Bridging the gap: Theory and research in social gerontology

Social gerontology’s growth as a distinctive discipline has remained contested with continuing debates on gerontology’s limited research focus, disciplinary boundaries and inadequate theoretical development subsequently constraining the cumulative knowledge building of the discipline. Given this intellectual background, in this introduction, I assert the goal of this volume: This volume, based on original research drawing from different disciplines and theoretical orientations, acknowledges the pursuit of a common gerontological imagination by foregrounding social gerontology as an integrative discipline. A related effort has been to emphasize the importance of cultural diversity and plasticity in understanding the social process of age and aging. This introduction maps how scholars in the volume have examined the sociological question of inequality and its intersection with age, gender, health, family and social relations. In the process, the studies in this volume have highlighted the unique historical, institutional and social systems that govern the subjective experience of aging in diverse contexts globally. Specifically, societies in transition including India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Japan, China, Israel and the Europe are studied while connecting the micro social experience of aging (loneliness, wellbeing, discrimination, relationships and resilience) with the larger temporal and political contexts. In this introductory chapter, I show ways how this exercise has generated an intellectual capital that reformulates linkages between aging research and policy in innovative ways.