Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional, holistic construct assessed from many different pers... more Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional, holistic construct assessed from many different perspectives and by many disciplines. Moreover, the concept of QoL can be applied to practically all important domains of life. Thus, QoL research has to include social, environmental, structural, and health-related aspects, and be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. This holds even more when QoL in old age is the focus because ageing itself is a multidimensional process. General QoL studies have used age for many years as a social category like gender or social class, but apart from a few exceptions (e.g. Diener and Suh, 1997; Michalos, 1986; Michalos et al., 2001) they have largely neglected older people.
This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and poli... more This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and policies towards older workers supported by the ESRC. The survey's key findings are discussed in the context of the declining labour force participation of older people over the last twenty years and the recent turnaround in official and some employer attitudes towards this group. Findings of particular importance are those relating to the sectoral differences in employers' orientations towards older workers, such as the larger proportion of those in the production and construction than in the service sectors who were using early retirement schemes and the differences in strategic responses to the ageing workforce, with the service sector leading production, construction and manufacturing; the impact of employers' perceptions of older workers' lack of appropriate skills which, when coupled with figures illustrating the lack of access of older people to both official and employer training programmes, suggests a self-fulfilling prophecy; and the surprising support given by employers for anti-age discrimination legislation. Data from the survey are also used to test the model put forward by Atkinson (1989) suggesting that employers' policies develop incrementally. The article concludes by arguing that the educative approach favoured by the government is not likely to have a significant impact on the employment prospects of older workers. Therefore this group is likely to be increasingly confined to a choice between low-skill/low-wage jobs in the service sector or non-employment.
From 1988 the Chinese Government pursued a policy of ‘small government, big society’. The policy ... more From 1988 the Chinese Government pursued a policy of ‘small government, big society’. The policy was determined at the highest level and, after a pilot study in Hainan Province, was implemented vigorously in a series of political reforms. It was the chief political dimension of the economic restructuring which led from state ownership of enterprises to the so-called socialist market. Like its economic counterpart, it reflected China's adoption of neo-liberal ideology. The aims were to encourage both civil society and the private market to provide social welfare and, thereby, to restrict demands on public expenditure. However, it failed to realise these goals and was recently replaced by a more state oriented approach. The article discusses the Chinese big society project and, specifically, examines why it was introduced, what it consisted of, its impact on social welfare, the criticisms it attracted and its recent changes in nature. The article concludes by considering some poss...
Le premier objet de cet article est d'evaluer d'une fa~on critique /'approche part... more Le premier objet de cet article est d'evaluer d'une fa~on critique /'approche particuliere adoptee par Ie gouvernement britannique envers Ie role et Ie pouvoir donne aux utilisateurs. Afin d'exposer pleinement les bases plutot superficielles de ce type de participation d'utilisateur, nous ...
Reviews government and employer policies towards older workers and shows that there has been a ma... more Reviews government and employer policies towards older workers and shows that there has been a massive decline in economic activity among older workers over the last two decades. The major cause is identified as economic recession which has encouraged employers, with the support of government, to target older workers for redundancy. In addition, older workers have been over-represented in declining
Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional, holistic construct assessed from many different pers... more Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional, holistic construct assessed from many different perspectives and by many disciplines. Moreover, the concept of QoL can be applied to practically all important domains of life. Thus, QoL research has to include social, environmental, structural, and health-related aspects, and be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. This holds even more when QoL in old age is the focus because ageing itself is a multidimensional process. General QoL studies have used age for many years as a social category like gender or social class, but apart from a few exceptions (e.g. Diener and Suh, 1997; Michalos, 1986; Michalos et al., 2001) they have largely neglected older people.
This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and poli... more This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and policies towards older workers supported by the ESRC. The survey's key findings are discussed in the context of the declining labour force participation of older people over the last twenty years and the recent turnaround in official and some employer attitudes towards this group. Findings of particular importance are those relating to the sectoral differences in employers' orientations towards older workers, such as the larger proportion of those in the production and construction than in the service sectors who were using early retirement schemes and the differences in strategic responses to the ageing workforce, with the service sector leading production, construction and manufacturing; the impact of employers' perceptions of older workers' lack of appropriate skills which, when coupled with figures illustrating the lack of access of older people to both official and employer training programmes, suggests a self-fulfilling prophecy; and the surprising support given by employers for anti-age discrimination legislation. Data from the survey are also used to test the model put forward by Atkinson (1989) suggesting that employers' policies develop incrementally. The article concludes by arguing that the educative approach favoured by the government is not likely to have a significant impact on the employment prospects of older workers. Therefore this group is likely to be increasingly confined to a choice between low-skill/low-wage jobs in the service sector or non-employment.
From 1988 the Chinese Government pursued a policy of ‘small government, big society’. The policy ... more From 1988 the Chinese Government pursued a policy of ‘small government, big society’. The policy was determined at the highest level and, after a pilot study in Hainan Province, was implemented vigorously in a series of political reforms. It was the chief political dimension of the economic restructuring which led from state ownership of enterprises to the so-called socialist market. Like its economic counterpart, it reflected China's adoption of neo-liberal ideology. The aims were to encourage both civil society and the private market to provide social welfare and, thereby, to restrict demands on public expenditure. However, it failed to realise these goals and was recently replaced by a more state oriented approach. The article discusses the Chinese big society project and, specifically, examines why it was introduced, what it consisted of, its impact on social welfare, the criticisms it attracted and its recent changes in nature. The article concludes by considering some poss...
Le premier objet de cet article est d'evaluer d'une fa~on critique /'approche part... more Le premier objet de cet article est d'evaluer d'une fa~on critique /'approche particuliere adoptee par Ie gouvernement britannique envers Ie role et Ie pouvoir donne aux utilisateurs. Afin d'exposer pleinement les bases plutot superficielles de ce type de participation d'utilisateur, nous ...
Reviews government and employer policies towards older workers and shows that there has been a ma... more Reviews government and employer policies towards older workers and shows that there has been a massive decline in economic activity among older workers over the last two decades. The major cause is identified as economic recession which has encouraged employers, with the support of government, to target older workers for redundancy. In addition, older workers have been over-represented in declining
The purpose of this article is to report the results of two Euro-pean projects which set out to f... more The purpose of this article is to report the results of two Euro-pean projects which set out to find examples of good practice in the employment of older workers in different European Union (EU) countries. The Combating Age Barriers project was the j%st European research to focus on examples of good practice in the employment of ageing workers and developed a detailed classification system. The subsequent Eurowork Age project had similar aims to the first project and employed the same methodology. Before reporting some of the findings from these projects, authors Walker and Taylor will outline the European context and define the concept of good practice.
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