The book's seven chapters cover classical areas of social gerontology.
The book's stated aim is to develop the critical perspective within social gerontology with the purpose of explaining, rather than merely describing, contemporary ageing.
In social gerontology, making one's value base explicit has come together in what is now labelled the ' critical gerontology ' movement.
There is a need for the political aspects of conceptual frameworks in gerontology to be developed.
Readers seeking to understand recent research on disability and morbidity should consult gerontology, demography, and epidemiology journals for additional perspectives.
But this book is justifiably part of gerontology for it is a study of ageing and people in old age.
Progress will, however, be very limited unless social gerontology further develops different ways of theorising old age and its boundaries.
Yet there is still an insularity in our work even in those countries where gerontology has flourished.
