The Search for New Solutions

Conceptual development in social gerontology is overdue for infusions of innovative thinking. To date, theorizing has evolved in dialectical fashion from an emphasis on individual adaptation, to structural constraints, to interactive processes. Fruitful as these efforts have been, they have not adequately addressed issues of cross-cultural and subcultural diversity, heterogeneity, and nonlinear change. Also, much of what has been taken to be life-course development may be grounded in occupational trajectories. The discussion here sets the stage for a fuller explication of some of these issues, and, it is hoped, will point the way toward further innovative conceptual development in the field.