'Old age' and 'Active ageing' concepts within Belarusian discourses ; Sąvokos "senatvė" ir "aktyvus senėjimas" Baltarusijos diskursuose
The 20th century challenged the perception of the natural stages of life, ending in old age, which is normatively determined in connection with weakness and death. Modern demographic shift to population ageing and economic challenges to individuals, their families and states dictate the need to revise what are considered as the norms of age and to reinterpret the concepts of 'old age' and 'ageing'. Since the category of old age is not strictly biological, it is directly dependent on the meanings attached to this concept by society, while demographic, economic, political and other factors influence the public discourses and the very essence of ageing. At a time of astounding demographic change, social research and in particular discourse analysis are increasingly important in uncovering profound understanding of social processes and challenging areas. Researchers note that the structure of the global population has never changed so quickly in the history of mankind, especially in developed countries (Harper, 2014; Bloom, Mitgang & Osher, 2016). Significant quality changes in the life of a modern person allow them to retire full of energy and having financial opportunities to continue their life path and engage in their desired activities. These changes made it possible to identify a special concept for this reinterpreted period of life: the 'third age' (Laslett, 1989, p. 3) and even 'fourth age' (Higgs and Gilleard 2021). An optimistic view on the changed realities and mature age encourages many initiatives at the international and regional level to activate older people and ensure their full social inclusion. Furthermore, the 'activation' of older people is on the agenda of national and regional authorities, along with the task of studying the needs of the older population and possible barriers to social inclusion (Johnson & Falkingham, 1992; Lloyd-Sherlock, 2010; Stirling, 2010; WHO, 2010). The needs, as well as the issues and challenges of older people have become the object of rethinking for researchers and policy-makers of prosperous countries (WHO, 1982; UN, 2002, 2020); however, the increasing burden on the economies of states pushes politicians to consider this issue through the lens of the needs of a society in general and state budgets in particular. This is especially true in countries where demographic trends keep up with those of developed countries, but economic and political development is noticeably lagging behind (Martin & Kinsella, 1994; Mason, 2005; Mason & Lee, 2006). Policy incentives are adapted to extending working lives and to decrease early withdrawal from the labour market by offering additional bonuses for deferred pensions or even by raising the retirement age. Such changes are accompanied by rhetoric of usefulness for society and the individual: 'Active ageing is about helping older people to stay in work and share their experience. It is about them continuing to play an active role in society and living as healthy, independent and fulfilling lives as possible' (Eurofond, 2012). However, global Covid-19 pandemic showed the highest rate of death has been reported among old age people, and by this it highlights peculiar vulnerability of older citizens, their special needs and the relevance of discussions about old age as a category: 'later life has become a more actively constructed social space' (Higgs & Gilleard, 2021). Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, critical opinions about the concept of 'active ageing' were widening in sociological science; this did not prevent policymakers from continuing to actively promote and popularise it, shaping local social policies towards older people and causing changes in the perception of old age people and old age in society. Since the borrowing of such concepts by politicians and economists often occurs without attention to critical discourse and academic discussion, local discourse tends to neglect the variability of interpretations and considers only a part of the spectrum, setting the tone and securing a convenient interpretation. The very verbalisation of discrepancies and contradictions is the first step towards their further research with the help of large-scale quantitative sociological studies, as well as to the search for the solutions. Therefore, it seems extremely important in the current Belarusian socio-political situation the idea of studying discourse to discover crucial current and potential social issues. The concept of 'active ageing' was developed in Europe before the very first World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna in 1982, nevertheless the spread of 'active ageing'2 discourse in modern Belarusian realities is not accidental: negative economic and demographic trends (a decrease in the share of the working-age population and in revenues to the pension fund with a simultaneous decrease in GDP and an increase in inflation) in the region are becoming increasingly challenging for the state. The share of older people in the Belarusian population is growing, and the problem of the nation's ageing is becoming more and more obvious. Current UN forecasts (UN, 2019) suggest that while the population of Belarus will decrease, the old-age dependency ratio (the number of people over 65 per 100 working-age people) will almost double from 43 in 2015 to 82 in 2050 (Lisenkova & Bornukova, 2017). Striving to maintain its economy, Belarus is currently reforming the pension system. It was during this period that officials introduced and popularised the concept of 'active ageing', whose exact definition, however, has not yet been proposed. It was stated that the concept had to be developed by the end of 2019 along with 'The National Strategy for Senior Citizens' (its original name was 'The National Strategy for Active Longevity'). However, the concept of 'active ageing' is used in discussions about the need to rethink the concept of 'old age' in modern Belarusian discourse. The justification was based on economic factors, but no large-scale sociological research or analysis of public opinion had been conducted prior to the reform, neither had a broad public discussion been organised on this topic.
