Active Ageing

Background: The academic literature contains little information regarding the interventions that create age-friendly cities and communities in order to promote active ageing. Objectives: A systematic review was carried out to determine the available empirical evidence in relation to the characteristics, content and effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving environmental and psychosocial risk factors for older people, from the perspective of age-friendly communities and the promotion of active ageing. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, the studies retained in this review were identified through a systematic search of the academic literature in selected electronic databases including Web of Science and Scopus. Independent critical appraisal and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers. The checklist was used to assess the quality of the articles. Findings: The search identified 1020 potentially eligible documents, of which 11 satisfied the established criteria. Non-exhaustive practices prevailed over rigorous investigations, with a high proportion of studies observed to be of low methodological quality and at high risk of bias. This reflected the predominance of uncontrolled interventions. Environmental interventions were focused on reducing risk and adapting the everyday environmental setting, while psychosocial interventions prioritised social strategies (behavioural changes, promotion of participation) and training. Interventions were more effective in certain domains of age-friendly cities and communities such as transportation and housing, followed by increased participation as a lifestyle-related behavioural change. The inferred changes were associated with providing information and enhancing skills; modifying access, barriers, exposures, and opportunities; enhancing services and support; continuity and effectiveness of changes over time; and modifying policies based on the bottom-up approach of age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC). Discussion and conclusion: Interventions focused on personal and organisational aspects might have positive effects in the longer term. However, fewer changes would be observed in interventions revolving around changing lifestyles owing to the impact of complex multi-causal factors. The relative effectiveness in terms of health calls into question the design of interventions and the supposed "friendliness" of certain communities. There is a need to encourage sound longitudinal research aimed at providing key knowledge for the implementation and evaluation of public policies, and to encourage age-friendly community programmes to promote active ageing.

Background: recent evidence suggests that the interaction between periods of sedentary and activity behaviour is important for health; providing distinctive information to assessment of activity alone. This study quantified activity and sedentary behaviour in older, community-dwelling adults. Methods: fifty-six community-dwelling older adults with an average age 79 (SD) years wore an ActivPAL accelerometer for 7 days and were assessed for a range of motor, cognitive and affective characteristics. Seven variables derived from accelerometry considered to represent four characteristics of habitual behaviour (volume, frequency, intensity and variability) were submitted to principal components factor analysis (PCA). Factor scores were retained and used as dependent variables in regression analysis. Results: three significant orthogonal factors emerged from the PCA, accounting for 80% of the variance in test scores: 'walking behaviour' which accounted for 39% of variance in the model; 'sedentary behaviour' explaining 24.3% of total variance; and 'postural transitions' which accounted for 16.7% of total variance. For the regression analysis, younger age and lower body mass index (BMI) emerged as significant predictors of physical behaviour, explaining 36% of the total variance. For postural transitions, lower BMI was the unique contributor, explaining 15% of total variance. Significant predictors of sedentary behaviours were not identified. Conclusions: walking, sedentary and transitory behaviours are distinct from each other, and together explain daily function. Further research on a larger sample is indicated to explore the characteristics that explain these behaviours, in particular the interplay between sedentary behaviour and periods of physical activity.

“Active ageing” has become the leading scientific and policy conceptualization of a later life over the past two decades in the European Union (EU). It has been used as a key strategy for responding to demographic ageing. In the United States, in contrast, discourses around successful ageing have been more prevalent. This review article charts the development of active ageing responses to demographic change, showing how the concept compares with the notion of successful ageing and other terms associated with “ageing well.” It identifies how, in practice, active ageing has been dominated by a narrow economic or productivist interpretation that prioritizes the extension of working life (to reduce the “burden” of population ageing). Such interpretations of active ageing undermine its value and emphasize the need for a more comprehensive approach which is set out. The development of the Active Ageing Index in 2012 provided a new analytical tool to promote evidence-based strategies towards population ageing. However, in practice, we show how it has not yet engaged fully with a comprehensive approach to active ageing or with the critical role of the life course in shaping the experience of old age. Nonetheless, this review article shows that the concept of active ageing still has an important role to play in our understanding of and responses to population ageing.

Positive psychology and third wave cognitive behavioral therapy approaches have seldom been applied to older adults. This study therefore examined whether two concepts drawn from these areas, hope for the future and avoidance in the present, were associated with well-being in a sample of 259 older adults (65 to 94 years). Hope was measured as a stable trait. Experiential avoidance was measured as avoidance of present internal and external events. Respondents also completed two well-being measures: hedonic (positive and negative affect) and eudeimonic (meaning in life). Path analyses showed that high hope was significantly associated with high positive affect, and high meaning in life; and high experiential avoidance was associated with high negative affect and low meaning in life. This was also true when both (hope and avoidance) were taken into account, along with sociodemographic variables and perceived health. Many of the pathways between hope and well-being, and between experiential avoidance and well-being appear to be bidirectional. However the path from hope to positive affect was stronger than that from positive affect to hope. Further research is needed to clarify each of these points. Both hope for the future and lack of avoidance in the present are important for well-being in older adulthood and interventions targeting these processes may enhance positive aging and contribute to a sense of having a meaningful life.

Social capital has been a popular concept used in research and policy to stress the value of social contacts for the health and well-being of older adults. However, not much is known about the obstacles to and the opportunities for local social contacts in older adults’ everyday lives. In this paper we provide a geographical account of older adults’ social capital, by taking the main context of their daily life, the neighbourhood, into consideration. We draw on semi structured and walking interviews with 17 older adults living in an urban neighbourhood in the Northern Netherlands in order to illustrate the meanings of, the obstacles to and the opportunities for local social contacts. Our findings show that the neighbourhood is not an isotropic surface where opportunities for developing social capital are evenly distributed. The potential benefits of older adults’ local social contacts differ depending on the place of social interaction
within the neighbourhood and expectations associated with these interactions. Furthermore, different time geographies of older and younger residents as well as ageist stereotypes of older adults’ body capital influence the development of social capital in the neighbourhood.

Technology is entwined in 21st Century society, and within the lives of people across all ages. The Technology In Later Life (TILL) study is the first piece of work contributing to the impact, behavior, and perception of technology use, by adults aged ≥70 years, residing in rural and suburban areas. TILL is an international, multi-centred, multi-methods study investigating and conceptualizing how various technologies impact the lives of older adults; residing in urban and rural locations in the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada. This in-depth study recruited 37 participants via a multi-methods approach. Analysis of the findings ascertained two overarching themes: facilitators of technology use (i.e., sharing of information and feeling secure), and detractors of technology (i.e., feelings of apprehension of use). Proposed recommendations include promotion of technology from a strengths-based perspective focusing on positive opportunities technology to improve health and wellbeing, creating a peer support network to assist with learning of new technology, and the need to examine further how intergenerational relationships may be enhanced through the use of technology. The distinction of these themes narrates to the originality of this initial study and milieu of recruited participants, intersecting across the fields of gerontology, geography, social sciences, and gerontechnology.

Ageing Europeans are today healthier than previous generations and often manage to live independently up to a high age. The proportion of people 80 years of age and older has increased significantly, and with high age the risk of multi-illness and dementia increases. Strong urbanisation processes have changed the demographic structure in rural areas, and young women and men have migrated towards the urban areas to study and work, while older persons have remained behind. This demographic challenge of increasing numbers of persons older than 80 years with care needs living in remote rural areas has become a major European social problem. In tackling this dilemma, many European countries have high expectations for eHealth, digitalisation and welfare technology. In this comparative study of policy debates in Italy, Finland and Sweden, we analyse howbetween 2009 and 2019the issues of eHealth have been articulated in national and regional policies of the three countries with deep differences in terms of digitalisation and health systems, but with similar ageing populations. We identify in the documents three core topicsthe role of technology, the rural issue and responsibility for care. These topics are treated in the documents with differences and similarities between the three countries. Beyond the differences and similarities, the documents reveal both a certain techno-enthusiasm about the role of eHealth in the life of the older adults as well as a limited understanding of the complexity (relationally as well as spatially) of the digital landscape of caring for older adults.

Social participation amongst older adults is considered generally beneficial and is supported by active ageing policies in Europe. However, efforts to increase the quality of life and enhance the ageing experience may have the unintended consequence of increasing later life inequalities. This study uses six waves from SHARE to illustrate how social participation develops over time and how it is structured by education, financial situation and health status in the context of five European welfare regimes. The level of participation slightly increases over time for the population 55+, whilst the inequalities in access to these activities and their outcomes remain stable. Therefore, support of these activities does not strengthen or reduce inequalities amongst older adults – it may rather legitimise the inequalities in its emphasis on individual responsibilities. These findings suggest that the active ageing approach needs to become more context-sensitive or replaced by other social policy approaches.

It seems rather obvious that the experience of ageing is not indifferent to gender, and that studies of gender ought to account for ageing and old age. Yet, the two subject matters have been rarely investigated together. This is due to the tendency to reduce ageing (as well as its gendered aspects) either to supposedly biological necessities or to their social construction and restrictions. Notwithstanding, both ageing and gender are first and foremost bodily phenomena. Aging, as well as gender are dimensions we experience, incorporate and express through our bodies.
The aim of the proposed paper is to bridge the gap between the biological and social approaches to ageing and gender with a phenomenological-anthropological approach. In this respect, I want to argue that the biological and the social are intertwined in human embodiment. The paper thus addresses ageing and gender neither as purely biological nor as merely discursive phenomena, but as phenomena of an embodied experience. Experience in this sense is necessarily situated, constituted by biological, material, historical and socio-cultural circumstances. As situated bodily beings, we not only have a first, but also a second nature: social norms are incorporated in the ways we habitually relate to the world, ourselves and others. While the process of ageing always confronts us with the finitude and materiality of our bodily being in general, with respect to gender and ageing, this means, as situated, specific circumstances and norms influence not only the way we think about ageing, but also the processes of becoming older and the experience of our aged bodies.

This paper examines the contributions that generativity in older age may make to the concept of successful ageing. To this end, two perspectives on successful ageing are described: successful ageing as a set of clinical criteria, and successful ageing as the application of adaptive processes aimed at achieving efficient functioning. After showing the limitations of the first perspective, particularly from a developmental point of view, the paper argues that the adaptive version of successful ageing helps to put ageing into a developmental frame, but needs to be complemented by identifying specific content and goals that guide these adaptive processes and establish new feasible gains for older people. Generativity in older age could play that role and provides a conceptual framework that enriches the concept of successful ageing, both by emphasising the social context in which people age and by highlighting a personal growth component.

Volunteering in later life is an important way of staying involved in one’s community and engaging in a meaningful activity that has a positive impact on others. Previous research has mainly described the antecedents and consequences of volunteering; the process and experiences associated with performing this role has been less studied. The aim of this study was to assess the positive and negative experiences of older managers involved in an entrepreneurial mentoring organization. Fourteen older male volunteers were administered a semi-structured interview and the data obtained were analyzed thematically. The themes that emerged were the importance of the final result as a filter to assess the whole mentoring experience, the mentor-mentee bond, and the self-attribution of successes and failures. These themes were discussed using the generativity theory as a framework to understand the experiences of older adults keen to pass on their skills and knowledge to a younger generation.

Grandparents play a vital role in providing childcare to families. Qualitative research and evidence from parents raise concerns that it is grandparents who are socioeconomically disadvantaged who provide grandchild care more regularly, perform more intensive tasks, and care out of financial necessity. However, no European studies have investigated these issues at population level. This study is based on grandparents aged 50+ who looked after grandchildren. Data are from wave 8 of the nationally representative English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2016/2017). We exploit newly collected information on frequency of grandchild care, activities, and reasons for care. Using multinomial regressions, we first examined the extent to which grandparents' socioeconomic characteristics (wealth and education) are associated with frequency of grandchild care. Second, using logistic regressions, we investigated whether wealth and education are associated with activities and reasons for grandchild care. Overall, grandparents from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to provide more regular childcare. Similarly, grandparents in the lowest wealth quartile were more involved in hands-on activities (cooking, taking/collecting grandchildren to/from school), whereas highly educated grandparents were more likely to help grandchildren with homework. Finally, better-off grandparents were more likely to look after grandchildren to help parents and provide emotional support and less likely to report difficulty in refusing to provide care. Our findings show that grandparental childcare varies by socioeconomic status with more intensive childcare activities falling disproportionately on those with fewer resources, and this may act to exacerbate existing socioeconomic inequalities in later life.

Resumen. Los objetivos de esta investigación son identificar barreras discursivas para la transfe-rencia de la estrategia de envejecimiento activo de la UE y hacer recomendaciones de mejora en las políticas de envejecimiento. Se presenta un estudio exploratorio realizado en Galicia, región espa-ñola con un perfil poblacional particularmente envejecido y amplias competencias en asuntos sani-tarios y sociales, temas sustanciales en la estrategia europea de envejecimiento. Se emplea la pala-bra " marco " en el sentido de Goffman, en referencia a las ideas que permiten a un individuo confe-rir significado a su experiencia. Se examinan marcos de nivel macro (europeo), meso (área de polí-ticas) y micro (actores). Se analizan datos a dos niveles: el de la comunidad epistémica regional en materia de envejecimiento activo, y el de las personas mayores activas tanto de entornos rurales como urbanos. Las técnicas de investigación empleadas son la entrevista en profundidad a expertos y los grupos de discusión con séniores. Palabras clave: Unión Europea, políticas de envejecimiento, marco discursivo, trasferencia de políticas.

Analysis of meso and micro frames on active aging in Galicia Abstract. This piece of research aims to identify discursive barriers to transferring the EU strategy for active aging. It also delivers policy advice on the field. This is an exploratory study conducted in Galicia, a highly aged Spanish region with extended powers on health and social issues. It applies Goffman´s definition of " frame " that refers to ideas that allow people to confer meaning to their experience. It examines the macro level frame (European), the meso one (policy area) and micro frames (actors). New data were created at both meso and micro levels. The research techniques used are interviews with experts and focus groups composed of active older people living in both urban and rural areas.

The active ageing policy supports several types of activities, including labour force participation, caregiving, social participation, and physical activity. The paper illustrates the prevalence of supported activities across individual characteristics and four supra-national European regions to assess how these activities are available for specific groups of older people. The analysis draws on wave 6 from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe held in 2015. A set of figures describes the availability of activities sorted by gender, age, health status, and the level of education in 17 European countries divided into four regions, and thus, presents the unavailable descriptive data important for researchers and policymakers. The results most of all show that the majority of the 50+ population engages in vigorous physical activity, whilst labour force participation and caregiving concern about one-third of it, and other activities much less. The findings show the inadequacy of the active ageing as a uniform context-insensitive EU policy and detect its potential for raising inequalities in later life, whilst the theoretical implications are discussed.

decline steadily in the elderly. Given that older people can preserve to some extent verbal and visual divergent thinking , these findings have important implications for active aging, that is, divergent thinking might be fostered in aging in order to prevent the cognitive decline.

ÖZET Demografik verilere göre yaşlı nüfus tüm dünyada hızla artmaktadır. Tüm dünyada 2050 yılında her beş kişiden birinin 60 yaş ve üstünde olacağı öngörülmektedir. Nüfus yaşlanması, artık önemli bir olgudur ve artan yaşlı nüfus göz önüne alındığında, aktif yaşlanmanın kişisel, aile, toplumsal, hükümet ve küresel düzeydeki önemi anlaşılmaya başlamış ve yaşlı bireylerin kendi yaşamlarında anlam ve memnuniyeti nasıl buldukları sorusu her düzeyde ön plana çıkmıştır. Aktif yaşlanma çabası, yaşlı bireyler için yaşam boyu öğrenmenin (YBÖ) önemi ve geliştirilmesi üzerine dikkatlerin çevrilmesine neden olmuştur. Yaşam boyu öğrenmenin geliştirilmesinin yaşlı bireyler için fiziksel, sosyal ve duygusal yararları olduğuna inanılmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, üçüncü yaş üniversitelerinin (ÜYÜ) mevcut durumunu tanımlamak ve dünyadaki "iyi uygulamaları" değerlendirmektir. Çalışmanınn yöntemi; literatür taranmasına dayalı olarak, ÜYÜ yaşlı bireylerin yaşam boyu öğrenme perspektifinden kazanımları ve aktif yaşlanma üzerindeki etkilerine dayalı bir inceleme çalışması olup en iyi uygulama örneklerine yer verilecektir. ÜYÜ, akran desteği ve bilgi paylaşımına dayanan yaşam boyu öğrenme programı olarak birçok ülkede uygulanmakta olup, sosyal bütünleşmeyi sağlaması ve psikolojik yararları ile yaşlıların kişisel yaşam kalitesini arttırdığı çok sayıda uygulamalarla ortaya konulmuştur. ÜYÜ programlarının, başarılı ve aktif yaşlanma üzerinde önemli etkisinin olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Yaşlılar, ÜYÜ yoluyla hem topluma katılım sağlamakta hem de bilgi ve becerilerini geliştirebilmektedirler.  ANAHTAR KELİMELER Üçüncü Yaş Üniversitesi, yaşam boyu öğrenme, aktif yaşlanma, yaşam kalitesi, sosyal katılım, iyi uygulama örnekleri

Many Vietnamese families in the Czech Republic hire Czech nannies to look after their children. Usually they are young retirees who find themselves at a new life stage, passing from a productive to an " unproductive " age. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with Czech nannies in Vietnamese families, this article looks into how Czech nannies understand paid caregiving work as an inherent part of their retirement. I trace their understanding of the meaning of care in the context of their biographies. The study finds that this caregiving work is inherently connected with retirement and makes it easier for women to retire and adapt to their new life situation. In addition, caregiving work becomes part of the identity of these women, allowing them to do gender and to do grandmotherhood. For the interviewed women, caregiving becomes the main recourse of doing gender and the core activity structuring their gendered biographies. As an activity enacted in the family realm, caregiving leads to kinning: the subjectivisation from nanny to grandmother and from care child to grandchild. As such, caregiving work shapes new kinds of familial ties and enables the women's active participation in intergenerational relations. All-in-all, the paper offers insight into women's strategies of dealing with retirement and negotiating their new identities against the background of culturally-defined standards and societal expectations. Úvod: Hledá se chůva Mnozí vietnamští rodiče v České republice hledají české ženy na hlídání svých dětí. Na jejich poptávku po placené péči o děti odpovídá specifická skupina žen, a sice ženy závislé na so-ciálním státu – na rodičovské dovolené, ženy nezaměstnané a ženy v důchodu. Stát se chůvou ve vietnamské rodině vyžaduje objemnou časovou investici a relativně malé finanční nároky. To první především proto, že pracovní vytížení vietnamských migrantů první generace je vede k hledání takové osoby, která by se o děti postarala sedm dní v týdnu od rána do večera, někdy dokonce i přes noc (to v případech, kdy dítě přímo bydlí u své chůvy a rodiče je jezdí navštěvovat). Relativně malé finanční požadavky ze strany chův jsou pak nutností Tato publikace vznikla v rámci institucionální podpory pro rozvoj Ústavu populačních studií Fa-kulty sociálních studií Masarykovy univerzity.

Purpose-This paper aims to consider how the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic questions the neoliberal project of ageing, based on a notion of a healthy, active, working older person. A long-term struggle to include older people has been (temporarily) replaced with a struggle to exclude them. This seems to be one of the most sensitive sore spots of the coronavirus crisis and one of the most serious challenges to social policy and welfare systems the world over. The purpose of this paper is to consider where the concepts of ageing and the action on ageing were at right before the crisis and what their further development may look like. Design/methodology/approach-This paper provides a critical overview of main conceptions based on the neoliberal project of ageing. Findings-The main principle of the neoliberal project of ageing, which had been formed on the crossroad of social theory and policy through decades, became vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The new forced ageing reveals its repressive nature through ensuring seniors' safety from exposure, their removal from work and isolation. The theory now faces new challenges of meshing a neoliberal actoractive, independent and productivewith an older person in isolation, who needs safeguarding, of reconceptualizing social exclusion of seniors in a situation where exclusion is equated with safety, of resolving a dilemma between isolation and respect of human rights and of keeping progress in anti-ageism. Research limitations/implications-This paper presents an overview of the main conceptions, underlying the neoliberal project of ageing. It aims to designate the vulnerabilities of the project, which were revealed under the situation of pandemic. Further development of the discussion needs detailed analysis of theoretical conceptions of ageing. Practical implications-Theoretical debate reflects policy of ageing. Discussion of theoretical problems of ageism, social exclusion, safeguarding of the elderly and compulsion are necessary for improvement of social policy of ageing. Social implications-When the neoliberal project of ageing comes into collision with the reality with the reality, the authors recognize it as a crisis. It moves the society, and especially the elderly, to the situation of uncertainty. This paper calls for discussion and search for a new balance among the generations in a society. Originality/value-This paper relies upon the current debate on neoliberal project of ageing and responds immediately to the situation of pandemic. Now conceptual problems in theories of ageing and policy projects became visible, and the authors suppose it is time to initiate this discussion.

Citation: Pedell, S.; Borda, A.; Keirnan, A.; Aimers, N. Combining the Digital, Social and Physical Layer to Create Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. Int. J. Environ. Res. Publisher's Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Abstract: This qualitative investigation makes suggestions about creating age-friendly cities for older adults focusing on three domains of the World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly city framework namely "Communication and Information", "Outdoor Spaces and Buildings" and "Social Participation". The authors present two case studies, the first one focusing on older adults using activity wearables for health self-management in the neighborhood, and the second one focusing on older adults engaged in social prescribing activities in the community. The authors then reflect on the relationships of the domains and future opportunities for age-friendly cities. These case studies apply a co-design and citizen-based approach focusing within these larger frameworks on emotions, values and motivational goals of older adults. Results suggest how the convergence of the often siloed age-friendly city components based on older adults' goals and input can lead to better social participation and longer-term health outcomes. The authors propose that the digital, physical and social aspects need to be considered in all domains of age-friendly cities to achieve benefits for older adults. Further work involving older adults in the future shaping of age-friendly neighborhoods and cities, and identifying barriers and opportunities is required.

This paper outlines the ways in which the cohort born immediately following the Second World War illustrates changes in consumption patterns within their lives. The paper suggests that this cohort (often known as baby boomers) view themselves to be a 'bridging' generation between the 'old' ways of their own parents and the radically different views of the next generation. Now nearing or entering retirement and later life, the discussion considers the accounts of boomers themselves having experienced post-war consumer culture and shifting family relations. This paper focuses primarily on qualitative accounts from 150 detailed interviews followed by 30 in-depth interviews, and is framed by analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. It explores central emergent themes in the accounts of respondents which demonstrate evidence for a 'bridging' identity maintained by baby boomers in relation to their consumption practices.

Casual sexual encounters are closely wedded to leisure travel, and have received a lot of attention in both theoretical and empirical work. However, the relationship between romance tourism and female ageing remains largely under-researched. This article offers critical insights into the interplay of the successful ageing and sexual relationships abroad of older women travellers. It shows that romance tourism has both positive and negative implications for women's physical and psychological health and wellbeing. Although exotic escapes help reconnect women with their youthful selves, enhancing a sense of self-confidence and challenging the narrative of decline, casual sex may also generate conflicting feelings once the travel romance is over. This article also encourages the rethinking of the complexities of ageing femininities, sexual activity and health risk in 'silver' romance tourism today. Additionally, it argues that the sexual health guidelines and information campaigns should adopt a more multifaceted approach to sexual expressions, and encourage alternative views towards sex and sexuality in later life, in order to not create a rather oppressive ideology among older women.

Ageing is a continuum of biological processes characterized by progressive adaptations which can be influenced by both genetic and physiological factors. In terms of human maturation, physically and cognitively functional centenarians certainly represent an impressive example of successful healthy ageing. However, even in these unique individuals, with the passage of time, declining lung function and sarcopenia lead to a progressive fall in maximal strength, maximal oxygen uptake, and therefore reduced exercise capacity. The subsequent mobility limitation can initiate a viscous downward spiral of reduced physical function and health. Emerging literature has shed some light on this multi-factorial decline in function associated with aging and the positive role that exercise and physical capacity can play in the elderly. Recognizing the multiple factors that influence ageing, the aim of this review is to highlight the recently elucidated limitations to physical function of the extremely old and therefore evaluate the role of exercise capacity in the health and longevity of centenarians.

This paper attempts to understand the exclusion of ageing people within contemporary society through developing a model around the notion of the “encounter with the ageing body”. It is divided into three parts. In the first, I develop a model of the encounter through combining Sara Ahmed’s notion of “affective economies” with Shildrick’s theory of the encounter with the “vulnerable self”. I argue that the fear of
ageing becomes embodied within the encounter with the ageing body. Specifically, the fear is vulnerability: within the encounter, the youthful self is forced into the recognition
of his/her own vulnerability. Modernity requires that this be disavowed, with the ageing body banished to the margins through sequestration to foreclose the possibility of a repeat. In the second section, I discuss the nature of vulnerability within modernity.
I explore two approaches to this: in the first, the vulnerability is to the threat of
death, which has become particularly problematic within modernity; in the second, the
vulnerability is the loss of subjectivity resulting from the ageing body’s failure to correspond
to constructions of the ideal body within contemporary capitalism. In the final
section, I evaluate whether recent social shifts promise a brighter future for ageing
people, arguing that although the situation is not black and white, there is, nevertheless,
unfortunately currently relatively limited potential for real change for older
people.

The aging of the population, together with the need for more inclusive and responsive policies and services, has contributed to a burgeoning interest in co-production and co-research with older people. To date, however, only a limited number of studies have addressed how the participation of older persons as research partners can be practically realized in community-based research. The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the process of co-producing a research project with older residents living in low-income neighborhoods in Manchester, United Kingdom. The project was unique in involving and training eighteen older people as co-researchers who took a leading role in all phases of a study aimed at developing " age-friendly " communities. The co-researchers also completed 68 interviews with residents aged 60 and over who were experiencing social isolation within their neighborhood. This paper describes the methodological approach developed for the study together with a description of the recruitment and training of co-researchers. It then presents findings based upon four reflection meetings with the co-researchers, focusing on their motivations for working on the project and their relationship with the interviewees. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for developing co-production work with older people in age-friendly research, policy and practice.

The contemporary increase in life expectancy in Western countries has led to an intensified focus on good ageing processes as a way to manage ageing populations. We argue that while qualifications of the ageing process such as active and healthy ageing endeavour to compress morbidity through enhancement techniques, the idea of the good old age also implicitly tells a tale about the 'good' death. We explore how current discourses depict old age as an active, engaged and independent life phase and construct a specific idea of the good death as one that is quick and painless. By engaging with literature on ageing, death and enhancement technologies as well as current Danish healthcare initiatives, we examine the paradoxical, contemporary notion of death as natural, quick, painless and controllable. Danish rehabilitation programmes are provided as an example of specific enhancement techniques that through motivation and physical activity orchestrate the good death in a body that has been as healthy as possible for as long as possible. However, when such techniques become a moral injunction rather than a choice, questions arise concerning the relationship between autonomy and death. We argue that the discursive construction of the good death happens in tandem with enhancement techniques that postpone death, and that this postponement of death has increasingly become more of an imperative than an autonomous decision.

This book chapter reviews current research in the area of digital game technology for rehabilitation, socialization, quality of life (QoL), design, and cognition. In recent years, there has been substantial progress in these areas. With technology advancement, there is the potential to facilitate aging in place, resulting in the continuation and maintenance of independent community-based living at varying stages of the life course. As technological developments improve, the concept of integrating digital game technology into the lives of an aging population is becoming more popular than ever before. However, during the implementation into the home, issues of physical space and technology integration may occur. There are many types of dwellings (apartments, houses, or bungalows) where older adults reside which contain a variety of fixtures and furnishings. Implementation of technology into these different dwellings may be difficult due to the added furniture already installed. This chapter initiates discussion within these areas and provides recommendations for future technology integration.

Research across a number of disciplines demonstrates that digital
technologies have intensified migrants’ connections to both old
and new homelands. Yet to be explored, however, is how this
interconnectedness intersects with shifting conceptions of “home”
over the life course. The research presented here helps fill this gap
by drawing on surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews
conducted with Irish immigrants to Australia, now in their 60s, 70s,
and 80s, who left Ireland prior to the emergence of new media. The
article charts a trajectory across three phases of the migrant life
course: “leaving home,” characterized by feelings of dislocation from
Ireland and an involvement in the local Irish “ethnic village”; “at home,”
characterized by withdrawal from ethnic community involvements
under the pressure of family and work responsibilities; and “going
home,” characterized by a desire to reconnect with origins, both locally
and transnationally. Our findings suggest that age-related social
circumstances and existential concerns have played an important
role in shaping older migrants’ use of new media to stay “connected.”

This paper explores attitudes of staff, residents and family
members towards sexually diverse persons based on data from the
first national study of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study
was a two-arm mixed-method cross-sectional study using a concurrent
triangulation design. The quantitative arm included the results
of 433 staff surveys related to knowledge, attitudes, behaviours
and beliefs about sexuality, intimacy and ageing. The qualitative
arm included interviews with 77 participants including staff,
residents and family members. This paper focuses only on sexual
diversity. A generational cultural effect was noted among all
respondents; younger participants expressed the most open and
accepting views of diversity. Residents were aware that they mostly
held the views of their generation; nonetheless they also looked to
staff to set the tone. Staff held varying views and felt that residents
would be less accepting; some staff felt the issue of intimate
relationships was not something they were willing to discuss at
intake. Facilities will want to establish policies about sexuality and
intimacy and communicate those policies and practices to staff,
residents and family members. Facilities may also wish to consider
specific educational events about sexual diversity for residents

Research on the silver economy shows that products and services, which enhance personal autonomy and social cohesion, are common to successful enterprises that serve the needs of both older adults and their carers. Policymaking focuses on such interventions mainly from medical-pharmacological and hi-tech perspectives, such as advancements in pharmaceuticals, wearable technologies and e-health applications or robotics. Aspects of the built environment—that is, human-made surroundings—are rarely considered worth exploring. Yet, the fact that we have created buildings, as opposed to many advanced technologies that we are yet to invent, does not necessarily make them fit for purpose to the needs of our ageing population. This is the case in all forms and scales of the built environment, from houses to transportation networks. This article argues that policies and interventions for active and healthy ageing could benefit from a broader integration framework that would allow our built surroundings, of all scales and complexities, to become part of the solution. This could be achieved through new architectural and design paradigms that, contrary to prevailing architectural education and practice, operate in harmony with human perceptions and physiology, especially for vulnerable and older adults. By better understanding the consequences of the built environment on the well-being of the older population and acting on this we could first prevent the environment being disabling for vulnerable people and, second, hopefully enable increased autonomy through interventions.

A basic premise underlying this article is that the social surroundings of individuals as they gradually age are not homogeneous and have influence on their well-being. Furthermore, if significant variation on the social context are found, they should also affect and be taking into account on the provision of different kinds of public welfare support.
This paper analyses two particularly relevant variables influencing this context, location and family availability. We ask if a focus on head count demographics hide important aspects of the challenges posed upon welfare agencies when preparing for and undertaking social work in practice.
In order to illustrate the magnitude of those differences we study the population composition in three regions in Norway: The municipality of Oslo, Akershus county and Helgeland. We combine population registers with a parent child identifier, which enables us to map the older person’s spousal situation, presence and location of children (and grandchildren), what we term life links adjusted shares.
The results revealed that the female surplus in the older population is far stronger in Oslo than in the two other regions considered. Moreover, the combination of a higher prevalence of older people not residing together with a spouse, older people without children, and older peoples with fewer children, place Oslo’s older residents in a relatively more vulnerable position in terms of spouse and kinship availability. Hence, we will claim that there is a need for an increased attention to not only head count demographics, but also to the uneven geographic distribution of life links.

Knowledge about the experiences of flow by older adults through the engagement of digital games is scarce. This article describes an important element of an international , multicenter, randomized, controlled trial which utilized three purpose-built exergames to facilitate physical activity and to assist with fall prevention of adults aged 65þ years in their homes. Measurement of flow was assessed through the distribution of the Activity Flow State Scale in participants assigned to the intervention group after completion of the trial. Results were analyzed across three areas: study centers, age-groups (50–69 years, 70–78 years, 79–84 years, and 85þ), and gender. A positive trend in results was shown by participants from Valencia and Cologne and by gender. Future work should consider qualitative data collection to complement the quantitative data and to provide an in-depth understanding of users' experiences with exergames.

Background: Grandparents play a vital role in providing childcare to families. However, little is known about when grandmothers and grandfathers look after grandchildren, what they do with them, and why.
Objective: Using novel questions on grandparenting, we first describe the periodicity of grandchild care, activities undertaken with/for grandchildren, and motivations for such care to then assess if there are gender differences.
Methods: We used wave 8 (2016/17) of the nationally-representative English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The extent to which the periodicity, activities, and motivations are gendered was assessed using logistic regressions. Analyses were carried out on the entire sample of grandparents who provide childcare as well as on coresiding grandparent couples where both grandparents provide grandchild care.
Results: More than 50% of grandparents looked after grandchildren, with the majority doing so throughout the year and about one in four during school holidays. Few gender differences were observed in the periodicity of grandchild care and reasons for looking after grandchildren, with almost two-thirds reporting that they wanted to help parents go to work and give them a break. However, when activities undertaken for/with grandchildren were analysed, clear gender differences emerged. Overall, grandmothers were more likely to report caring and helping activities (e.g., cooking, caring when sick, helping with homework, and collecting them from school) than grandfathers, even when they coresided.
Contribution: Our study is the first to document, at a population level, gender differences in the periodicity of grandchild care, what grandparents do when they look after grandchildren, and why they provide such care.