This paper takes the quality of life in the neighbourhood as a starting point and appeals to the framework of Age-friendly Cities to gain insights in how ‘the neighbourhood as a physical surrounding’ can either promote or hinder feelings of unsafety in later life. It examines the impact of the perceived design of the neighbourhood on feelings of unsafety in later life. Literature on the relationship between feelings of unsafety and the neighbourhood mainly concentrates on incivilities and disorder. Other physical-spatial features of the neighbourhood are rarely taken into consideration. Using data generated from the Belgian Ageing Studies (N=25,980) multivariate analyses indicate that a neighbourhood which is perceived to be physically adapted to the needs of older people (in terms of accessibility and distance to services) heightens feelings of safety. The findings demonstrate the need to reduce behaviour constraints by redesigning fear-related physical features. This conclusion raises practical implications and formulates a number of policy recommendations to tackle feelings of unsafety in an ageing society.

Staying socially engaged is known to improve health and longevity in older people. As the population ages, maintaining levels of social engagement among older people becomes increasingly important. Nevertheless, advancing age brings with it many challenges to social engagement, especially in rural areas. A three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project sought to improve understandings of age-related triggers to social disengagement in six Tasmanian communities that are representative of rural Australian experience, and thus of wider salience. A collaboration between academics and health and social professionals, the project investigated design solutions for service frameworks that may be useful before ageing individuals become isolated and dependent, and that may support those individuals to actively contribute to and benefit from social life. The purpose of this paper is to report on perspectives about diminishing levels of social engagement held by older rural participants and service providers, and to advance a number of key insights on ways in which to nurture social engagement and improve the experience of ageing.

This paper examines the new approaches to older bodies found within primary care, with the purpose of determining whether they represent a significant disjunction from established approaches in geriatric medicine. A genealogical review of clinical approaches to certain conditions commonly found in old age is undertaken utilising (a) key texts of pioneering British geriatricians and (b) three editions of a key textbook of general practice, published between 1989 and 2009. The discourses and practices established by the Quality and Outcome Frameworks in England are then examined, focusing on evidence-based guidance for these same conditions. Following this excavation of written texts, empirical data are analysed, namely the accounts of general practitioners and practice nurses regarding application of the technologies associated with chronic disease management to older patients. Continuities and changes identified by these practitioners are explored in terms of three specific consequences, namely conceptualising and treatment of older bodies and interaction with patients. The paper's conclusion considers whether these changes are significant enough to warrant describing them as representative of an epistemic rupture or break in the way older bodies are perceived, both in medicine and also in society more generally, and thus of constituting a new political anatomy of the older body.

Population ageing will significantly impact labour markets in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and as a result individuals will need to remain in paid employment for longer to fund their retirement years. This study examines the retirement intentions of employees of a large public-sector organisation located in Victoria, Australia that was interested in developing policies to assist with retention of their mature-age workforce. Multivariate regression analyses were used to identify the most important predictors of intention to retire. The dependent variable, Intended timing of retirement, was analysed in two forms, as continuous and dichotomised measures. Age and Length of service were strong independent predictors of Intention to retire soon (within five years). Of the work factors that were analysed (Job satisfaction, Job demands, Job control, and Social cohesion), low Job satisfaction and high Social cohesion scores indicated an increased likelihood of retiring soon. The results provide some insight into the development of organisational interventions that might assist with retaining older employees for longer.

Since the 1990s, the number of websites and web users, especially older users, has increased extensively. Despite the rapid growth in the number of websites, a significant number of ergonomic violations still hinder the information search activity performed by web users. As ageing is associated with reduced working memory capacity, inhibition failure, slowing of processing speed and more generally impaired executive functioning, older adult web users may experience difficulties while searching for information, especially when the website includes ergonomic violations, such as usability and accessibility violations. In this experiment, the navigation activities of younger and older web users were compared while they were searching for information on a website that met ergonomic guidelines and on a website that included ergonomic violations. The participants then performed a free, delayed-recall task to assess their mental representation of the website they had just navigated. The main findings showed that ageing had a negative impact on search performance but few effects on mental representation built by participants. On the contrary, the ergonomic quality of the website had an impact on search performance and mental representation built by the participants.

In this study, we examined the relationship between emotional labour and successful ageing among older Hong Kong Chinese workers. We also investigated whether job satisfaction mediated the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. Results show that deep acting was positively related to successful ageing in the workplace, whereas surface acting was negatively related to the same. Structural equation modelling shows that job satisfaction partially mediated the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. The limitations of the study and further recommendations are also discussed.

Japan presents a unique social laboratory in which to examine how family support impacts on older adults’ psychological wellbeing. This is because of its cultural climate where distinctively different expectations of old-age independence and the traditional norm of filial piety coexist. This study investigated how structural and functional dimensions of the family support of older Japanese parents influence their psychological morale, and whether the impacts of family support on parents’ morale vary depending on the parents’ belief in the traditional cultural norm of filial piety. Four waves of data from the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA) collected in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2006 were analysed. Combining the two- or three-year span of longitudinal data between each wave (N=3,882), an ordered logistic regression analysis was undertaken. The results reveal that although parents who were widowed or received emotional support from a child tended to report a lower level of morale, the negative influences of such support tended to be mitigated if the parent agreed with the traditional cultural norm of filial responsibilities. These results imply that the meaning and benefit of family support may differ depending on the degree to which Japanese older parents support the traditional norm of filial responsibilities.

‘Active ageing’ is a topic of increasing attention in scientific and policy discussions on ageing, yet there is no consensus on its actual meaning. The current paper proposes a detailed classification of various definitions that have been used since its introduction. These definitions are subjected to critical investigation, and subtle differences with regard to such terms as ‘healthy ageing’ and ‘productive ageing’ are clarified. Bearing the hazards of previous definitions in mind, a comprehensive strategy is initiated. Given that earlier definitions have tended to exclude frail older adults, this strategy pays particular attention to the translation of the active-ageing concept to situations of dependency by centring on three key principles: fostering adaptability, supporting the maintenance of emotionally close relationships and removing structural barriers related to age or dependency.