Penny Vera-SansoDevelopment Studies

Birkbeck CollegeNovember 2006

Life course and old age as a Life course and old age as a relational categoryrelational category

• age as relational concept

• politics of research? – Our objectives?– Life course framework as facilitator?

Objectives of research?Objectives of research?

As basis for social policy interventions• to rectify/ameliorate inequalities- by championing

vulnerable sections?• to enhance national competitiveness?

If basis for policy interventions – What are the effects on analysis and methodology?• research generations separately?• emph one generations’ perspectives/interests over

(an)others’?• accept/reify the idea of age categories?

Age is relationalAge is relational

• Issue is Not who is young or old?

but

who is young or old in relation to whom/what?

• When does age make a difference?• Why is it considered to make a difference?

– studied at micro level– studied at macro level

Life cycle PerspectiveLife cycle Perspective

birth – maturation growing old – death

GREATEST NEED DECLINING NEED

GREATEST PRO/REPRO CAPACITY

Needs/rights

is devoid of history, change, causality, eg of Indian life cycle

kids Adults Older adults

education +

medical

leisure Declining needs

Marriage costs +

Housing (comfort/privacy) + + Declining needs

food Declining needs

Status consumption Declining needs

Life course perspectiveLife course perspective

Brings in the macroNot just that need changes over one person’s life-time

Also how/why that need has changed between generations

Do changes in the pol and ec spheres change relations and aspirations differentially across generations?

India – intergenerational effects of:India – intergenerational effects of:

1. agri paid in kind (but disproportionate deaths of the old during famine – not a golden age for intergenerational relations)

2. monetarisation of agri – cash cropping

3. independence – ec modernisaton/soc justice• ed/health/caste/class in formal sector (Caldwell)

4. neoliberal growth – family/market place• global economy – rising consumption and prod pressures –

sharpen/create pressure in family

Discourse – rights/duties/obligations/bargain

kids Young adults Old adults

education rising

medical +++ ++ +

leisure rising rising declining

Marriage costs rising

Housing (comfort/privacy) rising rising declining

food rising rising declining

Status consumption rising rising declining

Needs/rights

• Social changes driven by & reflected at– discursive level – changes in social relations

• From the perspective of the old changes have:– increasingly alienated them from the products

of their labour. – development is predicated on this alienation.

People and family wealth = embodied People and family wealth = embodied labour of older generationlabour of older generation

1. young exchange (only their?) labour for money

2. rights of younger generations – means of appropriating labour of older generation (embodied in young and property)

3. if: take the macro analysis of the Paul Cammack kind making the poor (everybody) work for globalisation

then: escalator benefiting the global system• rights of kids vis-à-vis family is less about kids rights than

the means of alienating parental labour• increasing child rights – more labour extracted from old

ConclusionConclusion1. Age is a relational category : can’t effectively study one

age group without the others.2. Analytical value of the life course framework: - forces us down lines of enquiry/ways of thinking

– that are non-static– do not accept naturalised ways of thinking– macro/historical perspective on the local (issue of historical

evidence on the poor remains)

3. Political value of a relational perspective combined with the life course framework? - facilitate public debate about intergenerational relations (rather than a segmented approach which is orientated towards generating policies that mediate between what are presented as competing interests).