Five hours a day: Systemic innovation for an ageing population
With life expectancies increasing by five hours a day and Baby Boomers entering their later years, our assumptions about ageing and who is ‘old’ are fundamentally challenged. Moving beyond chronology as a way of understanding age will be a key shift as we move to an older society. And we need to innovate to enable us to adapt to an ageing population, including recreating our social institutions and creating ways for people to help one another to harness the opportunities of an ageing society and enable all of us to age better.
What impact will ageing have?
We’re all ageing, but not in the same way. Our socio–economic status is a stronger determinant of how we age than our chronological age. And understanding the diversity and dynamism of ageing is vital to the innovation needed to successfully transition to an older society.
Ageing is often talked about in terms of burden, crisis and conflict between generations. There are significant issues of income redistribution between generations and a decline in the ‘working age’ population, but the debate often misses the actual or potential contribution of older people. It also misses the social opportunity to build everyday connections within and between generations.
There are a host of other impacts of an ageing population which are less debated, including what it will feel like to be a teenager living as a ‘minority’ in age terms, or a 30–something politician accountable to more older than younger people. And what happens when younger generations face crises of peak oil created by previous generations? This leads to discussions of intergenerational conflict and questions of what an intergenerational social contract could look like.
An ageing population also challenges how we currently live our lifespans. Arguably we squash too much into the middle – education, family, career – and leave too much ‘spare’ time at the end in ‘retirement’. Now may be the right time to create more flexible ways for living over our entire lifespans.
Published : 28th February 2013
Author : Halima Khan [ More From This Author ]
Publisher : Nesta [ More From This Publisher ]
Rights : Nesta
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