This article draws on material from the Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The survivors, now all 80 plus, were interviewed first in 1979 and for the last time in 1995. This paper concentrates on friendship over that period. Answers to questions about the presence or absence of ‘real friends’ and about satisfaction with the status quo are related to personal strategies for managing change in the friendship network. Four types of response to current levels of friendship are identified: contented, dissatisfied, needy and resigned. Examples are given from each category, drawing on qualitative data.

Findings suggest three types of movement over the 16 years in the relationships of these very old respondents: contraction in the friendship network, expansion, and the replacement of departed friends or fading friendships. New friendships were unusual in departing from same-sex, same age and reciprocal norms of adult friendship. The findings indicate that older adult friendships might breach several of the norms of friendship common in earlier adulthood; the distinctiveness of close relationships in advanced old age calls for its treatment as a separate life stage.

In this article I critically examine the biology/culture dualism in the context of old age. Regarding the contextualisation of the interrelationship between biology and culture, previous studies have not adequately explored the interaction between the physiological process of ageing, the physical and social surroundings of the body and the body's intentionality. I suggest ways in which anthropological and feminist advances in deconstructions and reconstructions of the body can be deployed in the study of old age. In particular I draw upon Margaret Lock's concept of ‘local biology’. This offers an opportunity for the development of gerontological theory that focuses upon the interactions between the ageing body, its experience and its locality.

A central concern of many theorists of later life has been to elucidate the processes which shape the marginalisation and relative disadvantage of older people in contemporary society. This concern parallels a current argument within sociological theorising: that life course stage and generational location constitute increasingly important dimensions of social difference and inequality. It is an argument of the paper that many current approaches operate with metaphors of society which ultimately locate those in later life at the margins by virtue of the theoretical terms being used. Too much has been claimed for life course-based divisions and too little has been claimed in respect of life course-related processes. The paper develops an alternative, moral economy, perspective with the aim of furthering analysis of the social organisation of life course-related rights, claims and obligations and their relationship to lifetime inequalities across the population. Such an approach offers a resourceful framework both for interrogating the diverse circumstances and experiences of those in later life, and for conceptualising social inequality and its reproduction.

This article examines the personal outcomes of overseas residence in later life, by analysing some findings from the first large-scale, comparative study of the retirement of British citizens to southern Europe. Four study areas are compared: Tuscany in Italy, Malta, the Costa del Sol of Spain, and the Algarve region of Portugal. The analysis focuses on the expressed reasons for moving to and residing in the areas, the reported advantages and disadvantages, and the respondents' predictions of whether they would stay or leave in response to adverse and beneficial events. Overall the subjects give very positive reports, but there are considerable differences among the four areas. The associations of individual variation in well-being with both a person's ‘temporal commitment’ to the area and to facets of their social integration are analysed. The onset of severe incapacity, sufficient to prevent the continued running of a home, is the event most likely to cause people to leave their adopted areas of residence.

Empirical research on women's feelings about their body size has traditionally focused on adolescents and young adults and has been carried out within the framework of experimental social psychology. This article examines the subjective meanings of body size for a sample of 12 women aged between 63 and 75 years via an analysis of in-depth interview data. The findings suggest that body size has a complexity of contradictory meanings for older women, which are shaped in relation to social discourses surrounding beauty ideals, gender identity and constructions of age and ageing. Many of the older women were dissatisfied with their body size, highlighting the cross-generational influence of a ‘thin ideal’ of size. At the same time, however, the women adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards body size and eating, rejecting the pressures surrounding size and food. This attitude was related to the women's constructions of this stage of their lives as a time of freedom, their awareness of personal mortality, and their beliefs about the inevitability of weight-gain as they grew older. The findings are discussed in relation to feminist approaches to body size and gerontological research on age/gender stereotypes.

An increasing number of older people are international migrants. Even where older people have not been migrants themselves, it is increasingly likely that international migration will touch their personal lives, either through significant family members or through their own decisions to resettle in later life. Despite the growing importance of long-distance travel and resettlement in other countries, however, the relationship between migration and ageing is a relatively neglected topic in gerontology. Using the examples of migrants in minority ethnic communities, this paper proposes a typology or scheme with which to relate (a) the principal reasons for migration earlier in the lifecourse to (b) the range of possibilities for migration which may face older people in later life. Conclusions about care needs and identity are discussed with reference to older migrants in ethnic minorities in Britain. It is argued that the ‘minority migrant’ example (while a distinctive experience in each community) has important lessons for, and applications to, understanding general patterns of international migration in later life.