Search results

Ageing populations are national and global phenomena. These older residents are likely to be among the most disadvantaged nationally and in comparison with younger neighbours. The benefits of active ageing are attracting attention from policy makers globally, as it is increasingly recognised that age‐friendly cities encourage active ageing. Resources to sustain active ageing are becoming scarce. Older people's health, social activity, needs, aspirations and the barriers to realising them are at the centre of this investigation. The purpose of this paper is to explore inclusion and exclusion within some of England's most deprived areas.

Between 2002‐2007, over 600 older Liverpool people, key informants and policy makers in five of Liverpool's poorest electoral wards were consulted via semi‐structured questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus groups about their needs and aspirations.

Barriers to active ageing arose primarily from participants' poverty, ill‐health and deprivation, poor neighbourhoods, ageism, and insecure, gendered, racialised and sectarian space.

This in‐depth investigation into active ageing consulted over 600 older people in some of Liverpool's poorest neighbourhoods. In disseminating knowledge of Liverpool's situation, the paper adds significantly to knowledge around the severe challenges to active ageing in localities characterised by multiple deprivation.

This paper seeks to evaluate the EU's “active ageing” agenda as a governance strategy for the activation of older workers, and its impact on the regulation both of those who make, and those who are the objects of, policy. This case study is used to reflect more broadly on the implications of governance strategies for the regulation of social subjects in the European Union (EU).

The paper adopts a model of governance comprising two dimensions, namely formal policy (policy aims) and operational policy (policy means). This model is used to explain how and to what effect, discourses and institutions interact in EU governance to produce particular forms of social subject regulation; in this case, activation.

For the operational dimension, the paper explores how contradictions and tensions within and between employment, pensions and social inclusion policies are reflected in, and the products of, a re‐allocation of responsibilities between the EU, member states, social partners, and individuals. For the formal dimension, it explains how employment for older workers is constructed as having a different meaning to the employment of other workers, and how EU discourse on active ageing disguises crucial inequalities between groups of older workers, both pre‐ and post‐retirement.

The paper concludes that active ageing policy in the EU institutes a new category of social subject, apparently eliding the former distinction between employment and retirement, namely the “activated retiree”.

The paper demonstrates the efficacy of the two‐dimensional approach to the empirical analysis of governance strategies and identifies how key tensions in the production of EU social policies directly impact on the regulation of social subject categories in the EU.

The article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of older people's situation in the labour market in three Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Three Nordic countries are taken as a reference point to compare the countries in order to better understand the situation from a comparative point of view. The article asks the questions: Does a longer working life for older people contribute to their better economic situation? How satisfied are they with a longer working life and their working conditions? Do they experience any discrimination in the labour market because of their age?

In order to understand the situation of older people in the labour market, the authors employ welfare state models and the Active Ageing Index. The welfare state models help us to understand the context in which the working life of older people is taking place. The Active Ageing Index helps to gain a better understanding of the employment domain of active ageing. The analysis is based on several Europe-wide data sources: statistics on earnings from Eurostat database, information on income, job prospects, occupational safety and health, training, working life perspectives from the European Working Conditions Survey as well as a special survey, conducted by the authors, of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian residents aged 50 years and older.

Analysis conducted reveals that in the Baltic countries older employees, although actively participating in the labour market, face unfavourable material, physical and psychological situation in the labour market more frequently than their younger colleagues. The findings show that the most important factors influencing older employees' decision to stay longer in the labour market in the Baltic countries are linked mostly to welfare state-related issues, i.e. financial benefits, healthcare, possibility to reconcile work and family obligations. These welfare state-related issues are even more important for those who are going to stay longer in the labour market after reaching the retirement age.

This article contributes to a better understanding of older (50+) people's situation in the labour market. It suggests that, while the increasing employment of older people increases the Active Ageing Index and is generally viewed positively, in some countries with less developed welfare states high employment rates of older employees, although providing them with an additional means of livelihood, do not ensure a higher quality of life and, on the contrary, act as a factor reducing the quality of work and, at the same time, the quality of life.

This article attempts to match the future needs of older people with the possibilities arising from applications based on new technology.

This article examines the implications of novel applications for active ageing policy. These applications are forecast to arise from the convergence of two or more previously separated science disciplines and technologies, including information and communication technologies, nanotechnologies, biotechnology and cognitive sciences.

Research on converging applications (CA) is largely driven by health applications, and is likely to spill over into the older generation's specific needs. Today, older people's most urgent needs require little CA. In the future, however, the role of CA will become more important as technology develops and is more widely used.

Owing to demographic change and its expected social and economic implications, there is a need to investigate how upcoming applications could contribute to the future specific needs of the older population.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on developments in Norwegian companies’ active-ageing policies, and hence offer insight into what characterises those Norwegian companies offering measures to retain their older workers.

The research questions are investigated using data from two surveys carried out among a representative sample of Norwegian companies in 2005 and 2010. The two data sets are analysed both separately and jointly, being merged to obtain a pooled cross-section data set. Both multivariate logistic and linear regression are applied.

The proportion of companies offering retention measures, as well as the extensiveness of their retention efforts (the number of different measures offered), has increased considerably from 2005 to 2010. What characterises these companies however is surprisingly similar in 2005 and 2010. The retention efforts of Norwegian companies seem to be part of a holistic approach to active ageing. Offering a number of different retention measures is more common among companies having initiated “measures to facilitate lifelong learning” and “measures to prevent health problems or reduced work capacity”. The financial incentives embedded in the contractual early retirement scheme seem also to have a significant impact on retention efforts.

The employers’ perspective has received little attention in previous research and the authors are the first to report on developments in Norwegian companies’ retention efforts over time. Knowledge about what characterises employers offering such measures will be important for future efforts to increase employments rates among older workers, which is an aim for most European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the benefits and challenges of the advocacy group for intergenerational policies that was created in Portugal in 2012, the European Year of Active Ageing and solidarity between generations.

The group conducted nine closed group meetings scheduled every three months with an average attendance of five members and six public events bringing together researchers, policy makers, practitioners and civil society.

The group was established as a response to the various social changes happening in Portugal as a consequence of the ageing population, low-birth rate and migration, leading to the need to explore new responses which are based both on the need to promote active ageing and intergenerational solidarity and also the importance of family and state support to multigenerational families as a building block to strengthen communities.

The paper sets the context of the changing social situation in Portugal, describes the process used through both closed and public meetings to discuss this and then describes the perspectives of four core groups.

Only by pooling resources and thinking intergenerationally will we be able to deliver the opportunities and support that the citizens will need to enable them to age well across the life course.

Drawing on this and the strong tradition of the family in Portugal it seeks to make the case that an

ntergenerational approach is essential to the countries future social well-being.

The creation of the advocacy group created a private space for professionals to explore and strengthen their understanding of the impact of these issues and the potential of approaching policy as an intergenerational issue as one solution.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on developments in Norwegian companies’ active ageing policies, and hence offer insight into what characterizes those Norwegian companies offering measures to retain their older workers.

The research questions are investigated using data from two surveys carried out among a representative sample of Norwegian companies in 2005 and 2010. The two data sets are analyzed both separately and jointly, being merged to obtain a pooled cross-section data set. Both multivariate logistic and linear regression are applied.

The proportion of companies in Norway offering retention measures, as well as the extensiveness of their retention efforts (the number of different measures offered), has increased considerably from 2005 to 2010. What characterizes these companies however are surprisingly similar in 2005 and 2010. Their retention efforts seem to be part of a holistic approach to active ageing. Offering a number of different retention measures is more common among companies having initiated “measures to facilitate lifelong learning” and “measures to prevent health problems or reduced work capacity”.

The employers’ perspective has received little attention in previous research and the authors are the first to report on developments in Norwegian companies’ retention efforts over time. Knowledge about what characterizes employers offering such measures will be important for future efforts to increase employments rates among older workers, which is an aim for most European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to present a programme developed and tested in Portugal under this new paradigm where young adults (18-30) and old adults (over 65) learn research skills together.

The structure of the learning experience consists in a six-month training course for lay people in research skills in three specific areas of family, mental health and intergenerational relationships. In order to apply the acquired research and intervention knowledge, participants work in intergenerational groups on a small research project.

Results from the first two editions of the programme indicate benefits of mutual reciprocity in the contribution to tackle ageism and trust between generations.

The potential practice implications for this type of intergenerational programme are significant, considering the increasing aging population in Portugal and the high ageism present. However, the authors may ask if the encountered results are the same with another type of learning subject. Therefore, the authors recommend a replication of this study/programme in other fields.

An integrated active ageing goes from a senior cultural entertainment to a public policy intervention sustained over time, reducing costs in terms of health, education and social services.

Ageism, that is to say discrimination against people because of their age, is an enormous social problem. The new intergenerational learning paradigm can help to address this by emphasizing the importance of the intergroup contact between generations where each group can learn from and teach the other.

The authors can say that these first two editions of the Intergenerational University was a first outlook of how the authors can innovate learning processes at universities and bring research to the public. It is a methodology of social responsibility universities may adopt.