This volume and its companion, The New Dynamics of Ageing Volume 1, provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary overviews of the very latest research on ageing. Together they report the outcomes of the most concerted investigation ever undertaken into both the influence shaping the changing nature of ageing and its consequences for individuals and society.
This book concentrates on four major themes: autonomy and independence in later life, biology and ageing, food and nutrition and representation of old age. Each chapter provides a state of the art topic summary as well as reporting the essential research findings from New Dynamics of Ageing research projects. There is a strong emphasis on the practical implications of ageing and how evidence-based policies, practices and new products can produce individual and societal benefits.
Christopher Deeming and Paul Smyth together with internationally renowned contributors propose that the merging of the ‘social investment’ and ‘inclusive growth and development’ agendas is forging an unprecedented global social policy framework. The book shows how these key ideas together with the environmental imperative of ‘sustainability’ are shaping a new global development agenda.
This framework opens the way to a truly global social policy discipline making it essential reading for those working in social and public policy, politics, economics and development as well geographical and environmental sciences. In the spirit of the UN’s Sustainability Goals, the book will assist all those seeking to forge a new policy consensus for the 21st century based on Social Investment for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development.
Contributors include Giuliano Bonoli, Marius Busemeyer, Sarah Cook, Guillem López-Casasnovas, Anton Hemerijck, Stephan Klasen, Huck-ju Kwon, Tim Jackson, Jane Jenson, Jon Kvist, James Midgley, and Günther Schmid.
Child poverty and the well-being of children is an important policy issue throughout the industrialised world. Some 47 million children in ‘rich’ countries live in families so poor that their health and well-being are at risk.
The main themes addressed are:
· the extent and trend of child poverty in industrialised nations;
· outcomes for children - for example, the relationship between childhood experiences and children’s health;
· country studies and emerging issues;
· child and family policies.
All the contributions underline the urgent need for a comprehensive policy to reduce child poverty rates and to improve the well-being of children. Findings are clearly presented and key focus points identified for policy makers to consider.
The rapid economic growth of the past few decades has radically transformed India’s labour market, bringing millions of former agricultural workers into manufacturing industries, and, more recently, the expanding service industries, such as call centres and IT companies.
Alongside this employment shift has come a change in health and health problems, as communicable diseases have become less common, while non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular problems, and mental health issues such as stress, have increased.
This interdisciplinary work connects those two trends to offer an analysis of the impact of working conditions on the health of Indian workers that is unprecedented in scope and depth.
This unique book represents the first multi-disciplinary examination of ageing, covering everything from basic cell biology, to social participation in later life, to the representations of old age in the arts and literature.
A comprehensive introductory text about the latest scientific evidence on ageing, the book draws on the pioneering New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, the UK’s largest research programme in ageing. This programme brought together leading academics from across the arts and humanities, social and biological sciences and fields of engineering and medical research, to study how ageing is changing and the ways in which this process can be made more beneficial to both individuals and society.
Comprising individual, local, national and global perspectives, this book will appeal to everyone with an interest in one of the greatest challenges facing the world – our own ageing.
This book provides an applied, interdisciplinary approach to an understanding of the key social determinants of health, essential at a time of increasing inequalities and reductions in existing NHS services and local authority budgets.
A person’s health and wellbeing is influenced by a spectrum of socioeconomic, cultural, living and working conditions, social and community networks and lifestyle choices. Based on the ‘rainbow model’ of the social determinants of health, chapters from experts in a wide range of disciplines examine the key factors which can lead to poor quality of life, homelessness and reduced mortality.
Featuring practitioner, academic and commentator experiences, and clear case studies, this book will enable researchers, front-line workers, managers, service commissioners and politicians to identify and employ the most appropriate health, social and economic interventions to support those at the edge of the community, and the promotion of their inclusion in society.
In recent years, tackling health inequalities has become a key policy objective in the UK. However, doubts remain about how best to translate broad policy recommendations into practice. One key area of uncertainty concerns the role of local level initiatives.
This book identifies the key targets for intervention through a detailed exploration of the pathways and processes that give rise to health inequalities across the lifecourse. It sets this against an examination of both local practice and the national policy context, to establish what works in health inequalities policy, how and why. Authoritative yet accessible, the book provides a comprehensive account of theory, policy and practice. It spans the lifecourse from the early years to old age and explores the links between biological, psychological, social, educational and economic factors and a range of health outcomes. In addition it describes key policy initiatives, assesses research evidence of ‘what works’ and examines the limitations of the existing evidence base and highlights key areas of debate.
What works in tackling health inequalities? is essential reading for academics and students in medical sociology, social psychology, social policy and public health, and for policy makers and practitioners working in public health and social exclusion.
The lifecourse perspective on adult health and on health inequalities in particular, is one of the most important recent developments in epidemiology and public health. This book brings together, in a single volume, the work of one of the most distinguished academics in the field. It is the first to specifically take a lifecourse approach to health inequalities and will be essential reading for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in public health, epidemiology, health promotion and social policy.
Michael Drew’s review of the causes and effects of food poverty in Ireland offers the first full-length study of this significant and protracted issue that has been exacerbated by COVID-19.
The book brings together the complex picture emerging from interviews with users of food aid. Their pathways into and through food poverty are impacted by the policies and practices of government and employers with wide-ranging implications. The work explores the international landscape of food poverty and situates both experiences and responses in a comparative context. It considers how these results contribute to an understanding of the problem and what action should be taken.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. What matters most in how poverty shapes children’s wellbeing and development? How can data inform social policy and practice approaches to improving the outcomes for poorer children?
Using life course analysis from the Young Lives study of 12,000 children growing up in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam over the past 15 years, this book draws on evidence on two cohorts of children, from 1 to 15 and from 8 to 22. It examines how poverty affects children’s development in low and middle income countries, and how policy has been used to improve their lives, then goes on to show when key developmental differences occur. It uses new evidence to develop a framework of what matters most and when and outlines effective policy approaches to inform the no-one left behind Sustainable Development Goal agenda.
