ABSTRACT

An ageing society can be viewed as one of the great indicators of success in the progress and development of human society. The main contributory factors to population ageing are often those which can be linked to social and scientific advancements: the leaps forward in combating child mortality; the increases in life expectancy derived from progress in medical science; the near universal access in the UK and other advanced nations to many, although not all, new health treatments and the increases in wealth, all be it grossly uneven increases, enjoyed by many older people (McMichael et al. 2004). Yet, there is an apparent absence of any sense of achievement or celebration of these advances by many writers and protagonists who choose to centre their theorising around the phenomenon of an ageing society.