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An Ageing World: The Equivocal Response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Eric Midwinter
Affiliation:
Director, Centre for Policy on Ageing, 25–31 Ironmonger Row, London kinds of informal social props.

Extract

Old age as a macro-issue was forcibly thrust upon the staff of the Centre for Policy on Ageing recently, when we intrepidly embarked on the first detailed and comprehensive review, statistical and critical, of old age as a worldwide theme. In embarking on such a venture we were well aware that thirty, even twenty, years ago it would scarcely have been tenable, for the touchstone of old age as some form of specific discipline or subject has barely existed for half a century in the so-called ‘developed’ societies, let alone in the vast remainder of the world. Now many countries have services, ministries, institutes or organisations devoted to the topic of old age. This may, of course, be the consequence of living in a bureaucratic epoch in which services, ministries, institutes or organisations have been devoted to practically any subject under the sun, but there must be some fire gently glowing beneath the billowing smoke.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

NOTES

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