Series editors’ preface

Summary

As the global older population continues to expand, new issues and concerns arise for consideration by academics, policy makers and health and social care professionals worldwide. Ageing in a Global Context is a series of books, published by Policy Press in association with the British Society of Gerontology, which aims to influence and transform debates in what has become a fast-moving field in research and policy. The series seeks to achieve this in three main ways. First, the series is publishing books which rethink key questions shaping debates in the study of ageing. This has become especially important given the restructuring of welfare states, alongside the complex nature of population change, both of these elements opening up the need to explore themes which go beyond traditional perspectives in social gerontology. Second, the series represents a response to the impact of globalisation and related processes, these contributing to the erosion of the national boundaries which originally framed the study of ageing. From this has come the emergence of issues explored in various contributions to the series, for example: the impact of transnational migration, cultural diversity, new types of inequality, and contrasting themes relating to ageing in rural and urban areas. Third, a key concern of the series is to explore inter-disciplinary connections in gerontology. Contributions provide a critical assessment of the disciplinary boundaries and territories influencing the study of ageing, creating in the process new perspectives and approaches relevant to the 21st century.

Among the many changes influencing later life, new types of relationships and social ties must rank as one of the most important. In this respect, Torbjörn Biltgård and Peter Öberg's contribution to the series is especially welcome, providing a major assessment of changing patterns of intimacy in later life. The authors draw on their own original research in Sweden, together with a large number of international studies, to provide a comprehensive account of intimacy in later life. The book provides an exciting and challenging account, demonstrating the numerous ways in which older people are reshaping social and family life in the 21st century.