The Making of Ageing Policy: Theory and Practice in Europe

The book provides insights into the value basis and justifications of ageing policies, the potential for conflict and how policy ideas are embedded in institutional defense and advocacy for institutional change and reform. In terms of policy ideas the economically focused ‘productive ageing’ dominates, but the book finds instances where the broader ‘active ageing’ approach has gained a hold in policymaking. Ageing policy reforms within pensions and labour market policy include measures to make people extend their working life. In long-term care reforms abound, and implies changes in the responsibility of financing and provision but the patterns across countries differ substantially.

The authors provide normative analysis of ageing policy ideas, divulge political conflicts and consensus on ageing policy, and contribute by describing and analyzing the changing institutional landscape of ageing politics and policies throughout Europe. It will prove insightful for academics and researchers in the field, but it will also appeal to practitioners who are increasingly dealing with demographic challenges across a wide number of policy sectors in their daily affairs.

Contributors include: M. Doyle, Z. Drozdzak, R. Ervik, L. Foster, I. Helgøy, N. Kildal, G. Lamura, T.S. Lindén, M.G. Melchiorre, E. Nilssen, J. Perek-Bialas, A. Principi, A. Ruzik-Sierdzinska, C. Schiller, V. Timonen, K. Turek, A. Walker