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a Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Correspondence: Peter Uhlenberg, PhD, University of North Carolina, CB#3210, Department of Sociology, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. E-mail: peter_uhlenberg{at}unc.edu.
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Abstract |
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One cannot imagine as a practical matter a completely age-differentiated society in which individuals exclusively live with and interact with others who are similar in age. The dependency of infants and children on more mature persons for care and nurture makes extreme segregation by age impossible, and kinship ties generally operate to link persons of different ages. By contrast, it is equally unlikely that any society would be completely age integrated, with the ages of those who live together and interact with each other being randomly distributed. Observing the age composition of members of schools, work organizations, sports teams, and nursing homes convinces one that pervasive age segregation occurs in at least some segments of contemporary society. Rather than thinking of age integration as a dichotomy (integrated vs differentiated), it is more useful to think of age integration as a continuum. Some societies may be more age integrated than others. Degree of age integration may increase or decrease in a society over time. Some structures within a society may be more age integrated than others. And some individuals may experience more age-integrated lives than others.
Before proceeding to discuss how we might delineate the study of age integration, two preliminary questions must be addressed. First, what is meant by "age integration"? Although "integration" and "differentiation" (or "segregation") are common terms, it is important to make clear what we have in mind when we use these terms. Second, why is age integration an interesting and important area for study? To be sure, the consequences of age integration are not well understood at this time, suggesting that this is a priority area for research. Nevertheless, we do know enough to indicate reasons why this topic merits attention. After considering these two questions, this introduction explores some of the issues that arise when one begins to study special aspects of age integration and differentiation, thus setting the stage for the widely varied essays that follow.
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Meaning of Age Integration |
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As emphasized by Matilda and John Riley in the next essay, "Conceptual and Historical Background," however, the absence of structural age barriers is only one component of age integration. The other component concerns interactions among persons of different ages. Again, an analogy to racial integration is useful in clarifying what is meant by this aspect of age integration. Removing or reducing racial barriers to entering neighborhoods, schools, and other structures may have provided opportunities for increased integration, although in fact many individuals have little or no interaction with members of other races. When an individual's interactions largely occur within one racial group, it is clear that he/she is not fully integrated. And when most individuals have limited interactions with members of differing racial groups, the society remains divided along racial lines. In thinking about age integration, therefore, questions should be asked about the distribution of interactions across age strata. A strong propensity for individuals to interact exclusively with age peers would indicate age segregation. It is only when they interact with others who differ in age that age integration occurs.
The two components of age integration, absence of structural age barriers and presence of cross-age interactions, are often related. For example, one can imagine that age barriers would limit opportunities for cross-age interaction, and that significant interactions across age strata would reduce support for age barriers. Nevertheless, it is useful to make a distinction between these two aspects of age integration and to consider how each functions from the perspective of individuals, social organizations, and societies. Individuals may differ in the extent to which they encounter structural age barriers, and may differ in frequency of interacting with persons of different ages. Organizations may differ in the extent to which they use age as a criterion for membership or participation, and may differ in the extent to which their memberships are age heterogeneous. Societies may differ in how prevalent various types of age barriers are, and may differ in how frequently persons of different ages interact with each other.
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Significance of Age Integration |
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Potentially significant ways in which age integration may affect individuals or society include the following:
Life Course Flexibility
Martin Kohli 1988
has called attention to increases over the past century in the "chronologization" of life—the use of age to determine what activities individuals will engage in. In a variety of ways the state, work organizations, and schools seized upon age as a criterion for determining who was entitled to and who was disqualified from participating in particular activities or programs. Age barriers thus produced a standard life course that is separated into three boxes: education for young people, work for adults who are not old, and leisure for the old. A number of researchers have called attention to negative consequences of this rigid life course organization, which identifies particular activities with particular life stages. Matilda White Riley and others (Riley, Foner, and Riley 1999), have proposed an alternative model that would allow learning and work and leisure to be integrated in the lives of individuals throughout the entire life course. A crucial requirement for developing this more flexible approach to life course organization is age integration—removing or reducing age barriers that restrict access to various structures.
Extent of Ageism
Most persons find it easy to produce a substantial list of word associations for the terms "adolescent" or "old person." These associations tend to be negative and reflect widespread age stereotypes. Ageism might be expected to flourish in an environment where significant cross-age interactions are uncommon. In contrast, we might expect that when individuals of diverse ages interact and work together (age integration), age stereotypes and prejudices are reduced.
Productive Aging
Although the general theory of social "disengagement" is flawed and has been abandoned by social gerontologists, concerns over the issue of productive aging persist. In fact, there is widespread disengagement from productive activities (work, volunteering, and caregiving) by older persons in contemporary society. Removing age barriers that limit the participation of older persons in work and volunteer organizations could increase the contributions to societal welfare by those in later life (Uhlenberg 1996). But the potential of age integration to increase productive engagement in the society need not apply only to older persons. Increasing the integration between adolescents and younger children and older persons might increase opportunities for adolescents to be productive members of the society.
Civility
Many important discussions of intergenerational equity raise the prospect that the population could be divided into competing groups based on age. On the one hand, conflict across age groups could develop if age is perceived as unfairly used by the government as a criterion for the redistribution of resources. One example of an age group that might possibly abuse its power is the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), among the largest voluntary organizations in the country. Further, the absence of friendships and collaboration among persons of different ages tends to reduce the feelings of common purpose and unity among members of the society. On the other hand, reducing age barriers and increasing cross-age interactions—age integration—may be an effective way of reducing fragmentation and thus promoting a more civil society. A remarkable effort to reduce age barriers is Generations United, which began in 1986 when the National Council on Aging joined forces with the Child Welfare League of America. This overarching movement now includes more than 100 national organizations seeking mutually supportive agendas (Generations, Winter 1998–99, p. 14).
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Social Settings for Age Integration |
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Households and Neighborhoods
The environment within which individuals live shapes how they develop and influences the resources and opportunities available to them. These living conditions can be examined at two levels. First, who are the others, if any, who share the living space? For example, do older persons live with children or older persons in the household? Are young children growing up with adolescent siblings or grandparents living in their families? For those outside of households, how age homogeneous is the living space (dormitory, nursing home, prison, etc.)?
Second, what is the age composition of the population in the neighborhood? The importance of neighborhood age composition is, of course, something to be examined rather than assumed. But the range of possibilities is large. Some neighborhoods are highly age segregated, either intentionally (as in retirement communities or college housing), or because other forces lead to indirect differentiation (e.g., apartment complexes designed to attract young professionals without children, rural communities where most young people have moved out, or public housing intended for families with children). Other neighborhoods may have fairly equal representation of all ages, or may have more or less skewed age distributions.
Work
A great deal has been written on age barriers affecting work opportunities. Work options for young people obviously are restricted by child labor laws, and apprenticeships as a mechanism for integrating younger and older workers are no longer common in the United States. Although generally illegal, age discrimination also operates to limit the work options of older persons. Equally important, pension incentives and normative pressures encourage older persons to exit the workforce. Thus, issues of age integration in work structures are especially relevant for persons at both ends of the age spectrum. One important debate that needs to be informed by research concerns employment of adolescents. What are the implications of young people being involved in work, and how do consequences of employment differ by type of work and supervisory experience? For older persons, research needs to continue to examine the forces that influence labor force participation and to explore ways to expand opportunities and incentives for working.
In addition to age discrimination, research on age integration might examine work as an opportunity for cross-age interactions. How and why does age composition differ across various occupations and work sites? Does working in an age-integrated environment tend to reduce stereotypes and prejudices based on age and promote cross-age friendships? In what situations does conflict develop between older and younger workers (e.g., over questions of seniority and privilege)? How common are mentoring relationships where older workers help younger colleagues to develop skills and confidence?
Education
Probably nowhere in the society is age grading so obvious as in many current school systems in the United States. Starting around age 5, children are grouped together with others of the same age, and those who are "normal" are expected to march through grades together. Research is needed to examine the forces that maintain this system and whether there is merit in more age-integrated approaches to educating children. For example, what opportunities for learning are created by having children of different ages help each other? Increasing age integration in recent decades has been reported for colleges and universities, including graduate schools and professional schools. But we need to know more about age barriers that still exist and the experiences of nontraditional students, both when they are in school and after they leave.
If the division of the life course into three boxes is to be replaced with a less age-restrictive model, education must become increasingly accessible to middle-aged and older persons. Without lifelong learning, it is inevitable that persons in a rapidly changing society will become increasingly obsolete as they age through the adult years. Expanding age integration for traditional education in classroom settings may play some role in promoting learning among the non-young. More important, however, is research and experimentation in alternative ways of motivating and enabling adults to pursue learning throughout life.
Politics
Beyond the minimum age for voting and for holding some political offices, there are no formal age barriers to political participation. Nevertheless, age integration in politics is a potentially interesting area for research. One important topic involves political activities that cut across age strata and foster cross-age interaction. A primary issue here concerns the use of age in special interest politics. Much has been written regarding the role of the "gray lobby" and age politics in preserving, or expanding, government programs for older citizens. It is likely that interest in this issue will expand as the population rapidly ages after the year 2010. Discussions of age integration also bring into question the use of chronological age as a basis for special entitlements, which are a prominent feature of the welfare state. One could argue that using an age criterion becomes an age barrier that keeps non-old persons from enjoying benefits of income maintenance and health care access programs.
Health Care
As health care has become a dominant structure in modern society, access to health care and quality of health care have become increasingly important social issues. In the United States, for example, attention has been given to the large number (40 million) of persons without health insurance and the large social class differences in quality of care received. Research on the relationship between age integration and delivery of health care could explore several issues. First, what are the implications of the age grading produced by Medicare, which guarantees health insurance only for older persons? Second, what are the consequences of ageism in the medical profession, where numerous reports suggest that younger people are preferred over older people as patients? Third, should age be used as a criterion in rationing medical resources? (Is it cost effective to use resources on the very old? How much should be spent trying to keep very premature babies alive?)
Other Social Settings
Age integration and age segregation occur in a variety of social settings and structures beyond those mentioned above. Recent studies of religion suggest that church involvement is an important social activity for many persons of all ages. Church meetings offer an opportunity for persons of different ages to interact in worship and ministry, but it is possible that churches often promote age segregation. Research is needed on the extent to which churches use age to group individuals into different classes and activities (youth group, young adult singles, senior citizens, etc.).
More generally, how important are family reunions as a mechanism encouraging meaningful cross-age interaction? Does the age segregation associated with publicly sponsored senior centers and youth centers hinder cross-age interactions? How important is the mixing of ages that occurs at street fairs and sporting events?
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Types of Interactions |
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Among the relevant dimensions along which cross-age interactions may be classified are the following:
The importance of making such distinctions as these becomes apparent when specific questions are formulated. For example, one might hypothesize that age integration would tend to reduce ageist stereotypes that adolescents have of old people, and vice versa. To examine this hypothesis, however, it is important to consider different possible types of interaction. For example, one can imagine negative interactions that would, in fact, drive a wedge between older and younger persons. Bringing adolescents into a nursing home to interact with the residents may reinforce all of the negative views that young people have of aging. Similarly, old people's preexisting negative views of teenagers may be reinforced when teenagers wait on them at a fast food restaurant. On the other hand, bringing together old and young people with similar interests to work on a long-term project might help break down age barriers to friendship and lead to substantial changes in negative ageist stereotypes. In general, one might anticipate that the types of interactions leading to more positive outcomes would involve sustained relationships that involve a good deal of equality, intimacy, and cooperation.
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Essays |
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One theme in these essays concerns mechanisms that mediate between age strata. Based on research in three-generation families in France, Attias-Donfut explores ways in which exchanges between generations, both economic and social, work to reduce inequality and differences across age strata. Of special interest is the potential diffusion of social change (values and lifestyles) to older persons through their interactions with younger family members. She writes, "The confrontation between generations that have different values creates zones of family influence." In this way the family brings people of different ages together and thereby facilitates age integration. Foner also identifies mechanisms within the family (related to bonds based on affection and exchanges) that promote age integration in the larger society. She argues that these microlevel processes are the reason why "age wars" have not erupted over the growing economic burden on young people, who pay taxes to support the social welfare programs benefiting the older generations.
Uhlenberg extends the discussion of the importance of kin ties to the link between older people and children (grandparents and grandchildren), and the valuable contribution made by some older people in rearing their grandchildren. In addition, he calls attention to programs in the United States that explicitly promote interaction between older people and children. These programs demonstrate how age integration can enhance the lives of both older and younger persons. Kohli broadens further our understanding of how organizations might mediate between age strata by looking at labor unions and political parties. A related issue is raised in Dannefer's discussion of how changes in education and work are encouraging greater age integration. Comparing recent developments in Germany and the United States, Dannefer argues that changes in both societies are encouraging increased flexibility in the organization of the life course. How work organizations, educational institutions, and government policies respond to the challenges of global change, however, will affect whether, and to what extent, age integration may be beneficial for individuals.
Attention to the relationship between the organization of work and age integration is found in many of these essays and is the primary focus of two of them. Over most of the 20th century the prevalence of retirement among the older population has been increasing, resulting in the growth of age differentiation in the workplace. Henretta asks whether this trend may have run its course, and whether we can expect increasing employment of older people in the future. He examines the preferences of those approaching old age, and finds that most say they would prefer to continue doing some paid work after they retire. In addition, he sees a number of changes occurring that will expand the number of flexible jobs available for older workers in coming years. Consequently, he suggests that it is likely that employment age segregation will decrease over the next several decades. Increasing job flexibility also is of interest to Loscocco, who makes a case for distributing work more evenly over the life course. In particular, she focuses on problems created by the dominance of work over family and leisure in the middle years and the lack of work options in the later years of life. She suggests ways in which a more age-integrated life course could strengthen families and enrich lives of people of all ages.
The complexities and contradictions of moving toward fuller age integration cannot be ignored. It is unlikely that a fully age-integrated approach to social policy, with no distinctions based on age, would generally be favored by older persons. Ignoring age would threaten the special benefits based on age that older persons have gained in recent years. Guillemard, who speaks of European societies as "schizophrenic" regarding age integration, notes other complications. On one hand, concern over social welfare expenses has led to calls for postponing retirement age. In line with this, flexible and gradual retirement plans are developing, and training and education programs are increasingly open to people of all ages. On the other hand, discrimination against older workers is widely practiced and justified because of high unemployment and the employment needs of younger persons. In this context, workers in their forties are deemed too old to be retrained. Writing on current conditions in The Netherlands, Baars also is struck by the contradictory evidence regarding trends toward age integration. Increasingly, older people are found taking courses at the university, working alongside younger people in the "gray sector" of unofficial jobs where paying taxes is avoided, and volunteering in age-integrated settings. But in the central economic sector of official work, people may be defined as "old" by age 45, and mandatory retirement by age 65 is the norm.
The concluding essay, by Walker, discusses ways in which public policy has encouraged age segregation over much of the 20th century, and the potential for public policy to facilitate greater age integration in the future. In other words, current public policy choices will have significant implications for the level of age integration experienced by cohorts aging in coming years. This recognition of both the importance of and the uncertainty of the future course of age integration is an appropriate note with which to conclude these essays. Our hope is that many aging professionals will recognize the value of giving more attention to this stimulating and significant issue in their work.
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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  N. C. Franklin and C. A. Tate Lifestyle and Successful Aging: An Overview American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, January 1, 2009; 3(1): 6 - 11. [Abstract] [PDF]
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 J. de Jong Gierveld and G. O. Hagestad Perspectives on the Integration of Older Men and Women Research on Aging, November 1, 2006; 28(6): 627 - 637. [Abstract] [PDF]
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