This book examines the relevance of modern medicine and healthcare in shaping the lives of elderly persons and the practices and institutions of ageing societies. Combining individual and social dimensions, Planning Later Life discusses the ethical, social, and political consequences of increasing life expectancies and demographic change in the context of biomedicine and public health. By focusing on the field of biomedicine and healthcare, the authors engage readers in a dialogue on the ethical and social implications of recent trends in dementia research and care, advance healthcare planning, or the rise of anti-ageing medicine and prevention. Bringing together the largely separated debates of individualist bioethics on the one hand, and public health ethics on the other, the volume deliberately considers the entanglements of envisioning, evaluating, and controlling individual and societal futures. So far, the process of devising and exploring the various positive and negative visions and strategies related to later life has rarely been reflected systematically from a philosophical, sociological, and ethical point of view. As such, this book will be crucial to those working and studying in the life sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences, particularly in the areas of bioethics, social work, gerontology and aging studies, healthcare and social service, sociology, social policy, and geography and population studies.

This book examines the relevance of modern medicine and healthcare in shaping the lives of elderly persons and the practices and institutions of ageing societies. Combining individual and social dimensions, Planning Later Life discusses the ethical, social, and political consequences of increasing life expectancies and demographic change in the context of biomedicine and public health. By focusing on the field of biomedicine and healthcare, the authors engage readers in a dialogue on the ethical and social implications of recent trends in dementia research and care, advance healthcare planning, or the rise of anti-ageing medicine and prevention. Bringing together the largely separated debates of individualist bioethics on the one hand, and public health ethics on the other, the volume deliberately considers the entanglements of envisioning, evaluating, and controlling individual and societal futures. So far, the process of devising and exploring the various positive and negative visions and strategies related to later life has rarely been reflected systematically from a philosophical, sociological, and ethical point of view. As such, this book will be crucial to those working and studying in the life sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences, particularly in the areas of bioethics, social work, gerontology and aging studies, healthcare and social service, sociology, social policy, and geography and population studies.

Kai Brauer analysiert eine Kernfrage der Sozialkapitaldebatte: Wie ist burgerschaftliches Engagement unter den Vorzeichen von Individualisierung und okonomischer Krise moglich? Der Autor hat eine Community Study in Clanton, Iowa durchgefuhrt. Diese ethnographische Studie eines erfolgreichen Falles zivilen Engagements macht deutlich, dass die den Ort pragenden Clans und Cliquen keineswegs in traditionalen Ligaturen gefangen sind, sondern selber als Bestandteile des Individualisierungsprozesses wirken. Zur Definition und Forderung von burgerschaftlichem Engagement werden auf fallrekonstruktiver Basis Strukturprinzipien vorgeschlagen, die eigenstandige Koordinaten bereitstellen. Diese lenken jenseits der Messung solidarischer Einstellungen und der Zahlung von Vereinsmitgliedschaften den Blick auf die gunstigsten Verfahren und Organisationsprinzipien zivilen Engagements.