Embracing Age-Inclusivity Through Multimodal, Active Student Learning in a Health and Aging Policy Course

One of the goals for an upper-level undergraduate seminar course is for students to identify and discuss existing policies, programs, and resources for meeting the needs of the aging population. To encourage active student learning, the course provides a mix of readings and assignments, six intergenerational discussions, and reflective writing. The idea is that these varying experiences help foster a deep understanding of how these policies and related issues pertain and matter to everyone, not only older individuals, and how their future career and family experiences will benefit from the knowledge gained in the course regardless of their next career steps. This course model has been effective for challenging ageism, and has been taught four times, each time with modifications based on student numbers, current issues, and the pandemic. The presenter will discuss assessment methods, identify best practices, and offer suggestions for others interested in utilizing a similar model.

Aging Equally? Employing Active Aging Policy in the United Kingdom

The UK’s responses to the challenges of ageing have largely focused on productivist notions of active ageing, with more comprehensive responses tending to be reactive and largely remedial. This presentation will show that productivist policies, often characterised by individual responsibility, including raising the retirement age, restricting access to early retirement, and providing a stronger link between pension benefits and contributions, have incentivised remaining in the labour market. These strategies have been justified in the context of ageing populations and increasing pension costs. However, opportunities to extend working lives have not been experienced equally. In practice most policies are gender blind. Furthermore, a more comprehensive approach to active ageing in the UK needs a collective emphasis to mobilise a wide range of societal resources, underpinned by a commitment to public welfare, which is highly problematic under neo-liberalism. Therefore, a comprehensive approach to ageing in the UK requires a substantial ideological shift.

Kathryn Hyer's Lasting Legacy in Gerontology Education and Aging Policy Research

Kathy Hyer, our dear friend, colleague, former Gerontological Society of America President and Professor and Director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging, University of South Florida posthumously has been awarded the Clark Tibbett's Award for her achievements in the advancement of the field of gerontological education in higher education. This lecture will reflect on some of her decades of accomplishments including her dedication to AGHE's mission to train and educate students in gerontology. Her greatest achievement is in the area of training and education of long-term care administration and aging studies undergraduate students to be nursing home and assisted living administrators. This lecture will also highlight several initiatives of Dr. Hyer's that involved undergraduate, graduate students, and junior faculty who she mentored including the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Project, NIA SAFEHAVEN and COVID research on disasters, the Dementia Training Academy, Age Friendly Initiatives both nationally and internationally and student mentorship for graduate assistantships through the USF Center for End of Life Care.

SYMBOLIC STRUGGLE FOR POLICY IMPLEMENTATION OF «ACTIVE AGING» IN THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL AND LABOR SPHERE

В статье рассматриваются социальные процессы, сопровождающие реализацию политики «активного долголетия» в российской социальнотрудовой сфере. В первом разделе статьи кратко представляются основы концепции «активного долголетия» и обсуждаются возможные социальные механизмы ее применения. Особое место здесь отводится анализу социальных прав, которые формируют основу для разных моделей развития общественного благосостояния и качества жизни населения. Во втором разделе на базе парадигмы конструктивизма в социальных науках и теории символической власти П. Бурдьё предлагается авторский вариант изучения структур восприятия и оценивания населением реализованных государственных реформ. В третьем разделе представлены результаты эмпирического анализа серии полуструктурированных интервью с основными субъектами социально-трудовой сферы и текстов обращений граждан в органы государственной власти. В заключение интерпретируется символическая борьба вокруг восприятия политики «активного долголетия» в России. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что ожидается новый всплеск программ социальной помощи пожилым и рост пассивности в их трудовом поведении. The article examines the social processes accompanying implementation of the policy «active aging» in the Russian social and labor spheres. The basic concepts of «active aging» are briefl y introduced and possible social mechanisms of its application are discussed in the first section of the article. Special importance is given to the analysis of social rights which form the basis for different models of the development of public welfare and the population’s quality of life. In the second section, author’s version of studying the perception and assessment structures by the population of the implemented reforms of the State are proposed on the basis of the paradigm of constructivism in the social sciences and the theory of symbolic power by P. Bourdieu. In the third section the results of an empirical analysis of a set of semi-structured interviews with the main subjects of the social and labor spheres and the texts of citizens’ appeals to government bodies are presented. In conclusion, the symbolic struggle around the perception of the «active aging» policy in Russia is interpreted. The authors conclude that a new surge in social assistance programs for the elderly and an increase in passivity in their work behavior are expected.