Productive Engagement in Later Life
Productive ageing is the involvement of older adults in society through employment, volunteering, caregiving, education and skill building. In 2020 there will be 248 million people in China aged 60 and over. At the same time, the birth rate continues to drop and family structures are being transformed. In the face of such pressing demographic challenges, the productive engagement of older adults is a clear-cut strategy to strengthen families and communities while simultaneously promoting the health of older adults. From a human capital perspective, an ageing population represents resources to address societal needs; and the active engagement of older adults can enhance and maintain the physical, mental and cognitive health of the older adults.
The challenge is to develop policies that support productive engagement and implement evidence-based programs that create opportunities for older adults in active engagement in the community. Contributions of older adults will be necessary for social and economic development of families, communities, and society. Productive Engagement in Later Life covers the 2009 China conference on productive aging and discusses how to initiate and build productive aging agenda in China and around the globe.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the China Journal of Social Work.
Nancy Morrow-Howell is Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. She is a national leader in gerontology, widely known for her work on productive and civic engagement of older adults. Dr. Morrow-Howell is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, chair-elect of the SRPP section of GSA, and a member of GSAs Expert Workgroup on Civic Engagement in an Older America. She is on the Editorial Board of both The Gerontologist and the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
Ada C. Mui is a Professor of Social Work at the Columbia University School of Social Work, USA. She has been recognized as one of the leading social gerontologists in cross-cultural research. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and an Honorary Professor at Beijing Normal University, Beijing Youth Politics College, and the University of Hong Kong, China. In Taiwan, she is a Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Center at the National Taiwan University.
Productive Engagement in Later Life
A Global Perspective
Edited by
Nancy Morrow-Howell and Ada C. Mui
First published 2012
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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2012 Taylor & Francis
This book is a reproduction of the China Journal of Social Work, volume 3, issue 2-3. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based.
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ISBN13: 978-0-415-69816-0
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by Taylor & Francis Books
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The publisher would like to make readers aware that the chapters in this book may be referred to as articles as they are identical to the articles published in the special issue. The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen in the course of preparing this volume for print.
Contents
Michael Sherraden
Nancy Morrow-Howell and Ada C. Mui
Ada C. Mui
Peishan Yang
Peng Du and Hui Yang
Nancy Morrow-Howell and Jennifer C. Greenfield
Li-Mei Chen Uesugi
Elizabeth Ozanne
a. Caregiving
Qun Liu and Wen-Guang Ke
Song-Lee Hong and Ene-Young Park
Teresa B.K. Tsien and Guat Tin Ng
b. Working
Rita Jing-Ann Chou
Philip Taylor, Brad Jorgensen and Erin Watson
c. Volunteering
Qin Li
Fengyan Tang
Jeni Warburton
Alice Ming-lin Chong
Productive ageing is likely to become a major policy discussion in China
Michael Sherradena
aThe Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
The Center for Social Development (CSD) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St Louis, USA, along with our partners, is pleased to have conceived and organized this first conference on Productive Ageing in China. I especially want to acknowledge our wonderful partners and co-sponsors of this conference, foremost Shandong University in China and Washington University in St Louis, along with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Center for Social Development Asia at the National University of Singapore. With all of these institutions, CSD has a rich and fruitful working history and lasting friendships.
As organizers of the Conference on Productive Ageing, the lead people have been Gao Jianguo, Cheng Shengli, and Sun Yanyan at Shandong University, and Nancy Morrow-Howell, Michael Sherraden, Li Zou, and Jing Tan at Washington University in St Louis. Ada C. Mui from Columbia University, USA, and Fengyan Tang at University of Pittsburgh, USA, provided consultation. The conference was held as part of a larger annual meeting on social issues, conceived by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); we are grateful to Yang Tuan and her colleagues at CASS for their interest and support.
Productive Ageing is an emerging topic in China, and sometimes not easy to discuss. In some respects, this idea may be at odds with traditional Chinese perspectives on the role of elders in society. Productive ageing suggests that elders may be engaged and contributing to the world around them, but in China a strong value is to respect elders and allow them to rest after a long life of hard work. Thus, the idea that Chinese older adults should do something productive may run counter to Chinese culture, and this can generate heartfelt discussion. However, another key feature of Chinese culture is pragmatism, and the demographics of ageing the arithmetic of longevity will necessitate a somewhat different view of older adults in society.
In our view, the discussion of Productive Ageing is inevitable, and at hand. Trends toward ageing societies around the world will likely change how every society thinks about ageing and the roles of older adults in society. As more people live longer and healthier lives, the concept of retirement as several decades of leisure will inevitably be transformed. Many, perhaps most, older people will continue to be contributing members of society through volunteering in their community, continuing employment, caregiving, educating the next generation, or some other valued endeavour (Morrow-Howell
