Melioristic gerontology: using pragmatism to reframe the study of aging

Aging populations in places around the globe face looming challenges from large-scale mega-trends. Gerontology needs to develop approaches for helping older people and their communities respond and share knowledge from those approaches. Based on the philosophy of pragmatism, we make a case for a "melioristic gerontology" to focus gerontologists on those needs. After an introduction to pragmatism and its deep-rooted meliorism, we suggest several mega-trends-climate change, technological, and political economic-at the heart of our rationale for a melioristic gerontology. We then consider John Dewey's theory of social inquiry and Jane Addams' model of pragmatist praxis in communities. Both have inspired recent work to address community issues and citizens' engagement in those pragmatist-informed processes. We distill these contributions into essential traits of melioristic gerontology and identify key roles for melioristic gerontologists. Melioristic gerontology suggests how we can fulfill our responsibility for securing a better place in a world full of uncertainty by empowering older people and their communities to blunt the harmful effects of mega-trends now and in the future.