Introduction

Since antiquity, the household has been the basic organisational unit of western society. In ancient Greece, it was termed the oikos (from which is derived the term ‘economy’), while in Rome, it was termed the familia (from which is derived the term ‘family’). For the Greeks and Romans, as for most settled societies, the household was the central unit of production, consumption, enumeration and taxation. Besides being a site where goods and services were produced and consumed, the household was also the site of social reproduction where age, generation, gender and sexuality were enacted and personal identities formed and sustained. As times have changed, the nature of the household has changed, both in its size and in its composition, as well as its role in the economy. This chapter addresses aspects of continuity and change within the household during the second half of the 20th century, particularly as these changes have affected older people. Specifically, it examines the household as a unit of consumption and how this reflects on the lives and lifestyles of older adults.

Prior to the introduction of old-age pensions, the viability of maintaining an independent household for an older person was limited. It depended on some combination of accessible family support, an independent income, continuing wage labour and/or self-employment. In countries such as Britain that had a fairly comprehensive poor law system, some older people did manage to maintain a separate own household even when they could not work, through the provision of outdoor relief. The solution for surviving in their later life, for the majority of people, was to share a household with other, younger people. Failure meant institutionalisation and the poorhouse. In 1892, 21% of the population aged 65 and over in England and Wales received outdoor relief, while 8.3% (114,000 people) lived in the poorhouse (Nield, 1898).

As pensions replaced poor relief as a more reliable source of later life income, fewer people needed to labour on in later life. Pension income remained limited, however, and up until the Second World War the majority of old-age pensioners in Britain, as in most of Europe, lived with younger adults, usually their children. After the war, as regular retirement income became the norm, the numbers of older people able to live alone increased. Even so, during the 1940s and 1950s, the majority of people of pensionable age still lived with younger adults.