Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 3 of 3
Active ageing: a strategic policy solution to demographic ageing in the European Union
- Authors:
- WALKER Alan, MALTBY Tony
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 21(S1), October 2002, pp.S117-S130.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Across the European Union, there has been a shift from a society that is predominantly young to one which is dominated by older cohorts. The ageing of European countries has widespread implications for current and future social and economic policies across the region. This article examines the emergence of discourses on ageing at the EU level, in particular concentrating on those concerning the increasingly universal policy concept of ‘active ageing’. The problem with active ageing is that it lacks a precise universally accepted definition. The dominant policy paradigm is the economic one of working longer. The main purposes of this article are to explain why this strategy has emerged and its importance. Despite a great deal of positive political rhetoric, the response at all levels of policy making has been rather limited. An active social and public policy is required to mainstream active ageing as the leading paradigm for ageing policy across the EU. The year 2012 has been designated the’ European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity Between the Generations’, and thus offers a potential focus for renewed policy action.
Extending working lives? Employability, work ability and better quality working lives
- Author:
- MALTBY Tony
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Society, 10(3), July 2011, pp.299-308.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Faced with a changing economic and demographic outlook, this short article focuses upon UK practice and presents an approach that has been used across continental Europe for many years. The central argument is that improving the quality of life of older adults is not simply and only about a better ‘work–life balance’ and other policy prescriptions, but the adoption of a holistic approach to worker well-being and health, broadly defined at the level of the enterprise. The article provides a short review of existing policy and describes yet distinguishes between employability and Work Ability. It then suggests that the Work Ability approach used for over thirty years in Finland be trialled in the UK and that the UK government provide fiscal incentives for UK enterprises to adopt and implement such preventative approaches within a broader age management structure. In conclusion, Europeans are likely to work to a more advanced age in future than in the immediate past and out of choice. It is time, the author suggests, to focus upon the positive contributions that older people can and do make to society.
Ageing Europe
- Authors:
- WALKER Alan, MALTBY Tony
- Publisher:
- Open University Press
- Publication year:
- 1997
- Pagination:
- 159p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Buckingham
Presents findings from recent policy oriented research undertaken by the EU's Observatory on Ageing and Older People, as well as other research findings. Contains chapters on: a profile of older Europeans; intergenerational relations and social integration; pensions and living standards; employment and older workers; health and social care; and the politics of ageing societies.