Books & Reports

This book by Louis G. Pol and Richard K. Thomas offers an updated view of the field and a current perspective on the applications of health demography to contemporary issues. The significance of health demography within the field of population studies has continued to increase and this work provides background on the healthcare arena and systematically presents the various aspects of demography as they relate to healthcare.

This book examines ageing trends across the continent, analysing individual and collective variables that affect the lives of older adults, and drawing salient comparisons with other parts of the world. An interdisciplinary panel of experts provides theory, research, and empirical findings (with examples from the UK, Cyprus, Sweden, and others) in key areas such as family and social supports, physical and cognitive changes, dependence and autonomy issues, and living arrangements.

To promote an international exchange on the instruments, themes and implications of research-based reporting on ageing, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) organised a conference entitled “Changing Images of Ageing – International Perspectives for a Future-Oriented Policy on Senior Citizens and Generations”. The conference pursued the objective of stimulating exchanges on instruments of social reporting on ageing policy as developed and practised in various different countries. The proceedings are now available online.

This book, edited by Gustavo de Santis, touches upon a few of the major challenges that all modern societies will have to face in the near future: how to set up a resilient pay-as-you-go pension system; whether the current balance between expenses and revenues in social expenditure is viable in the future, and, if not, what changes need to be introduced; whether the relative well-being of the current and future cohorts of the old will be preserved, and how their standards of living compare to those experienced by the old in the recent past.

This book, edited by Mechtild Oechsle, Ursula Müller and Sabine Hess, investigates the relationship between cultural representations and social practices of fatherhood. The contributions from different countries and scientific disciplines analyse the existing varieties of fatherhood. They look at social backgrounds, organisational influences, as well as the impact of political and legal interventions.

This new report is the product of a collaboration of over twenty United Nations entities and major international organisations working in the area of population ageing. It analyses the current situation of older persons and reviews progress in policies and actions taken by governments and other stakeholders since the Second World Assembly on Ageing held in 2002.

In this book, Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan explore the critical role of human migration since humans first departed Africa some fifty thousand years ago. How the circulation of ideas and technologies has benefited communities and how the movement of people across oceans and continents has fueled economies. They show that migrants in today's world connect markets, fill labor gaps, and enrich social diversity. Migration also allows individuals to escape destitution, human rights abuses, and repressive regimes.

This book, edited by Chiara Saraceno, Jane Lewis, and Arnlaug Leira, is a collection of 51 papers dealing with family policies of the past 69 years. The first volume of the book addresses the origins and social foundations as well as the main actors and drives of family policies. It touches upon themes such as gender, intergenerational obligations and care. The second volume focuses on the goals addressed by family policies as well as on geographical differences.

The Robert Bosch Stiftung presents the study "Starke Kinder - Starke Familie" (in German) on the well-being of children in cities and communities. This study shows how municipalities can support and boost the quality of life, development opportunities, and social participation of children. Making children “strong” in this sense requires a joint effort by families, civil initiatives, businesses and government agencies that also involves the children themselves.

The Generations & Gender Programme has published its first issue of the newsletter "GGP at a Glance", No. 01/June 2012. The newsletter provides short abstracts about recent research done within the programme, which is located at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Institute (NIDI).