At a theoretical level, this text draws on core concepts in gerontology - age, dependency, social support and the quality of life - to illustrate their complexity and the difficulties of measurement. On a practical level, the text presents a number of methodological approaches which have been particularly useful in social gerontological research. The contributors, all social scientists, draw on their considerable experience of research and evaluation practice to comment on the problems and advantages that they have encountered. Finally, the contributors consider three critical issues - whether old people require special ethical consideration; the prospects for funding; and the importance of disseminating research effectively. "Researching Social Gerontology" has been specially commissioned by the British Society for Gerontology to outline current thinking in conceptual and methodological development, and the context in which gerontological research is being carried out.
PART ONE: CONCEPTS AND MEASUREMENT Age - Bill Bytheway Dependency - David Wilkin Social Support - Hazel Qureshi Quality of Life - Beverley Hughes PART TWO: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES Whom to Study? Defining the Problem - Graham Fennell Evaluation Research and Experiment in Social Gerontology - David Challis and Robin Darton Doing Ethnography in a Geriatric Unit - Eileen Fairhurst Triangulating Data - Leonie Kellaher, Sheila Peace and Dianne Willcocks Researching Very Old People - Michael Bury and Anthea Holme Doing Biographical Research - Brian Gearing and Tim Dant PART THREE: ISSUES Research Ethics and Older People - Alan Butler The Funding of Social Gerontological Research - Margot Jefferys Making Research Useful and Usable - Avril Osborn and Dianne Willcocks
`will be of value to all who have a concern with the ageing process' - Journal of the Institute of Health Education `(a) highly interesting collection of essays... Given the desire to reach as wide a multi-disciplinary audience as possible it is commendably free of gratuitous jargon... intelligent reading and everyone, even someone with a limited knowledge of the field, will find it helpful... This volume contains a formidable amount of information and deserves to be made widely available (not only in libraries and institutions concerned with social gerontology) for its contents have relevance for a wide range of research interests. This volume demonstrates quite vividly that the study of ageing should not be seen as a minority interest having an important, but limited, place among the wider issues of social science. It shows that all the concerns of social investigation are present in the multi-disciplinary field and that the rigour required of research on ageing is no less demanding than that found in other more popular and more generously funded areas of social science... I hope that the British Society of Gerontology will not consider this a `one-off' but will plan to have a further edition in due course or commission other volumes adding to the excellent work contained here' - Journal of Educational Gerontology `The editor and authors have succeeded in putting their studies, which in many cases are well-known, in a new perspective, making them worthwhile to colleagues.... this is a useful book.' - Age and Ageing `Every contemporary social gerontologist will want these two books to hand.' - Social Policy and Administration
