The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years

Corey M. Abramson

Published by Harvard University Press 2015

The End Game

How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years

Corey M. Abramson

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674286801

Overview
Contents

About this book

Senior citizens face a gauntlet of physical, psychological, and social hurdles. But do disadvantages accumulated over a lifetime make the final years especially difficult for some people? Or does the quality of life among poor and affluent seniors converge? Corey Abramson investigates whether lifelong inequality structures the lives of the elderly.

Reviews

Abramson takes readers on a journey through geriatric inequality to show how on the west coast of the U.S. the supposed golden years of post-employment for many individuals is an illusion, and in reality retirement is a corrosive quotidian struggle on body and soul. However, the saddening tone of this ethnographic work serves many purposes by shedding light on: the effects of social networks; rationalizations behind decision-making; greater understanding of general social stratification; and the symbolic as well as practical challenges of growing old in the U.S.… Avoiding reductionist frameworks and showing the hugely varying lifestyles of Californian seniors, The End Game poses a profound question: how can provision of services for the elderly cater for individual circumstances and not merely treat the aged as one grey block? Abramson eloquently and comprehensively expounds this complex question.
-- Michael Warren LSE Review of Books

Abramson provides a remarkable ethnographic look at four urban neighborhoods inhabited by older Americans. He uses in-depth interviews to explore inequality and how it shapes end-of-life issues in ways never seen before. The author’s approach situates inequality experienced by older Americans in a real world context and links culture, social life, biological life, and structural disparities in ways that allow readers to understand the intersectionality of diversity imbued in the lives of older Americans… Abramson opens a window into the reality of old age, the importance of culture and the impact it has on shared/prior experiences, and the inequalities that structure them.
-- A. L. Lewis Choice

American seniors face starkly different challenges depending on economic circumstances. The End Game provides a deeper understanding of how inequalities affect the entire passage of our lives.
-- Robert Reich, University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor

How inequality plays out in our aging population could not be a more important question. The aged are supposedly a group that we have done a good job at protecting with Medicare and Social Security, yet we still see sharp social gradients. This book, the first on the topic, helps to answer that question.
-- Dalton Conley, New York University

Abramson brings a qualitative eye to a topic we have mainly known through statistics—mortality rates, actuarial estimates, and life expectancies. With a refreshing perspective, The End Game brings us close to what people experience as they age, making clear not only that 'aches and pains' are shared across the board but also that access to resources matters enormously for how people manage those difficulties. The book dispels stereotypes over and over; his elderly respondents work to maintain their image, laugh at their failing memories, and smoke marijuana. The book is a terrific contribution to our knowledge of how people actually experience inequality in their later years.
-- Mario Luis Small, Harvard University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. The End Game Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. “Old Is a Different Animal Altogether”. The Shared Predicaments of the End Game Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. The Uneven Playing Field. Disparate Contexts and Resources in Old Age Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3. Game-Day Strategies. How Prior Experiences Shape Cultural Strategies in the Present Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4. Team Dynamics. The Meanings of Social Ties Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Conclusion. How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Methodological Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 230
Illustrations
- Other: 5 tables

eBook

Published: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 9780674286801