THE CONCEPT OF ACTIVE AGING

In modern societies, not only is the proportion of the aging population vastly expanding but their status and security are declining; instead of treating the elderly as a valuable resource as in pre-modern societies, they are regarded as a burden. Besides family care, in pre-modern societies the developmental opportunities enjoyed by the aging enabled them to function usefully at the level of their declining capacities accompanying old age. But in modern societies their survival, mainly under humanitarian considerations, tends to deprive the aging of the benefit of a life-time of knowledge, experience and wisdom. This results in a rapid deterioration of their declining resources through desuetude. The concept of Active Aging refers to the social reconstruction of the situation of the aging in modern societies, which would provide the aging with developmental opportunities besides humanitarian care, benefiting both the aging and the society.