age inequality Flashcards
Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow younger generations to take control of the family- Parsons
Old people need to disengage from central role in the family to allow space for children to raise their own families, control the household etc
Therefore Older people lose their value and roles
Age inequality for the elderly has to occur to allow younger generations to be productive at work - Cumming and Henry
This process of ‘social disengagement’ allows the younger population to take their place in the labour market with minimum disruption. This is essential as young people need to be productive and are perhaps more productive than the older generation. ‘Ageing is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement, resulting in decreased interaction between the ageing person and others in the social system he belongs to
Age inequality for the young has to occur to allow the young to cope with the challenges of adult life - Eisenstadt
saw adolescence as stage for developing independence + argued youths need to go from ascribed status of a child to achieved status of individual adult
argued this can be emotionally stressful + youths face element of inequality due to multi tasking
suggests youth culture inherently binding as having shared interests with other young people help get through the struggles
Age inequalities are the result of anomie - Durkheim
conducted study on suicide across EU 1987 -one of 4 categories was anomic suicide
anomic suicide = people not knowing where they fit into society, lives in constant state of disappointment
RCPH found suicide is leading cause in death of children and youth - due to younger + old people no longer knowing their role in society, feel tendencies to remove themselves from social life
