Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:37:00.846Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dependency and Old Age: Theoretical Accounts and Practical Understandings1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Tim Dant
Tim Dant
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MKy 6AA, England.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The concept of dependency is involved in two strands of the literature on old age, and is used in each with a different effect. In the literature on ‘structured dependency’ the concept is used to describe and criticise a relationship between elderly people and the state that is determined by social policy. In the literature on ‘dependency scales’ the concept is used as a basis for categorising elderly people for research, planning and service purposes. More recent commentary on the role of the concept in relation to elderly people suggests that dependency needs to be understood in a fuller way if it is to be useful in understanding the situation of elderly people in contemporary society. This paper develops the idea that dependency refers to a form of relationship characterised by an unequal distribution of power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 171 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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.)

References

NOTES

2 ‘Margaret’ was interviewed in the course of the ‘Care for Elderly People at Home’ research project being conducted by a research team from the Open University and Policy Studies Institute in collaboration with the Gloucester Health Authority. The project is looking at new approaches to the support of elderly people in their own homes.

3 Townsend, P.The structured dependency of the elderly: a creation of social policy in the twentieth century, Ageing and Society, 1, 1 (1981), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Townsend, P. ‘Ageism and social policy’, in Phillipson, and Walker, (eds), Ageing and Social Policy (Gower, Aldershot, 1986), p. 21.Google Scholar

5 Townsend, P.loc. cit. p. 18.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. p. 19.

7 Walker, A.The social creation of poverty and dependency in old age. Journal of Social Policy, 9, 1 (1980), 49–75 (p. 54).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Walker, A. Pensions and the production of poverty in old age, in Phillipson and Walker (eds), op. cit.Google Scholar

9 Walker, A.Towards a political economy of old age. Ageing and Society, 1, 1 (1981). 73–94 (P. 85).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Walker, A. ‘The social creation of poverty’, loc. cit. p. 59.Google Scholar

11 Offe, C.Contradictions of the Welfare State. Hutchinson, London, 1984 (especially pp. 88–118).Google Scholar

12 Walker, A.Disability and dependency: a challenge for the social services. Research, Policy and Planning, 1, 1 (1977), 1–7 (p. 4).Google Scholar

13 Ibid. p. 4.

14 Pattie, A. and Gilleard, C.Manual of the Clifton Assessment Procedures for the Elderly (CAPE). Hodder and Stoughton, Sevenoaks, 1979.Google Scholar

15 Wilkin, D. and Jolley, D.Mental and physical impairment in the elderly in hospital and residential care, I: Nursing Times, 74, 29 (1978), 117–120.Google Scholar

16 Abrahams, M.Beyond Three-Score Years and Ten: A First Report on a Survey of the Elderly. Age Concern, London, 1978.Google Scholar

17 Hunt, A.The Elderly at Home: A Study of People aged 65 and over Living in the Community in England in 1976. HMSO, London, 1978.Google Scholar

18 Wenger, C. ‘What do dependency measures measure? Challenging assumptions’, in Phillipson, et al. (eds), Dependency and Interdependency in Old Age (Croom Helm, London, 1986).Google Scholar

19 Challis, D. and Chesterman, J.A system of monitoring social work activity with the frail elderly. British Journal of Social Work, 15 (1985), 115–132.Google Scholar

20 Farnsworth, S.A Method for the Assessment of Dependency in Elderly Clients. Report to the Operations Management Group, Gloucestershire County Council Social Services Department, 1987.Google Scholar

21 Goldberg, E. and Connelly, N.The Effectiveness of Social Care for the Elderly. Heinemann, London, 1982 (p. 209).Google Scholar

22 Katz, S. et al. Studies in illness in the aged. The index of ADL: a standardized measure of biological and psychological function. Journal of the American Medical Association, 185 (1963), 914–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Fillenbaum, G.The Well Being of the Elderly. World Health Organization, Geneva, 1984.Google ScholarPubMed

24 Kalish, R. (ed.) The Dependencies of Old People. Occasional Papers in Gerontology 6, University of Michigan, Institute of Gerontology, 1969.Google Scholar

25 Munnichs, J. and van den Heuvel, W. (eds). Dependency or Interdependency in Old Age. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Phillipson, C. et al. (eds). Dependency and Interdependency in Old Age: Theoretical Perspectives and Policy Alternatives. Croom Helm, London, 1976.Google Scholar

27 Tobin, S. ‘Institutional dependency in the aged’, in Kalish, R. (ed.), op. cit.Google Scholar

28 Goldfarb, A. ‘The psychodynamics of dependency and the search for aid’, in Kalish R. (ed.), op. cit. p. 2.Google Scholar

29 Lipsitt, D. ‘A medical-psychological approach to dependency in the aged’, in Kalish, R. (ed.), op. cit. p. 17.Google Scholar

30 Blenker, M. ‘The normal dependencies of aging’, in Kalish, R. (ed.), op. cit.Google Scholar

31 Kalish, R. ‘Of children and grandfathers: a speculative essay on dependency’ in Kalish, R. (ed.), op. cit.Google Scholar

32 van den Heuvel, W. ‘The meaning of dependency’, in Munnichs, J. and van den Heuvel, W. (eds), op. cit.Google Scholar

33 Walker, A.Dependency and old age. Social Policy and Administration, 16, 2 (1982), 115–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Wilkin, D.Conceptual problems in dependency research. Social Science and Medicine, 24, 10 (1987), 867–873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

35 Clark, M. ‘Cultural values and dependency in later life’, in Kalish R. (ed.), op. cit.Google Scholar

36 Amann, A. and Majce, G. ‘Some remarks on the concepts of need and health and their treatment in gerontological research’, in Munnichs J. and van den Heuvel W. (eds), op. cit.Google Scholar

37 Sixsmith, A. ‘Independence and home in later life’, in Phillipson, C. et al. (eds), op. cit. p. 343.Google Scholar

38 Fennell, G. ‘Structured dependency revisited’, in Phillipson, C. et al. (eds), op. cit. p. 66.Google Scholar

39 Wilkin, D.op. cit. p. 879.Google Scholar

40 Quereshi, H. ‘Responses to dependency: reciprocity, affect and power in family relationships’, in Phillipson, C. et al. (eds), op. cit. p. 167.Google Scholar

41 Lukes, S.Power: a Radical View. Macmillan Press, London, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 For a more detailed review of the concept of power see Dant, T. ‘Knowledge, Ideology, Discourse: Towards a recovery of the sociology of knowledge’, D. Phil, thesis, University of York, 1985, pp. 139–142.Google Scholar

43 Foucault, M.The History of Sexuality. Allen Lane, London, 1979.Google Scholar