1. Introduction
2. From Political Economy to the culture of personal identity
3. Retirement, identity and consumer society
4. Identity, self-care and staying young
5. The old person as citizen
6. Senior citizenship and contemporary social policy
7. Ageing and its embodiment
8. Bio-ageing and the reproduction of the social
9. Ageing, Alzheimer's and the uncivilised body
10 The inevitablity of the cultural turn in ageing studies

• Each chapter of the book examines a different aspect of ageing as a theme representative of broader social issues concerning self and identity, citizenship and the body.
• Discusses and illustrates the changing nature of social policy towards older people.
• Examines changes in retirement and ageing allowing the reader to see the changing nature of ageing.
• Focuses on the importance of identity in later life allowing the reader to see ageing as resistance.
• Looks at the changes in understanding of the biology of ageing to show the impact of society on ageing.
• Discusses Alzheimer's disease showing the social construction of Alzheimer's.
• Examines the importance of cultural aspects in ageing studies, showing the significance of social theory to ageing.
• Draws on European as well as North American data to give a broad range of examples.