Ageing, Independence and the Life Course. - book reviews

Age and Ageing,  March, 1994  by Eric Midwinter

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Ageing, Independence and the Life Course

Edited by S. Arber and M. Evandrou

London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 1993. 256 pp. Price [pound]16.95 (paperback).

This excellent book acts as a salutary antidote to the narrow and limited study of old age, proclaiming, as it eagerly does, a rejection of 'the ageism inherent within much social policy and writing on later life'. Rather does 'the life course approach' provide 'a dynamic framework which focuses on change and continuity'. Different academics examine this concept apropos each of several basic issues, such as health or housing, usually to good account. Sometimes this 'Our Gang' format of book-compilation becomes a bit haphazard. This, on the whole, is well-disciplined, with, for instance, a Conclusion--that comforting support of the reviewer or the student--insisted upon, and, in general, a clear-cut presentation. A final summation would have helped, for the set of essays eventually end rather in mid-air, and one or two chapters are not quite on target. Old age in Bosnia and Hercegovina is interesting, but a trifle intrusive in this context.

Perhaps the pick of the bunch is, in fact, the final contribution, which really is the salient one. Maria Evandrou and Jane Falkingham scrutinize social security over the life course, demonstrating how Richard Titmuss' 'two nations' view of retirement is even more applicable now and in the future than when he coined the term. It has long offended what I like to think of as my sense of social justice that the often fortuitous chance of teenage employment--shop assistant as opposed to civil servant, for example--has immediately determined quality of life, for good or ill, in one's nineties. It is of such well argued and factual material that this book is composed, and, as such, it deserves wide recognition. It is, of course, a learned study. The problem remains, as ever, of how to translate such truths into the political arena. One or two of the authors show a shocking, almost wilful, misinterpretation of Peter Laslett's 'Third Age' construct, dismissive of its 'middle-class manifesto' image. That is sad. The use of life stages, rather that ages, is complementary to the life course approach. By recognizing the great transitions, from early socialization to work and family-raising, and thus to the post-work phase, Peter Laslett offers a life-span agenda for social policy analysis, liberated from ageism, indeed, from sex, ethnic and other shackles. In practice, it is the best hope we have for engendering a positive approach to social and allied questions for the 21st century. It is right to urge the acceptance of a life curse convention, but, at the level of pragmatic delivery of resources and services, there will remain a need for some working components. Stages, not ages, are the key to that: however coherent the play as a whole, playwrights usually find that, for clarity, it requires some division into acts.

ERIC MIDWINTER

Visiting Professor of Education,

University of Exeter

COPYRIGHT 1994 Oxford University Press
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