Success is not all: When ‘failure’ becomes meaningful in late life

Abstract

Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession, edited by Sarah Lamb, is a timely, thought-provoking collection of sociological and anthropological studies that critically tackle the neoliberal Global North paradigm of healthy/active/successful aging. The authors are reputable scholars in the field of aging studies and/or medical anthropology, whose perspectives cover a variety of cultural understandings and practices of what is involved in aging meaningfully.