The UK, like most developed economies has an ageing population. In 1901 nearly one in seven were aged 50 and over but by 1997 this had doubled to one in three (ONS 1999) a trend that will continue over the next twenty years (Scase 1999:13). Accompanying this shift has been a burgeoning debate on the roles and involvement of older people in society and the economy (Laslett 1996; Phillipson 1998). Many of the themes in this debate, however, are contradictory. For example, self-definitions and cultural constructs associated with older people often emphasise growing old as liberating.