Contenu du sommaire : Le vieillissement actif. Regards pluriels

This article aims on the one hand to present the positions of large international organisations on the idea of working into old age and on the other, more basically, to provide methodological references that will be robust enough to permit a critical heuristic examination. Notwithstanding the reduction of the term to simply extending the length of careers, the idea of ‘active aging' is also given life by a variety of different interpretations and holistic currents of thought. These two approaches are reflected in the stances taken by players on the international scene. In conclusion we examine the new European perspectives opened up by the choice of the EU to name 2012 as the Year of active aging and intergenerational solidarity.

‘Active aging' has been promoted by international organizations in response to the likely impact the aging of the population will have on social security systems. The field of discussion has widened with the employment of older people. The European Union and the OECD have subsequently called on the countries of Europe to reverse the tendency to early retirement from the job market. In Belgium since 2005, the Inter-Generational Pact has constituted the principal tool of public action which aims to make it harder to take advantage of arrangements for early departure from the job market. The policy of improving the offer of work to older people is not, however, the only initiative to be taken, since in addition to measures aimed at reducing the burden on the state, the Fund for Professional Experience has since 2004 tried to influence businesses in favour of retaining their older salaried employees. Notwithstanding the financial advantages of this and the consciousness-raising action carried out beforehand, some criticisms have been expressed which have led us to put such public action into question once again.

During the last twenty years or so Tunisia, which achieved independence in 1956, has seen the appearance of the first generation of retired people. Here is a new social category with its specific characteristics and needs, unlike the group of those over 60 who did not have a right to a retirement pension. Amongst this new category of older people there are some who have chosen to return to work. From fact-finding interviews with such individuals, we have identified various reasons which have influenced their decision. If some mention the background of traditional society, others rather put their decision in terms of the modern way of life. In this way they reflect contemporary social change in Tunisia.

The political powers of Europe and the NGOs are united in support of publicity campaigns that boost voluntary service for older people. This consensus has been formed within the system of reference of social investment and the cluster of meanings that characterize the ideas of ‘social participation' and ‘organized civil society.' A network of organizations and an arsenal of juridical provisions concerning voluntary work have gradually been put together, in different degrees, in the member-states of the European Union. The observation of these changes brings to light ‘grey areas' between paid work and the voluntary service of workers who may or may not have employment, young people as well as old. Two examples illustrate the tension of situations in which the gift of one's work is not a gratuitous action freely and personally chosen. In the United Kingdom the shortage of voluntary help has fuelled the pressurizing of the long-term unemployed. In Belgium, the National Council for Work has declared its fear of seeing voluntary service slip into a sort of informal work pattern which would supplant paid employment.

The author reflects on the information gained from an inquiry into volunteer work by older people, conducted in the context of a wide-ranging European research programme on ‘active aging'. In its general outline this comparative study was typical of a concern to put forward elucidations and recommendations for decision-takers intent on promoting ‘active aging'. In fact, the relatively new importance given to voluntary service in the context of this programme witnesses to a wider concern to build a ‘Europe for every age-group' that is not restricted to ‘active aging' on the job market. But making the professionalization of voluntary service the be-all and end-all of policy results in a circular argument. It comes to be part of the commonplace expectation that civil societies should become more competitive.

This article aims to analyse the blend of influences which have produced the political and socio-historical notions of ‘active aging' and ‘lifelong education'. It shows how these concepts have both been made to serve a utilitarian and economics-based definition of the ideas of ‘activity' and ‘formation'. At the outset this tendency had the effect of limiting the formation of older people to ‘cultivated leisure', but more recent demographic and economic changes have led them to be targeted as a group that may be counted on in order to achieve economic competitiveness. Moving on from this perspective, the article gives an integrated and comprehensive view of these concepts as they apply to all age-groups including the retired, not separating them into water-tight compartments, e.g. time at work and time outside work, productive time and unproductive time.

In line with the theory of social sustainability, policies for long-time care are in search of new sustainable services for old people. There is a clear need for innovative services that avail of the new technologies, as demographic and epidemio-logical projections indicate a rise in demand for social services to which the systems presently in place do not have the capacity to respond. The use of the new technologies is an innovative solution by which to improve the sustainability of these systems and the promotion of healthy and active aging. The authors give a general survey of the initiatives that have been developed in the context of European policies involving the use of the new technologies to improve the quality of life of old people and active and healthy aging in their own homes.

Inspired by the World Health Organisation, more and more projects are emerging which aim to change the built environment and the social climate to enable older people to remain actively involved in society, fully valued in the public arena and appropriately supported by infrastructures and services geared to their needs. An ‘age-friendly' town (Ville-Amie des ainés or Vada) relies on the concept of active aging : ‘an age-friendly town encourages active aging by providing the best health care, social involvement and security for older citizens in order to improve their quality of life'. This connection between the concept of ‘active aging' and Vada is the subject of our article. In particular we give a brief survey of the mean-ings and conceptual uses of the term ‘active aging' that inspires Vada – Qc

The benefit to health of physical exercise for all the ages of life is recognised by the medical community, and justifies the central place that sport and physical activity now occupy in national plans for aging well. The promotion of an active way of life to preserve the health and independence of old people has made the image of frail and immobile old age obsolete. But is the elderly sportsman or sportswoman the new figure of successful aging ? Because the effects of physical exercise on health remain ambivalent, the medical norm of ‘neither too much nor too little' encourages a reasonable use of sport by the old person who wants to stay healthy, and signais the dangers of overdoing it. However a new model of sporting old person is emerging that upsets and challenges the doctors' recommendations, the veteran competitor and even champion. Is this the future face of aging well ?

The model of active aging exercises a dominant influence on social policies directed towards the elderly. This authority is usually unquestioned and it seems to correspond with changes of opinion surrounding the social role of older people. But does it really respect the diversity of their needs, their paths of life, their aspirations and their socio-economic conditions ? This article offers a critical reflection on active aging in its capacity to engage (or not) with the experience of aging of old people as a whole. The context of active aging as it is conceptualized and put into operation by the Ministry of the Family and of the Elderly in Quebec is here compared with the descriptions and experiences of handicapped old people who were asked how they saw the process of aging. The analysis of their replies leads us to question three aspects of active aging : the question of personal choice and of the ability to maintain it, the question of access to the spaces designated for activity, and finally the question of the relation of the individual to society that is promoted by this model.

This article sets out to study active aging on two levels, the general and the particular. First we consider the political and socio-economic issues involved, and then we consider the life-experience of individuals coming to the end of their working lives. On this level, preparations for retirement in the Portuguese context invite us to reflect on the different meanings people give to their occupations.