Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Global Aging

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Sociology of Aging

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

In the sociology of aging and life course, global aging is relatively a new issue; but it has become an increasingly important subject since the early 1990s (Estes and Phillipson 2002). Many factors are contributing to population aging. The single most important factor is the decline of fertility that is taking place in many countries around the globe (Lloyd-Sherlock 2010). Another major factor is decline in mortality rates at all age levels, a trend which translates into increases in life expectancy (Uhlenberg 2009). Because people have come to live longer, including more disability-free years, population aging can and should be viewed as a positive achievement associated with improved healthcare, more government spending on social security, and other age-related social welfare ­programs, as well as changes in life style, such as less smoking and more exercise (National Research Council 2001).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AARP. 2003. “The New Old World: Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Populations Speech April 2003.” Retrieved September 7, 2009 (www.aarp.org/research).

  • Agree, Emily M. and Karen Glaser. 2009. “Demography of Informal Caregiving.” Pp. 647–70 in International Handbook of Population Aging, edited by P. Uhlenberg. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, Rochelle E. 2008. “Globalized Labor Markets and the Trade of Filipino Nurses: Implications for International Regulatory Governance.” Pp. 30–46 in The International Migration of Health Workers, edited by J. Connell. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt. 1998. Globalization: The Human Consequences. Oxford, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, Roger and Warren McGillivray. 1995. “A Risky Strategy: Reflections on the World Bank Report Averting the Old Age Crisis.” International Social Security Review 48(3):5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Ulrich. 2001. What is Globalization? Oxford, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn, Robin. 2006. “The Global Pension Crisis: From Gray Capitalism to Responsible Accumulation.” Politics & Society 34(2):135–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bockman, Johanna and Gil Eyal. 2002. “Eastern Europe as a Laboratory for Economic Knowledge: The Transnational Roots of Neoliberalism.” American Journal of Sociology 108(2):310–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bongaarts, John and Zachary Zimmer. 2002. “Living Arrangements of the Elderly in the Developing World: An Analysis of DHS Household Surveys.” Journal of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 57(3):145–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, Sarah M. 2004. “International Financial Institutions and the Diffusion of Foreign Models for Social Security Reform in Latin America.” Pp. 53–80 in Learning from Foreign Models in Latin American Policy Reform, edited by K. Weyland. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne, Colette V. and Kathryn L. Braun. 2008. “Globalization, Women’s Migration, and the Long-Term-Care Workforce.” The Gerontologist 48(1):16–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, John L. and Ove Kaj Pedersen. 2001. “The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis.” Pp. 1–14 in The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis, edited by J. L. Campbell and O. K. Pedersen. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Center for Health Workforce Studies. 2006. The Impact of the Aging Population on the Health Workforce in the United States: Summary of Key Findings March 2006. Rensselaer, NY: Center for Health Workforce Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clearfield, Esha and Jeanne Batalova. 2007. Foreign-Born Health-Care Workers in the United States. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, John, 2008. “Towards a Global Health Care System?” Pp. 1–29 in The International Migration of Health Workers, edited by J. Connell. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crystal, Stephen and Michele J. Siegel. 2009. “Health Care Policy and the Demography of Aging in Cross-National Perspective.” Pp. 607–30 in International Handbook of Population Aging, edited by P. Uhlenberg. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushing-Daniels, Brendan, and Richard W. Johnson. 2008. “Employer-Sponsored Pensions: A Primer.” Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. Retrieved September 17, 2009 (http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=901144).

  • Deacon, Bob, Michelle Hulse, and Paul Stubbs, 1997. Global Social Policy: International Organizations and the Future of Welfare. London, UK: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Estes, Carroll and Chris Phillipson. 2002. “The Globalization of Capital: The Welfare State and Old Age Policy.” International Journal of Health Services 32(2):279–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feder, Judith, Harriet L. Komisar, and Robert B. Friedland. 2007. “Long-Term Care Financing: Policy Options for the Future.” Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project, June 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009 (http://ltc.georgetown.edu/pdfs/finalsummary.pdf).

  • Frankenberg, Elizabeth, Angelique Chan, and Mary Beth Ofstedal. 2002. “Stability and Change in Living Arrangements: Evidence from Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan.” Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 56(2):201–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghuman, Sharon and Mary Beth Ofstedal. 2004. “Gender and Family Support for Older Adults in Bangladesh.” PSC Research Report, Report No. 04563. Retrieved August 12, 2009 (http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr04-563.pdf).

  • Gruber, Jonathan and David Wise. 1998. “Social Security and Retirement: An International Comparison.” The American Economic Review 88(2):158–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, Sarah. 2006. Ageing Societies: Myths, Challenges and Opportunities. London, UK: Hodder Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higo, Masa and Atsuhiro Yamada. 2009. “Japan: Public Policy.” Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, Global Policy Brief No 2. July 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2009 (http://agingandwork.bc.edu/documents/GPB02_Japan_2009-07-02.pdf).

  • Hussein, Shereen and Jill Manthorpe. 2006. “An International Review of the Long-Term Care Workforce Policies and Shortages.” Journal of Aging & Social Policy 17(4):75–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karagiannaki, Eleni. 2005. “Changes in the Living Arrangements of Elderly People in Greece: 1974-1999.” Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, CASE/104 November 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2009 (http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/CASEpaper104.pdf).

  • Kingma, Mireille. 2006. Nurses on the Move: Migration and the Global Health Care. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohli, Martin and Martin Rein. 1991. “The Changing Balance of Work and Retirement.” Pp. 1–35 in Time for Retirement: Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labor Force, edited by M. Kohli, M., Rein, A. M. Guillemard, and H. V. Gunstern. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter. 2010. Population Ageing and International Development: From Generalization to Evidence. Bristol, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macnicol, John. 2006. Age Discrimination: An Historical and Contemporary Analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Madrid, Paul L. 2003. Retiring the State: The Politics of Pension Privatization in Latin America and Beyond. Princeton, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. Wright. 1959. Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council. 2001. Preparing for an Aging World: The Case for Cross-National Research. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Co-operations and Development. 2007. Pensions at a Glance 2007. Paris: OECD Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. 2009a. OECD in Figures 2009. Paris: OECD Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. 2009b. Pensions at a Glance 2009: Retirement-Income Systems in OECD Countries. Paris: OECD Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins, Bradford, J. David Hoglund, Douglas King, and Eric Cohen. 2004. Building Type Basics for Senior Living. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillipson, Chris. 2005. “The Dynamic Nature of Societal Aging in a Global Perspective.” Pp. 131–158 in Enduring Questions in Gerontology, edited by D. J. Sheets, D. B. Bradley, and J. Hendricks. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, James H. and Robert H. Binstock. 2006. Aging Nation: The Economics and Politics of Growing Older in America. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, James H. and Allan Borrowski. 2006. “Economic Security in Retirement: Reshaping the Public-Private Pension Mix.” Pp. 360–79 in Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, 6th edition, edited by R. H. Binstock and L.K. George. San Diego, CA: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tirrito, Terry. 2003. Aging in the New Millennium: A Global View. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonkiss, Fran. 2006. Contemporary Economic Sociology: Globalization, Work and Inequality. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uhlenberg, Peter. 1996. “Mortality Decline in the Twentieth Century and Supply of Kin over the Life Course.” The Gerontologist 36(5):681–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. 2009. “Introduction.” Pp. 1–4 in International Handbook of Population Aging, edited by P. Uhlenberg. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. 2008. Assessing the Costs and Impacts of Migration Policy: An International Comparison. New York: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. 2009a. World Population 2008. New York: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. 2009b. World Economic and Social Survey 2009: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet. New York: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. “United States Census 2009.” Retrieved October 19, 2009 (http://www.census.gov/).

  • Walker, Alan. 2006. “Reexamining the Political Economy of Aging: Understanding the Structure/Agency Tension.” Pp. 59–80 in Aging, Globalization and Inequality: The New Critical Gerontology, edited by J. Baars, C. Phillipson, A. Walker, and D. Dannefer. Amityville, New York: Baywood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, Richard G. 2004. “The Epidemiological Transition: From Material Scarcity to Social Disadvantage?” Pp. 112–21 in The Sociology of Health and Illness: A Reader, edited by M. Bury and J. Gabe. London, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, John B. 2004. “Assessing the Pension Reform Potential of a Notional Defined Contribution Pillar.” International Social Security Review 57(1):47–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —  —  —. Forthcoming. “The Future of Retirement Security.” In Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, 7th ed., edited by R. H. Binstock and L. K. George. San Diego, CA: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. 2008. Globalization and Technology Absorption in Europe and Central Asia: The Role of Trade, FDI, and Cross-border Knowledge Flows. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. 2006. “The Global Shortage of Health Workers and Its Impact.” Retrieved September 12, 2009 (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs302/en/print.html).

  • —  —  —. 2008. “Global Burden of Disease: The 2004 Update.” Retrieved August 12, 2009 (http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Reports_GBD_report_2004update_full.pdf).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston College Department of Sociology, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Masa Higo

Authors
  1. Masa Higo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John B. Williamson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masa Higo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Family Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331-2302, Oregon, USA

    Richard A. Settersten

  2. Dept. Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, University Station 1, Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Jacqueline L. Angel

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Higo, M., Williamson, J.B. (2011). Global Aging. In: Settersten, R., Angel, J. (eds) Handbook of Sociology of Aging. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7374-0_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation