Sociology-The ageing population
- Created by: Daisymac
- Created on: 13-03-19 14:54
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- The ageing population
- What?
- 1971= 34.1 years 2013= 42.8
- Fewer young people than old people
- Age pyramids show hold older age groups are growing as a proportion of the population
- Hirsch 2005 notes that the traditional age pyramid is disappearing and being replaced with less equal sized blocks representing the different age groups
- By 2041 there will be as many 78 year olds as 5 year olds
- Due to Increasing life expectancy, declining infant mortality and declining fertility
- Effects of an ageing population
- Public sevices
- Older people consume a larger proportion of services
- Although many people remain in good health well into old age
- Ageing population =Changes to policies and provision of housing,transport or other services
- One person pensioner households
- Number of pensioners living alone has increased
- They account for 12.5% of all households
- Most are female as they lived longer than men
- Among the over 75s, there as twice as many women than men
- Feminisation of later life
- The dependency ratio
- Non-working old are an economically dependent group who need to be provided for by those of working age
- As the number of retired people increases, the dependency ratio increases
- in 2015, there were 3.2 people of working age for every one pensioner
- But the age in which people can collect their pensions is rising From 202 both will have to wait till they are 66
- Public sevices
- Ageism, modernity and post modernity
- Ageism- Unequal treatment and negative stereotyping of people on the basis of their age
- Modern society
- Many sociologists argue that ageism is the result of structured dependency
- Old largely excluded from paid work, leaving them economically dependent on their families and state
- Identity and status determined by our role in production -- Those excluded from production due to retirement have a dependent status and stigmatized identity
- Marxist perspective Phillipson 1982 argues that the old are no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive
- Means state is unwilling to support them adequately and so the family often take responsibilities of their care
- Life is structured into a fixed series of stages
- Postmodern society
- Argue that the fixed life stages has broken down
- EG. due to children dressing like adults, later marriage and early retirement
- Consumption becomes the key to our identities
- Hut 2005 argues that this means we can choose a lifestyle and identity regardless of age
- Old people= Market for range of body maintenance or rejuvenation goods and services
- Two other features of postmodern society also undermine old age as a stigmatized life stage
- The centrality of the media - Media images now portray positive aspects of their lifestyles of the elderly
- The emphasis on surface features- The body becomes a surface on which we can write identities. Anti ageing product enable the old to write different identities.
- Inequality among the old
- Pilcher 1995 argues that inequalities such as class and gender remain important
- Class- MC have better occupational pensions and greater savings from higher salaries
- Poorer old people have a shorter life expectancy and suffer more infirmity
- Gender- Women's lower earnings and career breaks as carers mean lower pensions
- Also subjected to sexist as well as ageist stereotyping
- Policy implications
- Hirsch 2005 argues that a number of important social policies will need to change to tackle the new problems posed by an ageing population
- Problem= How to finance a longer period of old age
- EG. paying more from our savings and taxes while we are working
- Housing policy may need to encourage older people to trade down into smaller accommodation to release wealth to improve their standard of living
- His view demonstrates that old age is a social construct as it defined differently in different societies
- What?
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