Editorial: Families and Aging: From Private Troubles to a Global Agenda

Population aging is a driver of much of the contemporary public debate about families. Families have come onto the public agenda as a backstop against concerns about unsustainable health, economic, and social care systems. Despite evidence of the flow of resources down the generations, and calming voices about the sustainability of income security systems), we see remnants of apocalyptic demography in the families’ agenda. Further bolstering of the centrality of families comes from moral and sometimes legal imperatives to support older family members. Whether based on cost or on compassion, families are a key theme in population aging. This special issue on global families was developed to capture discussions across world regions on the place of older people in families. The impetus came from the belief that, in order to know families, we need to understand them in their various forms across (and within) regions