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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Approaching retirement
— social divisions, welfare and exclusion | | Author(s) | Kirk Mann |
| Publisher | Policy Press, Bristol, 2002 |
| Pages | 269 pp |
| Source | Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4YN. E-mail: direct.orders@marston.co.uk |
| Keywords | Retirement ; Retirement policy ; Pensions ; Isolation ; Social welfare. |
| Annotation | We are all approaching retirement, but what should we expect? This book focuses on the meaning of retirement, and how individuals and societies may approach it in the future. The author raises issues about the balance between work, leisure and care, which involves reconciling people's expectations and desires with the costs involved. The idea of the social division of welfare (SDW) - used by Richard Titmuss in the 1950s to illustrate existence of a divisive or divided society - is explained. Two versions of political economy - ease and plenty, or immiseration and crisis - are discussed. An approach derived from consumption theorists and Laslett's notion of the "third age" is used to explore how pensions and retirement are both key to, and a product of, particular consumption sectors. The power of fund managers and other pensions experts is used as an indication of how people approach the subject of retirement pensions and associated risks with some trepidation. Patterns of early retirement in Australia, the UK, the US and Sweden are compared, and linked to discussion of the desirability of a longer working life. The concluding chapter claims that the SWD continues to provide a framework that can accommodate different approaches. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-021204004 B |
| Classmark | G3: G5: JJ: TP: TY |
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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