On July 13(th) 2010, Lazlo Andor (Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) declared that active ageing could make the baby-boomers generation a part of the solution of the demographic problem, instead of identifying with it. This is the reason why the "Europe 2020" strategy draws the attention to the necessity of ensuring that the elderly will remain healthy and active for as long as possible. The purpose of this article is to define the exact concept of "active ageing", its content, as well as some beneficial tips by applying innovative programs in order to promote it in the European Union. Reading the published papers the impression is that despite the increasing number of the elderly in Europe, the potential of an active life while ageing can be beneficial in many ways for the society. It is required that the local and regional authorities create the appropriate conditions for participation, while making thoughtful use of the European funding programs.
1. Introduction / Christian Aspalter and Alan Walker -- 2. The concept of active ageing / Alan Walker -- 3. New perspectives for active ageing : the normative approach of developmental social policy / Christian Aspalter -- 4. Active ageing in South Korea / Sung-Jae Choi -- 5. Active ageing in Taiwan / Wan-I Lin -- 6. Active ageing in Hong Kong / Joe C.B. Leung -- 7. Active ageing in mainland China / Vivian W.Q. Lou -- 8. Active ageing in Malaysia / Sharifah Norazizan Syed Abdul Rashid -- 9. Active ageing in Singapore / Kalyani K. Mehta -- 10. Active ageing in Indonesia / Evi Nurvidya Arifin -- 11. Conclusion : the way forward for active ageing / Alan Walker and Christian Aspalter.
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"East Asian societies are changing rapidly, and one of the most important facets of this transformation is the ageing of society. 'Active ageing' is one of the few concepts available today to effectively address the problems arising from a highly-aged and, particularly in East Asia, fast-ageing society, offering a new social policy paradigm to redirect and innovate new social policies, particularly social services, social transfers, social regulations and laws, towards more investment in and support of the fast rising number of elderly citizens. This book focuses on the experiences of East Asian societies where active ageing has been implemented. It presents a thorough analysis of the concept of active ageing and its potential and problems of implementations in different stages of development in East Asia, whilst providing theoretical clarity to, and broadening the concept of, active ageing. Further, the country-focused case studies explore how to design, pursue, measure and evaluate social policies, highlight the problems related to the implementation of the concept of active ageing in social policy and outline the practical implications of active ageing theory in policy making. Active Ageing in Asia will appeal to students and scholars of social and public policy, social work, gerontology and health and social administration, as well as to policy makers working in the field"--
This study focuses on the concept of active ageing in the "Active Ageing: A Policy Framework" by World Health Organization. The purpose is to understand the meaning and the origins of the concept with the help of Foucauldian perspective. The analyzing method is content analysis guided by theory. The theoretical framework consists of Michel Foucault´s ideas about governmentality, subject and power and Nikolas Rose´s thoughts about governing. Gilles Deleuze´s control society is also part of the theoretical framework. The subject of active ageing needs to follow a regimen based on activity and health. Governmentality on the society level supports this subjectivity and thus connects them to the network of power; the special nature of the older population is recognized. Even though the concept is named "active ageing" the subjects do represent a wider age scale. These subjects need to prepare for the old age both economically and health-wise. This shows that the whole time of living, not only the old age, is medicalized. When it comes to the origins of the concept of active ageing and the user of power there is a connection to social gerontology and activity theory, and rationalities. The neoliberal rationality has affected on the knowledge that has been produced of the ageing and this is seen in the connection between the activity theory and active ageing. This, and the network structure of the different actors, makes it challenging to find the source of the power when it comes to the concept of active ageing.
Approaching a completely aged society, the Thai government attempts to promote active ageing in the elderly population. This article assesses Thailand's ageing schemes in the perspectives of Active Ageing Index (AAI). AAI is a composite index which reflects the overall living wellness of the elderly, covering their characteristics multi-dimensionally. The focus is to explore whether such schemes are in coherence with the behavioral attributes of the elderly in Thailand. The ordered logistic regression of data from the Survey of the Older Persons in 2017 recognizes influential behavioral attributes, emphasizing the need to revise policy perceptions. The findings show that variables related not only to health care and direct income provisions but also to decent choices of work, lifelong learning opportunities and community participation and involvement contribute to higher AAI level. Quantity-wise, Thailand has accomplished a wide coverage of health care and income security. Nevertheless, these policies remain passive and incoherent with the overall active ageing behavioral attributes. There is still a policy space to "actively" engage the elderly in the move. By increasing old-age-friendly infrastructures and market incentives in the forms of subsidies and tax schemes for the key players, namely, the elderly, themselves, and the business sectors will promote policy coherence.
Ageing takes place in Finland some 15 years earlier than in other European countries. The central actors in implementing active ageing policies are ministries that have been co-operating with each other. Active ageing policy in Finland has some of the advantages of networking in a small country, and also in the anticipation of the decrease in the share of the active population. First, all three central ministries, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education co-operate with each other. The success of various ageing programmes is largely based on this. In other countries, ministries usually have independent policies. Second, social partners include representatives of employers' and employees' organisations, as the tradition of tripartite thinking is strong in Finland. Third, research organisations support the research. For example, in the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health ageing studies began as early as 1981. Fourth, active ageing policies also focus on firm-level issues in addition to measures implemented at the individual and society levels. Firms have a clear incentive to prevent pensioners on disability emerging, since firms themselves have to pay a large part of the eventual pension expenses. There are, however, also major setbacks. Active ageing programmes such as the Ageing Programme and the Well-Being at Work Programme have been implemented in Finland for a fixed time period. There is a threat that much of the networking is lost after the programmes terminate. The cooperation between ministries may also diminish in the future programmes. The major problem in Finland that is not solved by any well being programmes is that the routes to exit from work are too generous. A new work life reform to renew the values of work is also called for. Finally, the integration of worklife and family life is considered an important issue, but issues related to active non-work time are seldom considered. An example of active time use that is ignored is household work. Household work is on average one third of the labour income for men and two-thirds of the labour income for women at age 50-64. Finally, the state of senior citizen policy is not very good in Finland. Private organisations of pensioners are relatively inactive. – Retirement ; Ageing Policy ; Demographic Trends ; Väestön ikääntyminen alkaa Suomessa noin 15 vuotta aikaisemmin kuin muissa Euroopan maissa. Keskeiset toimijat ikääntymisohjelmissa ovat ministeriöt, jotka ovat toimineet yhteistyössä. Yhteistyötä on edesauttanut verkostojen luominen, mikä voi olla helpompaa pienessä maassa. Yksi esimerkki tästä on sosiaali- ja terveysministeriön, työministeriön ja opetusministeriön yhteistyö, johon eri aktiiviseen ikääntymiseen liittyvien ohjelmien onnistuminen on perustunut. Eri työmarkkinaosapuolet ovat myös osallistuneet aktiivisesti toimintaan, joka on siten perustunut pitkälle kolmikanta-ajatteluun. Tutkimuslaitokset ovat myös tukeneet tutkimusta. Esimerkkinä tästä on Työterveyslaitoksen ikääntymistutkimus, joka on saanut alkunsa jo vuonna 1981. Viimeinen tärkeä tekijä aktiiviseen ikääntymiseen tähtäävien ohjelmien onnistumiselle on yritystason toiminta. Muista maista poiketen yrityksillä on selvä kannustin välttää työkyvyttömyyttä, koska yritykset kantavat suuren osan työttömyyseläkkeiden kustannuksista. Aktiivisen ikääntymisen toimenpiteissä on kuitenkin myös omat puutteensa. Ensinnäkin ikääntymisohjelma ja työssä jaksamisen ohjelma on asetettu määräajaksi. Uhkana on, että verkosto ei jatka toimintaansa ohjelmakauden loputtua. On myös mahdollista, että ministeriöiden välinen yhteistyö ei ole riittävää tai vähenee tulevaisuudessa. Aktiivisen ikääntymisen tavoitteiden toteuttaminen edellyttää myös työmaailmaan liittyvän arvomaailman uudistamista, missä ei olla edistytty riittävästi. Yksi ongelma on myös se, että työn ja perhe-elämän yhteensovittaminen koetaan kyllä tärkeäksi, mutta kuitenkin toiminta rajoittuu yleensä työssä jaksamiseen eikä aktiivisuuteen myös työajan ulkopuolella. Yksi esimerkki ajankäytöstä, johon ei panna paljoakaan painoa, on kotitaloustyö. Kuitenkin esimerkiksi 50-64 -vuotiailla kotitaloustyön arvon on noin kolmasosa palkkatyön arvosta miehillä ja kaksi kolmasosaa palkkatyön arvosta naisilla. Voidaan myös todeta, että eläkeläisjärjestöjen aktiivisuus on varsin vähäistä.
Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1: Towards an Evidence-Based Active Ageing Strategy -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Use of AAI for Policymaking -- 1.3 Subnational Adaptations of the AAI -- 1.4 Comparative Analysis of Active Ageing -- 1.5 Methodological Improvements in Measuring Active Ageing -- 1.6 Use of Active Ageing Index in Non-EU Countries -- References -- Part I: Building Evidence for Active Ageing Policies Active Ageing Index and its Potential -- 2: Are Societies with a High Value on the Active Ageing Index More Age Integrated? -- 2.1 Background -- 2.2 Conditions for Cross-age Interaction -- 2.2.1 Laws and Policies -- 2.2.2 Settings -- 2.2.3 Controls -- 2.3 Cross-age Interaction and Ageism -- 2.4 Method -- 2.4.1 Data -- 2.4.2 Measures -- 2.4.3 Analytical Strategy -- 2.5 Results -- 2.5.1 AAI and Settings Enabling Cross-age Interactions -- 2.5.2 Determinants of Cross-age Friendships -- 2.5.3 Cross-age Friendship and Ageism -- 2.6 Conclusion -- References -- 3: The Expected, Evaluated, Perceived, Valued and Prevalent Social Roles of Older People: Are They by Consent? -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 The Demography-Related Context and Roles Older People Are Expected to Play in Actively Ageing Societies -- 3.3 Social Roles in Higher Age -- 3.3.1 The Active Ageing Index as an Evaluation of Role Performance on the National Level -- 3.3.2 Roles to Play: As "Society" Sees It -- 3.3.3 Preferred Roles: From the Perspective of Older People Themselves -- 3.4 Expected, Evaluated, Perceived and Valued Roles: Are They by Consent? -- 3.5 Roles Played -- 3.6 Conclusions and Discussion -- References -- 4: The Active Ageing Index (AAI) and its Relation to the Quality of Life of Older Adults -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Methods, Data and Variables -- 4.3 Results -- 4.4 Discussion -- References.
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