AndrzejKlimczukEconomic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume 1: Context and ConsiderationsPalgrave Macmillan, 2015. 208 p. $115.00.
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: The book, largely theoretical and didactic, is an outgrowth of doctoral studies in Poland and builds on the author's experience as a policy advisor at national and European levels. It aims to synthesize social construction approaches to aging with those of economics and social gerontology. The author draws artfully, along the way, from geography and planning. The bibliography is a pleasure to skim, reviving some likely forgotten items from decades past. Klimczuk firmly rejects the peak and decline model of aging at the individual life-course level. He hypothesizes that old people possess four types of capital: human, social, cultural (Bourdieu), and symbolic (not adequately explained, but something to do with the ability to impose values). The author adds “creative capital” to these—a concept borrowed from regional economics, where it has been proposed to explain why, all else equal, some regions and cities flourish while others do not. Missing oddly from the elderly's portfolio as theorized are housing and claims on financial markets and the public purse. The typology of capital leads to a chapter on creativity over the lifespan, discussing evidence that creative people fare better in old age and that the young have no monopoly on creativity. We live in times of rapid creativity-augmenting technological progress. How can society tap into this resource to address population aging? One set of responses predictably consists of the familiar “active aging” policies of the “Silver Economy.” Another consists in promoting pro-aged outputs of the creative and cultural industries. In line with the theoretical turn of the book, these Marxist concepts are traced from their origins in Benjamin and Adorno through their later influence on the programs of UNESCO, UNCTAD, WIPO, etc. (the author is at pains throughout to establish the conformity of his policy proposals on aging with UN engagements and conventions). What is needed, Klimczuk argues, is to nudge the cultural and creative ideal, currently stuck on youth, vigor, and aggressive sensuality, toward the more sedate and reflective attributes of the aged. A key to accomplishing this is stimulating the “Social and Solidarity Economy”—the first component (roughly speaking) producing services appropriate to an aging society, the second promoting shared values and inclusion. The book is intelligently written and contains many thought-provoking tables and diagrams. While its focus on the soft and positive sides of aging is refreshing, the author neglects what most readers would consider the mainstream economics of aging.
Author: Landis MacKellar
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2317567893