Abstract
Policymakers, economists, social analysts around the globe are increasingly concerned about the rising number of older people in their society. There are worries about the inadequacy of pension funds, of growing pressures on welfare systems, and on the inability of shrinking numbers of younger people to carry the burden of their elders. This chapter focuses on such issues in China, where the older people have become a rapidly expanding proportion of the population. While resources do need to be targeted on the vulnerable older people, the presumption that older people as a whole are an economic and social burden must be questioned. This is an agist view that needs to be combated by locating how bio-medical views on aging seep into policy spaces in China that position negative perceptions of aging as both individual and populational problems. The chapter then moves to observe the implications of bio-medicine for older people in China in terms of “vulnerable” aging but deconstruct such “fixed” explanations by juxtaposing active aging as key narrative that epitomizes “declining to decline” as espoused by bio-medical sciences.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Chen, S., & Powell, J. L. (Eds.). (2011). Aging in perspective and the case of China. New York: Nova Science.
China Daily. (2004, April 15). Tailoring health care policies for the elderly.
Cook, I. G., & Murray, G. (2001). China’s third revolution: Tensions in the transition to post-communism. London: Curzon.
Du, P., & Tu, P. (2000). Population ageing and old-age security. In W. Z. Peng & Z. G. Guo (Eds.), The changing population of China. Oxford: Blackwell.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archeology of knowledge. London: Tavistock.
Frank, A. W. (1998). Stories of illness as care of the self: A Foucauldian dialogue. Health, 2(3), 329–348.
Government of China. (2002). China statistical yearbook 2002. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
Hadley, R., & Clough, R. (1996). Care in chaos. New York: Continuum International.
Hansson, A. (1996). Chinese outcasts: Discrimination and emancipation in late imperial China. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Harper, S. (1994). China’s population: Prospects and policies. In D. Dwyer (Ed.), China: The next decades. Harlow: Longman Scientific and Technical.
Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, language, thought. New York: Harper & Row.
Katz, S. (1996). Disciplining old age: The formation of gerontological knowledge. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia.
Katz, S. (2000). Busy bodies: Activity, aging and the management of everyday life. Journal of Aging Studies, 14(2), 135–152.
Krug, E. G. (2002). World report on violence and health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Liu, J., & Lin, F. (2000). Long-term effect of China’s family planning.
Murray, G. (1998). China: The next superpower. London: China Library.
Murray, G. (2004). China’s population control policy: A socio-economic reassessment. PhD thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool.
Phillipson, C. (1998). Reconstructing old age. London: Sage.
Powell, J. (2001). Theorizing gerontology: The case of old age, professional power and social policy in the United Kingdom. Journal of Aging and Identity, 6(3), 117–135.
Powell, J. L. (2009). Social theory, aging, and health and welfare professionals: A Foucauldian “toolkit”. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 28(6), 669–682.
Powell, J., & Biggs, S. (2000). Managing old age: The disciplinary web of power, surveillance and normalisation. Journal of Aging and Identity, 5(1), 3–13.
Powell, J., & Cook, I. G. (2000). “A tiger behind and coming up fast”: Governmentality and the politics of population control in China. Journal of Aging and Identity, 5(2), 79–90.
World Bank. (1994). Averting the old-age crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zheng, L. (2004, August 21). China faces elderly dilemma. China Daily.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Powell, J.L. (2012). China and the Bio-Medicalization of Aging: Implications and Possibilities. In: Chen, S., Powell, J. (eds) Aging in China. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8351-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8351-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8350-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8351-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)