Rethinking the Applied: Public Gerontology, Global Responsibility

The idea of “public social science” has emerged in recent academic literature. Advocates describe it as a renewed scholar activism aimed at reigniting academia’s social consciousness and direct engagement with pressing social issues and causes. While the authors acknowledge that gerontology already possesses an applied focus that includes concerted and practical efforts for welfare and justice, they add that any “public gerontology” would have to go one step further by engaging with issues on the international stage, and that impact significantly on the world’s least advantaged peoples and places. As an illustration, they focus on the crisis of African grandmothers raising AIDS orphans. They describe the severity of the situation, the work of agencies, and some possible approaches for gerontologists in supportive activism and research. These, they contend, might also be used in other geographical and social contexts.