ABSTRACT
This chapter moves beyond the detailed case study findings to illuminate their wider implications for the broad theoretical and policy debates and unanswered questions that formed the point of departure for the empirical investigation. It relates the case study findings to the two major theoretical perspectives on structural drivers of developing world support shifts advanced in the literature so far—on the one hand, modernization perspectives and, on the other hand, material constraints arguments. In doing so, the chapter highlights the hitherto unrecognized, complex interactions between material and normative changes that have underpinned the support shifts and, thus, offers a refinement to the existing perspectives. It then assesses the indications of the case study findings for the likely future parameters of old age material family support, and reflects on their potential implications for the choice of old age economic security policy approaches in Ghana and beyond.
