Merril Silverstein

💬 Biography
Merril Silverstein, Ph.D., holds the Marjorie Cantor Chair in Aging Studies at Syracuse University and serves as professor in the Departments of Sociology and Human Development and Family Science. Professor Silverstein received his doctorate in sociology from Columbia University, after which he served on the faculty of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. In over 200 research publications, he has focused on aging in the context of family life using international-comparative perspectives, with an emphasis on intergenerational relations over the life course. Professor Silverstein serves as principal investigator of the Longitudinal Study of Generations and the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China. Between 2010-2014 he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Professor Silverstein is a Fellow of the Brookdale Foundation, the Fulbright Senior Scholars program, and the Gerontological Society of America.

🎤 Presentation: Aging Families in the 21st Century: Challenges and Choices
In this presentation, I review five fundamental considerations in anticipating how the capacity of families to meet the emergent care and economic needs of older adults is likely to evolve. These include the following challenges: the impact of low fertility, small families, and childlessness on the availability of care and support resources; the proliferation of complex stepfamilies and the weakening of care obligations; welfare state regimes and crowding-in and crowding-out dynamics between the state and the family; aging in immigrant communities and the evolution of bicultural family norms; and eldercare challenges faced by economically developing nations in Asia and the Global South. I conclude by invoking the unique implications of the polycrisis for intergenerational solidarity caused by global warming, international conflict and migration, and neoliberal pressures on public programs supporting older adults.