This paper reviews recent research on care-giver networks and the concepts and approach that they apply, with particular reference to the support networks of the primary care-givers of older people with Alzheimer's disease. It makes the case for an integrated approach to the explanation of the various combinations of formal and informal support that are found. It argues that more attention needs to be given to transformations in care-giver networks over time, and that this will require more development of both theoretical perspectives and analytical tools. The stages of a care-giver's commitment towards an elderly relative are examined, to understand the associations between changes in the ailing person's needs, the structure of the support network and the primary care-giver's roles. This approach makes useful contributions to the understanding of the development, maintenance and dissolution of supportive ties. Following the work of Pescosolido (1991), we propose an integrated perspective that combines the ‘care-giver career’ approach and the methods of ‘social network’ analysis.

‘Promoting independence’ is a central theme of recent United Kindgdom health and social care policy development but is rarely defined. Instead it is generally assumed that we know what independence means. Based on a review of the literature on independence in older age, this paper examines the terms and meanings. While the most common conceptualisation equates independence with the absence of reliance on others, for older people themselves independence is a broader concept that encompasses not only self-reliance but also self-esteem, self-determination, purpose in life, personal growth and continuity of the self. Drawing on previous work in the field of health promotion, we therefore put forward a model that takes older people's views into account and that reconceptualises independence as two intersecting dimensions representing levels of dependence and levels of independence. While dependence equates with reliance on others, independence can be seen as subjectively self-assessed lived experience. Thus it becomes possible to combine high levels of dependence with high levels of experienced or felt independence, a particularly pertinent combination for service providers. Finally we examine the ways in which independence thus conceptualised can be promoted at the individual, institutional, community and societal levels.

The recent debate in the United States' gerontological literature on ‘anti-ageing medicine’ has profound significance for the discipline of gerontology. This review article discusses three major contributions to the debate and assesses the meaning of the wider debate for gerontology. A paper by Olshansky, Hayflick and Carnes, published in the Scientific American in May 2002, aimed at a popular science readership rather than gerontologists and had an overtly campaigning purpose. Among the many responses to the paper, that by Robert H. Binstock in The Gerontologist in February 2003 places the concerns expressed by Olshansky et al. in an historical context, and draws out its significance for gerontology as a discipline. Binstock believes that the central issue is legitimacy. What characteristics distinguish scientific endeavour that seeks an understanding of the fundamental biology of human ageing from quackery and pseudo-science? Does the ‘anti-ageing movement’ have a place in legitimate science? Also reviewed is a special issue of Generations, the journal of the American Society on Aging, on ‘Anti-Aging: Are You For It Or Against It?’. Amongst other distinguished contributions, the leading moral philosopher of old age, Harry Moody, explores key issues in ‘Who's afraid of life extension?’ The debate represented by these papers is significant not only for bio-medical but also social gerontology and for our understanding of the cultural position of old age in modern society.