Social Divisions and Later Life: Difference, Diversity and Inequality
Chris Gilleard and Paul Higgs
Abstract
This book is concerned with the social differences, divisions and diversity of later life. We argue that later life is no longer the marginalised category it once was. Instead, it is characterised by growing differences and divisions, including the divisions associated with class, gender, ethnicity and disability (infirmity). Many of these divides in later life echo and reflect similar divisions in working life. However, age and retirement create a new set of conditions that modifies both the nature and the consequences of these divisions. Each division, we suggest, is contingent upon both pas ... More
This book is concerned with the social differences, divisions and diversity of later life. We argue that later life is no longer the marginalised category it once was. Instead, it is characterised by growing differences and divisions, including the divisions associated with class, gender, ethnicity and disability (infirmity). Many of these divides in later life echo and reflect similar divisions in working life. However, age and retirement create a new set of conditions that modifies both the nature and the consequences of these divisions. Each division, we suggest, is contingent upon both past and present influences. They are, in consequence, less sharply drawn and less clearly organised than similar divisions observed earlier in working life. Exploring these divisions and their various articulations in later life both illuminates the nature of the divisions themselves at the same time as highlighting the changing social locations that now constitute later life.
Keywords:
Later life,
Social class,
Gender,
Ethnicity,
Disability,
Intersectionality,
Social divisions
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781447338598 |
| Published to Policy Press Scholarship Online: January 2021 |
DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781447338598.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Chris Gilleard, author
University of Bath
Paul Higgs, author
University College London
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