Research Project “New Culture of Aging”

Research Project “New Culture of Aging”

A new quality of civic engagement is becoming necessary in our increasingly “aging” society. At its core are a new individual competence in aging as well as a societal culture of aging (“dialogue between generations”). Civic engagement thus becomes a core competence of the New Age(ing), grounded in the capacity for lifelong learning.

We are living in a historically unique time: never before have so many people grown old simultaneously, and this trend continues to increase. Currently, life expectancy is rising by 2–3 months per year. At the same time, birth rates in developed industrial societies are declining drastically and have long fallen below replacement level. Germany is the country where these developments first emerged. Both trends are leading to dramatically aging societies unlike anything seen in human history. New paths must be found to move from the predicted “war of the generations” (Gronemeyer) toward dialogue and a “culture of generations.” This requires a return to anthropological constants, because these are not laws of nature but developments brought about by human beings. However, without a new, deepened, and dynamic anthropology (understanding of the human being), there is a danger that only symptoms will be treated and no truly “healing” impulse will emerge.

For we are already living in the “century of old age”! And this new old age also shows new qualities: it is based not only on many years of implicit life and professional experience (expert status), but also gives rise to intuitive ability and creativity that have been tested by biography and practiced in conflict, leading to integrity and integration in decision-making processes. In short: the knowledge and experiential potential of the new old age (“treasure in silver hair”) can become a significant resource, the human capital of future communities. Of course, this potential is implicit; it must be awakened, developed, and qualified so that it can be translated into individual, professional, and societal competence.

Given the demographic challenge described above—that is, the by now unmistakable fact of shrinkage, overaging, and increasing heterogeneity in the German population—our understanding of the state must also change. The major social challenges such as aging, integration, migration, education, care, and health can foreseeably only be mastered in a state in which citizens themselves are both able and willing to make their own responsible contribution to the community, because they are involved in decision-making processes and accepted as actors on equal footing. Germany has some catching up to do in such a civil-society-based organization of the state. For in the German tradition of the state, the vision of a participatory civil society has not prevailed to this day: it is not citizens’ initiatives that are regarded as guarantors of democracy and welfare, but rather the directives of the political-administrative complex. Demographic change is therefore also an opportunity for this civic model: more and more people with long professional experience, in which they have acquired diverse competencies, are leaving working life and are interested in continuing to make their competencies available to society. A survey of members of Hannoversche Kassen at the beginning of 2011 also showed that there is great professional and personal potential for civic engagement in old age. On the one hand, it is important to make the diverse bodies of knowledge and experience explicitly fruitful for competent civic engagement. On the other hand, forms of civic engagement constitute meaningful activities for the growing population group in the third phase of life and contribute to intergenerational understanding and integration.

Our society urgently depends on their experience and creative potential, and we need more opportunities to develop demanding forms of civic engagement as a competence, to ground them academically, and at the same time to teach them in a practice-oriented way.

Against this background, the certificate program “Civic Competence in the Dialogue Between Generations” was developed, implemented, and evaluated. This program is intended to enable participants, on a scholarly basis and with an action-oriented approach, to plan, carry out, and evaluate concrete projects in a civil society. In order to obtain a realistic selection of participants and thus also reflect the heterogeneity of groups engaged in civic activity, no content-related selection criteria were defined in advance; only the (intrinsic) willingness to make a self-commitment was required. In this way, the principle of voluntariness in civic engagement was also reflected at this level, which in this sense must be repeatedly and continually activated inwardly.

The pilot program documented here served three central objectives:

Acquisition of competencies for project work within the framework of “strategic” civic engagement (“signature of the present”)

Implementation and reflection of intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue,

Evaluation of the conceptual and methodological framework for the further development of the program.

The certificate program is situated in the context of the research project “New Culture of Aging.” It was based, among other things, on two expert conferences at Hannoversche Kassen in Hanover and at Alanus University in Alfter near Bonn, as well as the final conference at the dm logistics center in Weilerswist.

Final report

The certificate program began on September 16, 2011 and was successfully completed on March 8, 2012 with 25 participants. The students experienced a surge in motivation toward civic engagement, and some would like academic qualification in the form of a master’s degree program (“Citizen Master’s”). The participants subsequently acted as multipliers and developed their projects, in which their experiential knowledge and competence were linked with socially and societally necessary tasks. Two examples are the “Institute for Career Entry,” where new teachers at Waldorf schools are introduced and supported by older and more experienced mentors, and the “Celebration of Life” as a rite of passage and initiation process from (gainful) work to civic engagement (Chapter IV, 2 and 3).

In the final report, Chapter I “Documentation” first provides a detailed description of the program, including the final event with project presentation, certificate, empirical evaluation, and outlook, status as of March 2012.

Chapter II “Interviews and Feedback” documents interviews with one participant and female participants, as well as an example of feedback from students during the program, as a kind of process-accompanying evaluation. In Chapter III “Module Handbook,” the corresponding modules are presented and described in analogy to module handbooks of academic degree programs.

Chapter IV “Continuation” presents a selection of projects and initiatives that have developed since the final presentation of the certificate program in March 2012; this allows an initial assessment of the productivity of the certificate program concept.

Chapter V “Appendix” briefly portrays all participants in the certificate program, presents the information brochure at the time, “Civic Competence in the Dialogue Between Generations,” and concludes with the long version of an empirical survey.

In summary: through competent civic engagement, the path leads to new communities in a democratic civil society—in dialogue between generations.

Project management:

Hilmar Dahlem (Hannoversche Kassen)

Dr. Dietmar Müller (AG Waldorf Education NRW)

Prof. em. Dr. Karl-Klaus Pullig (University of Paderborn)

Prof. em. Dr. Peter Schneider

Project duration/status: 03/2011 – 09/2012, completed

Project funding: Software AG Foundation