ABSTRACT
Active ageing, productive ageing, and successful ageing are concepts used to describe new forms of ageing (for new generations). However, the trend toward an active phase of ageing – particularly among the ‘young old’ – reinforces anxieties about the risks of old age. While the ‘third age’ is increasingly perceived as a phase of new competences, expectations, hopes (and illusions), the ‘fourth age’ remains strongly associated with aspects like frailty, vulnerability, increased risks of dependency and cognitive impairments (dementia). This results in a permanent ambivalence between an achievement-oriented culture for the ‘young old’ and a care-oriented culture for the ‘old old.’
