Will the baby boomers meet the challenge of the senior boom? Will the generation that created a youth-oriented society be able to enhance the image of ageing? Will it be able to invent for itself a new post-retirement existence?

Robert Rochefort replies “yes” to all these questions. He explains why there is no reason to fear the advent of a society with a large proportion of seniors, and argues why he believes it can provide antidotes to many contemporary ills. A society in which the pace of life has greatly accelerated has much to gain from the experience of its older members. The extension of the family over four generations is likely to strengthen family cohesiveness; solidarity between the generations will be enhanced by the transfer of income from old to young, and of services from young to old.

Although ageing has kept its metaphysical mystery, it is no longer a social and cultural handicap.

Here is a book that provides a new light on the society of seniors.

Robert Rochefort is the director of the Centre de Recherches pour l'Étude et l'Observation des Conditions de Vie (CREDOC). He is the author of La Société des consommateurs (1995), Le Consommateur entrepreneur: Les nouveaux modes de vie (1997) and La France déboussolée (2002), all published by Editions Odile Jacob. He is the editor of L'Environnement, question sociale (Editions Odile Jacob, 2001).