The family and community life of older people: social networks and social support in three urban communities by Chris Phillipson, Miriam Bernard, Judith Phillips and Jim Ogg Routledge, 2001.

• Author: Hillcoat-Nalletamby, Sarah
• Position: Book Review

This book addresses the question of how social change across the post-war to present-day period has affected the ageing experience of people living in urban communities in Britain. It will be relevant to those interested in a community studies approach to research on older persons' needs. Findings on the positive and negative dimensions to the urban experience of "ageing in place" and of the increasing importance for older persons of kin, neighbours and friends as networks of support are also relevant to New Zealand, given the current policy focus on "positive ageing" and on the notion of "social connectedness", as outlined by the Ministry of Social Development.

The main purpose of the study reported in this book has been to examine changes occurring since the post-war period to the support networks and social relationships of older persons living in Britain during the 1990s in three urban localities. The rationale for the research emerges from the findings of the well known urban community studies of Sheldon (1948), Townsend (1957) and Young and Willmott (1957) completed during Britain's post-war years, which focused on the changing nature of the family and community lives of older persons. Phillipson and his colleagues set themselves the task of returning to the same communities of Bethnal Green, Woodford and Wolverhampton 50 years later in order to explore how the social and family networks of the elderly may have altered.

An introductory chapter documents the key socio-economic and cultural changes characterising the period of the 1950s through to the 1990s. A second chapter sets out a key postulate: the authors suggest that today, in contrast to the 1950s, the elderly will enjoy a wide range of close and active ties which they maintain with kin and local community, but also with friends. The notion of social network provides the conceptual framework within which to examine the postulate. The third chapter describes key changes in the three localities since the 1950s.

Chapters 4, 5 and 6 present empirical findings on the role played by family and neighbours in providing social support to the elderly. The most significant and supportive relationships recognised by the elderly today include two-generational networks of peers or children, a contrast to the composition of support networks identified in the 1950s which included three if not four generations. Even with increasing age, older persons remain part of support networks, referred to...