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Access to social protection in old age is crucial and yet contingent upon negotiations between the social structures of the welfare states and the personal networks within which individuals are embedded. International migration, changing family dynamics, and the transformation of care and other welfare policies in the global North make it challenging for older migrants to negotiate social protection. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with first-generation older Turkish migrants in London and 13 semi-structured interviews with professional service providers for the community, the paper aims to investigate the assemblages of formal and informal social protection in the lives of older migrants. Findings indicate the complexity in accessing informal social protection and the navigation of formal care support in the UK for first generation older Turkish migrants and the contingency of access to formal care services on informal support networks for participants. It has been demonstrated that built infrastructure and policies aimed at older adults have great influence on assemblages of care, highlighting the need for more age-friendly and integrated policies to facilitate access to social protection for diverse groups of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is currently known about the aging and later life experiences of older gay men in Britain. This paper seeks to broaden the gerontological understanding of aging for this hitherto invisible group. Using data generated from interviews with 15 homosexual men aged 57-84, the paper argues that traditionally recognized perceptions of aging and transitions from middle to old age are not necessarily reliable indicators of gay men's experiences. The signposts to aging discussed so far do not account for varied personal characteristics and backgrounds. The framework of aging reminders developed by Karp (2000) 1 is shown to be relevant to the perceptions of aging included in the data. However it is argued that these reminders are not necessarily evident just to people in their fifties, and that they may also be experienced in different ways. The paper develops Karp's model, deconstructing the reminders he introduced to show the variety of ages at which they become evident, the heteronormativity of the existing framework and how this can be reduced, the way reminders inter-connect, and how those relating to the body can usefully be subdivided to elucidate the number of different ways the body can be experienced, highlighting the transition to later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing in Place is a key component of UK policy on older people and housing. Helping older people to ‘age in place’ at home is seen to benefit the quality of life and also provide a cost-effective solution to the problems of an expanding population of very old people. However, the reality is not straightforward and in this paper, some results of qualitative research are presented to illustrate the benefits, problems and challenges that exist in relation to Ageing in Place in the United Kingdom. The research is based on qualitative data collected from 40 people age 80–89 in the north-west of England as part of the ENABLE-AGE Project 2002 to 2004. The research suggests that while Ageing in Place may bring social and psychological benefits, there can also be a significant downside on an everyday level. Home in old age can be a place of negative experiences, such as isolation and loneliness and there are often significant weaknesses in terms of informal support, physical environment of the home and neighbourhood and social network, which undermine the person’s ability to live independently. The paper reviews recent UK initiatives to use “telecare” to address some of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]