New Dynamics in Old Age ― Individual, Environmental And Societal Perspectives

This book was nurtured by the belief that the new dynamics of today's and tomorrow's aging has not yet been treated well in the gerontology literature. Several questions drove the choice of substance for the book: What kind of new dynamics of aging deserves consideration? What kinds of theories and fields are at the core of treating such a new dynamics? And, what kind of empirical evidence should be considered? The master hypothesis on which the book is based maintains that the new dynamics of old age is best observed in a range of everyday aging contexts that have been undergoing major change since the second half of the 20th century. In particular, five areas of new and persistent dynamics are treated in depth: (1) the social environment, with a focus on cohort effects in social relations and the consideration of family relations and elders as care receivers; (2) the home environment, with emphasis on housing and quality of life, relocation, and urban aging issues; (3) the outdoor environment, with consideration of out-of-home activity patterns, car-driving behavior, and the leisure world of aging; (4) the technological environment, with treatments of the role of the Internet and the potential of technology for aging outcomes; and (5) the societal environment, with a focus on global aging, the new politics of old age, and older persons as market consumers. The book's main purpose is to provide the scholarly gerontology community with a comprehensive and critical discussion of these new trends related to old age.

Hans-Werner Wahl received his Ph.D. in psychology from the Free University of Berlin in 1989. From 1997 to 2005 he was professor of social and environmental gerontology and chair of the Department of Social and Environmental Gerontology at the German Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Heidelberg. In 2006 he became professor of psychological aging research at the Institute of Psychology, University of Heidelberg. His research interests include conceptual and empirical issues of environmental gerontology, the psychosocial consequences of age-related vision loss, and the understanding of everyday competence of older adults. He is the author or editor of twelve books and more than a hundred journal articles and chapters related to the study of human aging. He is co-editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Ageing and a member of the editorial board of The Gerontologist. Dr. Wahl is also a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.Clemens Tesch-Romer is a developmental psychologist and gerontologist. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the Free University of Berlin in 1989, and since 1998 he has been director of the German Centre of Gerontology in Berlin. In 2003 he also became an adjunct professor at the Free University of Berlin. His research interests include social relations and social integration, family solidarity, health and long-term care, quality of life in old age, and comparative cross-cultural aging research. Dr. Tesch-Romer has written or edited seven books and (co-)authored more than a hundred articles and chapters. He has served as vice-president of the German Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics, is on the editorial board of the European Journal of Ageing, and has been a member of expert committees of the German Federal Government on the living conditions of old persons in Germany.Andreas Hoff is a sociologist and social gerontologist. He received his Ph.D. in social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2001. Since 2005 he has been a James Martin Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford. His research interests include intergenerational relationships, informal support networks, family sociology and family policy, social policy and aging, poverty/social exclusion of older people, older migrants, migrant labor in the eldercare sectors, gerontological research in Central and Eastern Europe, cross-national and cross-cultural welfare state research, and the globalization of aging. He is the author or editor of three books and (co-)author of more than twenty articles and chapters. Dr. Hoff is an executive board member of the International Sociological Association RC11 "Sociology of Aging" and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life.