The development of social gerontology has led to the emergence of its own terminology and conceptual armoury. ‘Ageism’ has been a key concept in articulating the mission of gerontology and was deliberately intended to act as an equivalent to the concepts of racism and sexism. As a term, it has established itself as a lodestone for thinking about the de-valued and residualised social status of older people in contemporary society. Given this background, ageism has often been used to describe an overarching ideology that operates in society to the detriment of older people and which in large part explains their economic, social and cultural marginality. This paper critiques this approach and suggests an alternative based upon the idea of the social imaginary of the fourth age. It argues that not only is the idea of ageism too totalising and contradictory but that it fails to address key aspects of the corporeality of old age. Adopting the idea of a social imaginary offers a more nuanced theoretical approach to the tensions that are present in later life without reducing them to a single external cause or explanation. In so doing, this leaves the term free to serve, in a purely descriptive manner, as a marker of prejudice.

Transfers of assistance from older to younger family members are an important, though often ignored, component of intergenerational exchanges. The ability to help younger family members, either financially or practically, may be influenced by the health and socio-economic status of older parents, but very little is known about these patterns. This article examines the effects of socio-economic and health status on the help that late mid-life parents in Britain and the United States give their children with money, domestic tasks, and grandchild care. Results for the different types of family support yield three main findings. First, there are relatively few differences between Britain and the USA in the factors affecting the provision of support. Secondly, socio-economic factors appear to be more important among married respondents while health is more important among the unmarried. Thirdly, children's co-residence has greater effects on the provision of domestic task help in Britain than in the United States.

Social constructionist approaches to the talk of older adults diagnosed as suffering from a dementing illness have emphasised the importance of analysing such talk in terms of its social function. Drawing on this work together with the increasing clinical impetus towards the development of psychotherapy in this area, this paper examines two sequences of stories produced during a psychotherapy group. These stories are seen as having two related functions: first, they enable individuals to explore the significance of their experiences and thus, it is argued, act as metaphors for the personal experience of having a dementing illness; and secondly they act as a means of creating a series of social identities. As such they serve as explanations of ‘what it is to lose one’s mind’ (Sutton 1994).

Our purpose in this paper is to explore and deepen the understanding of older women's relations to bodily appearance by looking at two different conditions of existence. Recent research has touched on the experiences of older women in societies with youthful norms of beauty, but the diversity of older women's experiences has been little explored, and there has been little dialogue between theoretical writing and empirical research on the topic. It was therefore decided to conduct an empirical study of older women's relations to bodily appearance, applying Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory and particularly the concept of habitus to the body. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 51 francophone women aged 65 to 75 years from working-class and affluent neighbourhoods of Montréal (Québec, Canada). The findings showed clearly that, despite the social differentiation associated with variations in economic and cultural capital, older women's relations to bodily appearance converged as they aged. Two previously unidentified and overlapping processes of attitudinal change were recognised: (1) differentiation by social class, and (2) convergence with increasing age. In conclusion, we discuss the embodiment of women's social and biological conditions of existence in the context of personal ageing. The notion of age-habitus is introduced to explain how older women maintain their social value in the context of omnipresent youthful ideals of beauty for western women.

The aim of this study was to explore associations between internet/email use in a large sample of older English adults with their social isolation and loneliness. Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Wave 8 were used, with complete data available for 4,492 men and women aged ⩾ 50 years (mean age = 64.3, standard deviation = 13.3; 51.7% males). Binomial logistic regression was used to analyse cross-sectional associations between internet/email use and social isolation and loneliness. The majority of older adults reported using the internet/email every day (69.3%), fewer participants reported once a week (8.5%), once a month (2.6%), once every three months (0.7%), less than every three months (1.5%) and never (17.4%). No significant associations were found between internet/email use and loneliness, however, non-linear associations were found for social isolation. Older adults using the internet/email either once a week (odds ratio (OR) = 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.49–0.72) or once a month (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.45–0.80) were significantly less likely to be socially isolated than every day users; those using internet/email less than once every three months were significantly more likely to be socially isolated than every day users (OR = 2.87, 95% CI = 1.28–6.40). Once every three months and never users showed no difference in social isolation compared with every day users. Weak associations were found between different online activities and loneliness, and strong associations were found with social isolation. The study updated knowledge of older adults’ internet/email habits, devices used and activities engaged in online. Findings may be important for the design of digital behaviour change interventions in older adults, particularly in groups at risk of or interventions targeting loneliness and/or social isolation.

This article starts with a critique of the literature relating to the living at home/living in a home contrast. It shows this body of work to be dominated by a structured dependency paradigm which depicts residential care as exemplar of institution and home as embodying personal control and self- identity. A modification of the paradigm which gives prominence to diversity and meaning is used to analyse in-depth interviews with frail older people living at home and in a home. The analysis suggests that the prevailing account of residential care needs updating and some revision. The article concludes that the marketisation of social care has had both positive and negative effects on both care delivery in a home and at home. It also contends that there is a limited demand from older people for collective living arrangements and that institutionalisation processes affect older people in whatever setting.

One of the key objectives of the community care reforms of 1990 in the United Kingdom was the development of a flourishing independent sector alongside good quality public services. The aims of the reforms were to increase the available range of options, widen consumer choice and promote independence. The purpose of the study reported here was to examine – from the perspective of older service users, their carers and care managers – experiences at the operational level of arranging, delivering and receiving care services. The findings are based on data gathered in seven local authorities including reviews of case files, policy documents and face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 55 users, 37 carers and 28 care managers. There is evidence of a pronounced emphasis on procedure-based systems of care management. Potentially this has two significant consequences. First, the fostering of personal relationships may be subordinated to the organisation of short-term tasks and thereby may threaten patterns of trust and accountability. Second, the associated fragmentation of the assessment and care management process which in turn can lead to discontinuities of care for users and their carers. The paper concludes that there is still some way to go before care managers as micro-commissioners have sufficient and reliable information or available service capacity to match providers' capabilities with users' and carers' needs.

Retirement has traditionally been seen as the beginning of old age. It has been depicted as mandatory expulsion from the workforce and seen to mark the transition to a period of ill health and poverty. Such ideas and associations are however being challenged in the developed world by socio-demographic changes in retirement and old age. People in the United Kingdom as elsewhere are living longer and healthier lives, and many older people have access to non-state incomes that afford them a reasonable standard of living in retirement. There is however still concern that inequalities persist into old age. Data from two waves of the British Whitehall II study have been used to assess the relative effects of occupational grade, psychological and general health during working life, and retirement patterns or pathways on activities, attitudes to health and income in retirement. The results show that the majority of the sample reported good health, financial security and overall satisfaction with life, but with observable inequalities. Regression analyses demonstrate that pre-retirement circumstances generally had a greater effect on later life than the retirement route or pathway. Retirement no longer represents a drastic break between working and post-work life but rather, the results suggest, there are continuities between the two periods. It is concluded that the main causes of inequalities in retirement are work-based rather than in retirement itself.

While social connectedness is heralded as a key enabler of positive health and social outcomes for older people, rarely have they themselves had the opportunity to express their views about the concept. Working with a diverse group of Pacific, Māori, Asian and New Zealand European older adults, this paper explores what matters to older people when discussing social connectedness? We draw from individual, in-depth interviews with 44 older adults, and three group interviews comprising 32 older adults. Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analyses. The three themes identified were: getting out of the house, ability to connect and feelings of burden. Fundamental to social connectedness was participants’ desire to be recognised as resourceful agents able to foster relationships on the basis of mutual respect. Social connectedness was conceptualised as multi-levelled: relating to interpersonal relationships as much as neighbourhoods and wider society. Alongside these similarities we also discuss important differences. Participants preferred to socialise with people from similar cultural backgrounds where they shared taken-for-granted social customs and knowledges. This is in the context where racism, poverty and inequalities clearly impeded already minoritised participants’ sense of social connection. Key structural ways to improve social connectedness should focus on factors that enable cohesion between levels of connection, including stable neighbourhoods serviced with accessible public transport, liveable pensions and inclusivity of cultural diversity.

Government policy in Sweden, as in other developed countries, pays increasing attention as to how best to support the family carers of older people. New and innovative means of support, such as information and communication technology, are emerging. This paper explores the perceived benefits of, and barriers to, information technology as a means of supporting family carers of older people. Following a brief overview of the care-giving literature, with particular reference to the Swedish context, interview and questionnaire data collected from 34 families who took part in the Swedish ACTION project are used to explore the role of user-friendly information and communication technology to inform and enable family carers of older people to exercise choice, to care more effectively and to work in partnership with professionals. Interview data from two groups of professionals that utilised ACTION are also examined to throw light on its potential benefits for both carers and professionals. Consideration is given to the barriers to using information technology, and to identifying those carers most likely to benefit. Areas for further development are the need for practitioners' education and a wider range of programmes to address carers' diverse needs. Clearly, lessons learned from the Swedish project have wider relevance, given that new forms of support are being developed in most technically advanced countries.

This study aimed to systematically review the use of social networking sites (SNSs) from an older adult perspective (all papers had an average sample age of 65+ and samples ranged in age from 50 to 98). Characteristics of older adult SNS users, incentives and disincentives for use, and the relationship between SNS use, wellbeing and cognitive function were explored. From a systematic search, 21 papers met inclusion criteria and were subjected to a quality review. Paper quality was often low or medium, as rated by a standard quality assessment framework. Results indicated that older adult SNS users were more likely to have particular characteristics, including being female and younger. The main incentive for use was to maintain contact with family and friends. Disincentives included privacy concerns and lack of perceived usefulness. The relationship between SNS use, wellbeing and cognitive function was inconclusive. SNS use is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that needs to be understood in the context of broader communication practices, individuals’ social relationships, and individual preferences and characteristics.

Increasing longevity and the strain on state and occupational pensions have brought into question long-held assumptions about the age of retirement, and raised the prospect of a workplace populated by ageing workers. In the United Kingdom the default retirement age has gone, incremental increases in state pension age are being implemented and ageism has been added to workplace anti-discrimination laws. These changes are yet to bring about the anticipated transformation in workplace demographics, but it is coming, making it timely to ask if the workplace is ready for the ageing worker and how the extension of working life will be managed. We report findings from qualitative case studies of five large organisations located in the United Kingdom. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with employees, line managers, occupational health staff and human resources managers. Our findings reveal a high degree of uncertainty and ambivalence among workers and managers regarding the desirability and feasibility of extending working life; wide variations in how older workers are managed within workplaces; a gap between policies and practices; and evidence that while casualisation might be experienced negatively by younger workers, it may be viewed positively by financially secure older workers seeking flexibility. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges facing employers and policy makers in making the modern workplace fit for the ageing worker.

This article examines the leisure behaviour, attitudes and life satisfaction of a sample of 383 retirees aged 50 or more years in an Israeli national survey. Multivariate analyses identified four leisure-styles on the basis of the type of leisure activity engaged in, its relative sophistication, whether it was a formally-organised cultural activity, and its location (at home or outdoors). The four styles were: ‘company seekers’, ‘media consumers’, ‘culture enthusiasts’ and ‘sophisticated choosers’. The levels of participation in the four styles were associated with nine background characteristics: gender, education, income, former occupation, work status, retirement pattern, origin, residential area and health. Differences in life satisfaction were associated with leisure participation and leisure satisfaction. Two of the groups, the ‘culture enthusiasts’ and the ‘sophisticated choosers’, were relatively active, and enjoyed significantly higher levels of satisfaction in both their leisure and their lives. These findings tend to support Havighurst's ‘activity theory’. Since these two leisure-styles were followed by minorities, and most of the sample pursued the other leisure-styles, the findings imply that a large proportion of the retired population are inadequately prepared to take up ‘active leisure’. If more older people are to become engaged in active leisure, with benefits to both themselves and to society, they require more guidance and support.

A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.

This paper analyses the impact of spousal care-giving on survivors' depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, and examines the applicability of a ‘relief model’ of spousal adjustment during bereavement. We examine several aspects of the care-giving situation, including care-giver stress, care-giving demands, and type and duration of care and how these affect survivors' depressive symptomatology. The sample is drawn from two waves of the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) survey, which was conducted in the United States in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, Michigan. The first wave of data was collected from couples and the second from the surviving spouse six months after the death of the partner. We use multiple regression analysis to examine the effects of key variables on depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, controlling for various demographic characteristics and personal circumstances. The results demonstrate that the duration of care-giving is the most influential predictor of survivors' depressive symptoms six months after the death. Indeed, long-term care-givers experience greater relief than both non-caregivers and short-term care-givers, as the predicted probabilities indicate. The results lead us to emphasise that care-giving and spousal bereavement should be studied as related processes rather than distinct phenomena. Indeed, relief from a chronically stressful care situation may actually ameliorate the negative effect of spousal loss for survivors.

Previous research has shown that exchanges of support within social networks reduce the loneliness of older adults. However, there is no consistent evidence on how types of support (instrumental and emotional) and the direction of that support (giving and receiving) are related to loneliness, and whether the effects are culture-specific. The aim of this study was to investigate support exchanges and their effects on loneliness in Spain and the Netherlands. We suggest that cultural differences, such as more interdependent cultural values in Southern Europe and more independence-related values in Northern Europe, influence social realities such as the social support exchanged. In Spain relationships with family members are determined by mutual obligations; older people expect to receive instrumental support from them. However, in Northern Europe independence is highly valued and intimacy and closeness are shown primarily by confiding about personal matters. This paper examined data from two comparable surveys, one in Spain (N=646) and one in the Netherlands (N=656). Older adults in Spain provide for, and receive, high amounts of instrumental support and this proved to be a protective factor against loneliness. An alternative pattern was found in the Netherlands where respondents provided more and received more emotional support than Spanish older adults; emotional support is a protective factor in the Netherlands (but only for support received).

In the context of the prospective increase in the numbers of older adults in Europe and of conflicting findings regarding recent disability trends, the present study uses cross-sectional data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), covering the period 2004–2013, and aims at the assessment of trends in disability by sex and broad age group (50–64 and 65 and over) for the ten countries participating in all waves, based on four different measures: limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs), limitations in instrumental ADLs, mobility difficulties and the Global Activity Limitation Indicator. The analysis uses logistic regression models adjusted for age and, subsequently, also for chronic conditions. The findings indicate improvements both in mild/moderate activity restrictions and in functional limitations for several countries, especially among men and women aged 65 and over. Regarding severe disability (ADLs) there is mostly a lack of any significant trend and only a few declines. In several instances, the observed trends are linked to changes in chronic conditions; significant improvements net of chronic conditions are found mainly in Sweden but also in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy and France. Overall, the estimated trends often differentiate by country, age group and sex while they depend upon the specificities of the measures used in the analysis.

British research on the quality of life in old age has neglected the increasing ethnic diversity of the older population, and although studies of health and income inequalities have highlighted the contribution played by racism, analyses of the factors influencing the quality of life have rarely considered its effects. This paper discusses inequalities in quality of life among older people from different ethnic groups using data from a cross-sectional survey of 203 White British, Asian, Black Caribbean, Black African and Chinese people aged 55 and more years living in England and Scotland. They were interviewed face-to-face in the language of their choice using a semi-structured schedule. Consistent with the existing literature, the study found differences in health, income and social support among the ethnic groups. The paper suggests, however, that future work should examine disparities in health and income within as well as between minority ethnic groups, and that a greater appreciation is required of the way in which such disparities may be accentuated by variations in health expectations, in the distribution of income within households, and in the willingness to discuss financial difficulties. The cumulative effects of health and material disadvantage and the experience of racism have implications both for future quality of life research and for government policies that aim to raise social inclusion and reduce inequalities.

Mike Davis. Dead Cities: A Natural History. New Press, New York, 2002. 288 pp., pbk $16.95 ISBN 1 56584 844 6.

Eric Klinenberg. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2002. 320 pp., pbk $15.00 ISBN 0 226 44322 1.

Katherine S. Newman. A Different Shade of Gray: Midlife and Beyond in the Inner City. New Press, New York, 2003. 400 pp., hbk $29.95 ISBN 1 56584 615 X.

The environmental context of ageing, and issues relating to place and location in particular, has re-surfaced as a major theme within gerontology (Kendig 2003; Wahl, Schiedt and Windley 2003; Wahl and Weisman 2003). Drawing on classic studies from Rosow (1967), Rowles (1978), Lawton (1980) and others, the mission of environmental gerontology has been viewed as understanding a number of key tasks facing older adults in diverse physical and ecological settings. These include: ‘preserving as-independent-as-possible everyday life in the face of physical and mental impairments by using environmental resources outside the home environment (‘ageing in place’), initiating processes of relocation if desired or necessary, and adapting to new living environment settings (such as nursing homes or other planned housing) after relocation' (Wahl and Lang 2003: 7).

Negative stereotypes not only affect how older people feel about themselves, but also how younger people feel about old age and their prospect of growing old. The research reported in this paper has examined the negative and potentially harmful stereotypes of older people portrayed in magazine advertisements in the United States, as perceived by groups of older and young people. Q-methodology sorts of 40 advertisements with negative images of older people, along with personal interviews, were used to probe older people's and college student's feelings and attitudes about the images. The subjects were placed in four categories: ‘moralists’, ‘objectors’, ‘ageing moralists’ and ‘resentfuls’. Regardless of whether stereotypes were used, the older people liked the advertisements that showed them as being clever, vibrant and having a sense of humour. Neither the older people nor the students liked advertisements that ridiculed or poked fun at older people, or presented them as being out of touch with reality and unattractive. Both groups rated the stereotypes dealing with the real problems associated with ageing as inoffensive. The comparison of the two age groups showed a strong consensus about which images were acceptable and which offensive.