Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:03:06.185Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Citizenship and Old Age: The End of the Road?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Paul Higgs
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University College London Medical School, Wolfson Building, Riding House Street, London W1N 8AA.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the interlinked issues of citizenship and the structured dependency of older people within Social Gerontology. It argues that implicit in much British Social Gerontology is a strategy of advancing the wellbeing of elderly people through the extension of citizenship rights. Absence of these rights leads to poverty, exclusion and ageism being commonplace experiences of large sections of the older population. This approach draws heavily on the ideas regarding social citizenship of T. H. Marshall who has influenced much mainstream social policy in Britain since 1945. Changes to the Welfare State since 1979 have seriously questioned the validity of this approach and many of these criticisms apply to the structured dependency approach. Recent work on citizenship can help us to see how the relationship between old age and citizenship has changed and how far theory in social gerontology needs to change to take account of these new circumstances.

Type
Forum
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arber, S. and Evandrou, M. 1993. Mapping the territory. In Arber, S. and Evandrou, M. (eds) Ageing, Independence and the Lifecourse. Jessica Kingsley, London.Google Scholar
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. 1991. The invisibility of age: gender and class in later life. Sociological Review 36 (1), 3347.Google Scholar
Bocock, R. 1993. Consumption. Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornat, J., Phillipson, P. and Ward, S. 1985. A Manifesto for Old Age. Pluto, London.Google Scholar
Castel, R. 1991. From Dangerousness to Risk. In Burchell, R. (ed). The Foucault Effect. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.Google Scholar
Cronin, J. 1984. Labour and Society in Britain 1918–1979. Batsford, London.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1986. New Lifestyles in Old Age? In Phillipson, C. et al. (eds) Dependency and Interdependency in Old Age – Theoretical Perspectives and Policy Alternatives. Croom Helm, Beckenham.Google Scholar
Ferris, J. 1985. Citizenship and the Crisis of the Welfare State. In Bean, P. et al. (eds), In Defence of Welfare. Tavistock, London.Google Scholar
Franklin, M. 1986. The Decline of Class Voting in Britain: Changes in the basis of Electoral Choice 1964–83. Clarendon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1979. The History of Sexuality, Vol 1. Penguin, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1991. Governmentality. In Burchell, R (ed), The Foucault Effect. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. 1986. The political economy of freedom. In Levitas, R. (ed), The Ideology of the New Right. Polity, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. 1985. The Nation-State and Violence. Polity, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 1994. Cultures of Ageing: Self, Citizenship and the Body. Paper, Division of Geriatric Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School, London.Google Scholar
Gough, I. 1984. The Crisis of the British Welfare State. International Journal of Health Services. 13, 459477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D. 1983. Reinventing Civil Society. IEA Health and Welfare Unit, London.Google Scholar
Henwood, M. 1992. Through a Glass Darkly. Community Care and Older People. Kings Fund, London.Google Scholar
Hewitt, B. 1992. Welfare, Needs and Ideology. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.Google Scholar
Kavanagh, D. 1986. Thatcherism and British Politics. OUP, Oxford.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. and Norman, W. 1994. Return of the citizen: A survey of recent work on citizenship theory. Ethics, 104, 352–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Grand, J. 1982. The Strategy of Equality. Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Leonard, P. 1982. Introduction to Phillipson, P. Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Lister, R. 1990. Women, economic dependency and citizenship, Journal of Social Policy 19 445–68.Google Scholar
Mann, M. 1987. Ruling class strategies and citizenship, Sociology, 21, 339–54.Google Scholar
Marshall, G., Newby, H., Rose, D. and Vogler, C. 1988. Social Class in Modem Britain. Hutchison, London.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. 1992. Citizenship and Social Class. Pluto, London.Google Scholar
Marx, K. 1975. Capital, Vol 1. Penguin, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Midwinter, E. 1992. Citizenship: From Ageism to Participation, The Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age. Research Paper no 8, Dunfermline.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. 1982. Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Plant, R. 1988. Citizenship, Rights and Socialism. Fabian Society Pamphlet no 531.Google Scholar
Taylor Gooby, P. 1991 a. Social Change, Social Welfare and Social Science. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor Gooby, P. 1991 b. Attachment to the welfare state. In Jowell, R. et al. (eds), British Social Attitudes – The 8th Report. Dartmouth, Basingstoke.Google Scholar
Thomson, D. 1989. The welfare state and generation conflict. In Johnson, P. et al. (eds), Workers Versus Pensioners. Manchester University Press, Manchester.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. 1974. Commitment to Welfare. George Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. 1981. The structured dependency of the elderly: A creation of social policy in the 20th century. Ageing and Society, 1, 528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. 1988. Status. Open University, Milton Keynes.Google Scholar
Turner, B. 1989. Ageing, status politics and social theory. British Journal of Sociology, 40, 588606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. 1990. Outline of a theory of citizenship. Sociology, 24, 189217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. and Phillipson, C. 1986. Introduction. In Walker, A. and Phillipson, C. (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment. Gower, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Wilson, G. 1993. Money and independence in old age. In Arber, S. and Evandrou, M. (eds), Ageing, Independence and the Lifecourse. Jessica Kingsley, London.Google Scholar