Keywords

1.1 Old Age in the “Ageing Society”

Like many other countries in the world, Germany is ageing. By now, no one can escape this insight. For decades, the Federal Republic of Germany was marked by a remarkable abstinence from population policy, both discursively and operationally. The bon mot handed down by the former German Chancellor Adenauer from 1949 to 1963, “People always have children,” is not only an expression of widespread confidence due to the economic miracle but also an implicit demarcation of West German postwar democracy from the racist pronatalism of the Nazi era. But since the turn of the millennium at the latest, demographic change has become one of the most important sociopolitical topics. Some popular German authors such as Frank Schirrmacher (2004) and Thilo Sarrazin (2010) contributed to this debate in different and polarizing ways, proclaiming that more and more attention is being paid to demography and demographic policy.

Since then, the German public has looked with concern at its own low birth rates and with envy at the much higher birth rates of European neighbors such as France or Sweden. Recently rising annual birth rates were noted with relief and immediately celebrated as a “small baby boom” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2016). On the other hand, statistical water-level reports about the seemingly unstoppable demographic decline are sometimes gleefully conjured up. Germany is ageing—sometimes “rapidly” (Die Welt, 2014a, b), sometimes “racy” (Stern, 2012). Or even worse: “France is ageing, Germany is greying,” reported the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as early as 2010, coupled with the horrifying vision that by 2050 there could be more French than Germans. Hence, there is no doubt that the situation is serious.

In Germany, according to the latest 14th coordinated population projection from 2018,Footnote 1 the number of people under 18 will fall from just under 14.4 million in 2018 to around 13.4 million in 2060, while the number of people over 67 will rise from 15.9 million to over 21 million in the same period. Proportionally, the numerical balance that currently still exists between younger and older people, who each make up just under one-fifth of the total population, will thus shift sharply in favor of the older: According to the aforementioned calculation variant, 18% of people living in Germany will still belong to the under-20 age group in 2060, but more than one in four of them (27%) will be older than 67, and almost one in seven of the resident population (13%) will even have already reached the ninth decade of life (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2019, pp. 17–28). Not unlike many other countries in the world.

There is therefore no denying it: Germany is ageing. But what does that mean actually? Can a society age at all as a whole? How should we imagine an ageing society? Is it a collective figure who slowly gets wrinkles and puts on old age fat? Is it a social body that at first starts to become more sedate and soon groans and moans with every movement? Is it an idealized total senior citizen who, in his old age, may—if all goes well—be deeply relaxed, mild, and wise, but who may also, “that is just how they are, the elderly” become bitter, stubborn, and obstinate?

The catchy image of an ageing society, which is probably so widespread both in the media and socially, suggests that the age structure of a society also shapes its character and that a change in the age structure inevitably changes the nature of the social. The image indicates that it is the quantity, namely, the relative proportion of younger and older people in the population, that informs about the quality of social coexistence. Furthermore, it insinuates that society per se, depending on the possible relative weighting of “young” and “old,” is mutating into a social order characterized either by qualities usually attributed to youth: liveliness, innovativeness, and future orientation. Or, conversely, it lapses into attitudes attributed to old age: slowness, preservation of vested interests, and nostalgia.

In line with such common perceptions, policy in Germany regarding older persons has for the time being adopted a strategic orientation that seems somewhat paradoxical for a society in which demographic ageing “has long ceased to be a topic of the future, but […] is already well advanced” (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2019, p. 11). While it is precisely the oldest age groups that will grow the most in the coming decades,Footnote 2 discourses and programs on old-age policy focus primarily on the opportunities and potential of the “young old” (Denninger et al., 2014). The argumentation based on gerontological findings and now firmly anchored in people’s everyday knowledge is that today’s 70-year-olds are the same as their parents’ 60-year-olds not only in terms of their physical appearance but also in terms of their physical constitution and mental abilities—and this is true of all age groups: 80-year-olds today are the same as 70-year-olds in the past, 90 is the new 80, and media reports about remarkably spry 100-year-olds are now almost the order of the day.

Even if the reference to the “rejuvenation” of old age (Tews, 1990) is justified in essence, it ignores the fact that, as life expectancy continues to rise, the proportion of very old people in the total population will increase significantly in the future. Even if the “third age” (Laslett, 1995), i.e., the phase of healthy, independent, and active old age, will continue to expand biographically in the future and even though this “young age” already dominates the social perception of old age today, the social reality will increasingly be characterized by old age and very old age. Consequently, the life reality of older people will be characterized not less than in the past, but more than today by the need for care. Chronologically, this phase of life will shift further “backwards,” into the very high “fourth age” (Higgs & Gilleard, 2015). However, this entails the risk that social attention to this phase of life will recede even further into the background than is already the case today.

At the end of 2019, around 4.1 million people in Germany, about 5% of the total population, needed long-term care. Even assuming a permanently constant age-specific need for care, i.e., solely due to the increasing longevity of older people, this number will increase to 5.1 million in 2030 according to conservative model calculations, whereby the proportion of very old people among those in need of care will also increase.Footnote 3 Thus, whichever way you look at it: The “ageing society” of the future will be a society not only of the “young” but also and especially of the “old-old” age. This means that the phenomenon of frailty, long suppressed and fought against as the unsightly counterpart of a healthy old age, will return to society.

Beyond positive stereotypes of experience and wisdom, older people are rarely granted serious appreciation from a societal perspective—if only in the form of their recognition as individuals. No other age group in modern society is subject to homogenizing attributions to a similar extent. Be it external appearances and physical features—white hair and beige clothing, wrinkled skin, and stooped gait—or supposed character traits and attitude patterns such as listlessness and stubbornness, conservatism, and bitterness: no other phase of life is subject to even remotely equally strong classifications and prejudgments. In old age we are all like cats after dark—in other words, gray. And since the social contact of adults with older people (unlike with children and young people) is generally limited to the older members of their own family, corresponding judgments or prejudices can also prevail unchecked and become entrenched, unclouded by social comparisons.

No one would ever think of lumping together all people from a certain phase of adulthood defined by age groups—let’s say all 25- to 50-year-oldsand ascribing to them uniform characteristics, behaviors, or interests as an imagined large group. Regarding children, on the other hand, an impulse toward standardization and depersonalization of their social perception can be observed: Children are then, depending on historical time and social constellation, generally perceived as a burden or as a blessing, are to be urged to obey or to be led to independence, be a lot of work, or convey feelings of happiness. In everyday practice, however, these generalized characterizations of childhood are countered by the view, partly motivated by Christian religion and partly by parental love, that every child is unique—and that one’s own child in particular is, of course, especially unique.

This is quite different with the “older people”: We know them, we know what they are like—and what they want. It is not for nothing that, in the context of demographic change, there has been repeated public talk in some German newspapers of an approaching “Older Peoples’ Republic of Germany” (e.g., BILD, 2006; Frankfurter Rundschau, 2009; DIE ZEIT, 2013) —including former German President Roman Herzog’s dystopia of a “pensioners’ democracy” in which “the old plunder the young” (Die Welt, 2008; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2010; Focus, 2013). After all, the “old people” supposedly have only one interest: to secure their lavish pensions. Surprisingly, however, the social tendency to homogenize old age is not only reflected in political and media discourse. In the scientific field, there are as well repeated standardizations, and the actually pre-scientific talk of “the” older people is widespread. Even the German government’s reports on old age, which are regularly commissioned by a commission of high-ranking experts, are sometimes unable to resist the tendency to de-differentiate.

It is true that the Sixth German Governmental Report on older citizens devoted to “Images of Ageing in Society,” stated that the socially dominant—consistently negative—images of old age did not do justice to its diversity, “which is likely to increase further in the future” (BMFSFJ, 2010, p. 23). However, by consistently trying to promote a positive image of old age, almost as a countermove and with age-friendly intentions, the report ultimately fails to do justice to the diversity of old age, which it rightly emphasizes. The reference to statistical averages, which is typical in this sense, even among experts, runs through the entire recent debate on demographic change and the supposed “ageing of society.” It can be found in this or a similar way practically every day in media reporting on the subject: “On average, older people living in Germany today have more financial resources than any previous generation of older people, they are in better health and have a higher level of education on average, and last but not least, on average they have more time available for commitment to others than older people of previous generations.” (BMFSFJ, 2010, p. 22).

But what is the significance of emphasizing the fact that the average older person is healthier and more educated and has more financial resources and a greater wealth of time than the average older person of previous generations? In the debate about the “young old” or an activation of old age, corresponding statistical references are always linked with the indication that accordingly more social commitment can be expected from “the” older people, if not even demanded politically: “The good endowment of older people with material and immaterial resources on average today should certainly benefit society as a whole.” (BMFSFJ, 2010, p. 468).

However, such a rhetoric of averages—as well as a subsequent “policy with the average” —in no way does justice to the heterogeneity of old age, the diversity of social situations in old age, and the variety of transitions into old age. Old age is no less “colorful” than any other phase of life. Behind the egalitarian talk of old age and the “average” older person is a social world of unimagined diversity. Making this diversity of age and ageing, growing older, and the experience of being old visible was a central concern of the study “Ageing as Future.” A diversity that we were able to bring into view significantly through the combination of different scientific perspectives.

Old age is a phase of life that—at least in affluent countries like Germany—is reached and passed through by a large proportion of the population. Ageing, in turn, is a process experienced by each person in a very personal way and to be shaped individually. When and how the transition to retirement takes place, what plans are made for the time after employment and how everyday life is regulated in retirement, what ideas are cherished about a successful life in old age, and how old one would like to become at all: in all these regards, ageing or older people think for themselves—make their personal decisions and arrangements and organize their private lives.

On the other hand, the aforementioned—and many other—age-related ideas and decisions, plans, and preferences are by no means only individual, never merely private matters. They are also always socially framed and socially embedded, controlled by state institutions and determined by generally shared norms. The transition to retirement, for example, is subject to the regulations of labor law and pension insurance and is often only partially self-determined, but rather takes place in the context of company personnel strategies. The possibilities and options for everyday life in old age are determined not only by the available material resources but also by the structure of social networks and the availability of public infrastructures. And our images of successful ageing as well as our wishes regarding the ideal lifespan (de Paula Couto et al., 2023; Lang et al., 2007) are anything but our “own”: They are also shaped by socially prevailing values, by the institutionally provided health services—and not least by our respective position in the structure of social inequality.

Age and ageing are, on the one hand, a function of one’s own decisions, individual behavior patterns, and personal adaptation processes. On the other hand, they are also social phenomena and social categories. Therefore, they can only be understood as such a double phenomenon in the systematic interweaving of social and behavioral science approaches, of sociological and psychological research. This book precisely provides this linkage.

1.2 The Diversity of the Experience of Being Old

For the individual, an ageing society poses new and diverse challenges in planning for and coping with a sometimes threatening, sometimes idealized future of old age. This also gives rise to numerous uncertainties about one’s own age, which lies in the future. Contributing to this are the often-ambivalent public portrayals in which hopeful and threatening scenarios of ageing are treated side by side or occasionally in rapid alternation.

On the one hand, demographic catastrophe scenarios deal with the presumed consequences and costs of an increasing number of very old, frail, or demented people, whose care provision seems to be hardly secured by society anymore, as suggested, for example, by the AOK Care Report 2017 published by the largest statutory health insurance company in Germany (Jacobs et al., 2017). In such catastrophic images of the future need for long-term care, the misleading impression is created—intentionally or unintentionally—that, due to this trend, every individual must also reckon with an increased risk of long-term care for themselves in the future. However, it is precisely this conclusion that can be called into question: People died in earlier times, too, and before death there was a phase in which most people needed care, just as they do today. Nevertheless, just because the proportion of people in need of long-term care is rising due to the fact that baby boomers will gradually reach old age over the next few decades, there will initially be little or even no change in the personal age and future risks of each individual. Such catastrophic scenarios are very well suited to stir up fears and worries in each individual that they will one day be affected by the presumed nursing shortage. Unfortunately, it does not always help to point out that one must first reach a high age to be at high risk of needing care in the first place.

1.2.1 Social Conditions of the Experience of Being Old

It is therefore legitimate to ask whether it can be concluded from the demographically observed increase in life expectancy in society that every individual will spend the supposedly extra years of life in need of care to a high degree or inevitably. At least, this is what is suggested by the interpretations and public debates which, in view of the “ageing of society,” have for years been recurrently predicting or conjuring up something like the imminent collapse of the previous welfare state and social systems (Die Welt, 2014a, b, 2021; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2018). However, the very question of the individual risks of a future need for long-term care has not been clarified in either medical or epidemiological research and has been the subject of controversial scientific debate for many years (for an early overview, Fries et al., 2011).

On the other hand, there are also many positive and idealizing old-age scenarios that describe an active attitude to life and a high level of satisfaction in old age and thus suggest a late phase of life in relatively good health and competence. This is also suggested, for example, by the findings of the Generali Ageing Study for Germany (Generali Deutschland, 2017), although only in relation to people aged 65 to 85. Many of the euphemisms of possible risks and health losses in old age, just like ideal images of ageing, are usually caught up very quickly by the reality of personal experiences of ageing and should therefore also be taken with a grain of salt. However, it has not yet been clarified how scenarios and images of the future affect what expectations, ideas, and views people have regarding their own future.

Many people react to the contradictory portrayals of the future of old age in the “ageing society” with uncertainty or even perplexity about their own planning and provision for old age. At times, one’s own future old age is constructed as a battlefield of decline and personal loss, where a life of dignity hardly seems possible. Otherwise, however, old age is beautifully drawn as a seemingly endless phase of individual self-realization: Previously unfulfilled and postponed wishes or even life dreams seem to be realized or at least tackled only then, because one believes to have the time for it and feels young at the same time.

Personal future plans for life in retirement become a haven of ambivalence, in which the desire for a phase of life characterized by self-fulfillment, happiness, and activity seems to be almost inseparably mixed with the fear of losing self-determination and with the resigned hope for an end to life that is as short and painless as possible. Such ambivalences are not only found in media representations and images of ageing, for example, in the illustrated book published by the Federal Ministry for Senior Citizens on the topic “What does old mean?” (BMFSFJ, 2015), but they also characterize many of the personal views of people who ponder their (future) life in old age (Münch, 2016; Ekerdt & Koss, 2016).

The question of the consequences of a supposedly longer and still increasing life span in modern societies can be extended even further. The question is to what extent an increasingly longer life affects the way people think, feel, and act. To what extent are personal perceptions changing as a result of the demographic trend, such as one’s own subjectively experienced life expectancy or desired lifespan? How long will I live? How long should my life last? To date, there are no comparative values and yet hardly any findings on the extent to which expectations and desires regarding one’s own lifespan have adapted to the higher life expectancies in the population over the decades in the postwar period.

Even though many people in modern societies generally live longer than in earlier times, the individual’s own personal risk of disease and death inevitably remains uncertain. For some people, life proceeds with a high degree of functioning and self-determination, even into old age. For others, on the other hand, old age is associated with years of discomfort and suffering, restrictions, and need for care and may end in agony and loneliness. There are undoubtedly losers and winners from the increase in life expectancy in modern societies, but the risk of being among the losers of a prolonged life cannot be determined in individual cases and cannot even be estimated. It is true that it is now well documented that the life expectancy of people with above-average wealth is up to 10 years higher than that of people from below-average income groups (Lampert & Rosenbrock, 2017). However, what this means for the individual and the shaping of their own life situation in old age remains open. It remains unclear, for example, to what extent factors such as personal lifestyle, experience of being old, thinking about the future, and making provisions for the future—in a mediating way—cannot also have a mitigating effect on income-related differences in life expectancy. In what ways are there individual and psychological factors, in addition to societal conditions, that contribute to long life and successful ageing? Where do individuals get their ideas and expectations about what the future will bring them? All personal knowledge about age, ageing, and future risks is fed by representations in the media and in fiction, by professional and other social contexts or by personal experiences and descriptions in one’s own environment, family, close relatives, or acquaintances. In each individual case, however, it remains uncertain how one’s own personal future will unfold (cf. Chap. 4; Lang, 2023).

1.2.2 Ageing as an Individual and Social Project for the Future

Since each person lives only once, there are few clues for the individual as to what shape their own ageing will take. It is therefore hardly possible to understand one’s own future life span subjectively as a kind of personally comprehended “social trend” of increasing life expectancy. How long life will last is therefore unknown. One thing is certain: One’s own life ends in private. Only one’s own death is certain, but its circumstances and time are uncertain, as is the course of one’s own ageing. The only apparently “private” aspect of this process takes place in a complex, supra-individual context shaped by social comparisons, social norms, and domain-specific views on ageing. It has not yet been clarified, for example, what influence the knowledge of an increasing lifespan has on how people in modern societies deal with their future and in what way they approach their own age mentally and in a precautionary manner. In what way is future action determined by views of old age, expectations, and personal plans? What role do social and cultural conditions play in thinking and acting about the future?

The unique personal experience of ageing unfolds in each case only during one’s own life and can therefore be recognized in its particularities only gradually. Historical changes in ageing or even demographic trends are only directly perceptible to the individual, if at all, only within narrow limits. It is true that many people hear about ever new records of longevity in the media, and the anniversary celebrations of 80-, 90- and even 100-year-olds in the circle of acquaintances, friends, and relatives are becoming more frequent. And yet, at the same time, the question arises as to whether it is at all desirable to reach such a “biblically” high age of perhaps 90, 95, or more years? Does one want to live that long? The answer that many people give to this is no, or it is: “Yes—as long as I am still healthy” (de Paula Couto et al., 2023; Lang et al., 2007). And how likely do people think it is to reach even a very old age of, say, over 100? Would it be not better to die healthy sooner than sick later? Is it possible to prepare today for a phase of life that will not begin for another 20, 40, 60, or 80 years? Should we do so at all? In answering such questions, it is important to know what one’s ideas are about what one’s old age and the final phase of one’s life will bring: Will one experience these years in self-determination and with a clear mind? If not, is it better to avoid it after all?

People usually wish to live a long life only under certain conditions. However, little is known about what leads people, even in the face of the adversities that usually accompany old (“real”) age, to nevertheless see this final phase of life as an indispensable part of life. Increasing longevity and high life expectancy are usually associated with many fears and anxieties, which revolve in particular around the questions of continuity and securing one’s own standard of living in the later phases of life. Will one’s own life in the eighth, ninth, or tenth decade of life still correspond at all to what the individual considers to be worth living? The question is, therefore, whether people are more likely to expect advantages from a longer and longer life—and who is more likely to expect disadvantages. To what extent are hopes and fears about one’s own future not only the consequences of social conditions but also the conditions for shaping everyday life?

1.2.3 A Flexible Approach to One’s Own Future and Ageing

For most people, their own age lies in the future. This is even occasionally true for people who have already reached an advanced age, at least as long as they feel healthy and thus still younger than they actually are. Moreover, “being old” is often used as a characteristic attributed to others of the same age, but surprisingly without feeling a sense of belonging to their group (Weiss & Lang, 2012). It is well-known that such a demarcation from the age of others allows for a flexible way of dealing with the personal experience of ageing, for instance, by comparing oneself with such older people who are worse off than oneself. However, this flexibility also entails some risks. If there are still older people whose age can be distinguished from one’s own positive experience of ageing, one can still easily avoid the discussions about the challenges of an ageing society, at least in one’s personal living environment. For as long as this is the case, the future scenarios of old age from the point of view of the individual are only concerned with the situation of the “really old,” from whose life situation one generally still feels distanced from. Importantly, however, although negative old age stereotypes can have immediate beneficial effects when used as a contrast for downward comparisons, they have negative long-term consequences, since the taint personal experiences and self-views via processes of internalization (Kornadt et al., 2023). 

The scenarios of a “rejuvenation” of old age (Tews, 1990) in modern societies also become riskier or even threatening if they are accompanied by the fact that the individual, due to their own situation and constitution, experiences themselves in comparison to others as having aged (too) early or, in line with negative age stereotype, as an “old man.” What happens when one does not experience one’s own age positively and productively, when one feels—as old as one is, or even older—and cannot participate in the youthfulness illusion of modern ageing? In such situations, one’s own ageing in a social context can pose a double challenge, in which older people are not only exposed to the health burdens of ageing but are also less successful in evading the age stereotypes and devaluations of old age that prevail in society. The end result can also be a complete social withdrawal, isolation, and even loneliness (Tesch-Römer, 2010).

1.2.4 Individual Ageing Over the Life Span

Every person grows old in their own way—the expectations, hopes, and fears we have about our own age are shaped by personal experiences, goals, and possibilities for action. Whether one looks forward or fears, prepares for, or resists old age, how one evaluates the experiences and changes made during ageing and whether one learns to accept them, all this is an expression of an individual biography of ageing. In addition to this individuality of ageing and the differences that exist between persons in this regard, however, ageing is a phenomenon that also takes on different forms within one and the same person.

Thus, the confrontation with one’s own age and ageing begins early—perhaps one experiences one’s own grandparents or parents as a model for one’s own ageing, perhaps one learns through the media that the phase of old age will bring very special challenges for today’s still young generation. Even if these initial confrontations with one’s own age are still rather projective, they may already have an impact on our current thinking, on our decisions and on our actions: they may influence our choice of profession—if, for example, this is also shaped by considerations of security or the probability of still being able to carry out this profession at an older age. They may encourage us to lead healthier lives, to avoid certain risks, or to manage our finances with foresight. Alternatively, negative scenarios of one’s own age can bring thinking about one’s own ageing to a standstill and suggest a way of life based entirely on the here and now.

In later phases of life, it is then more and more a matter of dealing with the factual changes that occur in old age: One’s own life situation has changed, and many decisions in career and family have already been made and can no longer be revised without further ado. Perhaps one has achieved something of which one is proud or made mistakes of which one is ashamed. Above all, however, the relationship of the life still to be lived to the life already lived becomes increasingly unfavorable, prospects shrink, and physical fitness may decline. One benefits from the life experience one has accumulated, enjoys the responsibility that comes with reaching a position of influence, or the freedoms that come with retirement.

Finally, one makes the transition from the group of the “young” to the “old-old” older adult; the so-called fourth age begins (Baltes, 1997). In this stage of life, growing old is characterized by completely different demands, worries, and problems, but also expectations and hopes. Am I not a burden to anyone? Are my affairs well regulated? Have I made provisions for all eventualities? Do I feel safe and close to the people who mean something to me? Can I make peace with what has been—and with what should not have been? Am I able to let go and adopt an attitude that allows me to die reassured and with dignity?

With this stylized stage model of ageing over the lifespan, we primarily want to point out that ageing is a very variable process during life, even within the same person. Throughout ageing, age always shows itself from a different side. Thus, it should not be suggested that an always uniform course of ageing can be shown for all persons: Despite typically observable patterns, the experiences, processes, reactions, problems, and solutions that arise in the course of personal life stories of old age are very heterogeneous and individual. Not only do individual biographical experiences of ageing differ, the points in time at which age(s) become the focus of one’s own experience also vary from person to person. A core concern of this book will be to explore and systematically describe this diversity of the individual experience of being old.

1.2.5 Determinants of Ageing and Ageing Experience

If one becomes aware of the differences in the process and in the contents of ageing, then the question immediately follows as to how these differences can be explained. What are the decisive factors that set the course and regulate ageing processes (Rothermund et al., 2023)? What is the role of the individual, what is the role of the personal and social environment, what is the role of socio-structural and socio-cultural factors? A first central factor in this search for the determinants of ageing and the experience of being old are—especially in view of the variability of ageing over the life span—differences between different generations. Not only do older adults, the young old, and the old-old experience ageing from their respective specific perspectives. Ageing also means something different today than it did in previous generations, and it will be experienced differently again in future generations. As times change, old age(s) can take on a completely different face. Sociological and psychological studies can usually only depict a tiny section of this historical development. The comparison between young and old, however, is possibly a key to understanding just such long-term historical changes, even if it takes place only at a specific point in time.

The current demographic development is a prime example of such an intertwining of individual and societal ageing processes. The generation that is already older today may react with relief, believing that they will hardly be affected by the upcoming changes, while the same long-term development may trigger worries and fears about their own age, especially among the long-not-yet-old. Such age-group-specific effects of social events and changes were already analyzed by Elder (1974) regarding the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s.

Cultural comparisons provide another impressive indication that vividly demonstrates the differences in ageing. A look at preindustrial cultures that were not yet shaped by medical and technical progress may give us a revealing impression of what ageing might have looked like in earlier times. Cultural comparisons, however, not only allow speculation about possible historical changes in ageing; they also open up a perspective on the seriously different social constructions and “normality” of ageing, even and especially between modern societies. While ageing in earlier times may have been shaped primarily by biological factors and therefore looked comparatively similar, increasing mean life expectancy reveals that a large number of very different age cultures are emerging, for example, with regard to the status, care, and integration of older people, but also with regard to the individual approach to ageing. Precisely in order to investigate such differences between countries and cultures, our study also includes as a central element international comparison between Germany, the USA, China (Hong Kong), Taiwan, and the Czech Republic.

Differences between age groups, cohorts, and cultures, however, are only a first, albeit very important, approximation of the complexity of old age and its determinants. Even more directly, ageing processes are shaped by views on ageing, which are also a central source of differences in individual ageing (cf. Chap. 3). Views on ageing are understood as both positive and negative perceptions of ageing—successful or failed, socially desirable or normatively deviant, hoped-for, or anxiety-provoking. These views include social expectations regarding ageing and older people as well as individual expectations regarding one’s own age and ageing. The analysis of views on ageing is of central importance in the study reported here because views on ageing often act like self-fulfilling prophecies. They shape the perception and interpretation of age-related—or even only supposedly age-related—changes, but above all they influence people’s motivation and actions regarding later phases of life. In particular, negative views on ageing represent an important risk factor for unsuccessful engagement with the ageing issue, lack of preparation, and age-related anxiety.

1.2.6 Domain Specificity of Individual Ageing

Changes in ageing over the lifespan occur in a comparatively leisurely temporal sequence, with characteristic phases of the ageing experience typically lasting several years following one another. The transitions can be smooth, sometimes abrupt, but on the whole, we are dealing here with extended periods of comparatively long time in which one’s experience of being old remains constant until the next transition or change occurs.

What is not considered in this view are the massive differences in the experience of being old within one and the same person, which coexist simultaneously and have to do with the fact that the experience of being old differs, sometimes dramatically, in different domains of life (Kornadt & Rothermund, 2015). In the literature, this form of heterogeneity in ageing is referred to as “multidimensionality” and “multidirectionality” (Baltes, 1987). However, these core theses of research on ageing in developmental psychology have neither penetrated into the everyday understanding of ageing, nor do they represent a matter of course in ageing research itself—global and stereotypical constrictions continue to cloud our views on ageing too much, not least by reducing the phenomenon of “old age” to biological changes and health problems. The physical and health condition may be a life domain in which experiences of age-related changes play a particularly prominent role, while other life domains are designed to be almost “age-free” or at least experienced in this way, be it friendship with neighbors, a religious bond, or one’s own personality. Not only do life domains differ with regard to the personal relevance of the topic of old age, but often the quality of the experience of being old also differs itself: Is being old or growing old in one domain interpreted more as a gain or a loss? How old do I feel in a domain at all? At what age would I describe a person as old when I think of certain domains of life, activities, or social contexts? Here, there are not only differences between life domains, but also strongly differing age profiles can be found for different people. The 35-year-old IT developer or advertising copywriter may already feel old in their profession and be afraid of being taken out of service, while in terms of health and intellect and—perhaps they are still unmarried—also in terms of family, they clearly belong to the younger generation, which, however, is no longer necessarily experienced as positive at this age, since age norms may already have been exceeded here (Neugarten et al., 1965; Kalicki, 1996). A 35-year-old psychologist, on the other hand, who takes up work as a therapist for the first time after extended parental leave, may feel professionally young, inexperienced, and perhaps also insecure, but physically no longer defines themselves as a young person who attaches importance to a youthful appearance, but in their family role, they may consider themselves an “old hand”—quite in a positive sense.

Of course, the experience of being old in different domains of life is not always independent of each other. But even the form and direction of these correlations can vary—retirement, for example, can have a negative but also a positive impact on leisure behavior (loss of acquaintances and social contacts vs. gain in time resources) or a person’s family life (increase in conflicts vs. more time for each other).

Considering differences in ageing across different domains of life and social contexts is a core feature of our study of ageing. The domain-specific perspective permeates all aspects of our analyses: From views on ageing to preparation for old age, there are consistent indications that age and ageing are not global or homogeneous phenomena but can always be analyzed and understood only with reference to specific life contexts. We see the breakdown of ageing processes from this specific contextual perspective as one of the essential contributions of our research, both for the scientific analysis of old age and for its everyday understanding in politics and society.

1.3 Ageing as Future: Questions and Objectives of the Study

The study “Ageing as Future” examines the interplay between the experience of time, views on ageing, and future or preparatory action with regard to its individual, social, and cultural conditions and implications. How do domain-specific views on ageing change over time and how are they incorporated into one’s own self-image as one grows older? Or do views on ageing only change as a result of the personal experience of ageing? What effects do future scenarios have on the level of individual future and preparatory actions in the present? What role does the handling of lifetime and everyday time play in dealing with the finitude of one’s own life?

Up to date, reliable answers to precisely such questions about ageing as the future have been scarce or nonexistent and are presented in summary form for the first time in the volume presented here. In a unique way, social conditions of different countries are combined with an examination of changes over historical time. The study is based on a unique variety of different methodological approaches, including psychological experiments, surveys in diverse population-representative samples, but also special online surveys and qualitative interviews. This combination of diverse methodological approaches and different data sources from different cultural contexts is so far unique in its kind—as is the gain in knowledge about age and ageing that could be achieved through this complex study design.