Lecture | Economic and Social History Brown Bag Seminar
Housing an Ageing Society: Institutionalisation in the Netherlands after 1945
- Date
- Monday 18 May 2026
- Time
- Serie
- CMGI Brown Bag Seminars 2025-2026
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- 2.60
In the postwar decades, the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of institutionalised older people in Europe. From the 1970s and 1980s onwards, this changed as policies promoting deinstitutionalisation were introduced. While the decline of the retirement home has often been portrayed as a regrettable loss for older people, their own perspectives on these developments remain largely unexplored. This research therefore investigates why these institutions were established and what drove these developments. It examines whether such facilities were built to meet the housing and care preferences of older people, or whether they served other purposes. In doing so, it pays particular attention to how older people themselves were integrated into this history by examining what shaped their needs and wishes regarding housing, and whether and how these were reflected in policy. Ultimately, this study aims to explain patterns of institutionalisation in the Netherlands between 1945 and 1990, and to identify the actors, factors, and ideas that shaped them.