As we approach 1992, it is likely that elderly people in Britain will increasingly compare themselves with elderly Europeans. In Britain, recent government statements suggest that, for most pensioners, old age is no longer associated with being poor. The purpose of this paper is to compare poverty among elderly people in Britain and other European Community countries. The paper draws upon data from an EC-sponsored study on ‘new poverty’ in the European Community. ‘New poverty’ is not a term commonly used in Britain to describe the changes in poverty that have occurred in the last decade. It is suggested that one of the reasons for this could be because poverty in Britain, more so than in many other EC countries, is still strongly associated with the ‘old poor’. The paper shows that elderly people in the UK are much more dependent on means-tested social assistance (income support) than elderly people in other EC countries.

The question ‘Who theorises age?’ is meant to draw attention to the everyday theorising about age and ageing engaged by ordinary men and women, which, it is argued, has striking parallels with the theoretical products of professional peers. Following a discussion of some phenomenological features of conventional theorising in the field of ageing, the process of ordinary theorising is illustrated from observational and narrative data gathered in a variety of human service institutions, home settings and small groups. Implications of the parallels for understanding the relation between ‘theory’ and ‘data’ are addressed and a programme suggested for linking ageing, gerontology, and the humanities.

This article examines the mounting pessimism of policy-makers concerning the implications of societal ageing. It is argued that underlying this pessimism are primarily macroeconomic worries about the economic ‘burden’ that older people are said to represent to the economy and, specifically, the working population. It is suggested that, in turn, these particular concerns are ideologically inspired; hence it is the public expenditure costs of pensions and health care rather than, for example, the economic costs of ageing for older people and their families, that are the chief causes of anxiety. Thus political ideology has distorted and amplified the macroeconomic consequences of population ageing in order to legitimate anti-welfare state policies.

While Britain and the US represent leading examples of this trend, there is a danger that, inspired to some extent by the leading international economic agencies, other countries will follow their lead. An unintended result of doing so may be the growth of inter-generational conflict. This concept has achieved quite wide currency in the US literature and has been influential in some policy circles. It is subjected to close scrutiny and found deficient as a basis for policy-making. In conclusion some lessons are drawn about the failure of orthodox social gerontology to counteract the pessimistic accounts emanating from economic and demographic analyses and the need for a more critical stance by the discipline.

Norwegian elderly people today are clearly more aware of public help and services compared to the late 1960s, and a growing number of them prefer public rather than family help. A study in Oslo found that a majority would turn to the public services when in need of long-term help, even when children were living close by. Children or other informal helpers were preferred over the public services only when there was a need for short-term assistance. The growing preference for public help is taken primarily as a response to increased availability of public services, and not as a reflection of weaker inter-generational solidarity.

This article explores the nature of obligation and responsibility within kin groups, focusing particularly upon how far these underscore the assistance which may be offered by children to their elderly parents. Both quantitative and qualitative data, drawn from a study of family obligations in the north-west of England, are discussed. The authors argue that relationships between parents and children are founded on a sense of obligation up to a point, but assent for this is not universal and such obligations are seen as having definite limits. To understand how obligations operate in practice, it is necessary to focus upon the way in which support for elderly parents is a matter for negotiation in families, and to examine the principles which are incorporated into such negotiations.

Despite major shifts in the position of older people in British society during the first half of the twentieth century, accounts of the emergence of retirement pensions have ignored the role of old age pressure groups, preferring arguments which emphasise structured dependency rather than human agency. By contrast, this paper examines the political campaigns mounted by two groups – one claiming to speak on behalf of older people, the other composed of older people themselves. The failure of both groups to influence major policy decisions relates not to the passivity or ‘silent suffering’ of older people, or to ‘generational equity’ criteria which privileged younger, unemployed workers, but to the inadequacies of their different styles of campaigning. While the National Conference, in the decade after 1916, focused their moral invective around notions of thrift which failed to arouse or articulate the needs of all but the most ‘respectable aged Britishers’, the uncompromising, combative approach of the National Federation during the critical years leading up to the Beveridge legislation incurred the disdain of policymakers. In the intervening years, trade union activity was underlain by mixed motives. While the historical specificity of the movements and debates that are discussed is significant, the generationally specific lifetime experiences of the older people in question to some extent determined their character.

Older people are increasing in number and proportion of the population in Latin America and, as they do, their health and social needs are becoming more apparent. This paper describes new initiatives to promote health and well-being in Costa Rica, a Latin American country which is economically poor by international standards, but which is known for its emphasis on health and human services. It draws on research to provide perspectives on health and ageing, discuss initiatives from neighbourhood to nation, and analyse prospects for the future. It emphasises health and ageing in Costa Rica, but identifies issues in terms of their wider significance.

Historically, ageing processes have often been perceived as growing constraints to a good life, but proposals for a reorganization of positive meanings also date back at least to Roman times. In order to study age-related reorganization of meaning, self-descriptive statements of 300 young and 300 elderly adults were collected with a sentence completion test. A coding scheme was used to identify age-specific meaning patterns.

In contrast to young adults, elderly people completed problem- and future-oriented sentence stems significantly more often by referring to negative aspects of their own ageing process. Nevertheless, their answers to self-referent sentence stems showed that they used significantly more positive and fewer negative or ambivalent statements about self and life. The analysis of the overall patterns of cognitions in both age groups suggested that, within the existential constraints of old age, positive meaning is created by elderly people through various cognitive-affective strategies. For instance, instead of maintaining high expectations for life realization and self-development, the elderly change their standards, becoming more self-accepting and value more highly what is already given and still available. Conclusions are drawn about life-span development and modifiability of meaning.

Data from six European regions participating in the Eleven Country Study on Health Care of the Elderly suggested that feelings of loneliness were more prevalent in areas where living alone was rarest and where community bonds were strongest. Individual variables describing life-situation did not explain the differences. The article examines loneliness as an historical and cultural phenomenon. It is argued that loneliness reflects, through complex mediations, the mutual relationship between the individual and the community and the extent to which the ideology of individualism prevails in society. In attempts to understand the differences between the study areas, the article looks more closely into the role of the community and the family in two selected areas: the industrial town Tampere in Finland and rural Greece.

A new theory of the dementing process in old age is presented in outline. Its main focus is on the dialectical interplay between neurological and social-psychological factors, with special emphasis on aspects of the latter which deprive a neurologically impaired individual of his or her personhood. The account of dementia so derived is more comprehensive and less deterministic than those which are based on the simpler versions of a ‘medical model’. Also, it opens up the way for a more personal and optimistic view of caregiving.

This paper examines the prevalence, inter-relationships and correlates of various forms of self, informal and formal care. Analyses of data drawn from a random sample of 743 non-institutionalised elderly individuals living in Winnipeg, Manitoba reveal similarities as well as differences among the three types of care. Self- and formal care are somewhat similar, being positively related and having similar correlates. Nevertheless, substitutability as a consequence of medical scepticism is also evident. Both are unrelated to informal care. It is poor health in the form of functional disability and the availability of support through the marital relationship which are the strongest correlates of informal care. In contrast, health (chronic conditions and perceived health status) as well as beliefs in the efficacy of both preventative health behaviours and medical services are among the strongest correlates of self- and formal care.

A survey of relatives, friends and others who knew the deceased in a random national sample of adult deaths in England forms the basis of this report. Comparisons of this 1987 sample are made with a similar study carried out in 1969. The sample of deaths was largely one of elderly people, and changes in the family and household compositions of these people reflect changes in the wider population of elderly people. More lived alone, or in smaller family units, and fewer sources of help during their final illness were available from relatives. Women were particularly disadvantaged, both as dependants and carers, who were then bereaved, often themselves left to live alone. The stress and the mixed feelings of carers are described. Nevertheless, a substantial minority were free of serious levels of dependency in their last year of life. Those dying of cancer formed a somewhat younger group, with shorter periods of dependency and greater availability of relatives to look after them. Many of the medical and nursing innovations in the care of the dying have focused exclusively on cancer. This study demonstrates the value of a broader perspective on death and dying that emphasises the needs of older people.

Drawing on a qualitative study of thirty-two women aged between 35 and 85, this paper links women's experiences of giving and receiving care in the informal sphere to their wider social and ideological context. While subjects subscribed to cultural assumptions about families, responsibility, gender and old age, they experienced awkwardness in translating them into their own lives. Younger women and women looking back on their middle years experienced contradiction between the cultural expectation that they be responsive to others and their wishes for self-enhancement. Older women experienced contradiction between the cultural imperative to be unburdensome and independent and their wish for security. Feelings of guilt and shame were associated with not living up to these expectations. They rendered subjects' concerns, individual failings and stifled expression of their needs. To facilitate such expression and work towards social policies that enhance women over the life course, it will be necessary to envision alternative types of supportive services and to challenge the ideological barriers to their use that the subjects of this study had so acutely internalised.

The literature on caring and carers has tended to emphasise the care of aged parents by middle-aged daughters. A recent government survey, however, has drawn attention to the fact that a substantial proportion of all carers are themselves elderly. This paper focuses on elderly carers. It shows that at least a third of elderly people can expect to become carers during retirement. Elderly carers differ from younger carers in that they: care for shorter periods; are more likely to provide intimate personal care and heavy nursing tasks associated with terminal care; and to be caring for their most significant other, usually a spouse. It is suggested that elderly carers represent a sub-group of carers with special needs not necessarily met by present service provision. Some more appropriate interventions are suggested.

‘Caring’ and ‘carers’ are words in frequent use in social policy, but their meaning is often vague and undefined, encompassing a wide range of activities and relationships. This paper discusses the meaning of caring and focuses particular attention on older carers. Secondary analysis of the 1985 Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) Informal Carers Survey data shows that of the estimated six million informal carers in Britain, the largest contribution is made by women in their early 60s, and that elderly men are more likely than younger men to be carers. The bulk of informal caring work, in terms of total time spent, is provided by co-resident carers, most of whom are a spouse or parent of the dependant. However, the largest number of those receiving help live in separate households, and these are mainly parents or parents-in-law of their carers. The emphasis on elderly people as a ‘social burden’ neglects their contribution as providers of informal care. Over a third of informal care to people over 65 is provided by elderly people. Elderly men and women provide equal amounts of co-resident care, reflecting gender equality in the care of elderly spouses. But among younger people marked gender differences are apparent in co-resident care, and in the provision of informal care to elderly people living in separate households.

This essay considers recent ethical literatures on the question of the direct killing of newborns and of the severely demented elderly. At various points, the arguments in these literatures are brought together for comparison and contrast. Finally, a constructive argument against infanticide and geronticide is developed.

Finch and Mason (1990) have recently referred to various articles, by myself and others, concerning the hierarchy of obligations among network members, in relation to decision-making about the provision of practical help to elderly people. In their fascinating and informative case study, Finch and Mason argue that this hierarchy is best viewed as a normative belief which influences negotiation within families, rather than as a way of predicting people's behaviour in practice. I would argue that the question of the relationship between ‘statistical’ norms of behaviour (i.e. what most people do), and normative beliefs (i.e. what people think is the right thing to do), is a question open to empirical investigation. Certainly, it would be a misuse of case study methodology to suggest that failure to adhere to the hierarchy in one particular instance could be advanced as proof that it did not reflect a norm of behaviour. Statistical norms are never deterministic in individual cases, but it may still be possible to predict what the majority of people will do.

Old age as a macro-issue was forcibly thrust upon the staff of the Centre for Policy on Ageing recently, when we intrepidly embarked on the first detailed and comprehensive review, statistical and critical, of old age as a worldwide theme. In embarking on such a venture we were well aware that thirty, even twenty, years ago it would scarcely have been tenable, for the touchstone of old age as some form of specific discipline or subject has barely existed for half a century in the so-called ‘developed’ societies, let alone in the vast remainder of the world. Now many countries have services, ministries, institutes or organisations devoted to the topic of old age. This may, of course, be the consequence of living in a bureaucratic epoch in which services, ministries, institutes or organisations have been devoted to practically any subject under the sun, but there must be some fire gently glowing beneath the billowing smoke.

Leisure research among the elderly has not kept pace with its significance in their lives. While the centrality of work is often discussed, a comparable role for leisure is seldom acknowledged. Through a blending of life-course and structural-level perspectives this paper discusses the need for conceptual innovation in leisure research. A broader perspective on the nature of leisure, its structure and the emerging need to address leisure as a form of consumption is advocated. Recognition of the identity-affirming nature of leisure and consumption will greatly enhance the focus of leisure research.