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Ageing, Society and Health

Module description

This course will examine ageing, later life and health. Drawing on sociological, anthropological and gerontological theories, concepts and empirical studies, the module will consider age as a factor in health and wellbeing; cultural understandings and representations of ageing and its relationship to health; different conceptions of the body at later ages; (bio)medical constructions of ageing and older people; and different conceptions of care in the contexts of ageing populations and globalisation. The module will call on students to question taken for granted assumptions about what it means to age ‘well’ in the contemporary context. The module readings will provide students with the tools to interpret ageing and health from both an interpersonal and small-scale perspective through to macro national and global perspectives.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to engage students in interdisciplinary social science theories, concepts and empirical research on ageing and health. The module aims to develop students’ understanding of age in the context of health as more than a factor of increased morbidity and instead to encourage students to consider ageing and wellness through social, historical and cultural frameworks.  By the end of the module, students will be able to critically evaluate different models for understanding ageing, the body and health.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate in-depth / comprehensive knowledge of sociological, anthropological and gerontological theories and concepts related to ageing and health
• 2. Critically interpret and apply these perspectives on ageing to empirical studies of health and medicine from interdisciplinary sources

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Demonstrate in writing and orally competence to understand and apply theoretical perspectives and concepts in sociology/anthropology/gerontology and to social life
• 4. Demonstrate in writing and orally an ability to analyse empirical literature from sociology/anthropology/gerontology and critically engage with that literature to build well-organized and independent arguments

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate in writing an ability to analyse, critically engage with, and report accurately on existing written material whilst articulating it within a structured and cogent argument
• 6. Demonstrate skills of critical evaluation of key evidence, placing evidence in the context of a field of knowledge
• 7. Demonstrate skills of self-directed learning, through researching, collating and organising evidence for the building of independent arguments

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction: Ageing, health & social change 
• Medical sociology/anthropology and old age
• Social gerontology, old age & health
• The body, embodiment & later life
• Ageing, health & Identity
• Globalisation, later life & care
• Ageing, medicine, and the organisation of healthcare
• Ageing ‘well’, consumption and the third age
• Anti-ageing medicine and new biomedical technologies
• The ageing brain and body
• Ageing, death and mortality

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Higgs, P. and Gilleard, (2023) ‘Ageing’ in Petersen, A. (Ed.) Handbook on the Sociology of Health and Medicine. Edward Elgar. p339 - 353.
• Higgs, P. and Gilleard, C. (2015) Rethinking old age: Theorising the fourth age. Palgrave.
• Higgs, P. and Jones, I.R (2009) Medical Sociology and Old Age: Towards a Sociology of health in later life. Routledge.
• Katz, S. (Ed.) (2018) Ageing in everyday life: Materialities and embodiments. Bristol University Press.
• Kottow, M. (2018) Towards a medical anthropology of ageing. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Lamb, S. (Ed). (2017) Successful aging as a contemporary obsession: Global perspectives. Rutgers university press.
• Peine, A., Marshall, B., Martin, W. and Neven, L. (Ed.) (2021) Socio-gerontechnology. Interdisciplinary critical studies of ageing and technology. Routledge.
• Powell, J. (2022) Sociology of Aging and Death. Springer.

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/
• Journals: Ageing and Society; Anthropology and Aging; Journal of Aging and Social Change; Sociology of Health & Illness; BioSocieties
• Other resources: Some interesting films, T.V, books to consider different representations of ageing and health - ‘Robot and Frank’ (film); ‘Still Alice’ (book and film); Amour (film); The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (film) – These Foolish things (book); Radiator (film); A Man Called Ove (book) ‘I remember nothing’ (book); ‘Vicious’ (T.V series); And Just Like That (T.V series).

Key words search

Ageing, sociology, anthropology, gerontology, health, illness, medicine, wellness, the body