Social Policy Research Unit Research Articles

Reviews Section

Journal Article Reviews Section Get access ECONOMIC REVITALISATION OF INNER CITIES: The Urban Programme and Ethnic Minorities, Victor Hauser & Associates (for the Department of Environment), HMSO, London, 1993, 114 pp., £17.50 (pb.). Waqar Ahmad Waqar Ahmad Senior Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Community Development Journal, Volume 29, Issue 3, July 1994, Pages 278–280, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/29.3.278 Published: 01 July 1994

Socio-Economic Resources and Differential Ageing

ABSTRACTThe Sociology and Social Policy Research Unit of the Berlin Aging Study focuses on four substantive areas: (1) life course antecedents and generational experiences, (2) later phases of the family life course, (3) action resources and social participation, and (4) economic situations and the provision of care. This paper reports results on the relationship between social and economic inequality and differential ageing, using the BASE multidisciplinary Intake Assessment (N = 360). The socio-economic position of older people is measured along three dimensions: economic resources, social status and prestige, and cultural status. Several ageing outcomes are considered, including functional physical health, cognitive functioning and mental health, overall subjective well-being, social autonomy and dependency. First, we show that old people as a group are neither socially nor economically homogeneous: very old women possess unusually low economic resources; and cohort differences in educational attainment are carried into old age. Second, cognitive functioning and mental health are positively correlated with socio-economic resources, while functional physical health is not. For women, socio-economic resources slightly affect overall subjective well-being, and are linked to the likelihood of living in a nursing home. We speculate that the wide availability of compulsory health insurance reduces social differentials in physical health and that these inequalities may determine who survives into old age.

Confessions of a Jobbing Researcher

ABSTRACT The relationship between research and policy making is complex and not always direct. This paper describes disability-related research for policy makers which is carried out at the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York. A distinction between the ways in which research is formed and the ways in which it is informed is made. The informing of research influences how it is carried out; the research questions themselves, the choice of design and methods, the form of analysis, and the pattern of dissemination. The seminar series has helped SPRU reappraise its disability-related research. Disabled people must be able to influence the framing and elaboration of research questions more directly; there must be an increased commitment to employing and to training disabled researchers; dissemination must be wider; ‘crucial gateways’ to policy makers and practitioners have to be identified; and the debate on informal care must be moved further on.

Book reviews : Housing in later life: the housing finance implications of an ageing society S. Mackintosh, R. Means and P. Leather SAUS, 1990, 154pp, £8.95. Moving in old age: new directions in housing policies C. Oldman HMSO, Social Policy Research Unit, 1990, 147pp

Book reviews : Housing in later life: the housing finance implications of an ageing society S. Mackintosh, R. Means and P. Leather SAUS, 1990, 154pp, £8.95. Moving in old age: new directions in housing policies C. Oldman HMSO, Social Policy Research Unit, 1990, 147pp

Dependency and its Relationship to the Assessment of Care Needs of Elderly People

After experience in commerce and the health service Ian Gibbs has worked in higher education for the last fifteen years. At present he is a research fellow in the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. Jonathan Bradshaw is Professor of Social Policy and Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York. He was until 1987 Director of the Social Policy Research Unit.

Could Schools Do More for Leavers?

How do young people with disabilities view the preparation for adult life that they receive at school? Michael Hirst, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, discovered that most of the young people he surveyed were dissatisfied.