Age-arrangements, Age-culture and Social Citizenship: A Conceptual Framework for an Institutional and Social Analysis

This chapter considers the various interrelationships between the three guiding foci: changing labour markets, changing ‘welfare states’ and citizenship. Age-culture is the shorthand description of social norms, values, ideals or perceptions in society that structure the ideas of the age-work relationship. This interpretation of institutions is the dominant one in sociology. Age-related social norms can be reflected by many other concepts in a society. One particularly interesting concept in this context is the so-called ‘seniority-principle’. Actor-constellations form the third relevant institutional dimension to analyse the changing age-work relations. Age-cultures and age-programmes cannot explain all changes within one country or the differences between countries. ‘Age-culture’, ‘age-programmes’ and ‘actor-constellations’ are all inter-linked and all three institutional dimensions can and will influence one another. In the end, the combined effect of these three dimensions is a particular ‘age-arrangement’, in a particular society, at a particular historical point in time.