Abstract
The New Age of Ageing could be described as a Treatise of the Baby Boomer. The book takes the reader on a grand tour of the problems of the current generation of older people, arguing that many are the result of societies’ failure to be creative in responding to demographic ageing. It is organised around four core themes of individual, family, community and society as a whole, but then chapters address the predictable issues of ageing policy and practice: economic and social implications, health and social care and public perceptions of these issues. Each chapter draws on publicly available statistics and research commissioned by respected charities and think tanks such as Age UK and the International Longevity Centre. As a result, much of the evidence presented reflects the concerns of government and the age sector, rather than engaging critically with the most up to date and robust scientific questions around longevity. Few references are made to academic articles based on, for instance, the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe or the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing.
In terms of evidence, the backbone of the book is ‘more than 50 interviews with people aged 50 to 90’ (p. 9). These interviews are not used as research evidence, but rather as ‘a source of authentic voices to illustrate points of view, experiences, views and suggestions’ (p. 10). This approach resonates with early feminist texts such as Friedan (1963) where women’s lived experience was first identified as a valid form of knowledge. Towards the end of the book, the authors self-identify as ageing feminists, concluding that: ‘We were very active in that movement [feminism] and now we apply our learning about change in combating ageism’ (p. 235). It is this experiment – applying tried and tested politics to a new form of marginalisation – that makes the book so important for the activist tradition in critical social policy.
The book is unashamedly left wing, drawing on the values of the 1960s generation, the current cohort of baby boomers. It is interesting and detailed, enlivened throughout by repeated examples of how ‘older people are as diverse as the population as a whole’ (p. 5). It would be a stretch to describe the book as scholarly but it offers a useful critique of the gap between public, media and policy perceptions on ageing, vis à vis the lived experience of longevity. This fills a recognised gap between expert knowledge and public views of ageing (Börsch-Supan, 2013).
This book will have most influence amongst a general audience, but also has potential as an introductory text for activists, or anyone starting to work or volunteer for an age sector organisation. The authors are making an important contribution to public debate without claiming expertise other than their lived experience of ageing and their left wing, boomer politics. This is to be welcomed as it is a glaring omission in UK society where public debate is dominated by right wing commentators who have wholeheartedly embraced the demographic time bomb hypothesis (Willets, 2010; see also David Willets’ (2017) latest contribution).
To conclude, this book compares favourably with Gullette (2013), Friedan (1993) and work by other, older women who wish to offer the perspective of lived experience as a counterpoint to establishment and medicalised views of ageing (Applewhite, 2016). This genre is used much less frequently in the UK than in the US (Woodspring, 2016 is an exception); in this we are missing a trick. Arguments made by Lodge and colleagues reflect widely held views in critical gerontology and social policy circles, opposing what is available in the public sphere, which is dominated by medics, economists and pundits (Teitelbaum, 2015). We need more books like The New Age of Ageing in the UK and Europe. The New Age of Ageing is thoughtful translational work, which aims to fill a gap between expert knowledge and populist rhetoric. For this reason, it is to be viewed as both timely and significant.