Jason L Powell

This book explores the work of German philosopher and social theorist Jurgen Habermas. It provides a context for the emergence of his critical theory and key influences. The text explores Habermas's key aspirations of the enlightenment project and the possibilities for emancipatory practice. Whilst there are several important strategies Habermas claims we should adhere to such as a reconstruction of the life-world through communicative action, there are several implications that need to be engaged with.

As the world experiences a rapid increase in the aging population, it is essential to address the challenges and opportunities that arise as a result. This book explores the significant impact of aging on individual well-being, societal welfare systems, and the global economy. By examining the multifaceted aspects of aging, demography and welfare, the book aims to provide a comprehensive and critical narrative to navigating these challenges and achieving better outcomes for both older individuals and society as a whole. The book has a critical approach running through it; despite this, there is a need to do something with the critical questions and focus on sustainable solutions to problems and issues an aging population poses to researchers, policy makers and older people themselves. In essence, the primary purpose of this book is to shed light on the complexities surrounding aging, demography and its intersection with welfare systems. By delving into various perspectives, such as social, economic, and healthcare considerations, this book highlights the holistic understanding needed to address the challenges associated with an aging population effectively.

In a society where youthfulness and vitality are highly valued, the quest for anti-aging solutions has become increasingly popularized in bio-medical gerontology. However, navigating the vast sea of information, products, and treatments can be overwhelming; there is limited academic rigor and theoretic critique from sociological perspectives. This book aims to demystify the concept of anti-aging and presents critical social approaches for maintaining a healthy life. By exploring the science, lifestyle factors, and power of bio-medicine, the book will provide readers with a comprehensive monograph to unlock the politics of anti-aging drawing from social approaches.

In today's complex and rapidly changing globe, understanding the link between social theory and social policy is crucial for addressing the diverse challenges that diverse societies face. This book aims to provide a thorough critical analysis of how social theory shapes social policy and how effective policies can be informed by theoretical frameworks emanating from history and the present. This book is both important and significant: by bridging the gap between theory and policy, this book seeks to contribute to the development of evidence-based policies that promote social cohesion, social justice, and well-being. The book is one of the first to open up theoretical strategies and applicability to social policies.

As the world undergoes huge demographic shifts with aging populations and increasing life expectancy, it is essential to recognize the importance of understanding aging in different international, cultural, social, and economic contexts. This book aims to explore the diverse experiences of growing older across various regions and societies. By adopting an international perspective, this book will critically analyze the unique challenges and opportunities that arise in different aging populations in Asia, Americas, EU and Africa. Through this exploration, readers can gain a deeper understanding of aging and develop more effective strategies to support older individuals across the globe relating to pensions, employment, care and leisure. The purpose of this book is to shed light on the diversity of aging experiences internationally and examine the cultural, social, economic, and public policy factors that shape these experiences. By adopting an international approach, this book illuminates the variations in expectations, perceptions, and practices related to aging. This book seeks to promote a broader understanding of aging that goes beyond singular narratives and encourages the development of inclusive and contextually relevant approaches to aging and care.

In a society where youthfulness and vitality are highly valued, the quest for anti-aging solutions has become increasingly popularized in bio-medical gerontology. However, navigating the vast sea of information, products, and treatments can be overwhelming; there is limited academic rigor and theoretic critique from sociological perspectives. This book aims to demystify the concept of anti-aging and presents critical social approaches for maintaining a healthy life. By exploring the science, lifestyle factors, and power of bio-medicine, the book will provide readers with a comprehensive monograph to unlock the politics of anti-aging drawing from social approaches.

As the world experiences a rapid increase in the aging population, it is essential to address the challenges and opportunities that arise as a result. This book explores the significant impact of aging on individual well-being, societal welfare systems, and the global economy. By examining the multifaceted aspects of aging, demography and welfare, the book aims to provide a comprehensive and critical narrative to navigating these challenges and achieving better outcomes for both older individuals and society as a whole. The book has a critical approach running through it; despite this, there is a need to do something with the critical questions and focus on sustainable solutions to problems and issues an aging population poses to researchers, policy makers and older people themselves. In essence, the primary purpose of this book is to shed light on the complexities surrounding aging, demography and its intersection with welfare systems. By delving into various perspectives, such as social, economic, and healthcare considerations, this book highlights the holistic understanding needed to address the challenges associated with an aging population effectively.

In recent years, major social forces such as: ageing populations, social trends, migration patterns, and the globalization of economies, have reshaped social welfare policies and practices across the globe. Multinational corporations, NGOs, and other international organizations have begun to influence social policy at a national and local level. Among the many ramifications of these changes is that globalizing influences may hinder the ability of individual nation-states to effect policies that are beneficial to them on a local level. With contributions from thirteen countries worldwide, this collected work represents the first major comparative analysis on the effect of globalization on the international welfare state. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society is divided into two major sections: the first draws from a number of leading social welfare researchers from diverse countries who point to the nation-state as case studies; highlighting how it goes about establishing and revising social welfare provisions. The second portion of the volume then moves to a more global perspective in its analysis and questioning of the impact of globalization on citizenship, ageing and marketization. The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society seeks to encourage debate about the implications of the most pressing social welfare issues in nation-states, and integrate analyses of policy and practice in particular countries struggling to provide social welfare support for their needy populations.

As we enter 2014, an accelerating interest in abuse has arisen due to the implementation of community care policies relying upon informal care and a relentless political campaign to legitimise an enforced obligation to care. The use of care management technologies that focus on assessment and inspection, can, in this policy climate, become a means of surveillance and enforcement of informal caring. It is argued that Michel Foucault offers a set of strategies (Foucault 1977: 205) for understanding how the discourses on community care construct older people's experiences and their identities, as constructed subjects and objects of managerial knowledge. This book examines this and the dystopian implications for older people. The book attempts to move beyond such fatalism by introducing governmentality and the possibilities through social policy for older people. Finally, the book examines the emergence of personal care and the implications for personalization and tailored care services for older people.

This book examines the rise and consolidation of feminist insights into contemporary social theory. The book begins by providing an historical backdrop that led to the emergence of women's experiences starting to be seen on an equal footing to those of men. The book explores the problems of sexism and gender bias that have prevented full access to equality from materialising drawing upon key thinkers of feminist social theory.

Health, care and welfare have emerged as key vehicles used to legitimise and position the identities that older people adopt in contemporary modernity. Both contain continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people and the state. Medico-technical, victimisation policies and care management discourses, have been presented as adding choice and reducing limitations associated with adult ageing. However, they also represent an increase in professional control that can be exerted on lifestyles in older age and thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of the life-course. This book presents a theoretical analysis based on a critical reading of the work of Michel Foucault. It identifies the inter-relationship between managers and older people in terms of power, surveillance and normalisation. The book highlights how and why older people are the subjects of legitimising professional gazes through the dark side of modernity: being managed, being victimised and asking the existential questions of death.

This book assesses the historical and modern significance and emergence of global forces and its impact on nation states. In particular, the power of globalisation comprises two inter-locking factors: economic power and the hegemony of neo-liberalism. Drawing on a range of examples, the book assesses the legacy of globalisation and its impact on the disciplinary development of social science and its enduring impact on the contemporary social world.

This book examines the concept of aging. It interrogates how it has been co-opted and absorbed by bio-medical approaches to gerontology. The book explores how the concept of risk is a major feature of how aging has been constructed and positioned by bio-medical experts, a transition to a "risk society" and the implications of populational aging in global society.

This book, which draws from fieldwork research and evidence, is provided to suggest a sense of emotional anxiety among social workers and case managers working on the front-line' within local authority social service departments in England. This is taking place within British Prime Minister David Cameron's government agenda of "personalization of care". This new emphasis places the onus on the client rather than the gaze of the social worker. Yet, there are contradictions that lie at the heart of social work, social care and personal care. Theories have attempted to detangle these contradictions. There have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of power' to understand organisational practice though significant Foucauldian insights that have been most captivating in illuminating power relations and subject positioning. This book is the first of its kind to explore the impact on 'performativity' of social workers and governance (governmentality) of workers and clients in the personalisation policy process.