Research Group on Aging and the Life Course (FALL)

Publications: Künemund et al. 1993

Künemund, Harald, Sighard Neckel & Jürgen Wolf (1993): Die Rentnergewerkschaft - Ein neuer Akteur der Alterspolitik? In: Soziale Welt, 44, 537-554.

In the course of demographic change, a novel "politicization of old age" is proceeding which also affects social organizations. The proportion of their older members is growing and the elderly themselves demand for better opportunities of activity and participation. This process is demonstrated by the example of the German trade unions. With more than 1.5 millions of retired members they belong to the biggest organizations of "senior citizens". The contemporary practice of the unions´ "senior politics" is characterized on the background of a description of their changing age structures. Based on six models, the options of trade-unionist old age policy are discussed with respect to their organizational consequences. They stretch from the risk of de-differentiation and on an overload of functions of the organization to the chance of establishing new political issues and organizational forms by which the unions could become a central actor of interest politics of the elderly in an "aging" society.

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