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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Public policy and the construction of old age in Europe | | Author(s) | Alan Walker |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 40, no 3, June 2000 |
| Pages | pp 304-308 |
| Keywords | Integration [elderly] ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Isolation ; Social policy ; Europe. |
| Annotation | Public policy has played (and continues to play) a major role in determining the meaning of old age, and the extent of age integration and segregation. The author examines the European experience, specifically of the 15 Member States of the European Union (EU). Three distinct phases of post-war evolution of social policy with regard to older people are identified. First, old age as a social problem from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Second, old age as the solution to one economic problem and the cause of another, from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. Lastly, since the late 1980s, some of the mechanisms for early retirement have ended, and there has been a growing perception that old age will be a "public burden". The alternatives are active ageing and age integration in labour markets, health and social services, and the establishment of pressure groups. This is one of a series of eleven essays originally presented at sessions on age integration at both the International Sociological Association meeting in Montreal and the American Sociological Association meeting in San Francisco in 1998, and also adapted from a working paper issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in May 1999. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000717228 A |
| Classmark | F:TO: TOB: TP: TM2: 74 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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