This volume intends to re-establish social gerontology as a discipline that has pragmatic links
to policy and practice. Collectively the chapters enrich public debates about the moral
cultural and economic questions surrounding aging thereby ameliorating the problems associated
with aging societies. This volume is uniquely cross-cultural theory-driven and
cross-disciplinary. It fills a gap in the gerontological scholarship of the global south that
is predominantly descriptive and empirical.Based on original research this volume examines in
particular the sociological question of inequality and its intersection with age gender
health family and social relations. In the process the studies herein highlight 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 in Europe are studied while connecting the micro-social
experience of aging (loneliness wellbeing discrimination relationships and resilience) with
larger temporal and political contexts. This exercise generates intellectual capital that
reformulates links between aging research and policy in innovative ways. Overall the volume
echoes the global scientific commitment to understand the socio-cultural process of aging in
transitional societies and utilizes rich opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas
disciplines and methods to advance the gerontological promise of critical inquiry training and
practice.
