ABSTRACT
In order to describe the research done on ageing, one should refer to the metaphor of resurgence! Thus the points at which these currents appear or disappear, re-emerging in a spatial as well as in a temporal context, could be identified. In this area, perhaps more than in other work-related fields, the interconnections between research and society emerge, and even more so, as we shall see, when the history of research done on the link between work and ageing is considered. The age-work relationship is, in fact, at one and the same time, a research objective and a social issue, so much so that it is impossible to examine the evolution of the scientific concepts in this field without connecting them clearly to the socioeconomic contexts in which they arose, developed or have been put to rest. This is a particularly sensitive area, where social practices and diverse interests come face to face (if they do not actually collide) and hence various scientific questions arise that could usefully be clarified in the light of developments over the last 50 years, that is since the Second World War (covering the famous post-war boom period) and the ‘invention’ of ergonomics!
