This study contributes to our understanding of the ageing process by investigating whether particular psychological dispositions among older people are associated with healthy ageing. The study's objective is to further our knowledge about what constitutes ‘health’ for the ‘oldest-old’ (people aged 80 or more years) in China. It is recognised that apart from the absence of disease, good health is a subjective experience, and it is posited that self-reported health is associated with psychological disposition, or in other words, that an individual's personal attitudes, motivations, and beliefs condition their perception of health and illness. Using data from China's Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (1998 and 2000 waves), we examine whether psychological disposition in 1998 had an independent effect on self-reported health in 2000. The study is based on a stratified random sample of 4,366 people aged 80 or more years. After introducing controls for health status and socio-demographic variables, the multivariate, longitudinal results demonstrate that a robust psychological disposition was indeed associated with good short-term, self-reported health. The findings also illustrate that the effect differed by age, for the relationship was significant for octogenarians and nonagenarians but insignificant for centenarians. Data limitations prevented an empirical investigation of the processes that underlie the relationship between psychological disposition and self-reported health.

Passive monitoring technology is beginning to be reimbursed by third-party payers in the United States of America. Given the low voluntary uptake of these technologies on the market, it is important to understand the concerns and perspectives of users, former users and non-users. In this paper, the range of ways older adults relate to passive monitoring in low-income independent-living residences is presented. This includes experiences of adoption, non-adoption, discontinuation and creative ‘misuse’. The analysis of interviews reveals three key insights. First, assumptions built into the technology about how older adults live present a problem for many users who experience unwanted disruptions and threats to their behavioural autonomy. Second, resident response is varied and challenges the dominant image of residents as passive subjects of a passive monitoring system. Third, the priorities of older adults (e.g. safety, autonomy, privacy, control, contact) are more diverse and multi-faceted than those of the housing organisation staff and family members (e.g. safety, efficiency) who drive the passive monitoring intervention. The tension between needs, desires and the daily lives of older adults and the technological solutions offered to them is made visible by their active responses, including resistance to them. This exposes the active and meaningful qualities of older adults’ decisions and practices.

Retirees' encounter with time has long interested social scientists, especially the negotiation of such an open-ended status. Pursuing theoretical suggestions that daily activities anchor a narrative of self-identity, this project examined the coherence of retirees' representations of their time use. Information is drawn from interviews with 30 retirees in the Midwestern United States of America who were invited to discuss their daily lives and activities. The retirees valued time sovereignty and accounted for their time use by describing schedules of activities in some detail. Daily time was not presented as improvised but rather as structured into routines. Recurring behaviours flowed from situations and structures in which people were implicated, such as body care and living with others. Even in replies to a specific question about the preceding day, people slipped into language about what they typically do. Retirees' ready narratives about routines were also accounts of who they are not. Our findings suggest, first, that daily routines are instrumental for retirees in economising thought and behaviour. Second, the assertion of a routine is an assurance that one's life is ordered and proceeds with purpose, thus solving the task of time. Third, routines can be a means to signal conformity with ideals of active ageing.

Increasing longevity and the strain on state and occupational pensions have brought into question long-held assumptions about the age of retirement, and raised the prospect of a workplace populated by ageing workers. In the United Kingdom the default retirement age has gone, incremental increases in state pension age are being implemented and ageism has been added to workplace anti-discrimination laws. These changes are yet to bring about the anticipated transformation in workplace demographics, but it is coming, making it timely to ask if the workplace is ready for the ageing worker and how the extension of working life will be managed. We report findings from qualitative case studies of five large organisations located in the United Kingdom. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with employees, line managers, occupational health staff and human resources managers. Our findings reveal a high degree of uncertainty and ambivalence among workers and managers regarding the desirability and feasibility of extending working life; wide variations in how older workers are managed within workplaces; a gap between policies and practices; and evidence that while casualisation might be experienced negatively by younger workers, it may be viewed positively by financially secure older workers seeking flexibility. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges facing employers and policy makers in making the modern workplace fit for the ageing worker.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the association of modernisation and filial piety among adult children care-givers of elderly Arab parents in Israel, and to identify factors that mediate the association. Cross-sectional data were collected in 2006–07 through structured interviews with 250 randomly sampled Arab-Israeli adult children care-givers. Hierarchical regression was then applied to the study variables in the respondents’ scores on a culturally relevant filial piety scale. The results revealed a negative correlation between modernisation, as measured by individualistic lifestyle and level of urbanisation, and filial piety scores. The association between individualistic lifestyle and filial piety was partially mediated by perceived care-giver burden. Given the observed trends, programme and policy planners should establish more services that are uniquely suited to the needs of a changing Arab society, in order to provide culturally relevant long-term support for the family network in a period of accelerated modernisation.

Interest in co-research with older adults has grown in the past 20 years, yet few published studies have addressed why and how older people have been involved as partners in research. This article presents a systematic review of the literature, examining the aims and challenges of co-research and the ways in which older adults can be involved in research. Systematic searches covering several databases were conducted, yielding a total of 3,293 articles, with 27 papers reviewed which involved older people as co-researchers across more than one stage of the research cycle. We find that co-research with older people offers improved understandings of the issues facing older people; more inclusive and responsive policy, practice and service design; and opportunities for co-researchers to develop new skills whilst giving voice to marginalised groups of older people. The analysis highlights the different ways in which older adults can be involved across phases of research, and identifies ethical, methodological and practical challenges encountered in the process. Involving older adults as co-researchers, while labour intensive and practically challenging, holds promise as an underdeveloped resource for social gerontology, as well as older people themselves. The paper identifies four pathways for improving and extending co-research: developing diversified structures of involvement, supporting co-researchers, embedding research rigour and ensuring co-ownership of change.

While the adverse effects of HIV and AIDS on female care-givers in southern Africa have been well documented, there are too few examples of more nuanced analyses, which reflect not only adversity and challenges, but also positive responses, perspectives and experiences. By discussing findings of qualitative research conducted with nine female carers of children in South Africa's Kwazulu-Natal province, one of the world's most HIV-affected regions, this paper explores two themes, focusing mainly on older (grandmother) carers: (a) their strength and resourcefulness in responding to adversity to ensure their families' survival and (b) their leadership role in affronting HIV and related stigma within their own families. These two themes unfold through insights provided by the stories of two study participants, which are discussed in the context of the broader study findings and literature. The aim of this research is both to add to experiential data on the much-debated notion of ‘resilience’ and further challenge the stereotype of older carers or ‘rural African grandmothers’ as passive victims of a changing world, rather than key agents of change. While terms such as ‘coping strategies’ and ‘resilience’ should be used cautiously, it is important to consider carers' short-term responses to the many challenges faced, with a view to constructively informing interventions.

Mike Davis. Dead Cities: A Natural History. New Press, New York, 2002. 288 pp., pbk $16.95 ISBN 1 56584 844 6.

Eric Klinenberg. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2002. 320 pp., pbk $15.00 ISBN 0 226 44322 1.

Katherine S. Newman. A Different Shade of Gray: Midlife and Beyond in the Inner City. New Press, New York, 2003. 400 pp., hbk $29.95 ISBN 1 56584 615 X.

The environmental context of ageing, and issues relating to place and location in particular, has re-surfaced as a major theme within gerontology (Kendig 2003; Wahl, Schiedt and Windley 2003; Wahl and Weisman 2003). Drawing on classic studies from Rosow (1967), Rowles (1978), Lawton (1980) and others, the mission of environmental gerontology has been viewed as understanding a number of key tasks facing older adults in diverse physical and ecological settings. These include: ‘preserving as-independent-as-possible everyday life in the face of physical and mental impairments by using environmental resources outside the home environment (‘ageing in place’), initiating processes of relocation if desired or necessary, and adapting to new living environment settings (such as nursing homes or other planned housing) after relocation' (Wahl and Lang 2003: 7).

British research on the quality of life in old age has neglected the increasing ethnic diversity of the older population, and although studies of health and income inequalities have highlighted the contribution played by racism, analyses of the factors influencing the quality of life have rarely considered its effects. This paper discusses inequalities in quality of life among older people from different ethnic groups using data from a cross-sectional survey of 203 White British, Asian, Black Caribbean, Black African and Chinese people aged 55 and more years living in England and Scotland. They were interviewed face-to-face in the language of their choice using a semi-structured schedule. Consistent with the existing literature, the study found differences in health, income and social support among the ethnic groups. The paper suggests, however, that future work should examine disparities in health and income within as well as between minority ethnic groups, and that a greater appreciation is required of the way in which such disparities may be accentuated by variations in health expectations, in the distribution of income within households, and in the willingness to discuss financial difficulties. The cumulative effects of health and material disadvantage and the experience of racism have implications both for future quality of life research and for government policies that aim to raise social inclusion and reduce inequalities.

Negative stereotypes not only affect how older people feel about themselves, but also how younger people feel about old age and their prospect of growing old. The research reported in this paper has examined the negative and potentially harmful stereotypes of older people portrayed in magazine advertisements in the United States, as perceived by groups of older and young people. Q-methodology sorts of 40 advertisements with negative images of older people, along with personal interviews, were used to probe older people's and college student's feelings and attitudes about the images. The subjects were placed in four categories: ‘moralists’, ‘objectors’, ‘ageing moralists’ and ‘resentfuls’. Regardless of whether stereotypes were used, the older people liked the advertisements that showed them as being clever, vibrant and having a sense of humour. Neither the older people nor the students liked advertisements that ridiculed or poked fun at older people, or presented them as being out of touch with reality and unattractive. Both groups rated the stereotypes dealing with the real problems associated with ageing as inoffensive. The comparison of the two age groups showed a strong consensus about which images were acceptable and which offensive.

The provision of physical care is a sensitive matter in all cultures and is circumscribed by moral injunctions and personal preferences. Research on Western cultures has shown care networks to be narrow subsets of people's wider networks and revealed dependence to be deeply undermining of full personhood. In non-Western societies these issues have received little attention, although it is sometimes assumed that care provision and dependence are much less problematic. This paper uses longitudinal ethnographic data from two ethnic groups in rural Indonesia to compare care preferences and practices in old age and to examine the implications of care dependence. The groups manifest varying degrees of daughter preference in care and differ in the extent to which notions of shame and avoidance prohibit cross-gender intimate care and care by ‘non-blood’ relatives. Demographic and social constraints often necessitate compromises in actual care arrangements (e.g. dependence on in-laws, neighbours or paid carers), not all of which are compatible with quality care and a valued identity. We argue that by probing the norms and practices surrounding care provision in different socio-cultural settings, it becomes possible to arrive at a deeper understanding of kinship, personhood and sociality. These insights are not only of sociological interest but have implications for people's vulnerability to poor quality care in old age.

Although there is much written on the emotional labour of nursing, there is little research grounded in the experience of so-called ‘unqualified’ care assistants. This paper is drawn from an ethnographic study conducted with care assistants on three dementia care wards in one mental health trust within the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS). We describe the emotional labour carried out by care assistants in their attempts to provide personalised care for people whose cognitive degeneration renders conventional relationship-building very difficult, produces unpredictable ‘challenging behaviour’ and calls into question the notion of ‘feeling rules’. This context requires the ability to strike a balance between emotional engagement and detachment, and it is the complexities of this relationship that are the focus of this paper, arguing that a degree of detachment is a prerequisite to engagement in this context. In conclusion, we argue that the contribution of care assistants in this context needs to be better acknowledged, supported and remunerated.

Profiles of customary physical activity (CPA) and psychological wellbeing were obtained from a random community sample of 1,042 individuals aged 65 years and over. Activities were assessed with regard to their estimated minimum energy cost and/or their assumed contribution to functional capacity. The structure of CPA, and associations between activity levels, morale and mental health were then investigated. Women and men showed clear differences in the organisation of their activity patterns, and these differences were reflected in activity–affect relationships. For men, factor scores derived from the first principal component of CPA emerged as significant, though modest, predictors of well-being in regression and discriminant analyses. For women, however, activity factor scores failed significantly to predict levels of morale or mental health when medical and demographic factors were controlled. The results indicate that, among the present cohort of retired and elderly people, relationships between customary physical activity levels and psychological well-being are weak, indirect and gender-specific.

The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing is the most important United Nations (UN) document on population ageing for 20 years and sets the context for global policies on ageing for the current century. Drawing from the authors' active participation in the preparation of the draft that formed the basis of the Madrid Plan, the primary purpose of this article is to describe the two-year process of development of the Plan. Then the main features of the Plan are outlined, including the pivotal role of the society for all ages concept and its thematic foundations. The Madrid Plan is contrasted with its Vienna predecessor of 20 years earlier – the priority given to developing countries in the former is identified as one of the key differences between them. Following a brief outline of the implementation and monitoring processes for the Madrid Plan, a model is presented as a potential template for use in evaluating the impact of the Plan and, especially, its effectiveness in improving the conditions of older people's lives. It is argued that a systematic process of monitoring and evaluation is required if the Plan is not to suffer the fate of being regarded as yet another worthy ‘wish list’.

The distinct needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) residents in care homes accommodating older people have been neglected in scholarship. On the basis of a survey of 187 individuals, including service managers and direct care staff, we propose three related arguments. First, whilst employees’ attitudes generally indicate a positive disposition towards LGBT residents, this appears unmatched by the ability to recognise such individuals and knowledge of the issues and policies affecting LGBT people. Statements such as, ‘We don't have any [LGBT residents] at the moment’ and ‘I/we treat them all the same’ were common refrains in responses to open-ended questions. They suggest the working of heteronormativity which could deny sexual and identity difference. Second, failure to recognise the distinct health and social care needs of LGBT residents means that they could be subject to a uniform service, which presumes a heterosexual past and cisgender status (compliance with ascribed gender), which risks compounding inequality and invisibility. Third, LGBT residents could be obliged to depend largely on the goodwill, knowledge and reflexivity of individual staff (including people of faith) to meet care and personal needs, though such qualities were necessary but not sufficient conditions for inclusion and no substitute for collective practices (involving commitment to learn about LGBT issues) that become integral to care homes’ everyday functioning. A collective approach is key to advancing inclusion, implementation of legal rights to self-expression and securing equality through differentiated provision.

With the central players in the United Kingdom policy debate on pensions schemes and funding advocating an extension to the average working life (or, more precisely, a rise in the age of ceasing work), this paper reports the findings of qualitative interviews with men and women at or approaching state pension age that examined what motivated some people to continue to work after that age. By exploring their work histories and orientations to work, the paper shows that people from different social and occupational backgrounds not only conceive work and retirement in different ways but also have contrasting opportunities to continue in occupations after retirement age. Their attitudes and the opportunities they encounter shape the decisions they make at state pension age. Distinctions are drawn between those who articulated an identity as a ‘worker’ and those who defined themselves as ‘professionals and creatives’, and within those categories, between the employed and self-employed. The paper elucidates the tensions between individuals' normative expectations of retirement, their desire for autonomy and flexibility in later life, and the financial and occupational reality of life after state pension age. We argue that understanding the different cultural meanings of work and retirement for different types of worker has implications for the design and implementation of policies to extend working life.

The demand for residential care by older people is increasing in Beijing as a result of dramatic demographic and socio-economic transformations. Little is known about the way older people access residential care in the context of Beijing. In this research, qualitative data collected from 46 in-depth semi-structured interviews with residential care facility (RCF) managers, older residents, and their family members in six RCFs in Beijing were transcribed and analysed using the constant comparative method. The findings included the following themes: access to residential care as geographical access, information access, economic access, socio-cultural access, and the socio-managerial environment. Geographical access is influenced by location, distance, and the micro-physical environment and amenities of RCFs. Information access refers to the capability to acquire related information on available resources. Economic access is the financial affordability for the resources. Socio-cultural access is affected by individual attitudes and aggregative cultural values on ageing and care of older people. Additionally, the social-managerial environment such as reputations of RCFs, quality of services, and management mechanisms are also important to the decision-making process. All these factors influence older people and their family members’ decision-making process of which RCF to choose. The research provides a multi-perspective analysis of access to residential care and suggestions on improving the accessibility of residential care for older people in Beijing.

Research on later-life generativity has promoted a new view of older persons that, far from the traditional images of disability, dependence and frailty, recognises their capacities, and potential to continue growing, while underlining their participation and contributions to families, communities and society. The goal of this study was to carry out a scoping review on later-life generativity, the first one conducted on this topic as far as we know, to show how studies in this area have evolved, which aspects of generativity in later life have been studied, and the methodological and epistemological approaches that are dominant in this area of inquiry. Our scoping review shows that research into generativity in later life has grown steadily over the past 30 years, and particularly during the last decade. However, our results also show how such growing interest has focused on certain methodological approaches, epistemological frameworks and cultural contexts. We identify four critical gaps and leading-edge research questions that should be at the forefront of future research into generativity in later life, gaps that reflect biases in the existing literature identified in the study. These are classified as methodological, developmental, contextual and ‘dark-side’ gaps.

Social isolation and loneliness in older adults are growing problems. Empirical research suggests that loneliness can lead to poorer health outcomes including higher mortality rates. Befriending has been shown to decrease loneliness and depression although the exact mechanisms of action are unclear. In this study we aimed to explore experiences and identify key ‘ingredients’ of befriending through interviews conducted with 25 older adults who had used five different befriending services across England. We used Berkman's theoretical model of how individual social networks impact on health to help interpret our data and explore the mechanisms of befriending for older adults. Findings suggest that befriending offers some compensation for loss of elective relationships from older adults’ social networks, providing opportunities for emotional support and reciprocal social exchange through development of safe, confiding relationships. Good conversational skills and empathy were the foundation of successful relationships within which commonalities were then sought. Befrienders broadened befriendees’ perspectives on life (particularly among older adults in residential care). Social engagement was a powerful mechanism of action, particularly in terms of connecting people back into the community, reinforcing meaningful social roles and connecting to a past life that had often been significantly disrupted by loss. Understanding key components and mechanisms of befriending for older adults may facilitate development of more effective and theoretically sound befriending services.