Work, Aging, and Risks to Family Life: The Case of Australia

The relationship between work and family is considered with an emphasis on policy solutions. Australian policy is a case example in the context of international trends. A mismatch between policy initiatives and familial and personal priorities constitutes a new social risk associated with demographic and sociocultural development. Contemporary trends, both nationally and internationally, evidence solutions to the “problem of demographic aging” by adopting a form of economic instrumentalism. This restricts legitimate age identities to those associated with work and work-related activity. When applied to family life, such a focus runs the risk of reducing policy interest in intergenerational engagement to unpaid care roles, while personal development and age-related life priorities are ignored. The need for cultural adaptation to population aging is becoming accepted in policy debate and is considered here as an effective response to the personal, social, and economic risks of population aging and associated impacts on family life.