Age as Disease

Age as Disease explores the foundations of gerontology as a discipline to examine the ways contemporary society constructs old age as a disease-state. Framed throughout as 'gerontological hygeine', this book examines contemporary regimes, strategies and treatment protocols deployed throughout Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The book deploys critical cultural theories such as biopolitics, somatechnics, ethics, and governmentality to examine how anti-aging technologies operate to problematise the aging body as always-already diseased, and how these come to constitute a movement of abolition, named here as 'gerontological hygiene'.

Investigates current understandings of age and old age to challenge a priori assumptions of frailty, decrepitude and illness Examines the ways in which bodies are medicalised, not necessarily because they are sick, but to address social and cultural anxieties Comprises a valuable resource for gerontological practitioners, researchers, scholars and students to better understand the ways in which old age has been constructed as disease

Autorentext

Dr David-Jack Fletcher currently works with Western Sydney University Online as a Lead Unit Coordinator.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Biopolitics of Somatechnologies and Diseased Bodies.- Chapter 3: Gerontological Hygiene: Emergence and Contemporary Practice.- Chapter 4: Questions of the 'Human'.- Chapter 5: Gerontological Treatment Protocols: An Ethical Inquiry.- Chapter 6: Conclusion: Trajectories of Gerontological Hygiene.