The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment

Oris, Michel; Gabriel, Rainer; Baeriswyl, Marie; Ihle, Andreas

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Not specified
Title:	The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment
Authors:	Oris, Michel Gabriel, Rainer Baeriswyl, Marie Ihle, Andreas
et. al:	No
Conference details:	The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022
Issue Date:	17-Nov-2022
Language:	English
Subjects:	Life course; Inequality; Aging; Cognitive reserve
Subject (DDC):	305: Groups (age, origine, gender, income)
Abstract:	During the last decades, the theory of cumulative (dis)advantages has been one of the most influential in life course sociology. This theory stimulated many researches done on the construction of social and health inequalities in old age across the life course. Recent syntheses have shown that that accumulation of disadvantages and accumulation of advantages are not symmetric. In this paper, we focus on the former, on the 'dark side', on the disadvantaged, on the 'bottom-of-the-pyramid". First, we insist on one dimension, income poverty in old age. Results achieved thanks the NCCR LIVES are contrasted with the international literature. Everywhere, early-life conditions (family context, education) were decisive. Later in life, across adulthood, various welfare regimes governed the life courses. But as a rule, most limited the triggering processes associated to a low education. A modest safety net prevented the accumulation of disadvantages and resulted instead in a "cumulative continuity" at a low level. More recent analyses, however, have shown the limits of this stability: older adults who have been manual workers are more at risk of falling into poverty. Second, to beyond those syntheses, we want to make a step further toward an interdisciplinary approach of a minority group: We will draw the portrait of those who did not benefit from the progresses in health and living conditions that have changed the realities of aging during the last decades. We will do that trough an integration of the researches done on the life course construction of socioeconomic inequalities with those devoted to the roots of interindividual variability in cognitive performances. We will also calculate at which point a penalty (or deficit) in a given dimension is associated with other penalties, counting in the VLV samples those who are simultaneously: income poor, cognitively underperforming, frail, without social participation, alone, etc.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/26367
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Social Work
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Diversity and Social Integration (IVGT)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Soziale Arbeit

Files in This Item:

There are no files associated with this item.

Show full item record

Oris, M., Gabriel, R., Baeriswyl, M., & Ihle, A. (2022, November 17). The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment. The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022.

Oris, M. et al. (2022) ‘The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment’, in The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022.

M. Oris, R. Gabriel, M. Baeriswyl, and A. Ihle, “The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment,” in The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022, Nov. 2022.

ORIS, Michel, Rainer GABRIEL, Marie BAERISWYL und Andreas IHLE, 2022. The accumulation of disadvantages : a critical assessment. In: The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022. Conference presentation. 17 November 2022

Oris, Michel, Rainer Gabriel, Marie Baeriswyl, and Andreas Ihle. 2022. “The Accumulation of Disadvantages : A Critical Assessment.” Conference presentation. In The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022.

Oris, Michel, et al. “The Accumulation of Disadvantages : A Critical Assessment.” The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives (NCCR LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022, 2022.