The politics of old age : older people's interest organisations in the Irish context

Abstract

The participation of older people's interest organisations in the policy process has been promoted in international fora and at national level in the majority of established democracies throughout the world. Despite this, remarkably little academic attention has been given to the work of these organisations. The limited extant literature tends to focus almost exclusively on the politics of old age in the context of macro political and global economic forces. This thesis seeks to addresses this deficiency by exploring three separate but inter-linked issues: 1) the work and internal dynamics of older people’s interest organisations in Ireland as relayed by directors, staff and members of the organisations; 2) the issue of older people’s ‘identity politics’ as perceived by the members of older people's interest organisations and 3) policy makers’ and junior ministers’ perceptions of the organisations and the discourse deployed to legitimize this perception.