AGING AND REINVENTING LIFE

Based on 138 interviews with elderly persons living at home, aged 60 t o 80, the book presents a sociological analysis of the ageing process. These persons talk about sources of joy or stress and anxiety for the m. They describe their everyday life made up of constant negotiation a nd invention of their material and psychological living conditions. Da y after day they invent, organise and reorganise these conditions espe cially when periods of dependancy happen. The book also includes an an alysis of the adversity of representations, according to social classe s, as regards retirement, former professional activities, management o f everyday space and time conditions, decline, illness and death.