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Contents -- About the Authors -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Words, Concepts, and Principles in Contention -- Chapter 3. Trust and Trust Funds -- Chapter 4. Preservation or Privatization -- Chapter 5. Markets and Social Insurance -- Chapter 6. Politics and Pensions -- Chapter 7. Changing Actors for Changing Times -- Chapter 8. Questions of Principal and Principle -- Notes -- References -- Index

Introduces the contributions to this edited volume on the relationship between aging & social change by briefly surveying the relationship between three key concepts: generations, cohort, & the life course. The literature on this subject began with the writing of Karl Mannheim (1927), who theorized a relationship between the generation as birth year & the generation as a behavioral consciousness or actuality. The concept of birth cohort was later substituted for Mannheim's notion of generation by Norman Ryder (1965), who argued that a comparative analysis of such cohorts is a suitable method for studying social change. Later scholars have refined the notion of a birth cohort through the development of age stratification theory & a life course perspective. However, few gains have been made in linking individual life course research with macrolevel cohort behaviors & experiences. Challenges to this linkage have been primarily methodological, as it has proven very difficult to obtain & measure the appropriate data. Contributions speak to these challenges & try to frame them in such a way that productive solutions may follow. D. Ryfe

Finland has been a demographic forerunner in terms of the adoption of new family forms as well as family friendly social policies. Childlessness has nevertheless grown and, is high compared to many other countries. A large and increasing share of all persons who live in unions are childless. Using population-register data for the cohorts born 1952–1966, we study persons who were partnered at age 45 (n = 44,321). The aim is to analyse how marital status and union duration, together with socioeconomic characteristics of the ego and the partner, relate to the probability of being childless at 45. Logistic regression models are estimated separately for women and men, using a 10-year retrospective window. We find for both men and women, the strongest marker for being a parent by age 45 is whether they are married and had lived with the same partner for at least ten years. Shorter union durations and cohabitations are associated with a several-fold increase in the likelihood of being childless. Socioeconomic characteristics are relevant as well, but notably less important in terms of estimated effect sizes. Future research on this topic should tentatively be concerned with how childlessness relates to transitions into, from, and across unions.