Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8r8nv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T19:39:33.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interdependency and the Generational Compact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Malcolm L. Johnson
Malcolm L. Johnson
Affiliation:
Professor of Health and Social Policy, Director of School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Rodney Lodge, Grange Road, Bristol, BS8 4EA, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The demographic revolution has caused turmoil in public policy, leading governments to scale down their commitments to the old, more in panic than in thoughtful response. At the same time, significant changes in family patterns have placed at risk the inter-generational support older people might have expected. Together these structural shifts have stimulated a new debate about the obligations one generation has to another. This essay attempts to bring together the several discrete debates about demography, family and the generational contract. In juxtaposing gerontological evidence and discussions with those about moral order and the state of the social contract in ‘post-modern’ society; it reaffirms the need for personal and social solidarity as the foundation for trust and reciprocity between generations.

Keywords

Generational contractinterdependencysolidarityfamily reciprocitypolitical economy

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1995 , pp. 243 - 265
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achenbaum, Andrew, 1986. Aging of the first new nation: In: Pifer, A., Bronte, L. (eds) Our Ageing Society. W. W. Norton & Co., New York.Google Scholar
Arber, Sara and Ginn, Jay, 1991. Gender and Later Life: A Sociological Analysis of Resources and Constraints. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Aries, Phillipe, 1977. The Hour of Our Death, Editions du Seuil, Paris, Alfred Knopf, New York and Allen Lane, London, 1981.Google Scholar
Barker, David (ed) 1992. The European Values Study, University of Leicester, Leicester.Google Scholar
Baudrillard, J. 1983. Simulations, Semiotext, New York.Google Scholar
Bell, Daniel, 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Bell, N. W. and Vogel, E. F. (eds) 1968. A Modem Introduction to the Family. Collier, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Bengtson, Vern and Cutler, Neal, 1976. Generations and intergenerational relations. In Binstock, E. H. and Shanas, E. (eds). Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.Google Scholar
Bengtson, Vern and Mangen, David, 1988. Generations, Families and Interactions. In Mangen, D., Bengtson, V. and Landry, P. (eds). Measurement of Intergenerational Relations. Sage, Newbury Park.Google Scholar
Bengtson, Vern et al. (eds) 1988. Measurement of Intergenerational Relations. Sage, Newbury Park.Google Scholar
Bettelheim, Bruno, 1969. Children of the Dream. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Binstock, Robert H. and Post, Stephen G. (1991) (eds). Too Old for Health Care: Controversies in Medicine, Law, Economics and Ethics. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Baybrooke, David 1992. The social contract and property rights across generations. In Laslett, and Fishkin, (eds), Justice Between Age Groups & Generations. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Cain, Leonard D. 1967. Age, status and generational phenomena: The new old people in contemporary America. Gerontologist, 7, 83–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, Callahan 1987. Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Daniel, Callahan 1994. Setting Limits: a response. The Gerontologist, 34, 3, 393–398.Google Scholar
Linda, Chatters and Robert, Taylor, 1993. Intergenerational Support: the provision of assistance to parents by adult children. In Jackson, J. S., Chatters, L. M. and Taylor, R. J. (eds) Aging in Black America. Sage, Newbury Park.Google Scholar
Chen, Yung-Ping, 1993. A Three Legged Stool: A new way to fund long term care. In Institute of Medicine, Care in the Long Term: In Search of Community Security. National Academy Press, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Crystal, Stephen, 1982. America's Old Age Crisis. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Cunningham Burley, Sarah, 1985. Constructing grandparenthood—anticipating appropriate action. Sociology, 19, 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, Norman, 1988. Am I My Parents' Keeper: An Essay on Justice between the Young and the Old. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Andrew, Dilnot et al. 1994. Pensions Policy in the UK: An Economic Analysis. Institute for Fiscal Studies, London.Google Scholar
Bernard, Doray, 1981. From Taylorism to Fordism: A Rational Madness. Free Association Books, Bordas Paris, 1981; London, 1988.Google Scholar
Richard, Epstein, 1992. Justice across generations. In Laslett, and Fishkin, (eds). Justice Between Age Groups & Generations. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Carroll, Estes, 1984. Political Economy, Health and Aging. Little, Brown & Co, New York.Google Scholar
Falkingham, Jane and Victor, Christina, 1991. The Myth of the Woopie?: Incomes, the Elderly and Targeting Welfare. Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE, London.Google Scholar
Family Law Committee, 1991. Maintenance and Capital Provision on Divorce. The Law Society, London.Google Scholar
Fennell, Graham, 1990. Housing or Income: A Review of Recent Housing Research. Ageing and Society, 10 (1), 95–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finch, Janet, 1989. Family Obligations and Social Charge. Polity, London.Google Scholar
Finch, Janet and Mason, Hilary, 1992. Negotiating Family Responsibilities. Tavistock/ Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Gaullier, Xavier, 1982. Economic crisis and old age: old policies in France. Ageing and Society, 2, 165–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzàlez, N. L. 1970. Towards a definition of matrifocality. In Whitten, N. W., Szwed, J. F. (eds), Afro-american Anthropology. The Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gough, Kathleen, 1959. Is the Family Universal? The Nayor Case. In Bell, N. W. and Vogel, E. F. (eds), A Modern Introduction to the Family. Collier Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Greer, Germaine, 1970. The Female Eunuch. Paladin, London.Google Scholar
Hannerz, U. 1969. Soulside: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hills, John, 1993. The Future of Welfare. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, Michael, 1984. The Needs of Strangers. Chatto and Windus, London.Google Scholar
Jecker, Nancy and Pearlman, Robert A. 1989. Ethical constraints on rationing medical care by age. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 37, 1067–1075.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Paul and Falkingham, Jane, 1988. Intergenerational transfers and public expenditure on the elderly. Ageing and Society, 8 (2), 129–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Paul, Conrad, C. and Thomson, D. (eds) 1989. Workers v. Pensioners: Intergenerational Justice in an Ageing World. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Kohli, Martin, Rosenow, J. and Wolf, J. 1983. The social construction of ageing through work: economic structure and life world. Ageing and Society, 3, 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laing, Ronald D. and Esterson, Aaron, 1970. Sanity, Madness and the Family. Penguin, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Laslett, Peter, 1960. Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Laslett, Peter and Fishkin, James (eds) 1992. Justice Between Age Groups and Generations. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Edmund, Leach, 1968. A Runaway World. BBC Publications, London.Google Scholar
Lovibond, David, 1989. Why should we pamper the whingeing pensioners? The Daily Telegraph, 01 15.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair, 1985. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Duckworth, London, second edition.Google Scholar
Mannheim, Karl, 1952. The problem of generations. In, Kecskemeti, P. (ed), Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London (first published 1928).Google Scholar
Midwinter, Eric, 1985. The Wage of Retirement: The Case for a New Pensions Policy. Centre for Policy on Ageing, London.Google Scholar
Midwinter, Eric, 1989. Book review of Johnson, P., Conrad, C, Thomson, D. (eds), Workers v. Pensioners: Intergenerational Justice in an Ageing World. Ageing and Society, 9, 446–48.Google Scholar
Miller, David, 1989. Market, State and Community. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Miller, Jane and Glendinning, Caroline, 1989. Gender and poverty. Journal of Social Policy, 18, 3.Google Scholar
Minkler, Meredith, 1987. The politics of generational equity. Social Policy, Winter.Google Scholar
Moody, Harry R. 1991. ‘Allocation, yes; Age-based rationing, no’ in Binstock, and Post, (eds), Too Old for Health Care: Controversies in Medicine, Law, Economics & Ethics. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 180–203.Google Scholar
Moody, Harry R. 1992. Ethics in an Aging Society. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murdock, Peter, 1949. Social Structure. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Myles, John, 1981. Income inequality and status maintenance. Research in Aging, 2, 123–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nardi, Peter (ed), 1992. Men's Friendships. Sage, Newbury Park, CA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert, 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia. Basic Books, New York. (Quoted in Selbourne, 1994, p. 10.)Google Scholar
Oakley, Anne, 1974. Housewife. Martin Robertson, Oxford.Google Scholar
Parker, Hermione (ed) 1993. Citizen Income and Women. Basic Income Research Group, London.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1951. The Social System. The Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott and Bales, Robert F. 1955. Family, Socialization and Interaction Process. The Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Phillipson, Chris, 1982. Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age. Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plamenatz, John, 1963. Man and Society. Longman, London.Google Scholar
Rawls, John, 1971. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selbourne, David, 1993. The Spirit of the Age. Sinclair Stevenson, London.Google Scholar
Selbourne, David, 1994. The Principle of Duty: an Essay on the Foundation of Civic Order. Sinclair Stevenson, London.Google Scholar
Shanas, Ethel, 1962. The Health of Older People. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanas, E., Townsend, P., Wedderburn, D., Friis, H., Mihoj, P. and Stenhouwer, J. 1968. Old People in Three Industrial Societies. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Social Justice Commission, 1994. Social Justice: Strategies for National Renewal. Vintage, London.Google Scholar
Spiro, Melford E. 1968. ‘Is the Family Univeral?’. In Bell, N. W. and Vogel, E. F., Stearns, Peter, 1977. Old Age in European Society. Croom Helm, London.Google Scholar
Taylor Frederick, W. 1914. Principles of Scientific Management. Harper, New York/London.Google Scholar
Thomson, David, 1984. The decline of social welfare: falling support for the elderly since early Victorian times. Ageing and Society, 4, 451–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, David, 1988. The Welfare State and generational conflict: winners and losers. Paper presented at the Conference on Work, Retirement and Inter-generational Equity, St. John's College, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Titmuss, Richard M. 1970. The Gift Relationship: from Human Blood to Social Policy. Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Toffler, Alvin, 1971. Future Shock. Pan, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, Peter, 1957. The Family Life of Old People. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, Peter, 1981. The structured dependency of the elderly: a creation of social policy in the twentieth century. Ageing and Society, 1,1, 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Bryan S. (ed). 1990. Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Victor, Christina, 1987. Income inequality in later life. In Jefferys, Margot (ed) Growing Old in the Twentieth Century. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Vladeck, Bruce C., Miller, Nancy A. and Clauser, Stephen B. 1993. The Changing Face of Long Term Care. Health Care Financing Review, 14 (4), 5–23.Google ScholarPubMed
Walker, Alan, 1980. The social creation of poverty and dependency in old age. Journal of Social Policy, 9, 49–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Alan, 1990. The Economic burden of ageing and the prospect of intergenerational conflict. Ageing and Society, 10 (4), 377–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, Barry, 1990. The place of kinfolk in personal community networks. Marriage and Family Review, 15 (1/2), 195–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, Barry, 1992. ‘Which types of ties and networks provide what kinds of social support?’. Advances in Group Processes, 9, 207–235.Google Scholar
Wellman, Barry and Wortley, Scott, 1989. Brothers' keepers: situating kinship relations in broader networks of social support. Sociological Perspectives, 32 (3), 273–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Fiona, 1989. Feminist critiques of the welfare state. In Social Policy: A Critical Introduction. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Williams, Fiona, 1994. Social relations, welfare and the post-Fordism debate. In Burrows, & Loader, (eds) Towards a Post-Fordist Welfare State. Routledge, London, pp. 49–73.Google Scholar
Williamson, John B. and Pampel, Fred C. 1993. Paying for the Baby Boom Generation's Social Security Pensions: United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden. Journal of Aging Studies 7 (1), 41–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winslow, G.P. and Walters, J. W. (eds) 1993. Facing Limits: Ethics and Health Care for the Elderly. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar