Abstract:

Individual and collective ageing is part of a broad social process. Ageing persons are going to mark the face of society in future so greatly that we will have to speak of a graying world. Gerontology is interested in exploring the qualitative phenomena of ageing. This interest has a dual motivation and direction. Firstly, it focusses on the implications of ageing for the individual. Secondly, it takes up the effects and requirements of this development in terms of social policy. Ageing is a process of increasing differentiation. Different views of age must be matched by different social and economic action. Ageing is a dynamic process and not a static state. Further development is possible for the aged as well. The way people age depends on their life story. The elderly can only be understood against the background of their specific life experiences. Ageing women and men have a wealth of experience behind them. Society needs a new culture of experience transfer. The negative image of age is to be corrected.