Premium
Overcoming the barriers and seizing the opportunities for active ageing policies in Europe *
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2451.2008.00659.x
Subject(s) - active ageing , ageing , sustainability , welfare state , welfare , healthy ageing , social policy , safeguard , business , political science , economic policy , economics , public economics , older people , market economy , international trade , gerontology , medicine , ecology , politics , law , biology , genetics
European societies are ageing fast, which threatens to unravel European social protection systems and labour markets. How can European societies safeguard social rights without endangering the financial sustainability of welfare systems? Recent experience is not promising, since established policy dynamics make it easy to respond negatively to aging, which may be detrimental to overall welfare. Yet positive responses are available, of which the active ageing paradigm is exemplary, in which ageing is best seen as a challenge, not as a threat. In so far as positive responses tend to be blocked by a range of policy barriers, the practical challenge, therefore, is to open up the innovative policy spaces that might make active ageing not just thinkable but achievable.