Although the ongoing demographic change is a largely undisputed fact, there is high level of controversy as to its interpretation and long-run effects.
The expressed views on ageing range from very gloomy pictures about the future to the very optimistic perspective that an aging of the population is accompanied by a decline in many of the problems densely populated areas are usually plagued with, such as crime, poverty, pollution, and lack of space.
Ageing, work and welfare span the research interests of our interdisciplinary team in SCALA.
The three concepts constitute the common content and substance within and across disciplines. All participating research units in the proposal can be primarily located in the intersection of at least two fields, many of them even in the shaded heart of the FSP.
Organisational energy, defined as the force a company purposefully works with, will examine the conditions that enable elderly workers to be a performing part of companies and hence valuable for society. Executive and non-executive labour examines the market for and behaviours of top managers and board members, whose decisions affect all employees' work conditions and welfare.
A careful analysis of unemployment and the measures taken to fight it must be extended to encompass the factors related to an ageing of the workforce. This is particularly true at the end of the working career, as ageing and health are closely related issues that have to be jointly analysed. In all these fields the level of government involvement is high and of particular interest.
The high societal relevance of the conducted research also calls for a broader view of individual and collective well-being, a topic analysed in the economic and political determinants of welfare. Obviously different societies have taken and will take different measures to deal with demographic change.
Work, ageing, and welfare: sociological and philosophical perspectives will give us the historical background for a debate of ageing and analyses a set of concepts that the different approaches in our interdisciplinary research group have in common.