Generational conflict, consumption and the ageing welfare state in the United Kingdom

The British welfare state is over 60 years old. Those who were born, grew up and who are now growing old within its ambit are a distinctive generation. They have enjoyed healthier childhoods with better education that previous populations living in Britain. That they have done well under the welfare state is accepted, but some critics have argued that these advantages are at the expense of younger cohorts. The very success of the ‘welfare generation’ is perceived as undermining the future viability of the welfare state. Current levels of income and wealth enjoyed by older cohorts can only be sustained by cutbacks in entitlements for younger cohorts. This will leads to a growing ‘generation fracture’ over welfare policy. This paper challenges this position, arguing that both younger and older groups find themselves working out their circumstances in conditions determined more by the contingencies of the market than by social policy

Concept Forum - The third age: class, cohort or generation?

In this paper we consider some of the ways that the third age can be thought about and studied. Taking the work of Peter Laslett as our key source, we explore his 'aspirational' approach toward redefining post-working life and look at some of its limitations as both definition and explanation. There is a need for a more sociologically informed approach to the third age, and we outline three potentially important structures that might better explain it - class, birth cohort, and generation. Whilst it might seem attractive to see the third age as a class-determined status, based on the material and social advantages accruing to people who have retired from well-paid positions in society, the historical period in which the third age has emerged makes this explanation less than adequate. Equally a cohort-based explanation, locating the third age in the 'ageing' of the birth cohort known as the baby boom generation, fails fully to capture the pervasiveness and irreversibility of the cultural change that has shaped not just one but a sequence of cohorts beginning with those born in the years just before World War II. Instead, we argue for a generational framework in understanding the third age, drawing upon Mannheim rather than Marx as the more promising guide in this area

Older people as users and consumers of health care: A third age rhetoric for a fourth age reality

This paper is concerned with the emergence of consumerism as a dominant theme in the culture surrounding the organisation and provision of welfare in contemporary societies. In it we address the dilemmas produced by a consumerist discourse for older people's healthcare, dilemmas which may be seen as the conflicting representations of third age and fourth age reality. We begin by reviewing the appearance of consumerism in the recent history of the British healthcare system, relating it to the various reforms of healthcare over the last two decades and the more general development of consumerism as a cultural phenomenon of the post World War II era. The emergence of consumer culture, we argue, is both a central theme in post-modernist discourse and a key element in the political economy of the New Right. After examining criticisms of post-modernist representational politics, the limitations of consumerism and the privileged position given to choice and agency within consumerist society, we consider the relevance of such critical perspectives in judging the significance of the user/consumer movement in the lives of retired people

Finitude, choice and the right to die: age and the completed life

This paper explores the concept of the completed life outlined in recent writing in the Netherlands on euthanasia and assisted suicide and its implications for ageing studies. Central to this theme is the basic right of people to self-determine the length of their later life, linked with the subsidiary right to assistance in achieving such self-determination. Although the notion of weariness with life has a long history, the recent advocacy of a self-limited life seems shaped by the new social movements presaged upon individual rights together with what might be called a distinctly third-Age habitus, giving centre stage to autonomy over the nature and extent of a desired later life, including choice over the manner and timing of a person's ending. In exploring this concept, consideration is given to the notion of a 'right to die', 'rational suicide' and the inclusion of death as a lifestyle choice. While reservations are noted over the unequivocal good attached to such self-determination, including the limits to freedom imposed by the duty to avoid hurt to society, the article concludes by seeing the notion of a completed life as a challenge to traditional ideas about later life

More age, less growth? Secular stagnation and societal ageing

Purpose: The aim of the study is to demonstrate evidence that societal ageing and poor economic growth are linked in the advanced economies. It challenges the claim however that secular stagnation represents a serious problem for future prosperity. Design/methodology/approach: This paper critically reviews recent formulations of the secular stagnation hypothesis concerning stalled economic growth in the advanced economies and the links between demographic ageing and economic slowdown. It outlines both trends (of ageing and stalled growth) and reviews some of the key empirical studies that have sought to determine the role played by demographic change in accounting for the relative lack of growth in the advanced economies. Findings: The advanced economies are ageing and their economic growth is slowing, although a causal link between these two phenomena remains unproven. However, even if no direct causal link can be drawn between these two processes the focus upon the impact of societal ageing serves as a stimulus to re-think the nature of future growth in our increasingly ageing and unequal societies. Research limitations/implications: While the measurement of demographic trends is relatively straightforward, there are more problems in specifying the exact parameters of macroeconomic growth. This makes empirical studies in the area difficult to interpret. However studies in this area have value in widening thinking about the role of ageing and the nature of growth in the future. Practical implications: Rather than fearing the prospect of an age related slowdown in the rate of growth in the advanced economies, these developments offer opportunities to focus upon redistribution more than growth, while supporting a programme of growth with equity in the world's developing economies. Social implications: While a demographically over-determined model of the secular stagnation hypothesis is dubious, the future ageing of the advanced economies is certainly a challenge. It is also an opportunity for rethinking ideas about ageing, growth and development. Adopting such a more nuanced perspective offers a counter-narrative to the demographic catastrophising that is often evident when discussing 'societal ageing'. It also suggests the value of shifting the perspective of seeking ever increasing growth toward a greater focus upon redistribution, between and within the generations. Originality/value: There has been very little engagement with the secular stagnation hypothesis outside economics. Behind its macroeconomic formulation, however, lie assumptions about the ageing of society that can easily become examples of unwarranted demographic catastrophising. By bringing this topic to the attention of the social sciences, the paper can serve as a stimulus for rethinking both ageing and growth

Old age as a new class or an outdated social category? Objective and symbolic representations of later life

Age has become an increasingly contested form of division within contemporary society, with some writers suggesting age has become 'the new class' while others point to increasing 'ageism' in society. In exploring such competing claims, this paper examines the basis for considering age as a social class, category or group. Drawing upon Bourdieu's writings on classification and the criteria for what constitutes a social class or category and the 'objective' and 'symbolic' criteria defining it, the paper argues that the material criteria for distinguishing between 'retired' and 'working-age' households have almost disappeared. At the same time, the symbolic representation of age is no longer confined to the parameters of poverty. Shorn of its objective distinction, the symbolic representation of old age seems to have bifurcated, between a generational identity where older people are represented as an advantaged group and an aged identity still essentialised as old and weak. The dissolution of an objective material basis for framing age has taken away much of the underlying basis for a coherent symbolic categorisation of age. Later life might better be seen as a contested symbolic space, framed by the dual axes of socio-historical generation and corporeal, chronological agedness

Aging as Otherness: Revisiting Simone de Beauvoir's Old Age

Aging has been given short shrift as a topic in philosophy. The aim of this article is to redress this neglect by revisiting some of the key philosophical issues in Simone de Beauvoir's book, Old Age. In her notion of old age's unrealizability, its impossibility of fully embodying a subject position, and the role played by the other in denying such subjectivity, she draws upon the work of both Heidegger and Sartre. The dilemma she repeatedly draws attention to, of always seeming to age in ways other than as one's self, raises the question of whether any view of aging as an authentic subjectivity may be no more than, in Heidegger's words, a "chimerical undertaking."In examining how the concepts of bad faith and inauthenticity are used by Heidegger and Sartre, the article concludes that for both these writers, an authentic subject position can be maintained in later life, without ending up as the otherwise inauthentic subject of others' collective imaginary of "a good age.

A biomechanical investigation of the effects of pregnancy on spinal motion and rising to stand from a chair

During pregnancy the female body must accommodate the enlarging gravid uterus and increased mass. Therefore the maternal musculoskeletal system is required to adapt in both morphology and functional workload. After childbirth there is a rapid change in both mass and dimensions, requiring further adaptations. The objectives of the study were to investigate seated and standing upper body posture, the kinematics of seated and standing trunk motion, and the three dimensional kinematics and kinetics during rising to stand from a chair, as pregnancy progressed and in the early post-birth period. Nine maternal subjects (aged 28 to 40 years) were tested at less than 16 weeks, 24 weeks, 30 weeks, 38 weeks gestation and at 8 weeks postbirth. The subjects, fitted with 37 retroreflective markers, were filmed during upright sitting, quiet standing, and four trials each of maximum seated and standing trunk forward flexion, side to side flexion and during maximum seated axial rotation. Three trials each of constrained and free rising to stand from a height adjustable stool and with each foot placed on a forceplate were also recorded. An eight-camera motion analysis system was used to record movements of the body segments and synchronised force plate variables in three dimensions. Motion of the ankle, knee and hip joints, pelvic, thoracic and head segments and the thoracolumbar and cervicothoracic spines and shoulder joints were investigated. Twelve nulliparous subjects (aged 21 to 35 years) were used as controls to provide standard descriptive data and to investigate the consistency of the selected biomechanical variables with repeated testing. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to investigate the possibility of linear and quadratic trends showing systematic changes within the maternal group, over the four test sessions during pregnancy for each variable. Two tailed Student t-tests were used to compare the maternal postbirth variable results with the control group. There was no significant effect of pregnancy on the upper body posture during upright sitting and quiet standing. Postbirth, the pelvic segment had a smaller anterior orientation and the thoracolumbar spine was less extended, indicating a flatter spinal curve. The maternal subjects were similar to the control subjects in early pregnancy and postbirth for trunk segment motions during seated and standing forward flexion and side to side flexion and seated axial rotation. Strategies, such as increasing the width of the base of support and reducing obstruction to movements from other body parts, were used in late pregnancy in attempts to minimise the effects of increased trunk mass and circumference. For seated and standing side to side flexion, the strategies were successful and no significant decreases in range of motion were seen. For seated and standing forward flexion and seated axial rotation, motion of the thoracic segment and the thoracolumbar spine were significantly reduced, although movement of the pelvis was less affected. In early pregnancy and postbirth the kinematics and kinetics of the lower limbs and upper body segment kinematics during constrained and free rising were generally similar to the control subjects. As pregnancy progressed there were increases in mass and dimensions of body segments. The effect of increased mass was seen in increased ground reaction forces and sagittal plane lower limb joint external moments. An increased base of support width was found in association with an increased lateral ground reaction force and ankle inversion moment from each foot, which would move the body centre of mass medially. There was little change in the three dimensional kinematics of the thoracolumbar and cervicothoracic spine, although the contribution of the upper body segments differed for each rise condition. There were also few significant changes in the displacement of the ankle, knee and hip, and the angular velocity of ankle and knee joints. The maternal subjects were thus able to flex the upper body forward, raise the body and maintain stability as pregnancy progressed, regardless of whether the rise to stand was performed in a natural manner or under constrained conditions. The overall results show that, contrary to expectations as pregnancy progressed, maternal subjects minimised propulsion rather than increasing it to overcome the increased mass and possibly limited trunk flexion. A fear of postural instability may have made the subjects more cautious and as they were able to adequately flex the trunk forward, propulsion was minimised in favour of maintaining upright terminal balance

Viewing the body as an (almost) ageing thing

This paper examines the role of the body in the social and psychological study of ageing. Drawing upon the phenomenological tradition, it argues that the body occupies a halfway house between materiality and subjectivity, unsettling those social psychological and biological frameworks by which age and ageing are traditionally understood. While offering no simple resolution of this ambiguity, the paper highlights the intrinsic nature of this dilemma. After reviewing recent research and writing concerning body awareness, body ownership and body affordance, the thesis is proposed that much of what constitutes bodily ageing can be seen as a series of ‘normal abnormalities’. These result in our experience of bodily ageing pivoting uneasily between an object and a subject position. This dialectic is incapable of synthetic resolution but still, to varying degrees it preoccupies many in later life. It is rarely confronted in its full complexity, however, in ageing studies. The phenomenological tradition provides an under-utilised framework for future investigations in this field

Bearable and unbearable suffering in later life

This paper is concerned with the nature of suffering and its judged intractability and unbearability, with relevance to debates about assisted dying and the place of age in this wider debate. Framed by the idea that thoughts about death, and the experience of suffering become more common in later life, the paper addresses the assessment of suffering, the sources of suffering and the distinction between suffering experienced and suffering witnessed in the context of those older people seeking medically assisted death. While suffering can be seen to challenge human dignity, the capacity to bear suffering is widely held both by people of faith and those of none to reflect some admirable aspect of the human spirit. The distinction between what is and what is not bearable suffering is complex and contingent. It is not reducible to a split between secular and religious views, nor is it likely to be resolved through better psychometric delineation of degrees of suffering. Acknowledgement of the possibility of unbearable suffering, whatever its source, is needed however before any consensus can be achieved in how best to address it