickard's Age Studies is a scholarly tour de force that brings into focus the various disciplines, histories, literatures and knowledges that have transformed us into modern subjects of age. Each chapter is an exciting discovery of the paths by which the social has coursed through our lives in the most intricate and intimate ways. -- Stephen Katz This is a wonderful book which enriches the growing field of cultural studies of ageing, and brings to it a fresh, intersectional focus, and plenty of vivid contemporary examples. With great rigour, yet an enviable lightness of touch, Susan Pickard has written an engaging and accessible book that students will love. -- Rosalind Gill Susan Pickard's approach to age studies is comprehensive and compelling, writing about concepts of class and gender, the body and culture. This is no dry account of ageing. Each chapter includes questions for the reader to consider, and chapter summaries make the book accessible to students. Pickard has a beautifully clear writing style. She introduces us to the Hag, to media images, her own experiences, and how we can tell our own stories about ageing. Pickard's book is an invaluable addition to the shelf of any researcher or student of sociology and related fields. -- Samantha Holland