Families in Ageing Societies
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach
Edited by
SARAH HARPER

The trends towards falling fertility and mortality, and increasing longevity,
which have led to the demographic ageing of all western industrialized societies,
have not occurred in isolation. They are part of wider social, economic,
and political trends which have impacted upon all aspects of contemporary
society. Both the factors encouraging these demographic trends and those associated
with demographic ageing are directly influencing other areas of society,
while demographic ageing per se is also influencing behaviour. Families have
not been immune from the influence of such pressures for change.
This multi-disciplinary cross-cultural collection draws on scholars from
sociology, economics, history, demography, psychology, anthropology, and
policy studies to explore the processes and interactions between contemporary
kinship and the demographic ageing of western industrialized societies. We
can broadly identify three ways in which the issue of families and of ageing are
reciprocally related, and this is reflected in the collection as a whole. Some
authors discuss the impact of demographic change upon family structures,
roles, and relationships. Others consider issues within those growing numbers
of contemporary families who comprise a large proportion of older adults.
Others focus on the particular kind of support and care required by dependent
older and younger family members, and how this may be may be affected
by both family and demographic change.