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Economic Crisis and Old Age

Old Age Policies in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Xavier Gaullier
Xavier Gaullier
Affiliation:
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), 5 Rue de l'Abbaye – 75006 Paris, France.
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Abstract

In France, owing to the current economic crisis, a new old age has emerged consisting of individuals of 50 to 65 years, not yet retired, unemployed and definitively excluded from the world of work, thereby representing a new category of population, whom we will henceforth refer to as the early-terminated. The political, psychological and behavioural responses of the socio-economic sub-groups within this category are analysed from the author's research findings in the iron and steel and textile industries.

The second part of this article attempts to situate this particular group within a changing framework of ideologies on the nature of old age, and on policies for the management of industrial change, for retirement and for the elderly. The author distinguishes three definitions of old age in France, from his own empirical studies in specific regions (Grenoble, Paris) and on state policy since 1945. In the first (post-war) period, old age became ‘retirement’; in the second (19605 and early 19705), ‘the third age’; in the third (present period), old age is being defined by economic forces and factors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 1982 , pp. 165 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

NOTES

1 The first part of this article is based on the results of empirical research we conducted in the steel and textile industries in the Lorraine and the Vosges in 1978 and 1979, on early-terminated wage-earners and with institutions concerned with these problems (top leadership of companies, Unions, local Municipal authorities, Associations, doctors, etc …). Eighty ninety minute interviews with the early-terminated and additional ones with the institutions were conducted. A final report (containing among other things, twenty-five detailed biographies) and an article have been published: Gaullier, Xavier, Politiques de l'emplot, modes de vie et Vieillissement, Fondation des Villes, Paris, 1980, 185 pages.Google ScholarGaullier, Xavier, Politiques de l'emploi, modes de vie et Vieillissement, Revue Française des Affaires Sociales, Paris, Juillet-Septembre 1980.Google ScholarThe second part of this article: ‘Old Age Policies in France’ is based on empirical research we conducted earlier in certain French cities, especially Grenoble and Paris, and on a detailed analysis of State action over ten years which was facilitated by our participation in the preparation and management of old age policy. These studies have resulted in several reports and articles: Gaullier, Xavier, Une polifique médico-sociale de la viellesse: le XIIIe arrondissement de Paris (1965–1975), Fondation des Villes, Paris, 140 pages.Google ScholarGaullier, Xavier, Les politiques locales de la vieillesse (maintien à domicile, milieu hospitalier, soins psychiatriques), Fondation des Villes, Paris, 1977, 150 pages.Google ScholarGaullier, Xavier, Les politiques de la vieillesse: Du Capitalisme social a la société post-industrielle, Fondation des Villes, Paris, 1979, 180 pages.Google ScholarGaullier, Xavier, Vieillissement et Societe: Les politiques de la Vieillesse en France, in Gérontologie et Société, No 14, Paris, 1980.Google ScholarGaullier, Xavier, L'avenir a reculons — Chômage, retraite et temps libre, is being processed for publication and will appear through the Editions Ouvrières in February 1982.Google Scholar For information on French Juridical Procedures concerning the early-terminated, see: Kerschen, et Reminiac, , Les systèmes de ‘pré-retraite’, Droit Social, février 1981.Google Scholar

2 See, for example: Neugarten, B., Age Groups in American Society, in Gerontologia, December 1974.Google Scholar

3 See the article of: Freyssenet, M., Fixer puts libérer les ouvriers de métier: Le cas de Wendel, Colloque ‘Aspects de la vie quotidienne’, février 1978.Google Scholar

4 See interview of Robert LION, President of the Group – ‘Prospective personnes âgées’ of the VII Plan, in L'Expansion, 20 juin–3 juillet 1980, p. 31.

5 See the report of the ‘Prospective personnes âgées’ Commission, Vieiller demain, La Documentation franchise, mars 1980, has among its many merits, the advantage of insisting on the problems of work for ageing wage-earners, and on the reintroduction of the question concerning old age in economic life.

6 Gaullier, Xavier, articles cited above in (I): in Gérontologie et SociétéGoogle Scholar, and also ‘Les politiques de la vieillesse’. See also:

Guillemard, A. M., La Vieillesse et l'Etat, PUF, Paris, 1980.Google ScholarLenoir, R., Transformation des rapports entre générations et apparition du 3e Age (sans date), CEMS.Google Scholar

7 The basic documents on the Policy of ‘independent living at home’ are two Ministry of Health Circulars of Feb. 1, 1972 and Jan. 28, 1977.

8 See, for example, the Plan of Action Priority No 15 of the VII Plan, concerning ‘independent living at home’ for the elderly and their social insertion.

9 To better understand the scope of these life-styles, we shall refer only to those issues covered in the VII Plan's Programme Action Priority (PAP 15):

Housing: improvement of the home, the telephone, adapting the dwelling for old age, transportation;

Nutrition: meal centres, meals-on-wheels;

Home help: domestic help, laundry, general maintenance of the dwelling and cleaning;

Social life: The multiple role of clubs or senior citizen centres (trips, holidays, hobbies…), cultural and physical (fitness) activities;

Information: Information services, Referral Centres for the elderly, Preparation for Retirement programmes, bridging the generation gap.

Health: Medicare at-home, Day-care centres, consultations in Social Gerontology.