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Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing

Active ageing has been discussed in international political organisations and among researchers as a major means for combatting the challenges of demographic ageing. This study aims to make a critical-theoretical and empirical assessment of the active ageing concept, challenging the active ageing di...

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Autores principales: Jensen, Per H., Skjøtt-Larsen, Jakob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501746
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179156
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author Jensen, Per H.
Skjøtt-Larsen, Jakob
author_facet Jensen, Per H.
Skjøtt-Larsen, Jakob
author_sort Jensen, Per H.
collection PubMed
description Active ageing has been discussed in international political organisations and among researchers as a major means for combatting the challenges of demographic ageing. This study aims to make a critical-theoretical and empirical assessment of the active ageing concept, challenging the active ageing discourse from two different angles. First, an assessment of the theoretical framework of active ageing shows that the conceptual framework is undertheorised, lacks conceptual and analytical clarity, and fails to propose clear contributing factors and barriers. The second part presents an empirical analysis of the concept of active ageing guided by the following research question: is active ageing realistic—and for whom? Using Danish data subjected to multiple correspondence analysis, it is found that active ageing at the individual level is preconditioned by health, education, having good finances, etc. Furthermore, a Matthew effect of accumulated advantage is found; that is, older adults who are blessed in one sphere of life are also blessed in others, and such inequalities in old age are the outcomes of social life biographies (i.e., cumulative advantages/disadvantages over the life course). Thus, empirical findings indicate that active ageing may be an elusive goal for a large segment of older adults.
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spelling pubmed-84310492021-09-11 Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing Jensen, Per H. Skjøtt-Larsen, Jakob Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Active ageing has been discussed in international political organisations and among researchers as a major means for combatting the challenges of demographic ageing. This study aims to make a critical-theoretical and empirical assessment of the active ageing concept, challenging the active ageing discourse from two different angles. First, an assessment of the theoretical framework of active ageing shows that the conceptual framework is undertheorised, lacks conceptual and analytical clarity, and fails to propose clear contributing factors and barriers. The second part presents an empirical analysis of the concept of active ageing guided by the following research question: is active ageing realistic—and for whom? Using Danish data subjected to multiple correspondence analysis, it is found that active ageing at the individual level is preconditioned by health, education, having good finances, etc. Furthermore, a Matthew effect of accumulated advantage is found; that is, older adults who are blessed in one sphere of life are also blessed in others, and such inequalities in old age are the outcomes of social life biographies (i.e., cumulative advantages/disadvantages over the life course). Thus, empirical findings indicate that active ageing may be an elusive goal for a large segment of older adults. MDPI 2021-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8431049/ /pubmed/34501746 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179156 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jensen, Per H.
Skjøtt-Larsen, Jakob
Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title_full Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title_fullStr Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title_full_unstemmed Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title_short Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing
title_sort theoretical challenges and social inequalities in active ageing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501746
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179156
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