Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness Through an Ageing, Science, and Technology Lens

Science and technology have become central to the daily experiences of health and illness for older people, from pharmaceuticals to walkers and cell phones. This has resulted in the ‘technogenarian’– the technologically savvy older person. The authors investigate elders′ experiences of health, illness, science, and technology; they emphasize the need to put aging, science, and technology in the centre of analyses of health and illness.  Technogenarians adds theoretical and empirical depth to our understanding of two concurrent trends: firstly, the biomedical aspects of aging bodies, minds, and emotions, including the development of anti–aging or longevity medicine; and secondly, the rise of gerontechnology industries and professions­, who largely accept the aging processes and who provide technology to  assist the changes brought on by ageing. By investigating elders′ experiences of health, illness, science, and technology, Technogenarians theorizes how and where these two trends overlap and differ in relation to ageism, health, and illness.

Spis treści:
1. A sociological approach to ageing, technology and health (Kelly Joyce and Meika Loe).
2. A history of the future: the emergence of contemporary anti–ageing medicine (Courtney Everts Mykytyn).
3. In the vanguard of biomedicine? The curious and contradictory case of anti–ageing medicine (Jennifer R. Fishman, Richard A. Settersten Jr and Michael A. Flatt).
4. Science, medicine and virility surveillance: ‘sexy seniors’ in the pharmaceutical imagination (Barbara L. Marshall).
5. Time, clinic technologies, and the making of reflexive longevity: the cultural work of time left in an ageing society (Sharon R. Kaufman).
6. Aesthetic anti–ageing surgery and technology: women’s friend or foe? (Abigail T. Brooks).
7. ‘A second youth’: pursuing happiness and respectabili ty through cosmetic surgery in Finland (Taina Kinnunen).
8. Ageing in place and technologies of place: the lived experience of people with dementia in changing social, physical and technological environments (Katherine Brittain, Lynne Corner, Louise Robinson and John Bond).
9. Liberating the wanderers: using technology to unlock doors for those living with dementia (Johanna M. Wigg).
10. Output that counts: pedometers, sociability and the contested terrain of older adult fitness walking (Denise A. Copelton).
11. Doing it my way: old women, technology and Wellbeing (Meika Loe).
12. ‘But obviously not for me’: robots, laboratories and the defiant identity of elder test users (Louis Neven).
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Kelly Joyce is Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary. Dr. Joyce′s research on technology, science, and health has been published in Science as Culture and Social Studies of Science, amongst others. Her book Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency (2008) offers a sociological exploration of magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] technology. Her current research examines autoimmune illnesses.
Meika Loe is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Colgate University in New York. Her critical scholarship on culture, age, medicine, technology, and gender has appeared in a range of academic journals including Contexts, Gender & Society, Feminism and Psychology, Symbolic Interaction, Sexualities, and Sociological Inquiry. She is the author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America (2004), and a forthcoming book on nonagenarians.

Okładka tylna:
Science and technology have become central to the daily experiences of health and illness for older people, from pharmaceuticals to walkers and cell phones. This has resulted in the ‘technogenaria n’– the technologically savvy older person. The authors investigate elders′ experiences of health, illness, science, and technology; they emphasize the need to put aging, science, and technology in the centre of analyses of health and illness.  Technogenarians adds theoretical and empirical depth to our understanding of two concurrent trends: firstly, the biomedical aspects of aging bodies, minds, and emotions, including the development of anti–aging or longevity medicine; and secondly, the rise of gerontechnology industries and professions­, who largely accept the aging processes and who provide technology to  assist the changes brought on by ageing. By investigating elders′ experiences of health, illness, science, and technology, Technogenarians theorizes how and where these two trends overlap and differ in relation to ageism, health, and illness.