Challenges and opportunities

of Ageing Population

George Leeson

george.leeson@ageing.ox.ac.uk

Oxford Institute

of Population Ageing

Inglaterra

 

Leonardo Drazic

iisefacso@unsj-cuim.edu.ar

Universidad Nacional de San Juan

Argentina

 

Alejandro Klein

alejandroklein@hotmail.com

Universidad de Guanajuato

México

 

 

 

The advanced demographic transition is increasingly categorizing the need to address issues that are establishing patterns of how social events will be built in the next 50, 100 years and beyond.

The fact that we are about to achieve, if it has not already been achieved, a radical population recomposition is becoming more and more important: one third of the population will be transformed into elderly people. One out of every three inhabitants will be 60 years old or older.

On the other hand, the hope of survival extends until probably reaching matusalenic numbers. We should not be surprised, then, those within the elderly age group, the cohorts of 80 years and older are growing more and more.

We also note the formidable drop in the population replacement rate. In simple words: children born are no longer able to compensate for the number of people who die. The numbers don’t lie: people are having fewer and fewer children on a sustained basis.

Therefore, the central axis of debate in this dossier is that the ageing society is related to old age but expands to other fields that are undoubtedly interdisciplinary: age groups, family, links, social policies, urban planning, housing, education, gerontology, social psychology, among many others.

To open up some questions: what changes should be verified at the level of urban planning, housing, transport, education? Not to mention the aforementioned issue of pensions, which not infrequently seems to be the most relevant topic in the aging society, when in fact it is one among many, taking care not to fall into a purely economic approach to social relations.

It is also undeniable that in a society that is already so close, where one out of every three people will be an older adult, the political weight of this age group is changing in an increasingly empowered and decisive position in terms of political participation and citizenship.

But, at the same time, it cannot be denied that the Covid-19 has once again generated adverse conditions for the elderly, with a resurgence of Ageism and stereotyped images of decrepitude, defenselessness and vulnerability associated with older adults. This is a point that deserves attention and academic research.

Therefore, changes are imposed in multiple fields and the need to begin to generate interdisciplinary knowledge to focus on these challenges. Ageing society is not a problem: it is a new type of society that will require unprecedented and creative solutions, bearing in mind that it is an unprecedented social, economic and cultural reality.

From this point on, it will be fundamental to be able to face, without fear or resentment, an enormous agenda for change, which will be made possible thanks to the combination of academic effort, the leading role of civil society and appropriate initiatives by government bodies committed to generating medium- and long-term State policies.-