From Cultures of Ageing to Cultures of Action: Resilient Citizenship of

Older People under Ireland’s Austerity Programme

Dr. Gemma Carney, Lecturer in Social Policy and Ageing, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work,

Queen’s University Belfast

Christine de Largy, MA, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway.

Our Book….

With Kieran Walsh and Aine Ni Leime….

Ageing through Austerity: critical perspectives from Ireland

Policy Press, 2015.

Aims of the Paper

• Interested in citizenship and ageing – relationship between civil, political and social rights.

• What role does political culture play in facilitating inter-generational conflict or solidarity?

• What does the experience of ageing through austerity tell us about the potential for inter-generational conflict?

Paper outline

• Citizenship and ageing – connecting collective organisation and longevity

• What is political culture?

• Public debates on ageing and national culture

• Ireland under austerity

• What accounts for resilience of pension(ers) in Ireland?

• Conclusion: ageism, intergenerational solidarity and the micro-macro tension.

Citizenship and Ageing

‘Early political organisation was based on the realisation that without some form of collective organisation, we would experience life only as individuals living in a Hobbesian ‘State of Nature’ where life is ‘continual fear, and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’ (Hobbes, 1640/1994).

By the end of the 20th century we had achieved enough peace, security and freedom to produce a welfare state that is at least in

part responsible for good public healthcare that contributes to longevity.

What is political culture?

• Political Science 101 definition is that political culture refers to the Civic Culture (Almond and Verba, 1963):

– A person’s national identity

– Attitudes towards oneself as a political animal

– Attitudes towards fellow citizens

– Attitudes towards government performance

– Attitudes towards and knowledge of the political system.

What is political culture?

‘Social scientists need a taxonomy of cultural possibilities in order to understand whether challenges to a culture will create new cognitive structure or mere cultural shifts within the same

cognitive structure. For example, in what way is the new Soviet political culture simply old autocratic wine in new Communist bottles, as theorists of Soviet political culture have asked?’

(Chilton, 1988: 445).

Public Debate and National Culture

• US – ‘greedy geezers and the medicare burden’ (ABC news 2009).

– Regina Herzlinger, Harvard Business school – ‘medicare means seniors are stealing from the young’

• UK – ‘The Pinch’

– David Willets (2010) claims that the boomers have stolen their children’s future

Ireland in Global Political Economy

• Post-colonial state on European Periphery

• Population of 4.6m

• European membership:

– EEC 1973

– Eurozone 2000

• Globalisation:

– Foreign Direct Investment

Austerity as a response to economic collapse

• Celtic Tiger post 2008

- GDP -4.1% in 2010

- Unemployment (high of 14%)

- Surge in emigration of young people

- EU-IMF bailout austerity programme

Pensioners Protest, Dublin 2008

Social Policy for Older People in Austerity

– Pension has been maintained, though indirect benefits have been cut.

– Income tax increases via universal social charge.

– Support for pension maintained at societal level (Irish Times, 2013).

Emerging Narratives in Ireland

Resilience of Pension

• Political culture in Ireland is not one of protest

• Protest of older people shocked politicians, moving them from ‘dependent’ to ‘advantaged’ status relative to other target populations.

• Crucial to the success of their protest was their support from younger cohorts and other influential groups (Irish Medical Organisation).

Conclusion

• Solidarity at individual and family levels is translated to macro-level support for pensioners.

• Levels of inter-generational solidarity will become increasingly important.

• Ageism in public debate must be highlighted and condemned regardless of resource allocation.