Active Ageing: Conceptual Developments, International Experiences and Recent Policy Strategies in Italy

Population ageing is one of the most challenging social, demographic and economic phenomena affecting our societies, and policy makers and researchers have been developing diverse responses to address its consequences. During the last decades, within the EU context a new concept has been developed under the label of Active Ageing (AA), intended as a tool to support efforts aimed at adapting the social and economic structure to demographic trends, thus making them more sustainable. The vision of a society in which all human beings have agency beyond their position within the labour market is embedded in the AA framework, in which a good quality of life is ensured throughout the whole life course. In this chapter, we will first reconstruct the historical development of policies and theories concerning the ageing process, paying particular attention to the conceptualisation of AA and of the related policy framework. The second part focuses on selected European and international experiences regarding the construction and implementation of policy strategies inspired by mainstream programmatic documents (e.g. WHO 2002; MIPAA, Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing 2002). Finally, the last part highlights the Italian case and the recent efforts undertaken to develop a concerted national strategy in this field.