Ageing is widely recognised as one of the social and economic challenges in the contemporary, globalised world, for which scientific, technological and medical solutions are continuously sought. This book proposes that science and technology also played a crucial role in the creation and transformation of the ageing society itself.

Drawing on existing work on science, technology and ageing in sociology, anthropology, history of science, geography and social gerontology, Science, Technology and the Ageing Society explores the complex, interweaving relationship between expertise, scientific and technological standards and social, normatively embedded age identities. Through a series of case studies focusing on older people, science and technology, medical research about ageing and ageing-related illnesses, and the role of expertise in the management of ageing populations, Moreira challenges the idea that aging is a problem for the individual and society.

Tracing the epistemic and technological infrastructures that underpin multiple of ways of aging, this timely volume is a crucial tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in social gerontology, health and social care, sociology of aging, science and technology studies and medical sociology.

About the Author
Tiago Moreira is Reader in Sociology at Durham University.

Reviews

Tiago Moreira picks apart the notion of 'ageing society' from the inside. Science, Technology and the Ageing Society explores the role of science and technology in making the institutions and knowledge that have turned ageing into a social issue and endowed 'society' with the capacity to age. Ranging from questions of population to care, economy to medicine, Moreira's analysis not only remakes ageing studies but also shows how science and technology pose problems for a society obsessed with finding 'solutions' to ageing.

Brett Neilson-Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

Science, Technology and the 'Ageing Society' is an exceptionally readable and timely compendium of explorations into the technoscientific making of ageing populations. Drawing upon science and technology studies, actor-network theory and a 'history of the present' perspective, Tiago Moreira carefully analyzes the controversies, multiplicities and uncertainties by which the 'bio' and the 'techno' converged to produce modern gerontological research, experimentation, advocacy, and care. The book will leave readers with many critical questions about what it means to grow older today in a society of risk and hope.

Stephen Katz, Trent University.

In this impressive book Tiago Moreira convincingly demonstrates that calling upon science and technology to solve 'the problems of aging' overlooks the many ways in which sciences and technologies, in the plural, are involved in these problems: they partly caused them, help to define them, disagree about them, and get reshaped by them. Complex intertwinements indeed!

Annemarie Mol, Professor of Anthropology of the Body in the University of Amsterdam

Book Information
ISBN 9781138814127
Author Tiago Moreira
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g