Rethinking a long life in a time of active ageing. Questions from a Franco Anglo theoretical dialogue

This chapter suggests that “active ageing”, as a model of “ageing well”, tends to limit the realities of ageing, to forget the word “ageing”. Based on a dialog between Francophone “sociologie du vieillissement” and Anglophone “critical gerontology”, the chapter proposes a critical discussion of this notion and advocates for a comprehensive perspective on ageing. First, we consider “active ageing” as a “political ideal”. Second, we isolate its dominant translation into “active ageing in employment” and point some limits. Third, we propose alternative roads based on a number of shifts : from normative models to plural narratives of ageing, from a vision in terms of pendulum to one in terms of spiral, from centration on activity to one on experience of ageing. Fourth and finally, we apply some conceptual tools (support from Caradec and intergenerational intelligence from Biggs) to a practical exercise: exploring how they could help taking into account experience into policies of integration for older people