‘Active ageing’ has become a key phrase in discourses about challenges and remedies for demographic ageing and the enrolment of older adults into voluntary work is an important dimension of it. The pattern and factors conditioning volunteering among older people has so far been an under-researched topic in Europe and this is the first book to study volunteering among older people comparatively and comprehensively.
In this topical book older people’s volunteering is studied in eight European countries at the structural, macro, meso and micro levels. Overall it highlights how different interactions between the levels facilitate or hinder older people’s inclusion in voluntary work and makes policy suggestions for an integrated strategy.
This book provides important new insights for academics and students interested in ageing societies, active ageing and voluntary work. It will also be of great value for policy makers and practitioners in third sector and voluntary organisations.
This controversial book argues that concepts such as ‘successful’ and ‘active’ ageing - ubiquitous terms in research, marketing and policy making concerned with older adults – are potentially dangerous paradigms that reflect and exacerbate inequalities in older populations.
This author presents a new theory to make sense of the popularity of these ‘successful’ and ‘active’ ageing concepts. Readers are invited to view them through the prism of Model Ageing – a theory that throws light on the causes and consequences of attempts to model ageing as a phenomenon and stage of life that is in need of direction, reshaping and control.
This is essential reading for anyone seeking to make sense of social constructions of ageing in contemporary societies.
, alcohol consumption, diet, and social class’ (WHO, 1999, p 14; my emphasis). Ageing – Exploding the Myths therefore reflects considerable tension between expectations regarding the ageing individual and the surrounding social context – tension that continues to plague notions of active ageing. In specifying ‘Action towards Active Age’ (WHO, 1999, p 21), the document carefully spells out ‘Individual action’ next to ‘Policy action’ with regard to each of the ten ‘Factors’ that contribute towards active ageing (foetal environment; childhood environment; smoking
233 THIRTEEN ‘Woo-hoo, what a ride!’ older people, life stories and active ageing Lorna Warren and Amanda Clarke introduction A popular email is currently being widely circulated: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ‘WOO-HOO what a ride!’ What is appealing about this message is its explicit lay challenge to exhortations towards active and
among some of the older discussants. Community services were also being reviewed. Age Concern, for example, was hoping to broaden its appeal by developing some of its activities across the district. The officer in charge of active ageing services explained: 104 Christopher Deeming Policy & Politics vol 37 no 1 • 93–111 (2009) • 10.1332/030557309X397946 ‘We are keen to establish some buildings which could be firm bases for our Active Age Service where we could actually develop some sort of centres of excellence, if you like, for older people, but at the same time
47 FOUR Active ageing: social participation and volunteering in later life Áine Ní Léime and Sheelah Connolly Introduction Extended healthy life expectancy across many Western countries has contributed to the period after retirement being increasingly viewed as a time of health and activity. International organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), advocate ‘active ageing’ as a solution to the policy challenges associated with demographic ageing (Walker and Maltby, 2012), as have many national governments
193 TEN From representation to active ageing in a Manchester neighbourhood: designing the age-friendly city Stefan White and Mark Hammond Introduction This chapter explores what it means to use a ‘capability’ approach to designing an age-friendly city and its potential for developing physical and social environments that respond directly to the lived experiences of older people. Drawing on an interdisciplinary collaborative research/ design project that has informed the development of Manchester’s age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) programme, it
265 10 Changing patterns of grandparenting and their implications for active ageing in England and South Korea Hyejin Choi Introduction Since 2000, social investment has risen up the policy agenda across the globe. The idea is to replace the traditional welfare state strategy – that is, providing direct cash benefits, with a social investment state which focuses on human capital development in order to afford sustainable economic growth and the welfare of the population (Hemerijck, 2007: 12–13). Social investment strategy emphasises preparing rather than
‘successful ageing’ (Walker and Maltby, 2012) and ‘productive ageing’ (Fischer and Schaffer, 1993, p 6; Morrow-Howell et al, 2001), rather than on the WHO approach based on active ageing. However, the available studies do not provide detailed analytical information on whether and how new ideas and concepts such as active aging have an impact on Europe’s national welfare systems, voluntary organisations, policies as well as on older citizens’ orientations. That is, we don’t know how the recent discourse about active ageing has had an influence on different societal
of the liberal model as far as cooperation between non-profit organisations and public authorities has evolved from institutional oversight towards 150 Active ageing a contractual partnership based on a shared responsibility for social investment (Archambault, 2002, 2012). The heterogeneous nature of the French ‘third sector’ – which comprises cooperatives, mutual aid societies and foundations as well as the non-profit organisations (or associations) at the centre of this chapter – can largely be put down to its regulation based on the principle of social
