ABSTRACT
The central challenge of a political economy of ageing is to move beyond a critique of conventional gerontology, to develop an understanding of the character and significance of variations in the treatment of the aged, and to relate these to polity, economy and society in advanced capitalism (Estes et al., 1982). This requires an examination of society’s treatment of the aged in the context of the national and world economy, the role of the state, conditions of the labour market, and class, race, gender and age divisions in society. At base, this requires examination of the relationship of capitalism to ageing (Myles, 1984). It also begins with the proposition that the status and resources of the elderly, and even the experience of old age itself, are conditioned by one’s location in the social structure and the local to global economic and social factors that shape that location (Estes et al., 1982).
