ABSTRACT
Intergenerational relations and solidarities are embedded in the labour market and, during the twentieth century, social policy has played a critical role in formalizing these relationships. Retirement emerged as a mechanism for rejuvenating the workforce and, in effect, represents a form of institutionalized generational succession. Much of the impetus behind the development of retirement was provided by the economic, medical and managerial theories of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries concerning the differences in industrial efficiency between younger and older workers (Graebner 1980). The most famous of these was F. W. Taylor’s (1947) theory of scientific management. These theories tended to portray older workers as inefficient burdens. Although such theories were subsequently discredited scientifically, they have helped to construct prejudices that still exert an influence in the labour market (see below).
