Out of a vast set of empirical research data about the making of old-age policy (retirement, jobs, way of life) in France since 1945, a sociological interpretation is proposed of the social dynamics that have underlain the exceptional development of programmes for the early withdrawal of elderly persons from the labour force. During a long initial phase, each of the major social actors (the state, the labour unions and the employers' national organisation) attempted to impose its own version of a policy of jobs for older workers. Thereafter (1975–1977), arguments and viewpoints began [gradually] converging. Under pressure from the economy and owing to the new line-up of political forces, all actors agreed, for various reasons, on a policy of literally ‘unemploying’ older workers. The rapid expansion of this policy has plunged French old-age policy not only into a financial crisis, as these so-called ‘pre-retirement’ schemes ate up more than half the unemployment fund in 1984, but also into a crisis of legitimacy and of motivation. As a consequence of this ‘unemployment’ policy, the life-span has been socially redefined and the very meanings of old age and of retirement have been confused.

Older people, who have the major share of chronic illness, are also especially likely to encounter problems in carrying out regimens. The regimens themselves may be exhausting or complex. In addition, regimen management in the home takes place within a context characterised by personal and environmental, as well as illness related conditions. There is an interplay between this context and the illness management, giving rise often to problems of ‘overload’ and a ‘contest for control of management’. These may interfere not only with the management of regimens but have consequences for couples' personal lives and their marital relationships as well.

Policies to promote informal social care have particular importance for elderly people, since a substantial minority of them are in receipt of informal care from kin, neighbours and friends, and the majority of those living in their own homes who receive informal care are themselves elderly. Yet informal care has not had the attention it deserves, compared to care provided by statutory, commercial or organised voluntary effort. This paper focuses on neighbourhood care, drawing on the results of a five-year research programme. Three types of neighbourhood care are examined: voluntary action for neighbourhood involvement, voluntary action for informal care, and voluntary action for neighbourhood care. Neighbourhood involvement is increasingly a political matter, with local organisation tied to specific local issues. Informal care has little directly to do with local involvement. Nine-tenths of such care is provided by kin, though there is scope for greater local action. Voluntary action for neighbourhood care is encouraged particularly by pressure-group activism, self-help organisations and support for carers. Effective informal care requires a higher degree of competence and the establishment of contexts for reciprocity. Policies in this area need to provide modest financial resources, greater information exchange and support for carers.

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of old people over the age of sixty-five living in rural Wales. Particular attention is paid to those who were over eighty in 1983, compared with the 1979 over-eighties. Whilst the findings demonstrate increased inputs of statutory domiciliary support with increased dependency, such support is clearly supplementary to the role of informal services. The paper shows that despite increased levels of dependency amongst the old elderly, levels of domiciliary services have not kept pace. Rationing mechanisms appear to focus services on the over-eighty-fives so that levels of support to younger age groups are essentially reduced.

The findings of the elder abuse surveys conducted in the United States are not strictly comparable, although they may be combined to suggest a more organised approach to elder abuse research. This paper presents a model of elder abuse derived from those studies, and suggests that abuse is the predictable outcome of the interactions between and among elders' and abusers' characteristics. A list of the research hypotheses suggested by the model is presented, two forms of analysis that could be used to test them are described, and the implications of this model for scholars and practitioners are outlined.

This study analyses cohort changes in attitudes about sexual morality over the period 1972–1982. The attitudes of the older cohorts are significantly less permissive than those of the younger cohorts, but there is no evidence of a conservative shift. Further, the attitudinal stability displayed by the older cohorts might be construed as indicating rigidity or inflexibility were it not for the fact that the younger cohorts also display the same stable patterns.

Service providers are able by virtue of the nature of their work to shape how services operate and to influence who receives them. Of the many occupational groups involved in delivering care to the elderly general practitioners perform a pivotal role. While the ‘gatekeeper’ function of GPs is widely acknowledged there is little understanding of how this is actually performed or of the criteria underpinning decisions in regard to referrals and admissions. Old people display a complex of presenting conditions both physical and social with which the GP has to contend. At the same time services do not operate in isolation but interact in many subtle and not so subtle ways. To illustrate these themes the paper identifies and explores a set of considerations that appear to influence a group of GPs' use of services when referring patients to the geriatric service and admitting them to local hospital beds under their control.

This paper deals with two related issues: (1) the extent to which older persons who require some assistance in the tasks of or resources needed for daily living actually receive such assistance from informal networks; and (2) the consequences of the receipt of this assistance for the older person.

In many urban communities the fastest-growing groups of old people are those from the various minority racial and ethnic groups. This paper reviews the progress of a range of the new services, clubs and social centres which have been recently developed to meet the needs of the minorities. The services are examined in terms of their objectives, degree of specialisation (by ethnic group, gender and age) and adequacy of resources. As most of these projects have been initiated by voluntary groups and have experienced difficult development problems, the implications of this pattern of growth are assessed. In particular, reasons for the lack of sustained support from government and statutory organisations are discussed. Racial disadvantage affects all the minority groups, though different ethnic groups appear to be developing different strategies for the care of the old. However, prospects for either fully developed alternative services for the minorities or for multicultural services appear to be bleak in the forseeable future.

The ageing of Third World populations and its implications for planning in social welfare has received little attention in the literature until now. This article explores the need radically to alter Western models of care for elderly people in an African context, arguing that in situations of mass poverty and gross economic differentiation a concentration on social welfare for urban formal sector employees is inappropriate. Zimbabwe is used as a case study. The situation of the aged in Zimbabwe is analysed from existing but scanty data, and sets of policy proposals that have relevance to the national economy and to the rural, urban and commercial farming sectors are discussed.

Content analysis of wills probated in New York State between 1704 and 1799 is used to reconstruct the family relations of aged colonial Jews. The modernisation theory of ageing provides a backdrop for this beginning effort to specify variations in family life in history. In general, regardless of marital status, aged Jewish colonial testators followed a familistic inheritance pattern. Individual wills contained articulated and vindictive bequests. It is suggested that while the Jewish family was an important mechanism for maintaining cultural cohesion and identity, it was also an important support structure in adapting to the realities of a Christian colonial America that was rapidly modernising. Future work in the history of the family relations of aged individuals will have to be comparative.

In a southwest coast Newfoundland fishing village elderly outporters are accorded special licence to behave in ways considered inappropriate for younger generations. Capitalising on their status as folk heroes and heroines of traditional outport culture, older people challenge each other to redress old wrongs or actively create new issues for dispute. The entire family may reluctantly become involved in these imbroglios. This case study of a land feud between an elderly woman and man demonstrates how aggression is mediated by the structural confines of local sex roles and outport egalitarianism, which severely limit the potential of octogenarians' altercations to disrupt village life.

In this study, Israeli parent, grandparent and marital role activities after retirement were compared with the retrospective evaluation of pre-retirement period. Data collected from 310 former industrial and service workers were examined within the context of family functioning after retirement. The findings reveal either an increase in or continuity of the family role activities under study, on the part of the retiree. There was no decline in involvement in parenthood and/or marital functioning.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the difficulties elderly taxpayers experience when complying with the tax system operated in the United Kingdom. Some of these problems arise from particular characteristics of the UK system, which are difficult for taxpayers to understand. Results from the survey reported here point to disproportionately high compliance costs experienced by elderly and recently retired taxpayers. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in terms of such matters as the improved distribution of explanatory leaflets and the need for simplification and improved comprehensibility of tax and other bureaucratic literature. Throughout the paper comparisons are drawn particularly between Britain and the USA.

Most statements about the treatment and fortunes of elderly Australian Aborigines have emphasised their wisdom and sanctity and the respect and affection due to elderly relatives. Ethnographic research among the Yolngu (Murngin) of Arnhem Land suggests that the actual situation of an old person depends on an interplay of structural, situational and individual factors, including personal qualities, family support, seniority, sex, ecology and land use patterns and the effects of white colonisation and social change. Cases are presented and discussed to illustrate the variable fortunes of old Aborigines and their determinants.