Policy and Practice
Addressing the Mandatory and Involuntary Retirement of Older Adults: A Social Justice Issue View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jan Marie Fritz, Tina Uys
This study focuses on the mandatory retirement and involuntary retirement of older adults as a rather hidden and unaddressed social justice issue. Mandatory retirement is the age at which persons who hold certain jobs or offices are required by business, custom or law to leave their work. Involuntary retirement is a term that sometimes is used when there is a focus on the custom for workers to be forced to retire by their employers because of their older age. There often does not seem to be recognition that forced retirement because of age is a discriminatory act. This study covers the following topics: becoming aware of mandatory retirement policies and practices; protecting the rights of older adults; ageism and mandatory/involuntary retirement; the current situation in Iceland, South Korea and Sweden; and suggested actions including having the right to work included in a UN convention on the rights of older people..
Discretion for Whom? Local Policies and the Agency Problem between Politicians and Care Managers in Swedish Social Service
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sara Wittberg
Research on social work’s relation to local political decisions and the design of political policy documents is scarce. This paper analyses the design of local political policies for elder care in Sweden’s 290 municipalities. The policies determine delegation, i.e., care managers’ legal right to make decisions about the welfare services given to older people. By mapping documents for delegation, the results show that care managers’ delegation varies considerably between municipalities, e.g., by the decision-making being conditioned to local political guidelines, or by consultation with a manager. The Principal Agent theory (PAT) is used to discuss the findings. Analysed through the PAT, care managers can be understood as agents set to perform tasks on behalf of the politicians. Local policies can be viewed as a tool for political control by minimising risks of unpredictability and arbitrariness in decision-making. This raises questions about the role of care managers and the extent of their professional freedom while assessing needs to ensure older people a reasonable standard of living. The results highlight the importance of accounting for the structural political context and its consequences for frontline bureaucrats.
Interventional Gerontological Approaches: Good Practice Examples from Türkiye in Applied Gerontology and Political Implications View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fatma Gülsima Agildere, Özlem Özgür, Ismail Tufan
Applied Gerontology is a discipline grounded in theory, scientific knowledge and empirical findings, encompassing all practical interventions to solve problems related to aging. This field not only addresses existing problems but also anticipates risks and develops protective and preventative strategies. Since the early 2000s, Gerontology has been promoted and developed with great effort in Türkiye. During this period, numerous initiatives have been implemented under the leadership of the National Association for Social and Applied Gerontology, which collaborates with public institutions, universities, local governments and decision-makers. This paper discusses major practices and projects developed within the framework of Interventional Gerontological Approaches, such as the 60+Rejuvenation Universities, National Aging Preparation Program, International Social and Applied Gerontology Symposia, Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Parkinson's Schools, Active Elderly Homes, and İbradı NYD Gerontology Center. These applications made significant contributions to the institutionalization of Gerontology and to the historical development of Applied Gerontology in Türkiye. In this paper, social policies developed in areas such as elderly rights, active and healthy aging, the need for care and awareness of age discrimination will be evaluated, and how these policies are shaped by a social state perspective will be outlined. Examples of the history of these practices in Turkey, their implementation, and the resulting outcomes through case studies will be presented. We believe practices of Applied Gerontology in Turkey can be considered examples of good practice in developing aging policies in Europe and globally.
