Sustainable Ageing

There is an ongoing debate, within and outside academia, about population ageing and its economic, political and environmental sustainability. 

But how can societies ensure ageing well for all? How do technologies shape a new ageing society? What is the role of social and inter-generational relationships within and beyond the family to age well? Which links exist between ageing and climate change? And what policies can be implemented to guarantee sustainable ageing?


The Working Group on Sustainable Ageing aims to focus on these overarching questions, analysing the potentials and the challenges of ageing at the individual, family,and society levels.The outputs will be discussed vis-à-vis their policy implications in a comparative perspective across European countries but also in an intersectional approach that accounts for variables such as gender and socio-economic status.

The Working Group also aims to favour a debate on Sustainable Ageing between researchers, stakeholders (e.g. NGOs) and policy makers.

Organisation

The activities of the group are coordinated by a Steering Committee formed by Valeria Bordone (University of Vienna, Austria), Bruno Arpino (University of Padua, Italy), and Pearl Dykstra (Erasmus University, The Netherlands).

As a main activity, we plan to meet every two years in a pre-conference workshop at the European Population Conference. In between EPCs, in-person or on-line workshops will be organised. All EAPS members as well as scholars from other disciplines who work on aspects related to sustainable ageing may join the Working Group and participate in its events. Representatives of NGOs and other organisations are also welcome to attend. Joining the group’s events usually is free of charge while participants are expected to cover their own travel and related costs. In addition to the EAPS communication channels, events organised by this working group will be announced via a mailing list maintained by the steering committee and through social media.

This group is also actively collaborating with Population Europe and the Joint Programming Initiative More Years, Better Lives (JPI MYBL), which will facilitate dissemination of activities and involvements of stakeholders and policy makers. For information, contact the members of the Steering Committee.

Upcoming events

We are pleased to announce that the EAPS Working Group “Sustainable Ageing” will organise a meeting titled “Technological Change and Sustainable Ageing: Challenges and Opportunities”. 

The event is organized as a side meeting of the European Population Conference (EPC) 2026 in Bologna. The meeting is free of charge and open also to colleagues who are not attending EPC 2026.

Date: Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 14:00–17:00

Venue: Room Q, Plesso Belmeloro, Via Andreatta 8, Bologna


Those interested in presenting or participating are kindly asked to register via this link https://forms.gle/Tq21zqX7ddN75MY77 by 1 April 2026. People interested in giving a presentation will also have to submit a short abstract (between 100 and 500 words) to sustainableageing@gmail.com by 1 April 2026.

Please note that the room has limited capacity; for non-presenting participants, places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We will confirm presentation slots and/or attendance by 22 April 2026.

Following the ice-breaker side meeting at EPC 2024 and our first international conference, this will be the third event organised by the Working Group.

Past Events

Downloads

Highlights 1st International Conference

Members

All members of the Working Group can be found here.

Steering Committee

Valeria Bordone (valeria.bordone@univie.ac.at)

University of Vienna, Austria

Bruno Arpino (bruno.arpino@unipd.it)

University of Padua, Italy

Pearl Dykstra (dykstra@essb.eur.nl)

Erasmus University, The Netherlands