The Gerontological Imagination: Social Influences on the Development of Gerontology, 1945-Present

Abstract

This article presents a framework for the analysis of the development of gerontology since 1945. Three distinct historical periods and several forces that have shaped the field are examined. These forces reside in the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, and knowledge realms of society. An analysis of the continuities and discontinuities over time provides a contrast between the historical periods identified. Despite the ideology of a continuous linear disciplinary progression, we find that discontinuities have been increasingly significant in shaping the experience of aging. Yet the field of gerontology lags in reflecting many of these changes. This incongruity calls the field to reassess its paradigmatic foundations and the empirical and theoretical work conducted within them. The implications for the disciplines and practice of gerontology are explored through a review of C. Wright Mills' contribution to a revival of the “gerontological imagination.”