There is currently much debate in the United Kingdom policy and practice literature about how best to respond to the care and accommodation needs of people as they retire and grow older. Against a policy background which espouses the benefits of ‘lifetime homes and lifetime neighbourhoods’, the growth of purpose-built segregated retirement villages looks somewhat contradictory and is set to transform the housing scene. Whilst there has been considerable research into these environments in countries like the United States of America and Australia, we know comparatively little about what it is like to live in British retirement communities, how they evolve over time and whether they enhance people's lifestyle aspirations and quality of life. This paper examines these issues through the lens of ‘community’ and in the context of Denham Garden Village: a purpose-built retirement village in Buckinghamshire. Drawing on a range of qualitative data (from individual and group interviews, diaries and directives), we focus on how ‘community’ was conceptualised, experienced and understood both ‘then’ (in the early days of the village) and ‘now’ (subsequent to its redevelopment). The findings enable us to examine the extent to which ‘community’ evolves over time and raise important questions about how socially cohesive, or not, such retirement villages are.

Techniques of possession research among older people tend to accentuate their prizing of things and their use of special dispositions to achieve the protection or ‘safe passage’ of things as they transfer to a new owner. Such efforts on behalf of possessions may also be undertaken to perpetuate the self. To study the care of things and self in a wider context, we examined older people's repertoire of disposition strategies during episodes of household relocation and downsizing. We analysed the narratives of persons in 75 households in the Midwestern United States of America. People indeed told stories about the safe passage of cherished possessions – their initiative to place things, appreciation by new owners, and attempts to project the values or memory of the giver. Such accounts of special placements, however, dotted rather than dominated recollections of the move. More commonly, large quantities of items were passed via non-specific offers of possessions to others who may volunteer to take them. This allowed people to nonetheless express satisfaction that their possessions had found appreciative owners. Even though our interviews did not disclose extensive attempts at self-transmission, whole-house downsizing may affirm the self in another way: as conscientious about the care of things. Such affirmation of the present self as accomplished and responsible can be seen as a positive adaptation to the narrowing life world.

We suggest two supplements to Franco Modigliani's lifecycle model in order to explain why people who have retired from paid work choose either to start volunteering or increase the amount of time they devote to volunteer work. First, total consumption consists of both the material and immaterial products of work. While people can save their income in order to maintain an even level of material consumption, they unable to save a portion of the immaterial product. Second, at the statutory retirement age people retire only from paid work. We argue that older people substitute paid work for volunteering due to their inherent need to maintain immaterial consumption during retirement.

As the population in most developed countries continues to age, there is an increasing concern about its effect on traffic safety, resulting in calls to tighten the licensing renewal policies for mature drivers. This study examines the licensing requirements in five Canadian provinces and their respective vehicle collision rates for ageing drivers. Contrary to expectation, we find a positive correlation between the stringency of the licensing system and the mean crash rates. Therefore, increasing the mandatory testing and licensing requirements is not recommended at this time.

The study objective was to explore the views of residents and relatives concerning the physical design of extra-care housing. Five focus groups were conducted with residents in four extra-care schemes in England. One focus group was carried out with relatives of residents from a fifth scheme. Schemes were purposively sampled to represent size, type, and resident tenure. Data were analysed thematically using NVivo 8. Two over-arching themes emerged from the data: how the building supports the lifestyle and how the building design affects usability. Provision of activities and access to amenities were more restrictive for residents with disabilities. Independent living was compromised by building elements that did not take account of reduced physical ability. Other barriers to independence included poor kitchen design and problems doing laundry. Movement around the schemes was difficult and standards of space and storage provision were inadequate. The buildings were too hot, too brightly lit and poorly ventilated. Accessible external areas enabled residents to connect with the outside world. The study concluded that, while the design of extra-care housing meets the needs of residents who are relatively fit and healthy, those with physical frailties and/or cognitive impairment can find the building restrictive resulting in marginalisation. Design across the dependency spectrum is key in meeting the needs of residents. Inclusive, flexible design is required to benefit residents who are ageing in situ and have varying care needs.

Health consequences of retirement have not been included in the current public debate about increasing the age at retirement, which might be due to the fact that studies aimed at health consequences of retirement show ambiguous results. The literature indicates that various contextual characteristics might explain conflicting results. The current study examines the effect of retirement and age at retirement (55–64 years) on self-perceived health. Characteristics tested for confounding and effect modification were: demographic, health, psychological, job, and retirement characteristics. Subjects were 506 participants in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). After three years, 216 retired and 290 remained employed. Multinomial logistic regression analyses show no main effect for retirement compared to continued employment. Modal (59–60) retirees were more likely to attain excellent or good self-perceived health (less than good self-perceived health as the reference category). Early (55–58) and late (61–64) retirees were unaffected by retirement if they did not receive a disability pension. Early and late retirees who received a disability pension were less likely to attain excellent self-perceived health after retirement. Higher educated were less likely to attain excellent self-perceived health after retirement, especially at late retirement age, although health selection might explain this result. Finally, mastery possibly acts as an adjustment resource. The paper concludes with a discussion on explanations for the effect of retirement and age at retirement.

In the welfare systems of East Asian countries, the income, care and other needs of older people have traditionally been met less by state social protection measures and more by the family, supported by what might be termed the first homeownership strategy: widening access to home ownership as a physical, emotional and financial basis of family wellbeing. Recent political, economic and demographic developments, however, have undermined this model. Examining policy responses in the three most advanced East Asian economies, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but also with reference to Taiwan, the paper identifies common tendencies in the ways in which the ability to use home ownership has been strengthened. As a second strategy, home ownership has been used to reduce geographical constraints on family support, while, as a third strategy, governments have introduced mechanisms through which older people are able to realise some or all of the equity they have built up through the housing market. These mechanisms include, moving down market or even converting to a rental solution, as well as forms of reverse-mortgage products, some available through private financial institutions and some involving state-organised and state-operated devices.

The article explores the interplay between bodily and cultural ageing in the provision of clothing for older women, examining how design directors of UK clothing retailers act as cultural mediators, shaping the ways in which later years are imagined, experienced and performed at an embodied level. Based on interviews with clothing retailers with a significant involvement with the older market: Marks & Spencer, George at Asda, Jaeger, Viyella and Edinburgh Woollen Mill, it analyses the contexts in which they design, discussing: the potential of the grey market; the association of fashion and youthfulness; and the tensions between lifestyle and age in the formation of the market. It explores the ways in which they adjust the cut, colour and style of clothes to meet the requirements of older bodies and the changing cultural interpretations of these, addressing debates around the interplay of bodily and cultural ageing, and the role of consumption in the constitution of age. Reflecting both the cultural and material turns, it argues for the need to expand the social gerontology imaginary to encompass wider sources shaping the meanings of later years.

There is increasing evidence in the international literature that engagement in the arts can enhance the physical and psychological wellbeing of older people. Such engagement can increase the self-confidence and morale of older people and provide opportunities for increased social connections, leading to higher levels of social cohesion. This article is based on an evaluation of a national arts festival in Ireland called Bealtaine that celebrates creativity in older people each year during the month of May. The festival is unique in the wide range of arts-related activities it includes and the different types of organisations involved, such as local authorities, libraries, educational institutions, health and social care organisations, and voluntary bodies for older people. It includes both long-standing professionally facilitated arts programmes and one-off events at local and national levels. The evaluation used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse two major postal surveys with organisers and consumers of the festival and face-to-face interviews with older participants, artists and organisers. The findings are overwhelmingly positive in terms of the personal and social gains arising from participation in the festival. In this context, the study provides support for the provision of enhanced and sustained funding for creative programmes for older people and, more generally, for the development of an integrated policy for older people and the arts in the country.

The authors investigated generativity – the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation – as a mediator of the relationship between family business owners' age and succession in family businesses. Data came from 155 family business owners in Germany from different industries between the ages of 26 and 83 years. Results showed that age was positively related to generativity, and that generativity, in turn, positively influenced an objective measure of family succession. Generativity fully mediated the positive relationship between age and family succession. The findings suggest that generativity is an important psycho-social construct for understanding ageing, careers and succession in family business settings.

Social isolation and loneliness in older adults are growing problems. Empirical research suggests that loneliness can lead to poorer health outcomes including higher mortality rates. Befriending has been shown to decrease loneliness and depression although the exact mechanisms of action are unclear. In this study we aimed to explore experiences and identify key ‘ingredients’ of befriending through interviews conducted with 25 older adults who had used five different befriending services across England. We used Berkman's theoretical model of how individual social networks impact on health to help interpret our data and explore the mechanisms of befriending for older adults. Findings suggest that befriending offers some compensation for loss of elective relationships from older adults’ social networks, providing opportunities for emotional support and reciprocal social exchange through development of safe, confiding relationships. Good conversational skills and empathy were the foundation of successful relationships within which commonalities were then sought. Befrienders broadened befriendees’ perspectives on life (particularly among older adults in residential care). Social engagement was a powerful mechanism of action, particularly in terms of connecting people back into the community, reinforcing meaningful social roles and connecting to a past life that had often been significantly disrupted by loss. Understanding key components and mechanisms of befriending for older adults may facilitate development of more effective and theoretically sound befriending services.

Extra care housing aims to meet the housing, care and support needs of older people, while helping them to maintain their independence in their own private accommodation. In 2003, the Department of Health announced capital funding to support the development of extra care housing, and made the receipt of funding conditional on participating in an evaluative study. Drawing on information collected directly from residents in 19 schemes, this paper presents findings on the factors motivating older people to move to extra care housing, their expectations of living in this new environment, and whether these differ for residents moving to the smaller schemes or larger retirement villages. In total, 949 people responded, 456 who had moved into the smaller schemes and 493 into the villages. Of the residents who moved into the villages most (75%) had not received a care assessment prior to moving in, and had no identified care need. There was evidence that residents with care needs were influenced as much by some of the attractions of their new living environment as those without care needs who moved to the retirement villages. The most important attractions of extra care housing for the vast majority of residents were: tenancy rights, flexible onsite care and support, security offered by the scheme and accessible living arrangements. The results suggest that, overall, residents with care needs seem to move proactively when independent living was proving difficult rather than when staying put is no longer an option. A resident's level of dependency did not necessarily influence the importance attached to various push and/or pull factors. This is a more positive portrayal of residents’ reasons for moving to smaller schemes than in previous UK literature, although moves did also relate to residents’ increasing health and mobility problems. In comparison, type of tenure and availability of social/leisure facilities were more often identified as important by those without care needs in the villages. Therefore, as in other literature, the moves of village residents without care needs seemed to be planned ones mostly towards facilities and in anticipation of the need for care services in the future.

Cross-national comparisons employed welfare state classifications to explain differences in care use in the European older population. Yet these classifications do not cover all care-related societal characteristics and limit our understanding of which specific societal characteristics are most important. Using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (second wave, 2006–07), the effect of societal determinants relating to culture, welfare state context and socio-economic and demographic composition on informal and formal care use of older adults in 11 European countries was studied. Multinomial multi-level regression analyses showed that, in addition to individual determinants, societal determinants are salient for understanding care use. In countries with fewer home-based services, less residential care, more informal care support and women working full time, older adults are more likely to receive informal care only. Older adults are more likely to receive only formal home care or a combination of formal and informal care in countries with more extensive welfare state arrangements (i.e. more home-based services, higher pension generosity), whereas the odds of receiving a combination of informal and formal care are also larger in countries that specify a legal obligation to care for parents. We tentatively conclude that the incorporation of societal determinants rather than commonly used welfare state classifications results in more understanding of the societal conditions that determine older adults’ care use.

Within the growing body of interdisciplinary work on ageing, more attention is now paid to literary engagement with and representations of ageing, often in the form of literary gerontology. This field locates literature as part of the cultural discourses around ageing in our society. Pat Barker's work, already the subject of some gerontological attention, is important here, because her texts offer detailed representations of the ageing subject, and engage with the often disturbing challenges that ageing presents to self and social identity. This paper considers three of Pat Barker's novels –Another World (1999), Liza's England (1986/1996), and Union Street (1982) – within one of the central debates in ageing studies: how far we are aged by culture and where culture might meet the material. In these novels, ageing characters are clearly at the mercy of cultural constructions of age; nevertheless, the texts also insist on the centrality of the body, forcefully reminding us of the limits of cultural ageing. This paper argues that these novels explore the interplay between cultural and corporeal ageing, forcing the reader to acknowledge the complexities of, and unsettle any easy assumptions about, ageing subjectivity. In the process, this suggests that what fiction can offer to gerontology is, at least in part, an exploration of the ineluctability of ‘contradictions’ when it comes to ageing.

The active participation and autonomy of older people living in residential homes is considered to be problematic. However, in our action research project conducted in a Dutch residential care organisation we found ways to enhance residents' direct participation. This form of participation is grounded in deliberative and participatory approaches to democracy. In this article we describe how a group of seven residents (all female), calling themselves ‘The Taste Buddies’, developed a joint vision on how meals could be improved. The facilitation of this process enhanced this group's empowerment, building interpersonal trust, social identity and joint purpose. We will take the reader through this process and discuss the developments of these older women against the background of relational empowerment. We argue that resident participation as partnership with employees and managers starts with relational empowerment among residents themselves (enclave deliberation). This process is non-linear and requires time and constructive facilitation.

In debates about ageing western societies it is often assumed that many middle-aged women struggle to combine paid employment and intergenerational support, and that the subsequent stress leads them to experience an increase in depressive symptoms. Cross-sectional studies have supported this notion, but the question remains whether combining work and intergenerational support actually causes an increase in depressive symptoms. In order to fill a gap in the literature, this study examines the proportion of middle-aged women combining paid work and support to an adult child and/or parent, and the extent to which combining these roles affects women's depressive symptoms over time. For this purpose, we make use of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data set which includes longitudinal data collected on European women aged 50+. Descriptive analyses indicated that 14 per cent of middle-aged women combine the roles of employee, support provider to an adult child, and/or support provider to a parent. Results from semi-dynamic and full-dynamic regression analyses indicate that combining roles can take away some, of the positive mental health effects of fulfilling a role. These findings support the role combination stress hypothesis.

This article reports on findings from a qualitative study, undertaken in England, which explored the experiences of 21 gay men and lesbian women who care, or cared, for a person with dementia. The aim of the study was to explore this experience through the lens of a person's gay or lesbian sexuality. The paper reports two related themes that emerged from the wider study – respondents' hopes, fears and plans for the future and, specifically, the way in which their caring experiences had coloured their views and expectations of how their own health and social care needs may be met. Respondents' narratives reflect a range of pervasive anxieties about the future. First, about the possibility that they might be diagnosed with a condition such as dementia and, consequently, the myriad ways in which their sexualities and lifestyle choices may be perceived and interpreted as they themselves age and, possibly, require health and/or social care and support. In light of these concerns, respondents reflected upon the need for specialist service provision for older gay and lesbian people – an idea that was, perhaps surprisingly, not universally welcomed.

The purpose of this article is to review, contrast and synthesise several major intellectual streams that have guided theoretical development and empirical research in the area of intergenerational family support to older people: (a) normative-integrative approaches that focus on cohesion between family members based on bonds of solidarity and norms of filial obligation, and (b) transactional approaches that are primarily concerned with identifying motives for resource transfers across generational lines. We propose the concept of moral capital – defined as the stock of internalised social norms that obligate children to care for and support their older parents – the transmission of which lies at the intersection of self-interest (for parents) and altruism (for children). Using data from a multigenerational family study, we present an empirical analysis showing that a strong positive correspondence in the filial obligations of adult children and their older mothers – arguably the result of intergenerational transmission – elevated the supportive behaviour of children. We suggest that moral capital may be a useful unifying concept that bridges disciplinary and theoretical divides in the study of intergenerational transfers to elderly people by helping resolve the paradox of how self-interest and selflessness can co-exist within families.

Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 35 men and women aged 73–91, this article examines the ways in which older adults with multiple chronic conditions talk about and prepare for death and dying. While the focus of the original study did not include questions concerning the end-of-life, the majority of our participants made unprompted remarks regarding their own and others' mortality. The participants discussed the prevalence of death in their lives as it related to the passing of significant others, as well as their own eventual demise. Additionally, the men and women expressed hopes and fears about their impending death, in particular with respect to prolonged pain and suffering, institutionalisation, and a loss of mental acuity and independence. Many of our participants also described their end-of-life plans, which included making funeral arrangements, obtaining living wills, and planning their suicides. They further reported a number of barriers to their planning for death, including a lack of willingness on the part of family members to discuss their wishes as well as a scarcity of institutional resources and support. We discuss our findings in relation to the extant research concerning older adults' experiences of death and dying, as well as Glaser and Strauss' (1971) theory of status passage and Marshall's (1986) conceptualisation of authorship and the legitimation of death.