The Social Production of Old Age

The contradications that old age entails for a large proportion of elderly people are posed more sharply today than at any other period in Britain's modern history. In ever-increasing numbers older workers are being encouraged or forced out of the labour-market into unemployment, or what is euphemistically called 'early retirement'. Along with this trend the definition of old age itself is being altered and there is mounting pressure from all parts of the political spectrum to formally lower the retirement age for men. 1 As a result of the economic changes and policies which underpin this trend, more and more older workers are expected to survive, if they are lucky, for periods nearly equal in length of that of their working lives, in a situation of economic dependency. Thus the popular slogans which accompany retirement and early retirement policies, offering enhanced opportunities for leisure activities, are for many a cruel deception reflecting, at best, a brief prelude to long-term poverty and deprivation.