Research on Aging, Volume 28, Number 6, November 2006, p. 627-637

This introduction to the special issue “Social Integration in Later Life” addresses the background ideas and concepts of the articles encompassing research into the extent and quality of older adults’ integration in organizations, family, and personal networks. A rough conceptual framework is provided, distinguishing between types of integration and different units of analysis. The macro level of society and its social institutions as well as smaller groups and the social locations of individuals are addressed. On a macro level, integration and segregation are juxtaposed, building on classic discussions of integration, as well as recent ideas about social resources, welfare states, and rekindled considerations of age segregation. At the individual level, the concepts of integration and isolation and the subjective assessments of embeddedness and loneliness are contrasted.