Rural Gerontology Towards Critical Perspectives on Rural Ageing

This book provides the first foundation of knowledge about the intellectual traditions, contemporary scope and future prospects for the interdisciplinary field of rural gerontology. With a focus on rural regions, small towns and villages, which have the highest rates of population ageing worldwide, Rural Gerontology is aimed at understanding what it means for rural people, communities and institutions to be at the forefront of twenty-first-century demographic change. The book offers important insights from rural ageing studies into today’s most pressing gerontological problems. With chapters from more than 65 established and emerging rural ageing researchers, it is the first synthesis of knowledge about rural gerontology, harnessing a burgeoning interdisciplinary scholarship on the rural dimensions of ageing, old age and older populations. With a view to advancing a critical understanding of rural ageing populations, this book will have an overreaching impact across the social sciences by drawing on advancements in understandings of rural ageing from social, environmental, geographical and critical gerontology to facilitate a comprehensive exploration of the diversity, complexity and implications of the ageing process in rural settings. Bringing together valuable international perspectives, this book makes a timely contribution to gerontology, rural studies and the social sciences, and will appeal to scholars and researchers across USA and Canada, UK and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, China and countries in Africa, South America and South-East Asia.

PART I Introduction 1 Introducing rural gerontology MARK SKINNER, RACHEL WINTERTON AND KIERAN WALSH PART II Interdisciplinary foundations 2 Demographic ageing and rural population change E. HELEN BERRY 3 Rural studies of ageing JESSE HELEY AND MICHAEL WOODS 4 Rural health and ageing: making way for a critical gerontology of rural health NEIL HANLON AND LAURA POULIN 5 Critical human ecology and global contexts of rural ageing NORAH KEATING, JACQUIE EALES, JUDITH PHILLIPS, LIAT AYALON, MAYESO LAZARO, VERÓNICA MONTES DE OCA, PATRICIA REA AND PRAKASH TYAGI 6 Critical social gerontology and rural ageing VANESSA BURHOLT AND THOMAS SCHARF PART III Contemporary scope 7 Rural ageing in low- and middle-income countries PADMORE ADUSEI AMOAH AND DAVID R. PHILLIPS 8 Rural women, ageing and retirement NATA DUVVURY, ÁINE NÍ LÉIME AND TANYA WATSON 9 Rural-urban migration of older people: mobility, adaptation and accessibility YANG CHENG, DAVID R. PHILLIPS, MARK W. ROSENBERG AND RACHEL WINTERTON 10 Policy and program challenges in delivering health and social care services to rural older people NINA GLASGOW AND STEFANIE DOEBLER 11 Rural ageing, housing and homelessness MAREE PETERSEN 12 Rural ageing and transportation: how a lack of transportation options can leave older rural populations stranded STINE HANSEN, K. BRUCE NEWBOLD, DARREN M. SCOTT, BRENDA VRKLJAN, AMANDA GRENIER AND KAI HUANG 13 Rural community development in an era of population ageing LAURA RYSER, GREG HALSETH, SEAN MARKEY, NEIL HANLON AND MARK SKINNER 14 Making rural communities age-friendly: issues and challenges VERENA MENEC AND SHEILA NOVEK 15 Rural ageing in place and place attachment JANINE WILES, ROBIN KEARNS AND LAURA BATES 16 Place-bound rural community of older men: social and autobiographical insideness of the Mill Village Boys in Finland MARJAANA SEPPÄNEN, ELISA TIILIKAINEN, HANNA OJALA AND ILKKA PIETILÄ 17 Social relations, connectivity and loneliness of older rural people CATHERINE HAGAN HENNESSY AND ANTHEA INNES 18 Understanding and performing care in rural contexts in Central Europe ANNA URBANIAK PART IV Emerging critical perspectives 19 Postcolonial perspectives on rural ageing in (South) Africa: gendered vulnerabilities and intergenerational ambiguities of older African women JACO HOFFMAN AND VERA ROOS 20 Posthumanist traditions and their possibilities for rural gerontology ANDREW S. MACLAREN AND GAVIN J. ANDREWS 21 A Deweyan pragmatist perspective on rural gerontology GRAHAM D. ROWLES AND MALCOLM P. CUTCHIN 22 Interrogating the nature and meaning of social exclusion for rural dwelling older people KIERAN WALSH, SINÉAD KEOGH AND BRÍDÍN CARROLL 23 Defi ning the relationship between active citizenship and rural healthy ageing: a critical perspective RACHEL WINTERTON AND JENI WARBURTON 24 A critical view of older voluntarism in ageing rural communities: prospect, precarity and global pandemics AMBER COLIBABA, MARK SKINNER AND ELIZABETH McCRILLIS 25 Older people and poverty: making critical connections in rural places PAUL MILBOURNE 26 Critical perspectives on mental health, dementia and rural ageing RACHEL HERRON AND EAMON O’SHEA 27 Rural gerontechnology: arts-based insights into rural ageing and the use of technology AN KOSURKO, MARK SKINNER, RACHEL HERRON, RACHEL J. BAR, ALISA GRIGOROVICH, PIA KONTOS AND VERENA MENEC 28 Rural older people, climate change and disasters MATTHEW CARROLL AND JUDI WALKER PART V Conclusion 29 Towards a critical rural gerontology RACHEL WINTERTON, KIERAN WALSH AND MARK SKINNER

Mark Skinner is Dean of Social Sciences at Trent University, Canada, where he is also Professor of Geography and holds the Canada Research Chair in Rural Aging, Health and Social Care. Rachel Winterton is Senior Research Fellow at the John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Australia. Kieran Walsh is Professor of Ageing & Public Policy in the Discipline of Economics and Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at the National University of Ireland Galway.