Social statuses in later life: a study of the effect of retirement in Germany today
dc.contributor.advisor
MacInnes, John
en
dc.contributor.advisor
Bond, Ross
en
dc.contributor.author
Schneider, Anna
en
dc.date.accessioned
2018-05-30T09:36:50Z
dc.date.available
2018-05-30T09:36:50Z
dc.date.issued
2016-06-29
dc.description.abstract
The thesis presents analysis on four types of social statuses (as defined by Linton and
Merton), namely volunteer, carer for an adult, child carer, and friend, in the second half of
life in Germany based on the German Ageing Survey. In reference to the cultural
sociological theories of Gerhard Schulze, the impact of retirement as life event on older
adults’ lifestyle and likelihood of adopting these statuses is critically discussed. The use of
the category of ‘old adult’ is put into question.
It is found that between 1996 and 2008 the share of volunteers and of people spending
time on leisure activities in company has increased in all age groups in the German
population aged 50 and over. Carers, on the other hand, showed stable numbers with
decreasing time investment, and the share of people looking after children was on the
decline. All social statuses were represented in different numbers in Eastern and Western
Germany, with Eastern Germany showing less engagement especially in volunteering and
social leisure activities. Possible reasons for this are discussed.
The volunteer and friend statuses were selected as dependent variables for regression
models of the influence of retirement. The models based on cross-sectional as well as the
models based on panel data showed that there was at best a marginal influence of
retirement on a person’s likelihood of volunteering or spending leisure time with friends
and relatives.
With Gerhard Schulze’s theory of the ‘event society’, it is argued that the reason for the
increase of volunteers and of people more actively cultivating their friend status amongst
older Germans is that they no longer significantly differ in their value orientations and
lifestyles from younger adults and that therefore the persistent founding of research and
social policy on age categories is no longer a valid approach.
en
dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30983
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
en
dc.subject
value change
en
dc.subject
social roles
en
dc.subject
later life
en
dc.subject
retirement
en
dc.subject
Germany
en
dc.title
Social statuses in later life: a study of the effect of retirement in Germany today
en
dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
en
dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
en
dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
en
This item appears in the following Collection(s)