Ageing in Transition: Potential Influences of the EU Political Framing of Active Ageing on the Life of Senior Citizens

The aim of the study is to identify and problematise the political value-base of ‘active ageing’ to elucidate potentially influences on the lives of the individual senior citizen. Analysis of two central EU policy documents from the European Year 2012, Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, reveals an embedded ideal of the active old citizen. The discourse analysis is inspired by the Foucauldian problematisation and results in three problematisations: Societal civil obligations in late life, Expectations for a healthy old life, and Economics as a basis for active ageing. It turns out that there is a current hegemonic view on ageing, in which older persons should keep being active to remain independent of welfare services as long as possible and instead contribute to society doing e.g. volunteering work. The overall orientation in the documents shows an economic understanding of active agers as providers contributing to society to reduce the obligation of the state and thereby reduce the economic challenges posed by demographic challenge. The conclusion shows that this established framing about active ageing potentially influence the experienced lives of the individual old citizen leading to an exclusion of broader perspectives concerning the individual life situation of the senior person.