The Structured Dependency of the Elderly: A Creation of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century

TLDR

Societal integration of the elderly requires a deeper sociology of ageing, yet factors such as early retirement, low‑income legitimation, institutional denial of self‑determination, and passive‑oriented community services deepen dependency. The paper argues that twentieth‑century elderly dependency is socially manufactured and unnecessarily severe. The authors suggest that this manufactured dependency can be revised or at least modified.

Abstract

ABSTRACT If we are to develop better methods of integrating elderly people into society then above all we need a better sociology of the ageing and the aged. In this paper I wish to put forward the thesis that the dependency of the elderly in the twentieth century is being manufactured socially and that its severity is unnecessary. The process can therefore be revised or at least modified. Certain major influences, which will be discussed below, are steadily deepening, or widening that dependency. There is the imposition, and acceptance, of earlier retirement; the legitimation of low income; the denial of rights to self-determination in institutions; and the construction of community services for recipients assumed to be predominantly passive.