THE AGEING OF BRITISH GERONTOLOGY LEARNING FROM THE PAST TO INFORM THE FUTURE | Page 53

Alan Walker
Professor of Social Policy and Social
Gerontology, University of Sheffield
“I consider myself a
sociologist of social
policy and ageing. I’m
very happy to have one
foot in one camp and
one foot in the other.
I think I would be
less of a gerontologist
if I didn’t also work in
social policy. There’s so much
crossover between what I do
E ric M idwinter
Social historian, educationalist
and social policy analyst; founding
Director, Centre for Policy
on Ageing; Co-Founder,
the University of the
Third Age
“The three of us,
Peter Laslett, Michael
Young and I were
the co-founders of
the British version
of the U3A. There are only
two basic principles: one of
them is, obviously, you’ve got
to be of the third age, defined
as no longer in full-time
employment, or past the time
where your children become
J ill M anthorpe
Professor of Social Work, King’s
College London
“Gerontologists have
always been very
collegiate because they’ve
always had this sense of
being in a quite Cinderella
research field. That’s
changing of course but,
until recently, it was
always, ‘We’re all in it
together and we’re breaking
new ground.’ It’s been quite a
community of practice really. It
was also a largely female world,
K AT E DAV I D SO N
Retired; former SL in Sociology,
University of Surrey
“Right from the
beginning I fought
to study men as
well as women
and every single
research project
that I’ve done,
I have insisted that men are
involved, men are interviewed.”
in one sphere and another. It’s
basically who I am.”
“There’s a need for
us as social scientists
to continue work on
theories of ageing,
and unequal ageing
remains for me
still the heart of it.
There are too many
inequalities in later
life and too many
inequalities on the path to later
life.”
independent… and the other
one is this communitarian,
democratic principle that it’s
a skills exchange, it’s
learning circles. There’s
no tutor-student…
And here we are today:
sometime over the
next couple of months,
the 1000th U3A
will be starting. Our
membership is about
400,000. It’s the biggest
thing I’ve ever been involved
in. I reckon I’ve spoken at 700
U3A meetings, conferences,
workshops, whatever, over the
last 34 years.”
not altogether, but it is probably
women-dominated and that’s
always been a collegiate way
of working. So,
there hasn’t been
the super egos
that you get in
other disciplines
whereby people are
very beholden to
people, and there
are schools of
thought that think
this, and schools of thought
that think that. It has been more
eclectic.”
“I never thought I was stupid
but I had no idea that I could
apply myself to producing
work that people would
be interested in hearing
and reading… It was
lovely to be noticed for
the first time, and noticed
for me and for what I
was doing, not for being
a mother and not for
being a wife and not for being a
daughter.”
Tony Warnes
Emeritus Professor of Social
Gerontology, University of Sheffield
“People sometimes
ask would you do
anything different
but I’m not of that
mind. I’m pleased
that I spent so
much of my time
associated with
gerontolog y, working with other
gerontologists, who are generally
SAR A AR B E R
Professor of Sociology, University of
Surrey
“Both Jay [Ginn] and I were
sociologists. So we were then
presenting papers at
sociology conferences
and we kept saying,
‘Well, where’s the
sociology of ageing?’
because there was
gerontology but, unlike
in America, there really
wasn’t a sociology of
ageing. We wrote a couple of
articles about the invisibility of
age in sociology and then we
thought, ‘Well, where’s gender
J udith Phillips
Deputy Principal (Research) and
Professor of Gerontology,
University of Stirling
“I could see the
opportunity in Wales
mainly around making
a difference and having
impact on policy
and practice. I felt a
passion to go back to
my home roots and develop that
kind of thing. When I moved
to England, you hardly saw a
T essa Harding
Community activist;
former Head of Policy,
Help the Aged and
Senior Policy Adviser
on Age Equality and
Human Rights
“What about
contributions that
older people make
to society? Why are we not
looking at that? Why do we
have so little? Why is the
a great bunch of people. I don’t
even regret particularly that I
flitted about in terms of my
main research or
intellectual interest.
Spreading my time
about has probably
been at the expense
of reputation, but
on the other hand
it’s good to have
been involved with
so many different things and to
have found so many different
areas of stimulation.”
in ageing research?’ We thought
it’s just crazy… there was lots
of work on ageing, but there
were two gaps: one was that
sociological analysis was much
lacking within ageing
research… and a
gender focus was
really very absent then
as well. On the basis
of this ESRC grant
we offered a book
to Sage, which was
Gender in Later Life: A
Sociological Analysis of Resources
and Constraints published in 1991,
which is now 25 years ago.”
Minister. If your research fell
on fruitful ground that was
great, but you never
really engaged with
policymakers or
practitioners really;
it wasn’t trendy then.
But, as the impact
agenda has increased,
then that’s become
more important.
And in Wales, Ministers would
actually ring you up and come
and see you.”
picture always of older people
as recipients
rather than as
contributors?
It’s not
always – I’m
exaggerating
– but there’s
still a shortfall
really in our
understanding of the role they
play, the positive things, the
contributions they make.”
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