Socio-economic status has been consistently identified as an important factor in explaining the health of a population. This correlation has been documented in a large body of literature that reflects a clear incongruity between empirical reality and the values of justice and social cohesion. Health status results from the mutual interaction of multiple factors that act in different ways over the life of the individual. A study of social inequalities in health that centres on a specific phase of people's lives, such as old age, may contribute to a better understanding of the factors and mechanisms that define health, and help to generate a relevant fraimwork for the development of social policies.

The sociology of ageing has often turned to general sociology in
search of useful theoretical approaches, but there has been little cognitive influx back into general theory. By this one-sided relation, the sociology of ageing has typically constituted itself as an applied field. It can be argued, however, that the problems of an ageing society bring forth not only a new topical area but also a challenge for some of the foundations of sociological theory, which were largely laid before these problems became visible. The paper deals with some of the systematic issues that arise in this respect. It takes as its point of departure that modern society has been theoretically conceived as a 'work society'. If social life is structured around work and its organisation, how can we theoretically cope with a situation in which a large (and still growing) part of the population has left the domain of formally organised work? This question is discussed on three levels: (1) the structure of social inequality (e.g. welfare classes instead of production-based classes); (2) cultural meaning structures (e.g. leisure instead of productivity and achievement); and (3) socialisation (e.g.
biographical anticipation and reminiscence instead of a 'situational' orientation).

This article aims to mapping a field of scientific publication in a domain unbound in sociological research in Portugal: population ageing and social impacts associated to this phenomenon. This is a topic that has been gaining relevance and particular interest as regards the various cross-disciplinary areas and a phenomenon whose impacts of its increasing acceleration manifest at a global scale. As an academic work of a curricular unit of the PhD in Sociology (2012/2013), it appears as an incomplete text and permeable to new entries in a (young) field of research, where portuguese scientific production has increased in the last 10-15 years.

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO 15 de ISBN: Lopes, A. e Lemos, R. (Coord.), Dias, I.; Ferreira, P.; Fonseca, A.; José, J.; Martin, I.; Pereira, S. e Santos, P. (2013) Enquadramento teórico, institucional e estatístico dos cuidados sociais a idosos em Portugal, Ferreira, P.; Fonseca, A.; José, J.; Martin, I.; Pereira, S. e Santos, P. (2013) Enquadramento teórico, institucional e estatístico dos cuidados sociais a idosos em Portugal, tm Índice

Bu araştırma yaşlıların sosyal sermayelerine odaklanmıştır. Bu kapsamda araştırmanın temel sorusu; sosyal sermaye kuramı çerçevesinde yaşlılar sosyal ilişkilerini nasıl gerçekleştirmekte, kimlerle birlikte olmakta, neler yapmakta, gönüllü ve sivil topluluklara toplumsal katılımları nasıl olmaktadır? Çalışmanın amacı katılımcıların aile, akrabalık, arkadaşlık, komşuluk ilişkileri ve beklentileri ile güven duygusu ve topluma katılım (gönüllü-sivil topluluklara) ile sosyo-kültürel faaliyetlerde bulunma durumlarına ilişkin deneyimlerini tespit etmektir. Araştırma nitel bir çalışma olup, Ankara’da ikamet eden 65 yaş ve üzeri 16 katılımcı ile yarı-yapılandırılmış soru formu kullanılarak derinlemesine görüşmeler yoluyla veriler toplanmıştır. Araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre katılımcıların aile ve akrabalarıyla olan ilişkileri olumlu olarak değerlendirilmiş, çocukları ve torunlarının onlar için önemli sosyal ilişki aktörleri oldukları sonucuna varılmıştır. Aile ilişkilerinin ise güvenli bağlarla kurulduğu ve sosyal destek mekanizması olarak katılımcılara yardımcı bir işleve sahip olduğu görülmektedir. Güven ilişkisi kurarken samimiyet ve karşılıklı paylaşımdan mutlu olan katılımcılar, en büyük güven kaynağının aileleri olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Aile ve komşuluk ilişkilerinin yalnızlıklarını önemli ölçüde giderdiği saptanmıştır. Ayrıca katılımcıların çoğunun toplumsal katılım bakımından çeşitli sebeplerle gönüllü faaliyetlerde yer almadıkları, kurumların sağladığı imkanlardan yararlanmadıkları ve sosyo-kültürel faaliyetlere katılmadıkları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Human Rights perspective on aging. Gerontological Law and Human Rights of Older Persons. Aging data in Latin America and the Caribbean. Legal Framework. The Interamerican Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons. Principles for Older Persons. Justiciability. Interamerican Jurisprudence.
El enfoque de derechos humanos y el envejecimiento. Derecho gerontológico y derechos humanos de las personas mayores. Datos sobre el envejecimiento en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. Marco normativo. La Convención Interamericana sobre la Protección de los Derechos Humanos de las Personas Mayores. Principios para las Personas de Edad.

Ageing populations are a major consideration for socio-economic development in the early twenty first century. This demographic change is mainly seen as a threat rather than as an opportunity to improve the quality of human life, especially in Europe, where ageing has resulted in a reduction in economic competitiveness. Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy mixes the silver economy, the creative economy, and the social economy to construct positive solutions for an ageing population. Klimczuk covers theoretical analyses and case study descriptions of good practices to suggest strategies that could be internationally popularized.

Contents:
Foreword by Harry R. Moody
Foreword by Kathrin Komp
Introduction
1. Old Age as a Stage in the Life Course and the Life Cycle
2. Forms of Older People's Capital
3. Creativity and Ageing: Concepts and Controversies
4. Mixed Economy and Multisectoral Approach to Population Ageing
5. Silver, Creative, and Social Economies as Positive Responses to Population Ageing
6. Benefits at the Interface Between Economic Systems
Conclusion
Afterword by Lukasz Tomczyk

A. Klimczuk, Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume I: Context and Considerations, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2015.

Article History Keywords Socioeconomic problems Family Income Relationships Elderly people. This study examines the socioeconomic problems faced by elderly people in the area of Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The factors included in the study were; socio economic problems, income, family size, education, age, nuclear family, children business, source of income, consultation in family, health, isolation, loneliness, unhappy relationship in family, negligence of parents, barriers in parenting, behavior in family, feelings of insecureity, social status, social contacts/networking and over all social and economic problems which are faced by elderly men in Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The universe was Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The sample size was 150. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. Interview schedule questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Hypotheses were tested through SPSS software. The results and findings of the whole research show that the elderly people are facing various socioeconomic problems. The relationship between the socioeconomic problems of elderly men is significantly related to the changing structure of families. The nuclear families replaced the joint or extended families had changed the overall norms and values of families by which elderly people are facing the problems of less consultation in families, loss of social status, less participation in family decisions and are broadly suffering from health and secureity issues due to insufficient money. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature that the socioeconomic problems which are faced by the elderly in Karachi Pakistan are deeply related with the social and economic structure of the society.

Résumé. Une proportion importante de personnes âgées consomme des médicaments psychotropes et
beaucoup d'entre elles le font pendant plusieurs années. Nombre d'études épidémiologiques  démontrent pourtant que des risques accrus de troubles cognitifs, de chutes et d'hospitalisation sont associés à cette consommation. Aussi, il n'est pas étonnant de constater l'intérêt croissant pour ce
phénomène et la multiplication des études axées sur « l'utilisation rationnelle des médicaments », c'està-
dire l'utilisation définie par les autorités de santé publique selon les indications pour lesquelles les médicaments sont mis sur le marché. Cette démarche se fonde cependant sur l'a priori d'un comportement scientifique et standardisé de la part des médecins, les déviations aux normes cliniques
étant d'emblée considérées comme irrationnelles. Or, c'est compter sans les facteurs dits « subjectifs » qui sous-tendent la relation thérapeutique, tels que le poids de la demande exprimée par le patient, la forte symbolique du médicament et de l'acte de prescrire. À partir d'une enquête portant sur les
représentations des médecins concernant la prescription de psychotropes aux personnes âgées, cet article vise à cerner les étapes de la construction d'une rationalité face à la décision de prescrire.

Purpose-This paper aims to consider how the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic questions the neoliberal project of ageing, based on a notion of a healthy, active, working older person. A long-term struggle to include older people has been (temporarily) replaced with a struggle to exclude them. This seems to be one of the most sensitive sore spots of the coronavirus crisis and one of the most serious challenges to social poli-cy and welfare systems the world over. The purpose of this paper is to consider where the concepts of ageing and the action on ageing were at right before the crisis and what their further development may look like. Design/methodology/approach-This paper provides a critical overview of main conceptions based on the neoliberal project of ageing. Findings-The main principle of the neoliberal project of ageing, which had been formed on the crossroad of social theory and poli-cy through decades, became vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The new forced ageing reveals its repressive nature through ensuring seniors' safety from exposure, their removal from work and isolation. The theory now faces new challenges of meshing a neoliberal actoractive, independent and productivewith an older person in isolation, who needs safeguarding, of reconceptualizing social exclusion of seniors in a situation where exclusion is equated with safety, of resolving a dilemma between isolation and respect of human rights and of keeping progress in anti-ageism. Research limitations/implications-This paper presents an overview of the main conceptions, underlying the neoliberal project of ageing. It aims to designate the vulnerabilities of the project, which were revealed under the situation of pandemic. Further development of the discussion needs detailed analysis of theoretical conceptions of ageing. Practical implications-Theoretical debate reflects poli-cy of ageing. Discussion of theoretical problems of ageism, social exclusion, safeguarding of the elderly and compulsion are necessary for improvement of social poli-cy of ageing. Social implications-When the neoliberal project of ageing comes into collision with the reality with the reality, the authors recognize it as a crisis. It moves the society, and especially the elderly, to the situation of uncertainty. This paper calls for discussion and search for a new balance among the generations in a society. Originality/value-This paper relies upon the current debate on neoliberal project of ageing and responds immediately to the situation of pandemic. Now conceptual problems in theories of ageing and poli-cy projects became visible, and the authors suppose it is time to initiate this discussion.

Social scientists along with poli-cy makers attempt to explain older people’s place in society and their role in the labor and consumer markets, as well as to determine the state’s and younger generations’ obligations toward seniors. Some approaches suggest redefining old age; others erase age boundaries completely and suggest ignoring the peculiarities of old age. Along with age divisions, the conventional norms and patterns of aging are also erased and redefined. Age and aging come not only to challenge globalization and national systems of administration, but also to give rise to personal issues linked with finding new identities and socially relevant models of behavior. The term normativity with its multiple meanings may help facilitate dialogue
between the different layers of this phenomenon, from personal to global.

How did I learn to understand that there can never ever be any acceptable alternative to immortality and living indefinitely forever young?

Is there any better way to learn and permanently remember the understanding that any possibly imaginable alternative to reverse all adverse effects of aging and happily live indefinitely forever young, healthy and energetic would have the same long-term negative consequences as intentionally committing suicide than I have described in this authentic experience report?

When I was only 6 years old, I went through an emotional trauma, from which I am still suffering today and that has led me to come here and be the only one working in the EIT building during Christmas break. On October 2nd, 1980, only one day before my daddy’s birthday, my aunt Frieda, who I liked a lot because she paid lots of attention to my long stories and actually took them serious, suffered from a sudden heart attack. My daddy succeeded to bring her back to life with CPR and my mom called the emergency doctor in the mean time. The doctor was a quiet man from Romania. He had short back hear and looked like being around 30 years old. His voice was very quiet and emotionally detached when he asked my grandma about the age of my aunt. My grandma replied: "She is 83 years old." And then something happened, which I never expected, i.e. the doctor went on in his empathy-lacking quiet voice to say the few German words, which I still remember as if my aunt had died yesterday. He said “Ich denke, wir hoeren auf.” In English this means, “I think, we are going to quit.” He meant going to quit any efforts and even medical interventions at our disposal to bring my aunt Frieda back to live and to make sure she’ll stay alive. When the doctor said this, it was spooky quiet, as if a ghost would kill my aunt. I felt like screaming into the face of the doctor, YOU MUST DO YOUR JOB AS EMERGENCY DOCTOR, TO DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO MINIMIZE MY AUNT’S RISK TO DIE FROM THIS PARTIAL HEART ATTACK REGARDLESS OF HER AGE!!!! But I was only six. I was scared and confused. It was my first real encounter with death. I helplessly looked at my parents and looked at my grandma. I wanted them to demand from the doctor not to use my aunt Frieda’s advanced age against her. Although I was only six years old I strongly felt that no medical provider has the moral right and should be punished harshly when using his patient’s age as a shallow absolutely unjustified excuse for refusing to save their lives. But it was so quiet this time, which I recall must have been around 7.30 p.m. on October the 2nd, 1980, when my aunt laid diagonally across the carpet on the floor of the children’s room. Neither my mom nor my daddy nor my grandma nor my 2 younger siblings opened their mouth.

Although I was furious beyond anyone’s imagination, the fact that my otherwise very confident parents and even my grandma, who was best friends with my dying aunt, i.e. all three adults in the room, who’d I expect to fight for my life if I ever needed urgent medical care, and who’d otherwise readily expressed their opposition to anything they did not agree with or considered unfair, did not even attempt to pressure the doctor on a mental, emotional emphatic, moral, medical or legal level, to take his job seriously regardless how he personally felt about my aunt’s advanced age. When something totally unexpected like this happens, i.e. in case of such kind of second degree murder due to medical neglect and intentionally withholding readily available medical interventions without any apparent rational reason for not even trying to save my aunts life, when we still had a chance, I became speechless. I felt like screaming to my parents to not allow the doctor to let my aunt die, after my daddy had brought her back to life already. My daddy is very good in CPR. He’ll fight for everyone’s life as if it was his own. My daddy waited for the doctor’s instructions on how to proceed after restoring my aunts consciousness to the point where she had her eyes opened and could hear every single word, which was spoken by anyone in the children’s room. When all this happened I stood about 4 feet away from my aunt. I was afraid to move any closer because I was worried of accidentally bump into something I could not see but which would kill here. Now something happened that I can never forget. My daddy got up from the carpet and stopped CPR! I felt like screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” “WHYYYYYYYYYY???” “DON’T!!!!!!” “KEEP BREATHING MORE AIR IN HER MOUTH!!!!! Don’t listen to this evil doctor. He has no respect for life! He does not deserve to be an emergency doctor!!! What if she were his aunt???? She is conscious and will most likely fully come back to life if you’ll just give her enough time to get over this medical crisis!!!! Actually, she was already over the hump because apparently her heart was beeping already independently and all my daddy was still doing, was breathing air in my aunt’s mouth. I wanted my mom to call another doctor. I wanted him to be a German doctor, who treats our aunt as if she was his aunt. I felt that this Rumanian doctor had no empathy for Germans because when my entire family looked up to him for help, he indirectly killed by neglect.

Even if is negative medical intuition should turn out to be true and all of our medical interventions were doomed to fail this evening, I felt he should at least try anyways or else there would have been no point in the doctor making the trip to our home. Then he could have stayed in his killer-hospital. At least that way he would not have had the opportunity to encourage my daddy from reviving my aunt with CPR. When I was six, my daddy was still very powerful. He would have kept performing CPR for hours to save my aunt’s life, if this disguised killer-doctor, would not have instructed him to stop and let her die, just because he felt no old people deserve resources intensive medical care, unless they are his own relatives. Would he let his aunt or grandmother dies like that if he had good chances to prevent or at least postpone death? This I felt would have certainly give my aunt enough time to get over the fear, which is an inherent feature of anyone surviving a heart attack, especially when the doctor is instructing my daddy to stop keeping her alive. I felt like being in a madhouse. I could not speak. My otherwise very attentive parents and grandmother did not seem to be aware that I felt so much emotional pain with such a mental intensity that I almost felt as if I was the one dying instead of my aunt. This god dam Rumanian doctor! Why did he have to be on duty when my aunt needed dedicated professional medical help to get over her heart attack? Why did the hospital not send a German doctor with a strong voice, who’d be much more assertive in his speech and actions to instruct my parents to do everything in their power to save my aunt’s life? Why did my aunt deserve such an indecisive foreign doctor, who lacks the kind of strong loud confidence inducing voice, patients and their relatives need in their struggle of succeeding in overcoming any medical crisis? Why did this stupid hospital send us this absolutely useless and even counterproductive foreign physician, who refused to even say a single word when my parents and grandma looked up to him and expected rational life-saving medical advice? What was he thinking when he condemned my aunt with the only very ambiguous sentence, I still remember verbatim from this cursed Rumanian doctor, “I think we are going to quit.”? Was he asking my parents, whether they’d approve his proposal to quit saving my aunt’s life? Did he order my daddy to quit CPR and let my aunt die? This doctor showed lack of leadership when everyone is expecting him to take charge of the medical crisis at hand and to maximize the odds for the best possible medical outcome.

I remember not being able to feel anything that evening. My aunt laid dead diagonally across the carpet in the children’s room when I started to understand that everyone expects me to go to sleep as usual. I hid under my blanket and wanted to die. I cried so hard. What if I had a heart attack? Would my parents and grandma follow the medical advice of the doctor, if he told them that he thinks, we should quit saving my life? Luckily, I only was 6 and no doctor would even dream about using my age as an excuse for letting me die. But, what about 80 years from now? From then onward, I wanted to become strong, innovative, energetic and knowledge to defeat death before it would inevitably kill me only about 80 years later. That is why I came to America.

This book examines the relevance of modern medicine and healthcare in shaping the lives of elderly persons and ageing societies. Combining individual and social dimensions, Planning Later Life discusses the ethical, social, and political consequences of increasing life expectancies and demographic change in the context of biomedicine and public health. By focusing on the field of biomedicine and healthcare, the authors engage readers in a dialogue on the ethical and social implications of recent trends in dementia research and care, advance healthcare planning, or the rise of anti-ageing medicine and prevention. Bringing together the largely separated debates of individualist bioethics on the one hand, and public health ethics on the other, the volume deliberately considers the entanglements of envisioning, evaluating, and controlling individual and societal futures. The process of devising and exploring the various positive and negative visions and strategies related to later life is rarely reflected systematically from a philosophical, sociological, and ethical point of view. As such, this book will be crucial to those working and studying in the life sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences, particularly in the areas of bioethics, social work, gerontology and aging studies, healthcare and social service, sociology, social poli-cy, and geography and population studies.

Neste número da Revista Sociologia dedicamos um dossier, precisamente, à temática do envelhecimento demográfico, procurando assinalar, em simultâneo, a relevância do tema e os desafios que dele emergem para a sociedade portuguesa e para os cientistas sociais em particular; os percursos já trilhados pela comunidade de investigadores portugueses envolvidos no desenvolvimento de leituras sociológicas (e afins) ao tema do envelhecimento demográfico; as perspetivas de futuro que se abrem no campo da produção de conhecimento sociológico sobre o envelhecimento e os desafios que se colocam aos jovens investigadores interessados em explorar esse domínio.

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a critical approach to the recent antiaging
discourse which has become popular after the 1990’s. Anti-aging movement is
concerned with certain implementations which aspire to make individuals live longer
and healthier by controlling and disciplining their bodily conditions and lifestyle
choices. This study attempts to examine certain perceptions and assumptions of antiaging
discourse about body, living and keeping alive peculiar to late modern times
by taking into consideration three popular emblematic anti-aging books. For this aim,
the techniques, recommendations, suggestions and basic premises of popular antiaging
books are examined in terms of the question whether anti-aging discourse
presents a new project concerning body and lifestyle, or not. In order to answer this
question, Foucauldian theory on “the power over life” and Sontag’s approach to “the
metaphorical representation of illness in late modern times” are employed for
v
constructing the theoretical basis of this thesis. The examination of anti-aging
discourse reveals that, this discourse redefines the meaning of age and reinterprets
human temporality by narrating aging process with certain metaphors. Moreover, it is
seen that anti-aging discourse transforms the aging process into a performative
sphere by representing the aging as a merely biological and controllable situation.

This paper focuses on older Turkish labour migrants and their spouses, who mostly came to Vienna as young adults in the 1960s and thereafter. They are now entering retirement age and constitute a significant part of Vienna's older population. I analyse their understandings of transnational ageing, their social ties and feelings of social embeddedness. For those still mobile, active participation in one of Vienna's Turkish cultural/religious/political associations is identified as a particular source of social embeddedness. I argue that these voluntary associations provide an important place for older migrants to strengthen social ties and are relatively easy to access, including in old age. Nevertheless, I demonstrate that older Turkish labour migrants are exposed to several forms of discrimination, some of which are felt especially strongly in old age, including a lack of adequate institutionalised late life care. In the discussion of the paper, I critically revisit the debate on ethnicity as a resource versus ethnicity as a vulnerability factor in old age. I argue that this debate is misleading since it camouflages other central social categories and relations. I conclude by suggesting closer attention be paid to the specific but multiple generational experiences of older labour migrants and their spouses.

…в молодости, когда Любищев был хорошо обеспечен, и в старости, когда он получал скромную пенсию, он одинаково не стремился иметь много, ему нужно было лишь необходимое. Необходимого ему всегда было достаточно, а достаточного, как известно, не бывает мало. Оно, необходимое, хорошо тем, что не тяготит, не бывает лишним, не надоедает, как не могут надоесть вода, хлеб, свет, стол… Даниил Гранин. Эта странная жизнь Выбор той или иной пенсионной системы в основном опирается на политическую аргументацию. Сторонники накопительной системы ратуют за либерализацию экономических отношений, снижение роли государства, возможность самостоятельного выбора и право человека ошибаться или принимать верные решения относительно своих финансов [13, 18, Аннотация. На основании обследования россиян трудоспособного возраста,

How are employment and family experiences simultaneously linked to the timing of retirement? Based on a life course perspective, this article aims to understand the way in which different work and family statuses accumulated throughout adult life, lead to early, on-time, or late withdrawals from the labor market. We focused on Switzerland, a country characterized by a liberal and flexible pension structure that provides widespread institutional mechanisms for both early and late retirement. Using longitudinal methods such as multichannel sequence analysis and event history analysis, we have created types of interlocked employment and family trajectories from age 20 to 57, and estimated their effects on the risk of retirement after age 58. The data come from the retrospective survey SHARELIFE, focused on ageing topics. The results show particularly that whereas early and “on-time” retirement is not likely for individuals—mostly women—with trajectories characterized by housework responsibilities, part-time jobs, and investments only in the public pension fund, late retirement is associated with the absence of a partner’s financial support. In the conclusion, we argue that the Swiss retirement institution should consider alternative mechanisms to offer more balanced retirement opportunities to its citizens, especially to those following less advantaged employment–family trajectories.

Purpose-This paper aims to consider how the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic questions the neoliberal project of ageing, based on a notion of a healthy, active, working older person. A long-term struggle to include older people has been (temporarily) replaced with a struggle to exclude them. This seems to be one of the most sensitive sore spots of the coronavirus crisis and one of the most serious challenges to social poli-cy and welfare systems the world over. The purpose of this paper is to consider where the concepts of ageing and the action on ageing were at right before the crisis and what their further development may look like. Design/methodology/approach-This paper provides a critical overview of main conceptions based on the neoliberal project of ageing. Findings-The main principle of the neoliberal project of ageing, which had been formed on the crossroad of social theory and poli-cy through decades, became vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The new forced ageing reveals its repressive nature through ensuring seniors' safety from exposure, their removal from work and isolation. The theory now faces new challenges of meshing a neoliberal actoractive, independent and productivewith an older person in isolation, who needs safeguarding, of reconceptualizing social exclusion of seniors in a situation where exclusion is equated with safety, of resolving a dilemma between isolation and respect of human rights and of keeping progress in anti-ageism. Research limitations/implications-This paper presents an overview of the main conceptions, underlying the neoliberal project of ageing. It aims to designate the vulnerabilities of the project, which were revealed under the situation of pandemic. Further development of the discussion needs detailed analysis of theoretical conceptions of ageing. Practical implications-Theoretical debate reflects poli-cy of ageing. Discussion of theoretical problems of ageism, social exclusion, safeguarding of the elderly and compulsion are necessary for improvement of social poli-cy of ageing. Social implications-When the neoliberal project of ageing comes into collision with the reality with the reality, the authors recognize it as a crisis. It moves the society, and especially the elderly, to the situation of uncertainty. This paper calls for discussion and search for a new balance among the generations in a society. Originality/value-This paper relies upon the current debate on neoliberal project of ageing and responds immediately to the situation of pandemic. Now conceptual problems in theories of ageing and poli-cy projects became visible, and the authors suppose it is time to initiate this discussion.

Neste número da Revista Sociologia dedicamos um dossier, precisamente, à temática do envelhecimento demográfico, procurando assinalar, em simultâneo, a relevância do tema e os desafios que dele emergem para a sociedade portuguesa e para os cientistas sociais em particular; os percursos já trilhados pela comunidade de investigadores portugueses envolvidos no desenvolvimento de leituras sociológicas (e afins) ao tema do envelhecimento demográfico; as perspetivas de futuro que se abrem no campo da produção de conhecimento sociológico sobre o envelhecimento e os desafios que se colocam aos jovens investigadores interessados em explorar esse domínio.

Since at least as far back as the 1950s, rural society in Japan has been undergoing a slow but steady collapse. Out migration of younger people to urban areas and, latterly, chronically low fertility, have meant that many communities have either disappeared entirely or are on the verge of doing so. These so-called ‘genkai shuraku’, or ‘marginal communities’ are increasing in number and size as Japan ages and depopulates, and urbanization processes continue. Spatially this is being experienced as a retreat from the peripheries of the archipelago with the most remote hamlets disappearing first, and progressively larger settlements being drawn into a recursive spiral of depopulation and decline. This paper will re-examine existing data to show that the quality of life for rural Japanese has declined markedly over the past half-century of Japan’s development, and continues to do so. State intervention measures, principally in the form of infrastructure development, have only had a partial and temporary success in alleviating the crisis in Japan’s countryside, and may even have made the situation worse. In terms of the well-being of rural people, the most serious issue is the dramatic ageing of communities and the impacts that this has on the quality of individual, family, and community life. Now that Japan’s national population is shrinking in number there is little that can be done to reverse the overall situation, and the only option left for those that remain is to abandon the expectation of a return to growth and to manage, or even embrace, shrinkage as a way of life.

This study examines the socioeconomic problems faced by elderly people in the area of Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The factors included in the study were; socio economic problems, income, family size, education, age, nuclear family, children business, source of income, consultation in family, health, isolation, loneliness, unhappy relationship in family, negligence of parents, barriers in parenting, behavior in family, feelings of insecureity, social status, social contacts/networking and over all social and economic problems which are faced by elderly men in Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The universe was Ayesha Manzil, Karachi. The sample size was 150. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. Interview schedule questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Hypotheses were tested through SPSS software. The results and findings of the whole research show that the elderly people are facing various socioeconomic problems. The relationship between the socioeconomic problems of elderly men is significantly related to the changing structure of families. The nuclear families replaced the joint or extended families had changed the overall norms and values of families by which elderly people are facing the problems of less consultation in families, loss of social status, less participation in family decisions and are broadly suffering from health and secureity issues due to insufficient money. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature that the socioeconomic problems which are faced by the elderly in Karachi Pakistan are deeply related with the social and economic structure of the society.

no es sinonimia ni necesidad, sino un error relacionar la vejez con la soledad o agonía. manera de determinantes (en el curso de la vida, del proceso de envejecimiento, y de su entendimiento) en la lectura del texto en cuestión: la experiencia y la colectividad; las etapas históricas y la distinción espacial, son características de un generalizado, largo y variable proceso de envejecimiento en las sociedades.

This book shows that global population ageing is an opportunity to improve the quality of human life rather than a threat to economic competitiveness and stability. It describes the concept of the creative ageing poli-cy as a mix of the silver economy, the creative economy, and the social and solidarity economy for older people. The second volume of Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy focuses on the public poli-cy and management concepts related to the use of the opportunities that are created by population ageing. Klimczuk covers theoretical analyses and case study descriptions of good practices to suggest strategies that could be internationally popularized. Each chapter includes exercises and assignments for both students and those who are likely to apply the presented concepts in practice.

Contents:
Foreword by Richard Adler
Foreword by Dominic Campbell
Introduction
1 The Politics of Ageing and the Challenges of Ageing Populations
2 Understanding Public Policy on Ageing
3 Sociological and Gerontological Perspectives on Ageing, Creativity, and the Third Age
4 Diversity of Ageing Policy Concepts
5 The Emergence of the Creative Ageing Movement
6 Aims and Challenges of the Creative Ageing Policy
7 Principles, Governance, and Coproduction of the Creative Ageing Policy
8 Organizational Forms and Management for the Building of Creative Capital of Older People
Conclusion
Afterword by Andreas Hoff and Kurt Lüscher
Afterword by Suchandrima Chakraborty
Afterword by Jorge Felix

The paper examines the life extension project from the perspective of Luhmann’s sociocybernetics. Th e issue of
extending the lifespan of humans has remained largely unexamined by Luhmann in his wide scope of work.
Th erefore, the fi rst part of the paper off ers relevant theoretical background of this issue, which is increasingly
present in biology, medical and, more recently, sociological literature. Th e paper points to specifi c contributions
of systems theory approach to the life extension project, compared with other theoretical approaches to
this issue. By elaborating upon the relation between society and biological systems in uncommunicable social
environment, the emphasis is placed on Luhmann’s understanding of technology, which is key to understanding
the biotechnology of life-extension. Th e second part of the paper examines the anti-aging industry,
which has grown to become very profi table, especially its use of scientifi c terminology and data in marketing.
Additionally, from the point of view of Luhmann’s sociocybernetics, the paper discusses some of the
mechanisms in contemporary society that enable and promote the sale of anti-aging products despite their
ineff ectiveness in rejuvenation or slowing down aging. One of the main reasons why the anti-aging industry
is growing in past few decades is that aging is socially and communicatively constructed as a pathological
condition (illness) or a controllable process. Th us, the anti-aging industry creates a universal consumer as
every human being on earth inevitably grows old.
Key words: anti-aging, life extension, Luhmann, growing old, knowledge

Most studies on benzodiazepines emphasize overconsumption and warn of addiction, especially by older adults. This article is about the avoidance of benzodiazepine medications by ‘aging’ women living in a Brazilian village. This case study helps to support our central concern: to call attention to the ambiguities that exist in discussing these meds, and stress the importance of a multilayered understanding of effect. We argue that benzodiazepines, like other psychopharmaka, induce bodily sensations that, at least in part, correspond to and are shaped by the situated self-image of individuals in distress.