As the proportion of elders worldwide continues to expand, new issues and concerns for scholars, policy makers and health and social care professionals emerge. Ageing in a Global Context is a series of books, published by Policy Press in association with the British Society of Gerontology, which seeks both to influence and transform debates in what has become a fast-moving field in research and policy. The series pursues this in three main ways. First, the series is publishing books that rethink key questions shaping debates in the study of ageing. This has become especially important and timely given the restructuring of welfare states that is occurring alongside the complex nature of population change. Together, these developments point to the need to explore themes that go beyond traditional perspectives in social gerontology. Second, the series represents a response to the impact of globalisation and related processes, and the resultant erosion of the national boundaries that originally framed the study of ageing. From this has come the emergence of issues explored in various contributions to the series, for example: the impact of transnational migration, cultural diversity, new types of inequality, and contrasting themes relating to ageing in rural and urban areas. Third, a key concern of the series is to explore interdisciplinary connections in gerontology. Contributions provide a critical assessment of the disciplinary boundaries and territories influencing the study of ageing, creating in the process new perspectives and approaches relevant to the 21st century.

In the context of these broad aims, we welcome the contributions of this book. The editors, Paul Willis, Ilkka Pietilä and Marjaana Seppänen, have put together a volume that fills a critical gap in our understanding of diverse older men’s social connections, including in relation to transitions in later life. They have brought together leading scholars in ageing and masculinities, examining the ways that masculine identities and practices influence a wide range of relationships. In so doing, the chapters explore older men in the broader context of gender across nations, in diverse social and cultural settings.