Ageing, Ritual and Social Change

Peter G. Coleman is Professor of Psychogerontology at the University of Southampton, England, a joint appointment between the Faculties of Social & Human Sciences and of Medicine. Most of his research relates to mental health issues, especially the functions of reminiscence and sources of self-esteem and meaning in later life. In more recent years he has focused on the role of religion and spirituality with ageing. He is the author of Ageing and Reminiscence Processes: Social and Clinical Implications (Wiley 1986), Ageing and Development: Theories and Research with Ann O'Hanlon (Arnold, 2004), and Belief and Ageing: Spiritual Pathways in Later Life (Policy Press, 2011). He has co-edited textbooks for the British Society of Gerontology, and made contributions to various handbooks on the subjects of Gerontology, Clinical Psychology and Spirituality. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). Daniela Koleva is Associate Professor at the Department for History and Theory of Culture, Sofia University. Her research is in the fields of oral history and anthropology of socialism and post-socialism, biographical and cultural memory, biographical methods, social constructivism. She has published a monograph on the 'normal life course' in socialist Bulgaria (Biography and Normality, 2002, in Bulgarian) and has (co)edited a few collective volumes and collections of life stories. Her current work is on vernacular memory of socialism in Bulgaria, everyday ethnic and religious identities and forms of their expression. Edited books include: Negotiating Normality: Everyday Lives in Socialist Institutions. Transaction, forthcoming May 2012; 20 Years after the Collapse of Communism: Expectations, achievements and disillusions of 1989. (ed. with Nicolas Hayoz and Leszek Jesien), Peter Lang, 2011; Childhood under Socialism. (ed. with Ivan Elenkov) Sofia: CAS/Riva 2010 (in Bulgarian). Joanna Bornat is Emeritus Professor of oral history at the Open University having retired from that institution in 2009. She is joint editor of the journal Oral History and a committee member of the UK Oral History Society. She has a longstanding interest in oral history and ageing and her research interests include reminiscence in care settings, the oldest generation and family relationships, older women's lives, migration and ethnicity and community oral history. Most recently she has been involved in research which considers substantive, ethical and methodological issues in the re-use or secondary analysis of archived interviews. Recent books include: Bornat, J 'Remembering in Late Life: Generating individual and social change', in Donald Ritchie (ed) The Oxford Handbook to Oral History, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

• Part I Setting the Scene; Chapter 1 Introduction: Ageing and Ritual in a Changing Europe, Peter G. Coleman, Daniela Koleva, Joanna Bornat; Chapter 2 The Challenge of Difference: Approaching Comparative Oral History, Joanna Bornat; Part II Ritual and Story in Bulgaria, Romania and the UK; Chapter 3 ‘I Will Die Orthodox’: Religion and Belonging in Life Stories of the Socialist Era in Romania and Bulgaria, Simina B?dic?; Chapter 4 ‘God Can Wait’: Composing Non-Religious Narratives in Secular and Post-Communist Societies, Hilary Young; Chapter 5 Ineffable Silence and the Sacred: Crucial Moments in Life Histories, Sidonia Grama; Chapter 6 Performing Social Normativity: Religious Rituals in Secular Lives, Daniela Koleva; Part III Death and Loss; Chapter 7 Personal Ideologies of Death: Shaping the (Post)Self in Rituals, Galina Goncharova; Chapter 8 Belief in the Context of Bereavement: The Potential Therapeutic Properties Associated with Religious Belief and Ritual, John H. Spreadbury; Part IV Gendered Ageing and Religion; Chapter 9 Social Change and Well-being: The Place of Religion in Older Bulgarian Men’s Lives, Ignat C. Petrov, Peter G. Coleman; Chapter 10 Religiosity and Women’s Ageing: Biographical Perspectives, Teodora Karamelska; Part V Review and Conclusions; Chapter 11 Ritual in the Changing Lives of the Very Old, Peter G. Coleman, Sidonia Grama, Ignat C. Petrov; Chapter 12 Reflections on the Study: Why are there No Simple Answers?, Joanna Bornat, Daniela Koleva;

Prize: Winner of a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2014 'The editors and contributors deserve appreciation for undertaking this challenging comparative project. A significant multidisciplinary contribution to the literature on aging, religion/ritual, comparative oral history, and social change. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.' Choice ’The stories that have emerged from this endeavour are compelling - the more so since the individuals in question are allowed to speak for themselves. This is one reason why I am delighted to commend this important piece of research to the widest possible range of readers. There are many others.’ Grace Davie, University of Exeter, UK 'Concern over an ageing society will be a primary issue driving social policy around the world in the next few decades. This impressive volume examines the impact of social and specifically religious change on the experience of ageing in two very different areas of Europe, and should be required reading for every interested policy maker and researcher.’ Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California, USA ’This book offers a valuable contribution to researchers in gerontology, the sociology of religion, and to the wider social sciences more generally... a fascinating book, with a depth of scholarship and a genuine commitment to the research process and the stories of elderly people living out their lives, their faith and their values in the context of social change.’ Ageing and Society ’This volume is a compelling and authoritative contribution to the literature that seeks to understand our quest for meaning in later life. The twelve essays, carefully organised and edited, make a significant contribution to our understanding of the nature of ageing in human society and within two different areas of Europe.’ Modern Believing