Julia Hoydis

Ulla Kriebernegg

Nassim W. Balestrini

Anna-Christina Kainradl

"This collection presents the first substantial encounter between aging studies and ecocriticism. By putting both fields into conversation, it addresses competing ideologies of efficiency, exploitation, and endurance versus those of sustenance, care, and survival"--

Interdisciplinary Encounters

Aging Studies and Ecocriticism

Based on the assumption that higher education policy texts are cultural texts and can thus be interpreted as such, this dissertation has deconstructed some of the major cultural narratives inherent in US and European policy documents and analyzed them with regard to their function for the transatlantic dialogue. An analysis of cultural narratives brings to light underlying beliefs and perceptions prevailing in a particular culture. With regard to higher education policy, this means that a society's understanding of the function of education, but also hidden agendas and undisclosed objectives are revealed.Four such cultural narratives have been analyzed in this dissertation on the basis of a cultural critical approach which includes the Foucauldian theory of governmentality as well as aspects of postcolonial theory (Edward Said): the narrative of "coopetition," the narrative of decline, especially with regard to Humboldtian values and the alleged Americanization of European higher education, the narrative of the frontier and the question whether the Bologna Process can be read metaphorically as a European frontier myth, and the narrative of homeland security as it plays out in US education policy making. The analysis revealed that the transatlantic dialogue is shaped by interdependencies and a tug of war of cooperation and competition, but also that education fulfils different functions on both sides of the Atlantic. It also shows that globally, higher education has come to be seen as a major tool of governance. Thus, education policy documents can be regarded as highly relevant texts for a cultural critical analysis of the transatlantic dialogue from an American Studies perspective.

An Analysis of Cultural Narratives

The Transatlantic Dialogue on Higher Education

Sally Chivers

Biographical note: Sally Chivers is a Full Professor in the Departments of English and Gender & Women's Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and a founding executive member of the Trent Centre for Aging and Society. Ulla Kriebernegg is an Associate Professor at the Center for Inter-American Studies of the University of Graz, Austria, and chair of the European Network in Aging Studies.

Aging, Disability, and Long-term Residential Care

Care Home Stories

Institutional care for seniors offers a cultural repository for fears and hopes about an aging population. Although enormous changes have occurred in how institutional care is structured, the legacies of the poorhouse still persist, creating panicked views of the nursing home as a dreaded fate. The paradoxical nature of a space meant to be both hospital and home offers up critical tensions for examination by age studies scholars. The essays in this book challenge stereotypes of institutional care for older adults, illustrate the changes that have occurred over time, and illuminate the continuities in the stories we tell about nursing homes.

Ulla Kriebernegg

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