Explore the vast range of titles available.

Rapid population aging, once associated with only a select group of modern industrialized nations, has now become a topic of increasing global concern. This volume reframes aging on a global scale by illustrating the multiple ways it is embedded within individual, social, and cultural life courses. It presents a broad range of ethnographic work, introducing a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches to studying life-course transitions in conjunction with broader sociocultural transformations. Through detailed accounts, in such diverse settings as nursing homes in Sri Lanka, a factory in Massachusetts, cemeteries in Japan and clinics in Mexico, the authors explore not simply our understandings of growing older, but the interweaving of individual maturity and intergenerational relationships, social and economic institutions, and intimate experiences of gender, identity, and the body.

Like many ideas that inform policy, practice and research, ‘transition’ has many meanings. Children make a transition to adulthood, pupils move from primary to secondary school, and there is then a movement from school to work, training or further education. Transitions can lead to profound and positive change and be an impetus for new learning for some individuals and be unsettling, difficult and unproductive for others. Transitions have become a key concern for policy makers and the subject of numerous policy changes over the past ten years. They are also of interest to researchers and professionals working with different groups. Transitions and Learning Through the Lifecourse examines transitions across a range of education, life and work settings. It explores the claim that successful transitions are essential for educational inclusion, social achievement, and economic prosperity and that individuals and institutions need to manage them more effectively. Aimed primarily at academic researchers and students at all levels of study across a range of disciplines, including education, careers studies, sociology, feminist and cultural studies, this book is the first systematic attempt to bring together and evaluate insights about educational, life and work transitions from a range of different fields of research. Contributions include: The transition between home and school The effects of gender, class and age Transitions to further and higher education Transitions for students with disabilities Transitions into the workplace Learning within the workplace Approaches to managing transitions List of tables and figures List of contributors Foreword by John Field Acknowledgements 1. TRANSITIONS IN THE LIFECOURSE: THE ROLE OF IDENTITY, AGENCY AND STRUCTURE Kathryn Ecclestone, Gert Biesta and Martin Hughes 2. THE DAILY TRANSITION BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL Martin Hughes, Pamela Greenhough, Wan Ching Yee and Jane Andrews 3. TRANSGRESSION FOR TRANSITION? WHITE URBAN MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES MAKING AND MANAGING ‘AGAINST THE GRAIN’ SCHOOL CHOICES David James and Phoebe Beedell 4. READING AND WRITING THE SELF AS A COLLEGE STUDENT: FLUIDITY AND AMBIVALENCE ACROSS CONTEXTS Candice Satchwell and Roz Ivanic 5. MANAGING TRANSITIONS IN SKILLS FOR LIFE Mary Hamilton 6. THE TRANSITION FROM VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING TO HIGHER EDUCATION: A SUCCESSFUL PATHWAY? Michael Hoelscher, Geoff Hayward, Hubert Ertl and Harriet Dunbar-Goddet 7. DISABLED STUDENTS AND TRANSITIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION Elisabet Weedon and Sheila Riddell 8. RETHINKING ‘FAILED TRANSITIONS’ TO HIGHER EDUCATION Jocey Quinn 9. TIME IN LEARNING TRANSITIONS THROUGH THE LIFECOURSE: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE Helen Colley 10. WORKING AS BELONGING: THE MANAGEMENT OF PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES Alan Felstead, Dan Bishop, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson, Lorna Unwin and Kostantinos Kakavelakis 11. ADULTS LEARNING IN AND THROUGH THE WORKPLACE Karen Evans and Edmund Waite 12. OLDER WORKERS’ TRANSITIONS IN WORK-RELATED LEARNING, CAREERS AND IDENTITIES Jenny Bimrose and Alan Brown 13. MANAGING AND SUPPORTING THE VULNERABLE SELF Kathryn Ecclestone Index Kathryn Ecclestone is Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK. Gert Biesta is Professor of Education at the Stirling Institute of Education, University of Stirling, UK. Martin Hughes is Professor of Education at the University of Bristol, UK.

In this original and sweeping review of Jewish culture and history, Ivan Marcus examines how and why various rites and customs celebrating stages in the life cycle have evolved through the ages and persisted to this day. For each phase of life--from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and the advanced years the book traces the origin and development of specific rites associated with the events of birth, circumcision, and schooling; bar and bat mitzvah and confirmation; engagement, betrothal, and marriage; and aging, dying, and remembering. Customs in Jewish tradition, such as the presence of godparents at a circumcision, the use of a four-poled canopy at a wedding, and the placing of small stones on tombstones, are discussed. In each chapter, detailed descriptions walk the reader through such ceremonies as early modern and contemporary circumcision, weddings, and funerals. In a comparative framework, Marcus illustrates how Jewish culture has negotiated with the majority cultures of the ancient Near East, Greco-Roman antiquity, medieval European Christianity, and Mediterranean Islam, as well as with modern secular and religious movements and social trends, to renew itself through ritual innovation. In his extensive research on the Jewish life cycle, Marcus draws from documents on various customs and ritual practices, offering reassessments of original sources and scholarly literature. Marcus s survey is the first comprehensive study of the rites of the Jewish life cycle since Hayyim Schauss's The Lifetime of the Jew was published in 1950, written for Jewish readers. Marcus s book addresses a broader audience and is designed to appeal to scholars and interested readers.

\"From birth to death, a lyrical exploration of the role of transformation in human life. To be alive is to be in perpetual metamorphosis: growing, healing, learning, aging. In Shapeshifters, physician and writer Gavin Francis considers the inevitable changes all of our bodies undergo-such as birth, puberty, and death, but also laughter, sleeping, and healing-and those that only some of our bodies will: like getting a tattoo, experiencing psychosis, suffering anorexia, being pregnant, or undergoing a gender transition. In Francis's hands, each event becomes an opportunity to explore the meaning of identity and the natures-biological, psychological, and philosophical-of our selves. True to its own subject, Shapeshifters combines Francis's lyrical imagination and deep knowledge of medicine and the humanities for a life-altering read.\"--Publisher.

How do Tibetans in India's Darjeeling Hills understand the life-span and various life-forces that influence longevity? This book analyses ethnographic and textual material demonstrating how Tibetans utilise temporal frameworks in medical, astrological, divinatory, and ritual contexts to locate and reckon life-forces influencing their life-spans.

Understand the spiritual and psychological stages of human life! Life Cycle: Psychological and Theological Perceptions provides professors and students of religion, pastoral counselors, and parents with a description of human personality development from birth to death from both psychological and theological perspectives. You will examine how personalities develop and unfold as individuals grow and how they are influenced by family members and by God, helping you view the life cycle as a sacred journey. Life Cycle will help you, as a parent, to understand your children better, and as an individual, to gain a meaningful perspective of the unfolding of your own life. As a pastoral counselor, this book will help you to enlarge your comprehension of developmental problems and solutions, enabling you to better help your parishioners develop healthy spiritual identities. Through this insightful book, you will discover the natural process of development through life-stages such as the Age of Works, the Age of Friendships, and the Age of Discovery. This unique book will help you in your pursuit of self-discovery. Within these pages you will: examine the history and theories of personality development from such theorists as Freud, Erikson, and Sullivan to get a solid foundation for understanding the process of identity formation understand theological as well as psychological views of personality development. realize the impact of the family unit on the development of individuals learn to recognize the stages of human development and see how the integration of theology and psychology can clarify them Life Cycle includes a comprehensive bibliography on the subject of development, as well as beautiful and moving poems that depict personal growth to help describe new concepts and help you to better understand important identity issues. This informative book will help you clearly define the stage of life that you or the pe