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This paper aims to promote a reflection and a discussion about the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) by the elderly people because this group of citizens has the serious risk of being «e-Excluded». Some initiatives of the European Union and of Portugal are presented and explained to make clear the efforts that were done and some that are still being done to promote and allow the participation of elderly people in order in the use of ICT in their daily activities: «e-Inclusion». Because elderly people constitutes and heterogeneous group this paper tries to put in evidence some of the main barriers and constraints when elderly people use ICT. However the paper also aims to present some trends for the future that may overcome the present difficulties to promote an active ageing with the help and support of technologies/ICT.

The activation concepts in social policy are frequently interpreted within the context of the social welfare reform, performed in the United States of America, during the 1990s as well as the programs of active policies on the labor market (the New Deals) introduced in Great Britain at the end of the last decade. Their assumptions, however, date back in the period of the first laws for the poor, when effectuating of their social rights was conditional upon accepting an employment. At the beginning of the XXI century, numerous European social states, facing transformations in the world of work, family and ageing patterns, identified the need to change their social policies and adapt them pursuant to different economic, political and social circumstances. These changes mostly occur in terms of introduction (or highlighting) of active measures into employment policies, as well as limiting the rights to social help, at least to a certain degree, by performing some work, i. e. participating in various training or prequalification programs. They also include benefits for employment, directed towards people with disabilities and families with children. Along with that, the activation principle has been expanded, so as to include the ageing policies and various programs of early retirement and active ageing in general. Overcoming the passive position of social help recipients, by giving them choices and initiatives in those situations in which it is a realistic option, enables establishing of more direct connection between work, as (economically) the most reliable way of preventing social risks (especially social exclusion) and rights in the social security system. Depending on various social determinants and factors, the contents and mea­sures of the active social policy programs, as well as their presence in different countries, show certain national specifics. Pursuant to that, their reach and efficiency also differ. . ; Koncepti aktiviranja u socijalnoj politici često se interpretiraju u kontekstu reforme socijalne ...

The process of transitioning to an ageing population has occurred later, but nevertheless more intensely, in Southern Europe than in other regions. Consequently, these countries have been forced to politically, socially and economically adapt to this significant challenge. Sociologists play an important role in identifying and understanding social trends and issues, as well as in contributing to the design of public policies across Europe. However, research has tended to explore issues of ageing populations in Northern Europe, in spite of the notable demographic shifts and contextual specificities of Southern Europe. In response, this study has a dual objective: first, to collect the theoretical and methodological contributions of authors from or focusing on Southern Europe, and second to explore the originality of studies that belong to Southern European sociological traditions. In order to systematise the study, the theoretical paradigm of Marshall's classification of social science theories in the field of ageing is used. Specifically, the present study incorporates the topics of active ageing, adult education and ageing at work as the main foci of analysis. The results of this theoretical study show that the sociology of Southern Europe can contribute significantly both to the issue of ageing and to public policies for its management, in the process providing a more holistic and human-centred approach.

Alexandre Sidorenko – Senior Advisor, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, Austria. Email: sidorenko.alexandre@gmail.com
Asghar Zaidi – Professor in International Social Policy, University of Southampton, UK. Email: Asghar.Zaidi@soton.ac.uk
The central goal of this article is to review progress made in implementing the international policy frameworks on ageing, focusing on the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing (VIPAA) and in more detail on the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). The article offers a critical examination of the current approaches to monitoring and assessing the implementation process, outlining promising avenues for the future. In this way, the limitations of the current procedures for following the policy priorities of the MIPAA can be highlighted. What is found is that progress in many countries is hampered by inherent subjectivity in assessing and reporting advancement, lack of continuity and consistency, and difficulties in comparing the national level progress with international development in the same areas. The current year, 2017 / 2018, is momentous as we reach the end of the third five-year implementation cycle of the MIPAA. Introspection now should not merely focus on assessing the progress made but also on how the implementation of the MIPAA could be strengthened. In the same spirit, the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals presents new opportunities; especially its pledges 'Leave no one behind' and 'Reach the furthest behind first', which imply that the older population can serve as agents of development. In moving forward, an essential requirement will have to be the establishment of an internationally acceptable set of indicators, which can be employed for assessing national progress in addressing the challenges and opportunities of ageing and monitoring the international efforts to implement international policy frameworks like the MIPAA. Along the lines of the dashboard of indicators used in the Active Ageing Index 'AAI', there should be a MIPAA monitoring toolkit with different layers of indicators, which are aligned with the three priority directions of the MIPAA.

AbstractSet against a broad European policy agenda which promotes 'ageing in place' and representations of older people as active, independent citizens, this article compares recent English and French policy discourses on population ageing and its implications for the housing needs of increasingly large numbers of older citizens. Through analysis of six recent strategic policy statements representing each government's official responses to population ageing and its social policy implications for the 21st century, we demonstrate how differences in the social representation of the ageing process and of older peoples themselves permeate policy discourse, influencing the perceptions of the housing needs of older citizens and the role that housing itself may play in promoting independent living. In England, demographic ageing, housing and its role in facilitating independent living and active ageing are explicitly articulated, whilst in France, the housing environment has until recently, been portrayed as one which must accommodate the illness, incapacity and dependency of later life. Our article offers explanations for these differences in terms of cultural variations in the social representations or 'constructions' of later life, divergences in political philosophies and welfare principles.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the relationship between work and ageing has become increasingly visible as a policy issue. It is both reflected in and influenced by changes in macro-economic policy, life-opportunities and social attitudes associated with growing older, as a combination of falling birth rates and increased longevity, and has put pressure on the traditional parameters of the working age. The idea of retiring at a fixed point in the life-course, to enjoy a period of rest or leisure at the end of a working life, emerged in many advanced economies during the 1900s and evolved into policies that encouraged early retirement as the baby-boomers entered the jobs market in the 1960s and 1970s (Phillipson and Smith, 2005). Early retirement, itself a relatively recent development, gave rise to the possibility of a 'third age' of leisure and active ageing (Laslett, 1987), but as demographic and economic changes make themselves felt, it is again becoming an uncertain prospect for many older workers (Biggs and McGann, 2015).

There are great physical and cognitive benefits for older adults who are engaged in active aging, a process that should involve daily exercise. In our previous work on the PHysical Assistant RObot System (PHAROS), we developed a system that proposed and monitored physical activities. The system used a social robot to analyse, by means of computer vision, the exercise a person was doing. Then, a recommender system analysed the exercise performed and indicated what exercise to perform next. However, the system needed certain improvements. On the one hand, the vision system captured the movement of the person and indicated whether the exercise had been done correctly or not. On the other hand, the recommender system was based purely on a ranking system that did not take into account temporal evolution and preferences. In this work, we propose an evolution of PHAROS, PHAROS 2.0, incorporating improvements in both of the previously mentioned aspects. In the motion capture aspect, we are now able to indicate the degree of completeness of each exercise, identifying the part that has not been done correctly, and a real-time performance correction. In this way, the recommender system receives a greater amount of information and so can more accurately indicate the exercise to be performed. In terms of the recommender system, an algorithm was developed to weigh the performance, temporal evolution and preferences, providing a more accurate recommendation, as well as expanding the recommendation to a batch of exercises, instead of just one. ; This work was partly supported by the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnología through the Post-Doc scholarship SFRH/BPD/102696/2014 and by the Spanish Government TIN2016-76515-R Grant supported with Feder ...

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of plates -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of boxes -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- Introduction -- Research questions -- Methodology -- Methodological issues associated with the interviews -- Ageing as a grand societal challenge -- Demography and ageing: global and national perspectives -- Ageing as an interdisciplinary research area: its evolution and social science perspectives -- Structure of the book -- 2 Ageing, the visitor economy and a leisure society -- Introduction -- The visitor economy: a new concept for analysis? -- Conceptualising ageing: what is old age? -- Ageing and society: issues associated with ageism -- Conceptualising and theorising the ageing - visitor economy relationship -- The leisure paradox in later life -- Leisure, retirement and ageing: social theory and leisure perspectives -- Activity Theory -- Disengagement Theory -- Continuity Theory -- The contribution of tourism studies to ageing research -- Conceptualising tourism as a form of mobility -- Tourism studies and ageing -- Tourism as a consumer activity: Life-Cycle Theory, generational marketing and ageing -- The financial climate and affordability of leisure and holidays: the pensions crisis and retirement -- Poverty and old age: the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' -- Active ageing and participation -- The multigenerational family and tourism -- Ageing and care settings: housing needs, retirement villages, sheltered accommodation and care homes -- The ageing market as a potential opportunity for seasonality -- Summary -- 3 Ageing as a societal challenge: visitor health, well-being, accessibility and the visitor economy -- Introduction -- Civil society and ageing -- The normalisation principle debate -- Civil society organisations.

Allergic diseases often occur early in life and persist throughout life. This life-course perspective should be considered in allergen immunotherapy. In particular it is essential to understand whether this al treatment may be used in old age adults. The current paper was developed by a working group of AIRWAYS integrated care pathways for airways diseases, the model of chronic respiratory diseases of the European Innovation Partnership on active and healthy ageing (DG CONNECT and DG Santé). It considered (1) the political background, (2) the rationale for allergen immunotherapy across the life cycle, (3) the unmet needs for the treatment, in particular in preschool children and old age adults, (4) the strategic framework and the practical approach to synergize current initiatives in allergen immunotherapy, its mechanisms and the concept of active and healthy ageing.

Older people today find themselves in a more favourable life situation than previous generations: Many of them have a high standard of living, a high level of education and good health. In view of this potential, the question arises as to what plans and ideas older people have today about living in the "third age". What decisions do they make in their transition to retirement with regard to further employment participation, civil society involvement or family support? This volume presents current findings from the interdisciplinary study "Transitions and Old Age Potential (TOP)" by the Federal Institute for Population Research on the life plans, potentials and transitions of 55- to 70-year-olds in Germany. In addition to presenting current scientific results, the volume aims to derive recommendations for action for politicians, companies and civil society organisations - and not least for the elderly themselves.

Background: Populations of low and middle-income countries are ageing rapidly; there is a need for policies that support an increase in the duration of old age lived in good health. There is growing evidence that social participation protects against morbidity and mortality, but few studies explore patterns of social participation. Analysis of baseline quantitative and qualitative data from a trial of the impact of Elders' Clubs on health and wellbeing in the hill country of Sri Lanka provided an opportunity to better understand the extent of, and influences on, social participation among elders. Methods: We analysed data from 1028 baseline survey respondents and from 12 focus group discussions. Participants were consenting elders, aged over 60 years, living in Tamil tea plantation communities or Sinhala villages in 40 randomly selected local government divisions. We assessed participation in organised social activities using self-reported attendance during the previous year. Multivariable regression analyses were used to explore associations with community and individual factors. The quantitative findings were complemented by thematic analysis of focus group discussion transcripts. Results: Social participation in these poor, geographically isolated communities was low: 63% reported 'no' or 'very low' engagement with organised activities. Plantation community elders reported significantly less participation than village elders. Attendance at religious activities was common and valued. Individual factors with significant positive association with social participation in multivariable analyses were being younger, male, Sinhala, married, employed, and satisfied with one's health. Domestic work and cultural constraints often prevented older women from attending organised activities. Conclusions: Elders likely to benefit most from greater social contact are those most likely to face barriers, including older women, the oldest old, those living alone and those in poor health. Understanding these barriers can inform strategies to overcome them. This might include opportunities for both informal and formal social contact close to elders' homes, consulting elders, providing childcare, improving physical access, advocating with elders' families and religious leaders, and encouraging mutual support and inter-generational activities. Influences on social participation are interrelated and vary with the history, culture and community environment. Further study is required in other low and middle-income country contexts.

Seventy four Reference Sites of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) have been recognised by the European Commission in 2016 for their commitment to excellence in investing and scaling up innovative solutions for active and healthy ageing. The Reference Site Collaborative Network (RSCN) brings together the EIP on AHA Reference Sites awarded by the European Commission, and Candidate Reference Sites into a single forum. The overarching goals are to promote cooperation, share and transfer good practice and solutions in the development and scaling up of health and care strategies, policies and service delivery models, while at the same time supporting the action groups in their work. The RSCN aspires to be recognized by the EU Commission as the principal forum and authority representing all EIP on AHA Reference Sites. The RSCN will contribute to achieve the goals of the EIP on AHA by improving health and care outcomes for citizens across Europe, and the development of sustainable economic growth and the creation of jobs.