ABSTRACT
Age is a socially constructed category. Age stratification is a characteristic of all human societies. However, not all societies use chronological age in the design of their life courses. Generational life courses, age-classed life courses, and staged life courses are major variants. Chronological age is also a social construct based on a calendar, but has major implications in the way time and age are perceived and used. In this chapter, alterations in the way age is experienced in the last half of the twentieth century is seen through changes in educational achievement, marriage and the family, and in the policies of the state in the financing of retirement and healthcare. Finally, the salience of age to identity is explored.
