[The elderly and social change--an interdisciplinary study on Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries].

This research report presents an overview of historical studies within the context of the interdisciplinary Swedish project on aging. The author discusses the project's conceptual framework and focuses on conflict theory and exchange theory as major models. The empirical studies concern changes in the provisions for old age and in the aging processes of the major social groups (farmers, rural proletarians, urban artisans and their wives, male and female industrial workers). The project aims at integrating a life course perspective in the analysis of social change. Class and gender are underlined as major forces in shaping the status of the aged in the last two centuries.