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Aging in Canada: The Challenge to Political Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

Henry J. Pratt
Henry J. Pratt
Affiliation:
Wayne State University
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Abstract

The political science discipline has been decidedly under-represented in the emergence of Canadian social gerontology over the past two decades. This is rather surprising, considering that political and governmental institutions—always a primary focus of political science attention—have played a critical role in allocating social values toward elderly persons, and that relatively large sums of public money are spent on aging programs. The discipline's relative absence in gerontological studies is explainable partly in terms of forces long at work within political science, and partly on the basis of ones external to it—all of which for some years combined to discourage work on this topic. Very recently, however, the negative influences have weakened to some degree, while new factors of a positive character have entered the picture. As a result, it is possible to offer a guardedly optimistic estimate of the potential for political science to become more involved and more committed than heretofore.

Résumé

Au cours des deux dernières décennies, la présence des sciences politiques au sein des études naissantes en gérontologie a été peu marquée au Canada. Ce phénomène a de quoi surprendre étant donné l'importance du rôle joué par les institutions politiques et gouvernementales—toujours priviliégiées par les spécialistes en sciences politiques—dans l'assignation des valeurs sociales concernant les personnes âgées, ainsi que celle des deniers publics consacrés aux programmes sur le vieillissement. La relative absence des sciences politiques en gérontologie s'explique en partie par certains facteurs internes depuis longtemps en jeu ainsi que par divers facteurs externes, facteurs dont la combinaison a eu pour effet jusqu'à maintenant de détourner l'intérêt de la question. Depuis très récemment, cependant, l'influence des facteurs négatifs s'est mise à diminuer tandis que celle des facteurs positifs commence à se faire sentir. Il est donc permis de se montrer optimiste quant à la possibilité de voir les sciences politiques s'intéresser davantage aux études gérontologiques.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 55 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1984

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