https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783318766180 Journal of Sociology 1–8 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1440783318766180 journals.sagepub.com/home/jos Contesting Boomageddon? Identity, politics and economy in the global milieu Cassie Curryer University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia Sue Malta National Ageing Research Institute, and University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia Michael Fine Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia This issue presents contributions of members of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Ageing and Sociology thematic group, formed in 2015 to provide a supportive network for sociologists working in, or researching, the field of ageing. A key aim of the Ageing and Sociology thematic group is to foster collaborative endeavours and dissemi- nate sociological theory and knowledge, which – particularly in Australian contexts – tends to become subsumed into gerontological research. Aberdeen and Bye (2013) stress the historical biomedical and economic focus of ageing research and research funding in Australia, and argue that this hampers sociologists’ capacity to critically engage with age- ing issues on a global level. It also drives the relative neglect of sociological theoretical perspectives within ageing research (Marshall and Bengston, 2011) including within the field of social gerontology. In turn, as Asquith (2009: 266) laments: ‘the field [of ageing] has been largely vacated by sociologists’. Not only has research on ageing been commonly treated as of marginal interest to sociology, the discipline has also made few attempts to understand the central importance of age for social structure or personal agency. The authors contributing to this special edition throw out a challenge to sociologists and other social scientists to critically engage with ageing discourses and the range of policies generated in response. In doing so they also draw attention to how the experience of ageing is constructed within social, historical, economic and political contexts (Marshall and Corresponding author: Cassie Curryer, The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia. Email: cassie.curryer@uon.edu.au 766180JOS 0 0 10.1177/1440783318766180Journal of SociologyCurryer et al. research-article 2018 Article