Culture, Context and Aging of Older Indians

This book discusses the intersections between culture, context, and aging. It adopts a socio-cultural lens and highlights emotional, social, and psychological issues of the older adults in urban India. It is set in multiple sites such as Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, and Saskatoon to indicate how different cultural practices and contextual factors play an integral role in determining the course of aging. It also focuses on different narratives such as older adults living with adult children, older adults living with spouse, and older adults living alone to demonstrate the intricate process of growing old. Drawing from various sites and living arrangements of older adults, it sheds light on cultural constructions of growing old, ideas of belonging, the inevitability of death, everyday processes of aging, perceptions associated with growing old in India, acceptance of the aging body, and intergenerational ties in later lives. Given its scope, the book is essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of sociology, demography, and social scientists studying aging.

Presents a comparative approach of aging experiences among older Indians in India and Canada Links empirical data and theory in the discipline of Social Gerontology Highlights the intersections between class, gender, and age in multiple settings of India and beyond Discusses changing filial ties, later life roles, and gender ideologies among middle class older Indians in different cultural contexts

Autorentext

Jagriti Gangopadhyay is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Manipal Centre for Humanities, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). She did her Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. She has published in journals of international and national repute such as Ageing International, Contributions to Indian Sociology, and Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. She has also presented her work at the Aging Studies Institute, Syracuse, the Oxford Institute of Population Aging, Oxford and the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University.

Inhalt
Introduction: Intersections between culture, context and aging.- The family business: Aging and Intergenerational Relationships in urban Ahmedabad.- Ageing in an eldercare institution in the industrial town of Jamshedpur.- global Ageing: Narratives of elite older couples from urban Delhi.- Loss of a life-partner: Self-Isolation in urban Kolkata.- Ageing and Transnationalism: Identity, Religion and later life experiences in Saskatoon.- Ageing across the globe and policy implications.