Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States

This paper discusses how growth and aging became interrelated phenomena with the creation of gerontology in the United States. I first show that the relation of growth to senescence, which had hardly attracted scientific attention before the twentieth century, started to be investigated by several e...

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Main Author: Park, Hyung Wook
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2013
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/96443
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/10273
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-964432020-03-07T12:10:40Z Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States Park, Hyung Wook School of Humanities and Social Sciences This paper discusses how growth and aging became interrelated phenomena with the creation of gerontology in the United States. I first show that the relation of growth to senescence, which had hardly attracted scientific attention before the twentieth century, started to be investigated by several experimental scientists around the 1900s. Subsequently, research on the connection between the two phenomena entered a new domain through the birth of gerontology as a scientific field comprised of various disciplines, many of which addressed growth. Due to gerontologists’ efforts, the association between aging and growth became stronger and more multifaceted within the discursive and organizational matrix constituting the new science, leading to a broader definition of senescence with an ambiguous connection to chronological age. Furthermore, as gerontologists borrowed the cultural agendas as well as research methods from studies of growth, aging began to be defined as a phenomenon that could be actively controlled and managed in both social arenas and laboratory environments. Accepted version 2013-06-12T07:20:01Z 2019-12-06T19:30:55Z 2013-06-12T07:20:01Z 2019-12-06T19:30:55Z 2012 2012 Journal Article Park, H. W. (2013). Senescence, Growth, and Gerontology in the United States. Journal of the History of Biology, 46(4), 631-667. 0022-5010 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/96443 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/10273 10.1007/s10739-012-9348-2 168194 en Journal of the history of biology © 2012 Springer. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Journal of the History of Biology, Springer. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10739-012-9348-2]. 37 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
description This paper discusses how growth and aging became interrelated phenomena with the creation of gerontology in the United States. I first show that the relation of growth to senescence, which had hardly attracted scientific attention before the twentieth century, started to be investigated by several experimental scientists around the 1900s. Subsequently, research on the connection between the two phenomena entered a new domain through the birth of gerontology as a scientific field comprised of various disciplines, many of which addressed growth. Due to gerontologists’ efforts, the association between aging and growth became stronger and more multifaceted within the discursive and organizational matrix constituting the new science, leading to a broader definition of senescence with an ambiguous connection to chronological age. Furthermore, as gerontologists borrowed the cultural agendas as well as research methods from studies of growth, aging began to be defined as a phenomenon that could be actively controlled and managed in both social arenas and laboratory environments.
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Park, Hyung Wook
format Article
author Park, Hyung Wook
spellingShingle Park, Hyung Wook
Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
author_sort Park, Hyung Wook
title Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
title_short Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
title_full Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
title_fullStr Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Senescence, growth, and gerontology in the United States
title_sort senescence, growth, and gerontology in the united states
publishDate 2013
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/96443
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/10273
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