Chapter 13 International standardisation of products and services for ageing societies : Promoting the global application of an age- friendly lens

Abstract

This book engages with the concept of age-friendly environments, adopting multi-perspectivity to demonstrate how age-friendly environments can contribute to shifting how we think, feel and act toward issues of age and ageing and operate as a vehicle to improve understandings of ageism. Drawing from traditionally distinct fields, the text demonstrates theoretical and applied dimensions of the age-friendly global agenda, with several chapters discussing topics that have to date been underrepresented in age-friendly scholarship, including education, health and justice systems. The case studies encourage critical engagement with the issue of ageism in age-friendly scholarship. It presents a clear understanding of the inequalities, challenges and opportunities of ageing and of the ways international, regional, national and sub-national commitments in health, development and human rights, and are further impacted by, ageing through designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programmes. The essays utilise a critical and interdisciplinary dialogue to enhance discussion of the age-friendly environment agenda through the inclusion of age-friendly perspectives in addition to its processes and destinations in an ageing society. The book serves as a catalyst to stimulate research, policy and public interest in the physical, social and regulatory environments in which we age and the consequent impact upon health and well-being. It will be of interest to professors, graduate students and undergraduate students in policy, sociology, health, planning and gerontology. It is also recommended reading for policy makers, politicians, think tanks and lobbyists, who are concerned with age all-age-inclusiveness.