Ageing through Austerity
Critical Perspectives from Ireland
Edited by Kieran Walsh, Gemma M. Carney and Áine Ní Léime
Published
Mar 25, 2015Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1447316237Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jun 1, 2016Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1447334408Imprint
Policy PressPublished
Jun 1, 2016Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1447334415Imprint
Policy Press
Ageing through Austerity
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.
"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
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 University Belfast.
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.
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.
