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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010345311 | HQ1064.U5 A37 2015 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Senior citizens face a gauntlet of physical, psychological, and social hurdles. But do disadvantages accumulated over a lifetime make the final years especially difficult for some people? Or does the quality of life among poor and affluent seniors converge? Corey Abramson investigates whether lifelong inequality structures the lives of the elderly.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Sociologist Abramson (Univ. of Arizona) provides a remarkable ethnographic look at four urban neighborhoods inhabited by older Americans. He uses in-depth interviews to explore inequality and how it shapes end-of-life issues in ways never seen before. The author's approach situates inequality experienced by older Americans in a real world context and links culture, social life, biological life, and structural disparities in ways that allow readers to understand the intersectionality of diversity imbued in the lives of older Americans. Abramson calls on readers to abandon reductionist frameworks used to explore older Americans and recommends that readers allow their cultures to shed light on social stratification and inequality. He focuses on connecting five aspects of the end game for older Americans: who gets to play, the rules of the game, the shape of the playing field, the strategies of the players, and team dynamics. In taking this approach, Abramson opens a window into the reality of old age, the importance of culture and the impact it has on shared/prior experiences, and the inequalities that structure them. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Andre L Lewis, University of Arkansas Monticello
Table of Contents
| Introduction: The End Game | p. 1 |
| 1 "Old Is a Different Animal Altogether": The Shared Predicaments of the End Game | p. 19 |
| 2 The Uneven Playing Field: Disparate Contexts and Resources in Old Age | p. 39 |
| 3 Game-Day Strategies: How Prior Experiences Shape Cultural Strategies in the Present | p. 71 |
| 4 Team Dynamics: The Meanings of Social Ties | p. 105 |
| Conclusion: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years | p. 133 |
| Methodological Appendix | p. 149 |
| Notes | p. 169 |
| References | p. 215 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 233 |
| Index | p. 237 |
