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The final chapter draws together the main issues and findings from the wealth of information presented in the previous chapters and reflect on what this means for researchers, social care providers and policy makers in India and elsewhere. Although each chapter makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the impact of the changing living arrangements on the care for older people in India, there are a number of common themes that connect them. The narrative that emerges across these chapters is one that challenges the assumed wisdom about the demographic, industrial and social change on older adults. The chapters in this book tell us a much more complex story about living arrangements and care for older adults in India. Rather than being a single, linear narrative it is a story about the heterogeneity of families, care and migration experiences.
India has one of the most rapidly ageing populations on the planet. There is concern that this rate of population ageing, coupled with the decline of extended families, decreasing fertility rates, increasing life expectancy, widowhood, singlehood or strained intergenerational relationships, will have a negative impact on the availability of (family-based) care for older adults in India, resulting in poorer health and well-being. However, India is a complex and diverse country made up of different states, castes, cultures, and ethnic groups. Moreover, rates of population ageing are not uniform as Indian states are at diverse levels of demographic transition and vary to a great extent in their cultural practices, social norms and socio-political contexts. Indeed, while India’s older adult population has now risen to 8.57 per cent, in states such as Goa and Kerala the percentage of older adults is as high as 11.20 per cent and 12.55 per cent respectively. This introduction provides an overview of these issues by situating the subsequent chapters within the broad demographic trends already mentioned and gives an outline of the structure and chapters of the book. This chapter introduces the need for focus on living arrangements and care and highlight the social, economic and cultural contexts that shape the provision of care for older adults in India.
This chapter discusses how psychosocial factors at work can impact on people’s health, and how such factors have been conceptualised and measured by researchers in this field. Psychosocial factors are likely to have gained in relative importance for public health, at least in industrialised welfare states. Interest in the effects of the psychosocial work environment emerged during the 1960s when studies looked at the effects of long working hours or shift work. The scope of the research has since grown to include job insecurity, job demands, control and resources, perceived fairness and organisational justice, coping, leadership practices, threats of violence, and bullying and discrimination. The chapter also introduces stress theory and provides an overview of the major models of occupational stress used to date.
This chapter discusses the consumption of health in later life. Changes in government policy suggest that people at all ages will be expected to take on more responsibility in maintaining and protecting their own health. The chapter also stresses that the emphasis on maintaining the self is a key feature of later life in the 21st century, and that this will have an impact on different sections of the healthcare industry.
This chapter is concerned with the consequence of changes to later life health and social policy. It states that health and social policies have gone through considerable transformation since the early 1980s, which is especially true with respect to later life. The chapter then charts the major changes and challenges to policy from the post-war era up to the present. The chapter also considers the implications of the rise of the citizen consumer with regard to health and social care provision.
This chapter takes a look at the evolution of the ‘third age’ in British society, and traces its growth as a concept and as a social and cultural space. It uses various demographic and historical data, and presents various typologies and periodisations of the ‘third age’. The discussion also studies the ways in which it is expressed and reproduced in different social contexts. Several terms such as ‘generation X’, ‘baby boomers’, and ‘sixties hippies’ are introduced.
This concluding chapter presents an argument that the role of the UK’s ageing population in consumer society has been relatively neglected. It emphasises that the trend to earlier retirement, as well as the relative affluence of many retired people, is an important aspect of ageing in late modern societies. The cohorts of people who are now retiring are those who participated in the creation of the post-war consumer culture. Although these consumers have grown older, they have not stopped consuming. The discussion shows that their choices and behaviour are products of the collective histories of both cohort and generation.
This chapter talks about the theoretical underpinnings of the concepts of cohorts, generation, and time, while referencing the work of Mannheim and others. The analysis that is presented in this chapter is based on large, standardised surveys of expenditure patterns. It is considered to be a necessary and important first step in the understanding of how later life is formed by and contributes to the formation of consumer society.
This chapter provides some background information for studying the extent to which consumption is now a part of later life. The discussion begins by looking at the problem of studying later life in the context of fast social change. It then charts the rise of mass consumer society in the United Kingdom and how this has related to the ideas of ‘generational change’. It uses recent developments in theories of high, late or second modernity in order to focus properly on the key areas of social change, as well as how these relate to the experiences of older people in society. The chapter also provides an overview of the next chapters and how they reflect and relate to the main theme of consumption.
This chapter uses the data from the project referenced in the previous chapter, and considers these changes in relation to the trends in inequality and their impact on consumption patterns. It reveals that one area that has been largely neglected in research on later life is that of the consumption of health and health products. However, the chapter shows that the ageing of the population has profound consequences for the healthcare industry, in terms of demand for different healthcare products, consumer behaviour and marketing strategies.
