Social Innovations in Ageing Societies

Abstract

To meet the challenges of population ageing, currently is one of the most striking political and societal tasks in nearly all European countries. Population ageing can be regarded as both drivers for social change as well as point of departure for social innovations which are seen as one of the adequate answers to tackle with its challenges. This paper starts with our own understanding of social innovation. Secondly we describe population ageing in its different challenges for both the ageing population as well as for the society as a whole. It will be shown that population ageing affects more or less all sectors of society and in consequence asks for cross-sector policy approaches. The special focus of this paper is to look at social innovations answering to population ageing in the context of the “productivity discourse”. In doing this we are presenting the integrated use of technology and social services in order to support independent housing/living at home even in the case of being needy of care as an example of age-related social innovation. In the wake of population ageing new potentials for social innovation are generated which are insofar of essential importance as there are many new products and services developed especially for the elderly, which support ‘independent living’ in old age. Moreover, at the same time they generate positive effects on economic growth and employment (market innovation) which will be discussed under the heading of ‘Silver Economy’. In this context networked living (or: Ambient Assisted Living – AAL) will be presented as a special type of social innovation being at the interface between technology and social services. Networked living is not only understood as integration of information and communication technologies but also as social cross-linking of different industries, technologies, services and other key players.