This, the first edition of Volume 20 of Ageing and Society, coincides with the start of a new decade, a new century and a new millennium. It is fascinating to observe how different organisations, groups and societies are reacting to the passing of this symbolic benchmark. The urge to reminisce and reflect is apparent on many fronts: centenarians reviewing the century; survivors of the great wars dwelling on their troubled memories; a series of generations each swopping stories about their particular cultural revolutions; and, of course, gerontologists and colleagues in the ageing enterprise, faced with the evident needs of later life set in the wider context of an ongoing demographic panic.

For our part, we, the editorial team, are – as ever – engaged in the continuing tasks of receiving, reviewing and editing a stream of stimulating articles from all parts of the world and from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives. This is a highly rewarding occupation: from our privileged position we know that social gerontology is the focus of many exciting theoretical and empirical developments.

The routines of editing the journal are dominated by a two-monthly rolling production cycle that is lodged within the more leisurely annual cycle. Fixed-length temporal cycles, of course, characterise many aspects of the experience of ageing. Occasionally things change, however, and this also applies to the journal. Regular readers will notice that, with this issue, the review section has changed in content with the appearance of ‘Ageing Updates’. This section will bring together the best features of the Abstracts, Progress Reports, Symposia and Review Articles of past volumes. Ageing Updates will review particular themes, areas of interest and current issues, and may include contrasting perspectives from different contributors. Each Ageing Update will be up to 2,000 words in length. Submissions should be sent to the Review Editors who will referee them in the first instance. If you would like to contribute please contact the Review Editors.

The first Ageing Update – to start the new millennium – is written by Sarah Harper. She reviews the current gerontological scene in Britain. Based on her work for the Nuffield Foundation, Sarah reviews the themes of the last decade, discusses the changing research agendas, and identifies issues for future research.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the Abstracts section, producing high quality reviews over the first 19 volumes of the journal.

It has been argued that without some system in which future generations of users are able to pay for their care the cost of services for an increasingly large group of older people will be borne by a declining base of economically active younger people. Is the answer a user pays approach to the financing of aged care, as promoted by recent changes to aged care financing? This paper reviews this concept and its recent history in Australia. On the basis of a brief review of alternative funding systems, it also considers the potential of public and private insurance schemes to increase funding by potential service users and underwrite the long-term viability of funding for aged care services.

Some 50 years after the creation of the welfare state and at the start of the new millennium, this paper considers the current and future status of older people in Britain. It argues that as the population ages, the situation of older people is becoming an increasingly important element in social policy debates. The first half of the paper critically reviews developments over the last five decades, emphasising the salience of accommodation issues during this period. In the light of recent initiatives such as ‘Better Government for Older People’, the second half of the paper outlines a policy agenda for the early years of the 21st century. We argue unequivocally for an integrated social policy which addresses the broad needs of an ageing society as opposed to narrow age-based interests, or the interests of specific problematised or stigmatised groups. The creation and delivery of such an integrated policy for tomorrow's Britain rests, we contend, on three crucial dimensions: an explicitly articulated value base; a consideration of the educational, technological and spatial aspects of policy; and harmonisation of action at both local and national levels.

The effects of four social-structural neighbourhood characteristics on the relative size and the composition of neighbouring networks are tested in a sample of 3,504 older adults born between 1908 and 1937 and living in three different regions in the Netherlands. Interactions with individual income and ADL capacity are included in multilevel regression analyses, to test effects of older adults' environmental dependency. Population density and residential mobility both have a negative effect on the relative size of the neighbouring network, and the effect of urbanisation is strongest among poorer respondents. These findings suggest first that the structural effects of urbanisation work at the level of concentration vs. dispersion of personal networks, and second that there is no general mechanism of environmental dependency.

This paper examines the sociodemographic characteristics, health condition, and problems in the activities of daily living of two groups of older Texas state prisoners. The research group, assigned to a geriatric facility, were primarily Anglos who had committed violent crime. Few admitted to having a drinking problem but most admitted to a daily smoking habit. Most rated their current health condition as fair or poor; many used special equipment to aid their movement and breathing. Their self-rated health condition was worse than that of a comparison group of older inmates drawn from the general population of the prison. Inmates and health-care providers agreed that separate facilities for older prisoners are desirable. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for prison management and future policy.

Obituaries and other accounts of well-known people at their death offer a narrative defining identity through the life story. It is particularly poignant when the story is told of an author, and draws upon not only life course metaphors but also features of the author's fiction. In this paper we look at a case where the dementia of a famous author figures in the tributes at her death. The predominant narrative of dementia has until recently been that of a tragic loss of self. This has reinforced an image of social death. Biomedical determinism has similarly focused on the disease, rather than seeing the person and allowing their voice to be heard. While Iris Murdoch may not have wanted tributes to tell her story, they have allowed us to examine conventional narratives of a person with dementia. We chart the ‘career’ of a person with dementia, and their perceived transformation of identity, defined in terms of being demented rather than with dementia. Bad and good are attributed to aspects of Iris Murdoch's life through a repertoire of available stereotypes. These appear to involve the retrospective application of characteristics of dementia, along with those of goodness and purity. Common gender representations relating to Iris Murdoch's married life and the caring situation are interwoven in the accounts. We are told a story that reflects and reproduces conventional narratives of the life course and of dementia, characterising the deceased in terms of a moral career.

‘Ageing of the population is … one of the most important socioeconomic challenges … for the 21st Century’ Andrej Wojrczak, Director, WHO Centre Health Development, Japan.

This statement (WHO 1998: 5), reflects the growing awareness among politicians, policy makers and the general public of issues which have been recognised by gerontologists for the past 30 years or so. In both developed and less developed countries, demographic transition and the shift in the age structure of the population is now being publicly recognised as having fundamental implications for everyone in society. As British gerontology enters a new century, the time appears ripe to reflect on past achievements and highlight some future questions. In the following discussion I consider ageing and later life, discussing both societal and individual ageing, and the experiences, needs and contributions of those in later life. The paper focuses on social gerontology, defined as social, behavioural, historical, demographic and economic aspects of the study of ageing and later life, including the interface of these with health and health services. It thus touches upon medical and biological aspects only when they are of appropriate relevance.