This provocative, intellectually charged treatise serves as a concise and critical introduction to social gerontology, examining multiple dimensions of persistent and hotly debated topics around age, aging, the life course, and the roles of power, politics, culture, economics, and communications.

An Introduction to the Team and to Teamwork by Pat Armstrong, Privatization in Six Countries., 1. Privatizing Care: Setting the Stage by Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, 2. The Growth of the For-Profit Nursing Home Sector in Norway and Sweden: Driving Forces and Resistance by Gudmund Ågotnes, Frode F. Jacobsen, and Marta Szebehely, 3. Privatization of Nursing Homes in the United Kingdom and the United States by Charlene Harrington, Allyson M. Pollock, and Shailen Sutaria, 4. The Marketization and Commidification of Long-Term Care in Germany: Effects on Work and Relationship-Based Care in Nursing Homes by Beatrice Müller, 5. Privatization of Long-Term Residential Care in Canada: The Case of Three Provinces by Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, Martha McDonald, and Malcolm Doupe, 6. Labor Restructuring and Nursing Home Privatization in British Columbia by Andrew Longhurst, Sage Ponder, and Margaret McGregor , Key Issues, 7. Public Funding, Private Data in Ontario by Tamara Daly, 8. Towards Accountable For-Profits in Nursing Home Services? by Frode F. Jacobsen and Gudmund Ågotnes, 9. Marketing Long-Term Care: Website Analysis of For-Profit Corporations in Sweden and Canada by Ruth Lowndes, Jacqueline Choiniere, and Sara Erlandsson, 10. Nurse Staffing in Nursing Homes in Industrialized Countries by Charlene Harrington and Frode F. Jacobsen, 11. Devalued Later Life: Older Residents' Experiences of Risk in a Market System of Residential and Nursing Homes by Liz Lloyd, 12. Shifting Responsibilities for Care: The Experiences of Staff and Families in Long-Term Residential Care by Rachel Barken and Pat Armstrong, 13. Promoting Public Care by Pat Armstrong