How We Talk About Aging

Abstract: For many of us, aging is viewed and experienced in essentially tragic terms: as a narrative of decline, a downward trajectory to decrepitude and death. Such a way of “storying” later life can set us up for (among other things) narrative foreclosure, which...

Abstract: In this issue of Generations Journal, senior gerontologists describe their professional odysseys, mapping a complex landscape of personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors in the gerontology field. As the gerontologists age, their professional...

Abstract: How far have we come from our ancestors in the way we now speak of aging, and where might we be headed? This journal issue provides examples pointing readers to the many ways to recognize the forms in and levels from which we talk about aging. Each article's...

Abstract: Increasingly popular global narratives of successful, active, and productive aging can create universalist models of a good old age. They also suggest that there exists an opposite: an unsuccessful, inactive, and unproductive old age. This article argues...

Abstract: This article integrates my professional journey of practice, research, and administration with a reflection on how the field of gerontology has changed across 35 years and how the healthcare industry responded to the growing numbers of older adults....

Guest Editor Mark Luborsky is a thoughtful person who's easily amused by life and intensely people-focused. This could partially be due to his training as a social anthropologist, and his affinity for hands-on projects. He is a professor in Wayne State University's...

Abstract: A personal reflection by noted social gerontologist, Marcia G. Ory, who provides insights on the field of gerontology and her nearly 50-year career trajectory at the intersection of aging and public health. She discusses her personal and professional...

Abstract: As gerontologists we know the nature of aging and later life differ widely, and many inequalities exist. The focus of this article is on how the good life in retirement is envisioned across settings. Recently, differences in cultural views on retirement age...

Abstract: How people talk about aging depends in part upon the ages of the conversationalists. I relied in my 20s on materials in gerontology collections. My own loving and suffering mid-career generated identification and empathy for older Americans. Only in late...

Abstract A social epidemiologic approach to health and aging provides a specific language for conceptualizing, investigating, and contributing novel understandings of the nature of aging. The integration of creative counterfactual thinking through a causal lens,...

Abstract: My research career began focused on age-as-deficit; then, when studying productive aging, I moved to an age-as-asset perspective. I have come to another understanding of later life: deficits and assets exist within older adults and within the older...