Old Age and Radical History

This essay introduces readers to key themes in critical gerontology and age studies and asserts their centrality to contemporary history and politics. Age scholars and critical gerontologists push back against perspectives that individualize and medicalize old age as a natural or universal stage in a singular life course explained solely by biology, psychology, or personal choices. Instead, they challenge us to see contemporary life stages and even chronological age itself as historically and culturally specific structures. The contributions in this issue demonstrate the power of this approach, exploring histories of later life in the context of slave societies, retirement, social movements, and gendered embodiment. Together, contributors model a radical history of old age that centers power, historical struggle, and linked lives.

Deconstructing Childhood as a Way to Justice

Despite the multiplicity of constructions of childhood in various disciplines, the prevalent view is that children are incompetent in the sense of lacking reason, maturity, or independence. In this paper, I first examine how this dominant view is constructed in the fields of philosophy and psychology, highlighting the perspectives of Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and Jean Piaget. Then, following Jacques Derrida who conceives justice as a source of meaning for deconstruction, I deconstruct several of the dominant constructions and argue that they do not do children justice. To return justice to childhood, I suggest that childhood should be regarded as a self-contained state with distinctive features that are worthy of consideration in their own right rather than as an incomplete state of incompetence relative to adulthood that is considered a complete state of humans, while adulthood should be regarded as a never-ending process of becoming mature that includes rather than excludes childhood. Moreover, I suggest that both the absolute denial of adult rights to children and the naturalization of childhood in developmental psychology as a biologically determined and culturally universal stage of irrationality should be challenged.

Crystallographic and shape orientations of magnetite micro-inclusions in plagioclase

Plagioclase hosted, oriented magnetite micro-inclusions are a frequently observed phenomenon in magmatic and metamorphic rocks. Understanding the orientation relationships between these inclusions and the plagioclase host is highly relevant for interpreting paleomagnetic measurements. The systematics of the shape and crystallographic orientation relationships between needle- and lath-shaped magnetite micro-inclusions and their plagioclase host from oceanic gabbro were investigated using optical microscopy including universal stage measurements, scanning electron microscopy, and crystal orientation analysis by electron backscatter diffraction. The magnetite inclusions show preferred shape orientations following six well-defined directions and with specific crystallographic orientation relationships to the plagioclase host. These relationships are rationalized based on angular and dimensional similarities between the crystal structures of magnetite and plagioclase, which favor the parallel alignment of oxygen layers with similar lattice spacing in both phases. The parallel alignment of oxygen layers in plagioclase and magnetite can be traced back to the oriented nucleation of magnetite, which occurs by the accommodation of FeO6 octahedra in six-membered rings of SiO4 and AlO4 tetrahedra of the plagioclase structure. The orientation systematics of the magnetite micro-inclusions is related to four orientation variants for placing the FeO6 octahedra into the plagioclase structure.

Adolescence

Adolescence is a time of remarkable change—a time of physical and emotional growth with many potential problems. It is a turbulent yet universal stage of life, and mental health providers can be flummoxed in approaching, diagnosing, and treating adolescents, with the ongoing question of “What is normal adolescent behavior?” Providers sometimes lose sight of central issues in adolescent life, such as school, family, trauma, foster care, and burgeoning responsibilities. This chapter provides a case example of a typical teen presentation in the emergency department and uses it to illustrate the complexity of adolescent mental health issues. Favorable outcomes are possible when clinicians are mindful of the special needs of this age group, including risky behavior, the impact of bullying, and academic stress, and when clinicians can navigate the corresponding systems of care.

Expanding Higher Education in Taiwan: The Case of Doctoral Education

<p>Higher education expansion is not a new development in the world. Different countries have faced various contexts and factors that push the expansion to occur. Since 1996, the Taiwanese government has allowed the private sector to open new higher education institutions or be upgraded for open more access at the higher education level to correspond to the general public’s educational expectations. This article starts by describing the expansion of higher education from the elite to universal stage both globally and locally. The article then specifically introduces the case of the doctoral manpower structure in Taiwan and lists three specific scenarios regarding local PhDs’ reality in the current competitive job market, highlighting the further talent fault crisis in society today. In addition to discussing the consequences and challenges at the doctoral level of talent cultivation, the article further identifies the main issues facing the current manpower planning in Taiwan. The article calls for all stakeholders of the agenda to rethink the purpose of doctoral manpower cultivation in Taiwan over the long run.</p>