New Age for All Ages

New Age for All Ages

"It is fitting for the last year of the millenium to be the International Year of Older Persons, with the theme 'towards a society for all ages' - a society that does not caricature older persons as pensioners, but sees them as both agents and beneficiaries of development"- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 1 October 1998

The silent revolution
The technological revolution has captured the public imagination, and its impact on all walks of life has been discussed and felt for many years.

By contrast, the far-reaching effects of the demographic revolution have been relatively ignored. It has been called "the silent revolution". Yet its effects are being felt by every individual, family, neighbourhood and nation throughout the world.

Individuals are living longer than ever before. Twenty years have been added to the average life-expectancy worldwide in the past 50 years (1950-2000), an effect of improved health, hygiene and nutrition.

Populations are ageing too, an effect of declining fertility and increasing longevity. By 2030, several industrialized countries will have one third of their population over age 60. By 2150, the world as a whole will have a third of its population over age 60.

We need "to put a human face on ageing", noted Ambassador Julia T. de Alvarez, at the launching of the International Year of Older Persons on 1 October 1998 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. We need "ageless thinking" - and this calls for a new mental framework or window through which we see things. For centuries people saw the world as flat, when everything was explained in terms of a flat world. When the world was proven to be round, new kinds of thinking, structures, terms, and images developed. Similarly, seeing ageing as a lifelong and society-wide phenomenon - not only a phenomenon pertaining to older persons - calls for a shift in thinking. That shift is the underlying message of the theme of the International Year: "a society for all ages".

Investing in the individual
Many of today's very old persons find themselves unprepared. They are "surprised survivors", noted Dr. Gunhild Hagestad, keynote speaker at the launch of the Year. They are "demographic and social pioneers", exploring a new age for old age.

No longer can grandparenting be equated with old age, since grandparents now range in age from 35 to 105, and their grandchildren from newborns to retirees. No longer can an increasing population of older persons be narrowly defined as, for example, patients or pensioners.
Late-life capabilities have their genesis in early life. More of today's youth can expect to live longer than their forebears, but in very different circumstances. Anticipating a long life, youth may be encouraged to think of life ahead as a marathon, requiring a particular kind of preparation and pacing in the accumulation of "capital" or resources.

Human capital is needed, including relational and work skills and healthy lifestyles. Social capital must be nurtured, in terms of social solidarity and networks. Economic capital also needs to be acquired throughout the lifecourse, including savings and pensions.

For these types of capital or resources to be accumulated throughout life, adult years need flexibility of work, home and social life. This is true for men and women alike. Currently, work is structured as an "all or nothing" proposition leaving the unemployed with material poverty, and the over-employed with "time poverty".

Mid-life becomes a pivotal phase in a long life, being a transitional time between young adulthood, usually devoted to family formation and career establishment, and late adulthood when family forms frequently change and second careers are sought, including ones that could be sustained into the highest ages. Echoing the well-recognized transitional nature of adolescence as a critical time for investing in building up life and work skills, some writers have opted to use the term "middlescence" for mid-life so as to gain similar investments in it in preparation for late life.
As individual capabilities are expanded over the entire lifecourse, so is a society's capability expanded and the common good augmented.

Fostering enabling environments
It is helpful to think of the individual and society as two entities living in a symbiotic relationship. And just as individual lives are changing, so too is group life, whether this be the family, neighbourhood, extended community or nation. Ageing and migration are factors changing group demographic structures. And the evolution of values as, for example, regarding the advancement of women, is having a profound impact on the various roles and relationships within social groups.
Families have been called the "the first resource and last resort" for its members, providing a launching pad at the start of life and a landing pad at its end. As grandparents begin to outnumber grandchildren, creating what has been called "the inverse family pyramid", it is important to maintain the family's social network, particularly as family members are increasingly dispersed in the home country and abroad.

(http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/ageing/ageless.htm)