Abstract
The article focuses on several demographic and socio-economic idiosyncrasies in Central and Eastern Europe, which impact the process of population ageing and intergenerational relations. These include the adverse mortality trends and especially the excess male mortality in certain countries, which exacerbated sex differences in life expectancy beyond anything ever recorded in peace-time population history, the combination of natural population decrease and net emigration, the disordered cohort flows and the shorter generational length. The rapid demographic change in these countries coincided with political, economic and social transformations. The shock of the fall of communism affected differently younger people, who could relatively easily reorganize their life cycles so as to adapt to the changed circumstances, and older persons for whom such reorganization was more difficult, or even impossible. This created the possibility for the opening of an intergenerational rift, as older generations felt being the losers of the transition. The article explores the implications of these idiosyncrasies and social context for living arrangements, kin networks, individual wellbeing and inter-generational relations, and identifies areas where particular challenges are likely to be faced when it comes to policies and programs aimed at older persons.
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Notes
For brevity, I will use the term ‘Central and Eastern Europe’ (CEE) to designate all (former) countries with economies in transition, with the exception of those in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Whenever needed, explicit distinction will be made between the different sub-regions.
The ‘demographic dividend’ or ‘demographic bonus’ refers to the rise in the rate of economic growth that could result from the increasing share of working age segment in a population following a sustained decline in fertility (see, e.g. Bloom et al. 2003). This is an integral part of the age structure transition commonly referred to as population ageing. A related term is ‘demographic window of opportunity’, which in my opinion better captures the nature of this phenomenon, as the rise in economic growth is not ‘granted’, but depends on whether the opportunity created by the age structure transition is seized or not.
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Acknowledgments
I thank the editor-in-chief Dorly J. H. Deeg, two anonymous reviewers, and Pieter Vanhuysse for their useful comments and suggestions. The views, findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily coincide with those of the organization in which he is employed.
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Responsible Editor: D. J. H. Deeg.
An earlier version of this article was prepared for the AARP/European Centre High Level Policy Expert Meeting “Reinventing Retirement: Reshaping Health & Financial Security for the EU 27 and Eastern Europe”, 22–25 Oct 2008, Dürnstein, Austria.
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Botev, N. Population ageing in Central and Eastern Europe and its demographic and social context. Eur J Ageing 9, 69–79 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-012-0217-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-012-0217-9