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Sociological research on age: legacy and challenge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1999

MATILDA WHITE RILEY  and
JOHN W. RILEY
MATILDA WHITE RILEY
Affiliation:
Scientist Emeritus, National Institutes of Health, USA
JOHN W. RILEY
Affiliation:
Consulting Sociologist, USA
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Abstract

The hallmark of sociology is its emphases on first, people, secondly, structures and, thirdly, their interrelationships. Similarly, we see sociological research on age as concerned with (1) people over their life course; (2) age-related structures and institutions; and (3) the dynamic interplay between people and structures as each influences the other. Guided by our ‘aging and society paradigm’, we review the research legacy as it has focused more on (1) than on (2), and is only now concerned with understanding the interplay between them (3). Hence our challenge to future researchers is to devise strategies for understanding and analysing this interplay and its possible contributions to the ever-accumulating research legacy.

Keywords

Changing livesneglect of structureinterplay between lives and structurescohort norm formationaging and society paradigm
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1999 , pp. 123 - 132
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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