Costantinos Phellas (ed): Aging in European Societies. Healthy Aging in Europe

Abstract

Population ageing involves every aspect of the individual, family and collective life, including the perception and the ‘‘value’’ of the elderly (which is inevitably devalued as a result of their number and the speed of changes in production and technology which easily makes them ‘‘obsolete’’). The current demographic aging is certainly unprecedented in the history of humanity. It is a process that, sooner or later, will spread throughout the world. It involves all social classes and acts on all sub-populations (the school population, the labor force, the old and oldest-old populations). Ageing modifies family structures and every dimensions of human life. For Europe it is a rapid, irreversible process as individuals are living longer and longer, and there are fewer and fewer children (a low number of children per woman and fewer women in reproductive ages). Demographic aging in Europe is accompanied by a slow population decrease, which is counter-acted by a still high number of young people in poor countries and a high growth rate among these populations. These contrasts may cause problems at the global level that may even be difficult to control. The many problems that aging brings are, then, of various kinds, and involve many aspects of public and private life. The eighteen chapters in the volume Aging in European Societies. Healthy Aging in Europe present many of these aspects. An extensive introduction is followed by individual chapters that address specific issues. Chapter 2 on Challenging Statutory Pensions Reforms in an Aging Europe: Adequacy Versus Sustainability, gives a broad description of the stages of pensions reform in Europe, also pointing out some important differences between countries. Unfortunately, the authors do not give many clues on why these differences exist