Perspectives View Of Age Inequality Flashcards
What is the accepted functionalist view of age inequality?
Disengagement theory - Cummings and Henry (1961) - the idea that the instrumental roles retire and allow the young to take their place and expressive roles pass down skills to the younger generation
What is a criticism of the functionalist view of age inequality?
It assumes equality of experience, meaning it expects us all to have the same experience of ageing (e.g health, care, responsbilities etc)
What is the overall marxist view of age inequality?
That the young and elderly are only viewed as a reserve army of labour
Link - 0 hr contracts = unstable workplace , Braverman degregation of labour
Althuser - critical of welfare for old and young as it pacifies them and legitimises the power of the R/c as they are dependant - ideological state app
Whats a criticism of Marxist views of age inequality?
Ignores the idea that elderly willingly volunteer (e.g childcare, charity shops etc) so arent passive
What is the overall Weberian view of age inequality?
Young and Elderly people have very low acess to Status, Class and Party power, especially as elderly have been forced to leave their jobs
What is a criticism of Weberian explinations for age inequality?
That a large amount of older people do have acess to their accumulated wealth - have acess to class power still
What would feminists say about gender and age inequality?
That women are unfairly disadvantaged in old age - e.g Greer found women are far poorer after divorce then men and in later life as they payed less into pension pot
What is a post-modern criticism of feminist views of age inequality?
Pilcher (1998) - claims that the blurring of lines between age groups is severe, meaning its not relevant
How does Postmodernism view age and age inequality?
Simply as the greying of society and that age inequality simply is not an issue
Link - Blaikie (1999) - consumer culture is responsible for changing stereotypes about age as they have access to spending power
Whats a criticism of post modern views of age inequality?
Its very unrealistic and idealistic , age still effects people very severly
What is the overall New Right view of age inequality?
That inequality is inevitable, e.g health declining and losing ability is natural
They believe that state pensions and the NHS have led to poor preparation from the elderly for old age
What is a criticism of the New Right view of inequality?
It is blaiming inviduals despite knowledge of circumstance (e.g poor health or poor wages)
