ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights that the nature of contemporary global population ageing dynamics is not reflected in the demographic theories, models and estimates that predict doomsday scenarios of daunting financial and care burdens. Such predictions are based on Western and neoliberal theories and experiences, and move counter to a more effective global policy framework. The real game changer in understanding global population ageing will be moving away from these tropes towards a more critical, decolonial, and less ‘ageist’ sociology of ageing that recognizes diversity in how ageing is produced globally. Key here will be eradicating assumptions that the experience of developed countries is universally desired or feasible (e.g. retirement ages), better situating population growth rates and predictions within the local, national and global contexts that influence mortality rates and labour market outcomes for different generations, and moving away from the ageist assumption that young people are productive, but older people are not. A much broader – and gendered – analysis of the diversity of trajectories across the life course is critical to a better understanding of older people’s contribution to society and their needs and vulnerabilities.
