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Dependency and Old Age: Theoretical Accounts and Practical Understandings1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Tim Dant
Tim Dant
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MKy 6AA, England.
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Abstract

The concept of dependency is involved in two strands of the literature on old age, and is used in each with a different effect. In the literature on ‘structured dependency’ the concept is used to describe and criticise a relationship between elderly people and the state that is determined by social policy. In the literature on ‘dependency scales’ the concept is used as a basis for categorising elderly people for research, planning and service purposes. More recent commentary on the role of the concept in relation to elderly people suggests that dependency needs to be understood in a fuller way if it is to be useful in understanding the situation of elderly people in contemporary society. This paper develops the idea that dependency refers to a form of relationship characterised by an unequal distribution of power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 171 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

NOTES

2 ‘Margaret’ was interviewed in the course of the ‘Care for Elderly People at Home’ research project being conducted by a research team from the Open University and Policy Studies Institute in collaboration with the Gloucester Health Authority. The project is looking at new approaches to the support of elderly people in their own homes.

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