James Nazroo: Inequality in later life
Almost all policy and academic thinking in relation to inequality focuses on what happens in early life and how this impacts inequality later in life. Rather, I suggest we seriously need to consider how to mitigate the current inequalities that exist among older people.
Inequalities in later life, and their consequences for health and wellbeing, have been underplayed by researchers and policy makers, to the detriment of individuals and wider society. But what drives these inequalities? Class and other processes of stratification, such as ethnicity and gender; early life experiences; or contexts and events in later life?
Drawing on data from the UK, James Nazroo investigates the importance of later life events in shaping inequality and argues that research and policy need to bring these in to sharper focus.
About Professor James Nazroo
James Nazroo is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK. He also serves as co-Director of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing and Director of the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, and is a CEPAR Partner Investigator. His research focuses on issues of inequality, social justice and underlying processes of stratification, particularly in relation to ageing and ethnicity. He works on the social determinants of health and wellbeing in later life, social inequalities over the life course, and longitudinal surveys of health and retirement.
This discussion was recorded live for the UNSW Sydney Grand Challenges program in association with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Aging Research.
