Starzenie się populacji. Aktywizacja, koprodukcja i integracja społeczna osób starszych

Grzegorz Gawron, Andrzej Klimczuk, Zofia Szweda-Lewandowska
Population Ageing: Activation, Co-Production,
and Social Integration of Older People
Summary
Population ageing, total population growth, international migration and urbanization are four
global demographic trends that are directly reflected in the functioning and directions of
development at all organizational levels – from global and international, to from national to
regional and local.
The identified changes in the age structure constitute a significant challenge for all societies.
This is why this process is of particular interest to a variety of social, political, and
scientific groups, which, through the public debate that has been going on for at least several
decades, are trying to explain and respond to the observed changes. However, the interpretation
of this increased attention can take on a strongly dichotomous character. This is because,
on the one hand, thanks to the widespread interest in the ageing process, its descriptions
gain an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary perspective. As a result, the
ageing process ceases to keep secrets from us, and the accumulated knowledge grows, supplementing
the existing image of this process with new, previously unknown faces. On the other
hand, however, the fact that the ageing process remains the object of the increased interest of
representatives of many scientific disciplines who use their conceptual apparatus results in the
emergence of a multidimensional but not always a coherent image of the analysed fragments
of social reality. This common interest contributes to a significant stratification of the definition
and interpretation sphere used in descriptions and attempts to explain the issues raised.
Therefore, an essential task for the world of science is to properly delimit and configure
(systematize) the accumulated knowledge, which should serve the development of the possibility
of its application in practice. Hence, the idea to prepare the presented volume, the main
research objective of which is to attempt to compile selected concepts, models, and theories
functioning in the scientific circulation in the thematic area identified with the activity and
activation of older people and the public policy towards of an ageing population. The study
is illustrative and theoretical, as it is based on a literature review on the subject (Polish and
foreign), a review of expert opinions and analyses prepared at the request of national and international
institutions, as well as legal acts and other documents, the records of which turned
out to be helpful in the conducted analyses.
The content of this volume corresponds to the three research questions posed. Firstly, by
making a general description of the population ageing (pointing to its main determinants and
the observed dynamics), an attempt has been made to identify the most critical consequences
and challenges related to the observed changes in the age structure on a global scale and in
individual societies. Secondly, efforts have been made to identify the fundamental differences
in meaning and the resulting implications of using various concepts concerning the description
and stimulation of activity, productivity, and social integration of people of immobile
working age and older age. Thirdly, the focus has been placed on determining what the recommendations
for public policy are with regard to population ageing due to the presence in the