Generations, age and life course: towards an integral social policy framework of analysis

This article examines how the relationship between generational processes and social policy has been studied. It identifies three main approaches: social policy’s targeting of different age groups, social policy’s role in shaping the life course and the generational contract that leads social policy to recognise the claims of particular generations. Each of these perspectives has strengths and weaknesses but, if the goal is to understand how the...