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The paper analyses the specificity of the phenomenon of loneliness experienced in Alzheimer’s disease. The theoretical part contains a discussion on the issue of solitude and loneliness as described in the scientific literature, as well as on the significance of various manifestations of loneliness for the possibility of achieving existential fulfilment. Particular attention has been paid to the context of unaccountable loneliness caused by destructive changes in Alzheimer’s disease. It disrupts the ability to remember and perceive oneself in relation to one’s social environment. In the empirical part which uses the qualitative research approach, an in-depth reflection on the multi-faceted, very complex nature of experiencing loneliness by an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease is presented. The analysis was conducted on the basis of her own entries in her daily notebook concerning the ways of experiencing loneliness as a source of existential suffering. The analysis of the collected research material enabled the identification of several manifestations of the loneliness of an elderly person which do not correspond with the typical image of loneliness experienced by an individual unaffected by dementia. The analysis captured the subtle nature of existential suffering, which reflects the specificity of the deepening personal degradation of an elderly person caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
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Social inclusion and social exclusion of the elderly belong to the concepts the operationalization of which has started recently. The objective of this paper is to analyze the factors of social inclusion of the elderly who live in Belgrade. Therefore, a research, using a questionnaire, which included 781 elderly persons living in Belgrade, was conducted in 2019. The dimensions of their health, living standard and financial situation, as well as the quality of life and social participation, were in the focus of the research. Basic findings point to a negative correlation between years of life and all measured outcomes; a positive correlation between their education and subjective assessment of the quality of life and objective measure of social participation in the community; as well as an absence of gender differences in dependent variables, except for the mobility.
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The rise of life expectancy and the trend of increasing age for retirement are influencing the world economy. The age for retirement is slowly growing from 65 to 67 years and could easily reach 70 years in years to come. Although for some this is still far away, for many it causes a strong and current sense of unease. Fluctuations and competition on the job market worldwide are not adding ease for people since there is a danger that you must find a new job at the age of 50+. So, from one standpoint, when people retire or they are made redundant, franchising can be a sound solution for continuing their work. Franchising can allow them to create a new career and have bigger control over the future. As an older franchisee, one can find many benefits for adopting franchising from starting a business to having an asset that you can later sell for financing retirement. From a franchisor’s standpoint, an older franchisee means reliability and experience which are characteristics of a successful franchisee. Thus, for the aging society a franchise business model can provide a chance not only for survival but also to have a successful business. On the other hand, franchising as a business model is providing many different services and products which are intended for the aging society. Today the products, services, and care for the aging society offer business opportunities that can be put within the franchise business model. The main aim of this chapter is to analyze opportunities that franchising can offer to the aging society from both standpoints: (i) as a franchisee, and (ii) as a business that offers products, services and care to the aging people. The chapter will also suggest further proposals for research on the role of franchising in the silver economy.
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Since the world’s population is aging, there have been numerous articles, books, and research conducted on that topic connected with the quality of life, expectations, and realistic possibilities. An additional point in favor of considering the elderly population as an unresearched economy or market is that for the first time since 2018 we have more people over 64 than children younger than 5 years of age. Elderly people today are of course different than previous generations of pensioners. This is especially important when it comes to technology usage. On the other hand, information and communication technology has never been more affordable and accessible. Software solutions have become our everyday passion and mobile devices are the last thing we check before falling asleep. Also, the information, in general, is more important and easier to get and resourceful for different kinds of analysis. The main aim of the chapter is to research ICT options and solutions for the population gathered under the umbrella term Silver Economy (the elderly in our societies). Services and applications which can make their life easier and better will be considered together with preparation of pensioners to use ICT. Mainly analyzing statistical data, the chapter will use a short questionnaire and interviews to check the situation in the local environment. Finally, a comparison will be made among the elderly population in terms of ICT usage in Japan, the USA, the EU, and Croatia.
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ICT is considered as one of the fundamental values and contribution to the digital economy. ICT use is becoming an increasingly crucial determinant for the old-age population to meet their demands for high-quality life and low-cost services. However, ICT use, including the employment of online purchase of the elderly population, varies widely among different EU-281 countries. This study aims to investigate Internet usage, especially in terms of online purchase behaviors among elderly Europeans aged 65 and older. Through clustering analysis, the aim of the paper is to identify the heterogeneity in Internet usage among the elderly population in the EU members. Results highlight the gap that exists in the level of online purchasing widely among EU countries.
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Media literacy has been recognized in European Union documents related to audiovisual and media policy as an essential factor in the modern information society, with commitment to education on this issue at all levels. However, most education programs are focused on preschool and school-age, while at the same time, some recent research shows that people over 65 are the ones who, for various reasons (primarily, ignorance), spread most misinformation or fake news via social networks. This research seeks to gain insight into the extent to which third-person consumers are media consumers, what the forms of media are they are most in touch with, and to what extent they can distinguish informative media content from covert marketing advertising. It also seeks to gain insight into the aftermath of a generation of passive media consumers with modern media technology that offers a proactive approach to participation and information formation for the masses and to answer the question as to how much they create and shape information through social networks and communication platforms. The research is conducted on a representative sample of third-age media content consumers through questionnaires and in-depth interviews, and the analysis of the results obtained aims at determining their media knowledge, experiences, habits, and insights.
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The text presents the contents of the current issue of “Nauki o Wychowaniu. Studia Interdyscyplinarne” and emphasizes the context of multi-/interdisciplinary gerontology studies conducted in Poland.
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Population aging phenomenon, which takes place globally, forces organisations to change their approach to human resource management. An interest in humanistic approach to management issues, including human resource management, that has been recently popular among HR experts, became the starting point for the analysis presented in this paper. It seems that jobcoaching is closely connected with this notion, which is aimed at understanding and improving the lot of human in the world of organisation, especially when people have the possibility to be active on the labour market for a longer time. Similarly, as in case of the basic assumptions of the humanistic approach to management, jobcoaching puts to the fore the need to understand the personal experience of the members of the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to present the jobcoaching as a method of age management in organisations. The paper verifies a research hypothesis, that in systematically changing conditions of the organisation, the use of jobcoaching can improve the company’s operations, as well as it can be a starting point for changing the attitudes of employees and employers to the situation prevailing in the environment.
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The paper describes the “Reflections on Old Age” gerontology conferences organized by the Department of Andragogy and Social Gerontology. The main purpose of these conferences was to start fruitful meetings devoted to issues of old age and the process of ageing. The paper also presents a new editorial series entitled “Reflections on Old Age”.
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The article presents the preliminary results of a wider intergenerational study on critical life events. A background analysis of theoretical works on critical life events has led to the selection of criteria (such as the unexpectedness of an event, unpredictability of its effects, its equivocation, type and the nature of life changes itcauses) that were used to review the collected narratives of the respondents. The authors attempt to reconstruct critical life events that are the most typical and significant in the biographies of seniors. The seniors’ temporal perspective (decline of life, time of summaries) encourages a more reflective narration that unveils the rich exemplification of potential effective and ineffective life strategies, the subjective quality of life, and the basis of life wisdom.
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The prevalence of the aging society phenomenon in the last decade forces governments, countries, and people to re-evaluate the perspectives and potential of lifelong learning and the effects it has on the society as a whole. According to World Bank data, the percentage in the total world population in the 0-14 year-old segment is declining, while the United Nations predict that by the year 2050 there will be more people over the age of 60 (2.1 billion) than the adolescents and young people aged 10-24 years (2 billion). The segment of elderly people has longer life expectancy and better overall health condition due to advances in medicine and technology. These trends implicate urgency for better inclusion and defining new roles for this segment. The most effective way to do this is to enable the elderly to have access to information and to know how to properly use it. The major role in this shift is certainly played by information and communication technology. The aim of this paper is to examine the state and possibilities of including the elderly as a more active society member through the use of digital technology and lifelong learning.
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Local governments as the smallest units of territorial self‑government in Poland are responsible for providing care services. The growing number of the elderly can influence the expenditures level connected with ensuring proper care for them, and it may constitute a growing problem for local government, especially for districts with a lower level of socio‑economic development. In recent years, a quite high increase in benefits amount due to care services and specialist care services has been observed. Therefore, a question arises whether a significant dependence can be observed between the share of the elderly in the population and the degree of local governments’ financial burden due to providing care services. The aim of this paper is to indicate voivodeships where local governments bear the biggest burden of providing care services and to verify whether it is connected with their demographic situation. The data which were subject to the static analysis conducted came from public sources: the report of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy of the Republic of Poland and elaborations of the Central Statistic Office. The situation of particular voivodeships has been defined in the scope of society ageing and burdening local government with care services. Only in the case of half of voivodeships it has been proven that the level (low, medium or high) of burden of the said services corresponds to the same level of the number of the elderly in their population, which can confirm that the amount of care services is connected with a demographic situation of a given voivodeship.
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The paper deals with the phenomenon of the medicalization of old age. In the process of medicalization, a natural, developmental, cultural, and social phenomenon changes into a medical problem. The process is concluded when a given attribute returns toculture as a medical issue. Examples of such a return include the tendentious image of elderly people in the public space and the media, in particular in films. Recognizing this phenomenon is the first step to a more critical and reflective reception of such messages and, as a consequence, using the medicalized approach to old age less and less frequently. The aim of the paper is to describe the phenomenon of medicalization of old age in films. Due to the role played by films in modelling of attitudes, the intensity of certain patterns may stigmatize the elderly. In order to examine whether such a phenomenon occurs, 37 films have been selected and analysed in terms of the selected aspects of medicalization. The work is empirical and the obtained results indicate that medicalization of old age is a very popular film motif.
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Philosophy in literature may also be found in children’s books, especially those concerning such serious subjects as death. The authors of these books often introduce the philosophy of life and the meaning of death by showing them through the prism of a meeting of a child and an elderly person. What results from these meetings and what other qualities, apart from the context of familiarizing with death, can be found in these literary meetings? The reference point in the paper is Andrzej Nowicki’s philosophy of a meeting, i.e. incontrology.
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The aim of this book has been to identify the features of spatial mobility of senior citizens (60+) living in the Śródmieście district in Łódź. To achieve the purpose of the monograph, a survey was conducted among the target population (60+) living in this part of the city. The research proves that the senior citizens of Śródmieście choose everyday shopping as well as visiting their family and friends as the primary destination of their daily trips. Therefore, it can be concluded that they above all focus on meeting their basic needs. As for transport mode, it has to be stated that, in the case of short-distance trips, seniors choose walking or public transportation. The car is the preferred means of transport mainly when there is a need to travel relatively longer distances, including commuting to work or visiting family and friends. With regard to the distances covered, it can be generally said that they decrease with age, because longer trips are primarily associated with employment which is more frequently pursued by younger seniors.
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