Rethinking a Long Life

Simon Biggs is guest blogging for the Forum. He is a Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Global Agenda Council on Ageing.

The challenge of an ageing population is a cultural as well as a demographic one. Successful adaptation to these new circumstances will affect our organisations, intergenerational relationships and the identities made available to older adults.

Most of the comment I’ll make reference to, reflect what’s going on in what have variously been called the mature/developed/western economies and the society associated with them, although they may also be relevant to other nation states.

The main thrust of the debate has been to shift expectations of later life from a time of dependency to one of productive ageing. And the main problem has been seen as a ‘shrinking middle’ of the adult lifecourse, that part spent in work, as both education and retirement take up more time. The idea of an increased working life and decreased pensions entitlement has been politically difficult through bourgeoning policy direction. An alternative might be to think of a long life producing a ‘stretched lifecourse’ where each part is expanded rather than one (work alone) dominating the latter years. Especially if this can be brought into line with the changing life-priorities made available by a long life.

In the mature economies, this debate has increasingly taken place against a background of retrenchment of existing services and the privatisation of risk onto the individual, thereby weakening the relationship between the citizen and the state. This relationship also has a life-course dimension, both in terms of the time it takes to change direction and in fairness of opportunity between generations. And while, historically, we are likely to see an older, richer, fitter majority population, a significant minority can be expected to be both poor and marginalised in later life. This occurs at the same time as growing concern about where an aged-care workforce is going to come from.

Under such circumstances a radical re-think is needed when it comes to finding new roles and contributions associated with mature adulthood, balancing life-priorities and economic instrumentalism, attention to negotiated intergenerational solutions and how to release generational social capital. The little diagram below attempts to express how a ‘virtuous circle’ of releasing social capital accrued by older adults, generationally intelligent policies and social identities, might lead to sustainable intergenerational relations, and in so doing release novel forms of social innovation. These forms of cultural adaption would be well suited to a global generational environment which is increasingly interlinked.

A ‘Virtuous Circle’ for Releasing Generational Capital.
This is offered as a heuristic, although as ever the devil will be in the detailed application.