The social economics of old age: strategies to maintain income in later life in the Netherlands 1880-1940

The gradual aging of western society during the twentieth century, including its causes and consequences, has become one of the dominant themes of demography and sociology. This study tries to shed more light on the recent past of older individuals emphasizing the socio-economic strategies they employed in order to maintain their standard of living after reaching the age of 60. Theories concerning different elements within these strategies (work, savings, the family and the collectivity) are discussed. The last part of this study considers the impact of these strategies in the context of a case study using a variety of sources on the lives of a selected group of elderly people living in the civil parish of Winterswijk over the periode 1880-1938.