Ageing through Austerity: Critical Perspectives from Ireland

by Kieran Walsh (Editor), Gemma M. Carney (Editor), Áine Ní Léime (Editor)

Overview

Demographic ageing is identified as a global challenge with significant social policy implications. This book explores these implications, with a particular focus on the pressures and prospects for ageing societies in the context of austerity. The book presents a carefully crafted study of ageing in Ireland, one of the countries hardest hit by the Eurozone financial crisis. Providing a close, critical analysis of ageing and social policy that draws directly on the perspectives of older people, the text makes significant advances in framing alternatives to austerity-driven government policy and neoliberalism, giving a refreshing interdisciplinary account of contemporary ageing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447316237
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kieran Walsh is Senior Research Fellow at Project Lifecourse and Deputy Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland Galway. Gemma M. Carney is a lecturer in social policy and ageing at the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s UniversityBelfast. Áine Ní Léime is a Marie Curie Fellow, and Research Fellow at Project Lifecourse and the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland Galway.

Table of Contents

Foreword ~ Alan Walker; Introduction: social policy and ageing through austerity ~ Kieran Walsh, Gemma M. Carney and Áine Ní Léime; Contextualising ageing in Ireland ~ Sheelah Connolly; Citizenship in an age of austerity: towards a constructive politics of ageing ~ Gemma M. Carney; Active ageing: social participation and volunteering in later life ~ Áine Ní Léime and Sheelah Connolly; Pension provision, gender, ageing and work in Ireland ~ Áine Ní Léime, Nata Duvvury and Aoife Callan Interrogating the ‘age-friendly community’ in austerity: myths, realities and the influence of place context ~ Kieran Walsh; Reframing policy for dementia in Ireland ~ Eamon O’Shea, Suzanne Cahill and Maria Pierce; Between inclusion and exclusion in later life ~ Thomas Scharf and Kieran Walsh; Conclusion: beyond austerity: critical issues for future policy ~ Gemma M. Carney, Kieran Walsh and Áine Ní Léime; Afterword: Austerity policies and new forms of solidarity ~ Chris Phillipson.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"With impeccable timing, Walsh, Carney and Ni Léime capture the intersections of population ageing and global economic recessions, using Ireland as the exemplar of the impact of austerity on older people." Norah Keating, Director, The Global Social Initiative on Ageing, International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics

"By illuminating individual, regional and societal disparities,this book helps readers rethink the consequences of altered political economies and practices, such as recession, on aging and generations.” W. Andrew Achenbaum, University of Houston, USA

Editorial Reviews

With impeccable timing, Walsh, Carney and Ni Léime capture the intersections of population aging and global economic recessions, using Ireland as the exemplar of the impact of austerity on older people.

Norah Keating

By illuminating individual, regional, and societal disparities, this book helps readers rethink the consequences of altered political economies and practices, such as recession, on aging and generations.

W. Andrew Achenbaum