Series: The New Dynamics of Ageing
This series showcases state-of-the-art research from the New Dynamics of Ageing programme, the first multi-disciplinary and the largest programme of ageing research in Europe. Its findings provide insights into ageing and its impact on a global scale.
Together, the books in the series embrace all disciplines with an interest in ageing, encompassing direct engagement of older people and user organisations, and contain all of the main research findings, making them an essential source of reference.
The New Dynamics of Ageing
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This chapter discusses the domestic kitchen in the lives of older people whose ages range across four decades and who were born between 1919 and 1948. They were living in various types of housing from detached to terraced; from maisonette to flat; from mainstream to supportive. By looking at past experiences of the kitchen across the life course gendered and generational differences are seen that contribute to kitchen living in the 21st century. Examining use of the most recent kitchen shows how biopsychosocial factors come together with design and on-going adaptation being both enabling and disabling. The kitchen is seen as a mainstay of the home environment and in later life central to maintaining personal autonomy
This chapter discusses the Working Late research project, which investigated the practice and policy issues associated with later life working. This multidisciplinary research project explored later life working across three main themes: employment context, occupational health context and the work environment. The Working Late research was underpinned by active engagement with agencies, employers and older workers to guide the research process and deliver effective and wide ranging dissemination of the findings. The project developed and evaluated new interventions, resources and design solutions to promote health and quality of working life across the life course.
This chapter discusses the design of the NDA Programme, examining six different NDA projects. These projects range from virtual images to step and stair negotiations, to clothing design and manufacture. The chapter begins with a discussion of the aspects of ageing that are critical to the design process, such as inclusion, staying active, feeling connected and empowerment. It then considers designer competencies and interactions with user groups. It examines two specific projects, ‘Design for Ageing Well’ and ‘Transitions in Kitchen Living’. The chapter ends with a discussion of synergy across the six projects, despite the different research emphases and disciplinary contributors.
This chapter discusses food and nutrition, drawing on four diverse NDA projects with this common theme. It highlights the importance of nutrition to well-being in later life and the danger that malnutrition poses. After a brief description of the projects, the chapter examines four essential issues: biographical experiences with food and their impact in old age; lifestyle including physical, social and family contexts; health and well-being; and the loss of independence. The chapter presents key points into the roles that food plays in old age and clear policy guidance on how to tackle the scourge of under-nutrition.
This chapter discusses the various aspects of health and well-being in later life that were studied by fourteen different NDA projects. The first part of this chapter examines some of the key concepts in this field, including quality of life and subjective well-being. It focuses on the barriers to healthy ageing and good quality of life in old age. These include economic barriers, physiological effects, limits to mobility, barriers to paid employment, and psychosocial barriers. The second half of the chapter looks at interventions to support well-being and healthy ageing. Drawing on the extensive testing of models by the NDA projects, the chapter focuses on six different types of intervention: financial, pharmacological, physical (exercise), environmental (blue light and OWL), community music making, and engagement with art.
This chapter examines the contribution of the multi-disciplinary NDA Programme and outlines the new policy approach that is required to accompany the new scientific one advanced in this volume. It contends that that activity, in a wide variety of forms, is a key to well-being in later life. In order to highlight the potential of active ageing as a policy paradigm, as well as the risks of misrepresentation it entails, it discusses three parallel developments associated with population ageing. After examining the origins of active ageing, the chapter concludes by arguing that a new, more comprehensive approach to it would promote both citizenship and social inclusion.
This unique book represents the first multi-disciplinary examination of ageing, covering everything from basic cell biology, to social participation in later life, to the representations of old age in the arts and literature.
A comprehensive introductory text about the latest scientific evidence on ageing, the book draws on the pioneering New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, the UK’s largest research programme in ageing. This programme brought together leading academics from across the arts and humanities, social and biological sciences and fields of engineering and medical research, to study how ageing is changing and the ways in which this process can be made more beneficial to both individuals and society.
Comprising individual, local, national and global perspectives, this book will appeal to everyone with an interest in one of the greatest challenges facing the world – our own ageing.
This chapter presents a comprehensive introduction to the major gerontological topic of participation and social connectivity based on eleven separate NDA projects. Looking at Brazil, India, and South Africa, the chapter begins with a summary of the critical importance of participation to health and well-being in later life. It challenges negative stereotypes of ageing and older people, such as declining participation. It shows that older people do participate and are often tenacious in this but they are often confronted with multiple barriers that prevent them from doing so. The chapter concludes by citing examples on how to improve meaningful participation in later life, which ranges from community arts to literature.
This chapter outlines the objectives and contents of the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) Research Programme. It discusses significant changes taking place in the field of gerontological science. It also claims that the Programme was both a reflection of the shifting scientific context as well as a source of further stimulation to the changes already under way. The Programme was funded by five UK Research Councils covering the arts and humanities, biological sciences, engineering, social sciences, and medical research. It brought together researchers from every major discipline with an interest in ageing. The key elements of this emergent new science of ageing are multi-disciplinarity, user engagement, and knowledge exchange.
This chapter discusses the basic biology of ageing. First, it examines the social construction of age which emphasises that what biologists or biogerontologists understand as ageing, cell senescence, is only one manifestation of a complex phenomenon. Second, it provides an overview of the biology of ageing from theories of ageing processes to the idea of normal ageing. Third, it considers what might be done to modulate cellular ageing, such as calorie restriction, inhibiting stress and supplementing the immune system. It concludes by discussing the ethics of interventions in the ageing process.
