After five years, I am handing over the editorship of the journal to Tony Warnes. I am delighted with his appointment since he was an energetic and successful Reviews Editor of Ageing and Society between 1987 and 1997 and has supported the journal in many other ways. As chair of the British Society for Gerontology between 1995 and 2000, he was very active in establishing international and multidisciplinary links, and I am sure that his continuing commitment, contacts and wealth of knowledge (evident indeed in this edition) will serve the journal well.

Last year I presented a paper at the Third International Symposium on Cultural Gerontology held in Visby, Sweden. For this, I reviewed the 117 articles that were published in volumes 17 to 20 of Ageing and Society (Bytheway 2002). Including a variety of surveys (but excluding national census data), the 117 articles draw upon interviews with approximately 22,500 older people and include the quoted words of about 490 (many of whom are introduced to the reader with pseudonyms and personal descriptions). In this respect, I feel that older people have a real presence in the journal and that this has generated valuable insights into later life in a range of contrasting societies. That said, it is also true that the vast majority of contributors to the journal are based in, or linked to, universities and only a very few make any reference to their own sense of age or to any personal alliance with organisations of, or representing, older people.

This paper aims to study the applicability of the shared care approach in the Chinese community in Britain. The discussion is based on findings of two studies on family care of older people in London conducted respectively in 1991 and 1998. Both studies examined the needs of Chinese older people and whether and how their needs were met by informal care. The findings show that there is a strong belief among Chinese families that older people should live with their sons. While the Chinese families were highly motivated to take care of their older family members, and many of them felt obliged to live with their parents and wanted to give assistance to them, not all were, in practice, able to do so as much as they would have wished. Shortfall between what older people needed and the assistance they received was obvious, especially in relation to personal care. It is argued that traditional Chinese values still carry some influence in obliging the Chinese to look after their elderly family members. However, they are not sufficiently influential to guarantee sufficient care. A unique model of shared care is thus clearly and precisely called for by the findings of this study.

This paper examines the changed social circumstances of older people in South Korea and specifically the increased need for formal health and social services for those who are frail and have no informal carers. The article begins with a summary account of the country's exceptionally rapid demographic, economic and social transformations, which demonstrates a widening gap between the population's expectations and needs, and health and social service provision. It then examines the recently initiated and now burgeoning welfare programmes, with particular attention to health and social services for sick and frail older people. Most extant care services are accessed mainly by two minorities: the very poor and the rich. The dominant policy influence of physicians and a history of conflict between traditional and western medicine probably underlies the low current priority for ‘care’ as opposed to ‘cure’, as also for the management of chronic conditions and rehabilitation. Neither long-term care services nor personal social services are well developed. There is a marked disparity between the acute services, which are predominantly provided by private sector organisations in a highly competitive market and broadly achieve high standards, and public primary care and rudimentary residential services. The latter are weakly regulated and there are many instances of low standards of care.

Sociological research shows that individuals attempt to make sense of the meaning of the ageing process in the course of conversations with other people. The social construction of ageing is therefore an interactive process during which ideas and beliefs about ageing are negotiated and exchanged. Novels are a rich and easily accessible source of data on the social construction of the meaning of ageing during the course of social interaction and this paper explores the imaginative contribution of the English novelist Stanley Middleton to our awareness of these subtle processes. It is suggested that Middleton's fiction provides a particularly rewarding example of the contribution of the novelist to our understanding of the origins of the experience of growing older as a product of social interaction.

The qualitative study described in this paper explores later life spousal bereavement as a spatialised experience. It draws on interviews with 20 older widowed people who were living alone, half in owner-occupied accommodation and half in sheltered housing. Moving beyond the older adult's ‘inner’ world of grief, it examines changes in the use and meaning of both public and domestic space in order to provide an holistic, culturally-located analysis. The following themes are identified as important: the type of housing, interviewees’ spatialised social relationships, the experience of spousal caregiving prior to bereavement and the ongoing relationship between the living and the dead partner.

This paper reports findings from three focus groups, involving 24 people, aged 65 to 79 years (20 women, four men), concerning their knowledge of safety on stairs. Findings indicate that older people use their stairs as and when necessary, but tend to avoid stair use when it becomes more difficult. The location of essential facilities in some homes (e.g. the lavatory), however, may lead to increased use of stairs for some. Despite recognition of hazardous behaviour, participants reported that they continued to engage in activities which may increase risk of falling, e.g. leaving objects on stairs and using stairs in the dark. Cleaning stairs presents problems in some cases due to difficulties with access or the need to use heavy and awkward equipment. Focus group participants recognised that medications and use of alcohol may increase the risk of falling, but it seems that individuals may not always appreciate when they personally are at increased risk. Most participants indicated they had given only limited thought to stair safety prior to the focus groups. Possibilities for prevention are reviewed, including modifications to the stair environment and equipment design, coupled with safety education, to raise awareness of risks and strategies for dealing with these.

It was evident from interviews with 15 men and women over 70 years of age that the experiences derived from being physically active and playing sport in later life are expansive, dynamic and completely imbued with multiple interpretations. Furthermore, their beliefs support the notion that the physically active body should be considered more than a physical object, as it represents a conscious, feeling, thinking and reflective self. The findings signify much is to be gained by regularly partaking in deliberate physical activity during later life although this is not always as easy as it sounds. At a personal level, changes in functional capacity and dealing with the sometimes ailing body can serve as a deterrent. From a broader perspective, the stigma associated with being older also poses a significant physical, sociological and psychological challenge, particularly during the initial phases. In conclusion, the study discusses why change must occur at a personal and societal level before a greater proportion of the older population become more physically active.