Since 1989 there has been a widespread collapse of public services and income support for older people in the Russian Federation. Pensions have declined in real value and frequently are paid late, the system of collective health care has become less reliable, and the social institutions and services that formerly helped disadvantaged older people overcome isolation and loneliness have almost entirely ceased to function. Most people's personal assets and savings are insufficient for a decent life, and many cannot now afford the medical services and medications that they need. Given the absence of formal or institutional support, older people in Russia have had to develop pragmatic coping mechanisms, most commonly based on informal social networks and diverse income-generating activities, including barter and exchange in the informal ‘grey’ and ‘black’ economies. The household budgets of many pensioners increasingly rely upon their ability to raise income through their labour and the exchange of goods, and the time that they devote to these productive activities is increasing sharply. In comparison with other age groups, older people in Russia own many private apartments, garages, and garden or allotment plots, and they are important factors in the generation of income. These assets are used first and foremost to avert poverty and degradation, and more generally to support the immediate and extended family. The current economic system and the inadequacies of the existing system of social protection perpetuate the distinctive coping strategies.

In the study of ageing, community has increasingly become a topic of interest. Ageing studies are certainly not alone in this, for the same is widely true in the contemporary American social sciences. More and more research, often quite theoretical, suggests that we must raise the sense of community to achieve improvements in the quality of life. In gerontology, over the past decade studies of nursing homes and housing settings have burgeoned. For the most part, however, analyses have focused on the need for community through social integration, while the underlying question, of how community is formed through social interaction, has been neglected. Community, as discussed here, grows out of interaction in a local setting. The interaction is based on a shared or common knowledge of the site's occupants. In essence, community is not so much a site or location per se, but rather the activity of converting a site into a shared collectivity. In this article, the specific mechanisms through which community is formed in a senior, government-supported housing complex are documented. Using data from fieldwork in the neighbourhood, it is argued that, at this site, community is formed through talk about the neighbourhood's commonly recognised troubles. An important component of this ‘troubles talk’ is the celebrity status of two residents. Talk about them is an important component of the elaboration and elucidation of the commonalities that bind the residents together.

Loneliness has been consistently identified as one of the specific ‘social problems’ which accompanies old age and growing older: 90 per cent of the general population of Britain feel that loneliness is a problem associated with old age. There is a widespread presumption that loneliness and isolation have become more prevalent in Britain in the period since the Second World War as a result of the decline in multi-generation households and changes in family structure. This paper examines the accuracy of this stereotype and considers if current cohorts of older people are more likely to report experiencing loneliness than previous generations of elders, through a comparative analysis of historical and contemporary data. Historical data are provided by three ‘classic’ social surveys undertaken in England between 1945 and 1960. Contemporary data are from a postal survey of 245 people aged 65–74 living in South London in 1999. The questions used in all four surveys were comparable, in that respondents self-rated their degree of loneliness on scales ranging from never to always. The overall prevalence of reports of loneliness ranged from five to nine per cent and showed no increase. Loneliness rates for specific age or gender sub-groups were also stable. Reported loneliness amongst those living alone decreased from 32 per cent in 1945 to 14 per cent in 1999, while the percentages decreased for both those reporting that they were never lonely and that they were ‘sometimes’ lonely.

This article explores the expectations of inter-generational reciprocity amongst older Greek Cypriot women and men living in London from the parents' perspective. Participants engaged in a number of discourses when talking about children. These discourses, which were culturally determined, underpinned parental expectations of inter-generational reciprocity. On a day-to-day basis, older Greek Cypriots were both givers and receivers of help. Gender differences, rather than differences in age or marital status, were evident in both the giving and receiving of help. Parents' perceptions of parent–child relations were not affected by migration, and were pivotal to wellbeing in later life. The bonds between parents and children were perceived as being strong and enduring, although changing throughout the lifecourse.

The assumption that social and economic transitions in a country pose a threat to the provision of support to older people is questioned in this study. The study investigates the availability and sources of such material, practical and emotional support in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. The support provided by older people towards household functioning is also explored. It was found from an interview survey of 701 individuals aged 60 years and older that the propensity to receive support was greater among rural older people than their urban counterparts. Gender differences were also observed, in that men were mainly providers of material support, and women of practical and emotional support. Among married older people, spouses were reported as important sources of emotional support for both elderly men and women, and some regional differences were observed. The data show mutuality in the provision of support between older people and their family members. It is evident that support to elderly people from their families is strong in Bangladesh, and that the socio-cultural dynamics of the society influence its provision.

The Australian health care system is frequently portrayed as being in crisis, with reference to either large financial burdens in the form of hospital deficits, or declining service levels. Older people, characterised as a homogeneous category, are repeatedly identified as a major contributor to the crisis, by unnecessarily occupying acute beds while they await a vacancy in a residential facility. Several enquiries and hospital taskforce management groups have been set up to tackle the problem. This article reviews their findings and strategic recommendations, particularly as they relate to older people. Short-term policy responses are being developed which specifically target older people for early discharge and alternative levels of care, and which, while claiming positive intentions, may introduce new forms of age discrimination into the health system. Few of the currently favoured proposals promote age-inclusivity and older people's rights to equal access to acute care.

This paper discusses the material aspects of globalisation and the effects of the movements of trade, capital and people around the world on older men and women. While some older people have benefited, most notably where pensions and health care are well developed, the majority of older men and women are among the poor who have not. Free trade, economic restructuring, the globalisation of finance, and the surge in migration, have in most parts of the world tended to produce harmful consequences for older people. These developments have been overseen, and sometimes dictated, by inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) such as the International Monetary Foundation (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), while other IGOs with less power have been limited to anti-ageist exhortation. Globalisation transfers resources from the poor to the rich within and between countries. It therefore increases social problems while simultaneously diminishing the freedom and capacity of countries to make social policy. Nonetheless, the effects of globalisation, and particularly its financial dimensions, on a nation's capacity for making social policy can be exaggerated. Political will can combat international economic orthodoxy, but the evident cases are the exception rather than the rule.