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nus thesis is an exploration of the residential mobility and non-mobility of a selection of older people living in Newcastle upon Tyne. The research develops an understanding of behaviour through examining the experiences, perceptions and views of older people themselves. The UK is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with a growth in the number of older people in both absolute and proportional terms. Despite this trend, the needs, complexities and benefits of an ageing population are yet to be fully realised. Housing is a key component of life, furthermore, moving or not moving in old age affects not only the older person involved but also has wider consequences for society. There remains a need to develop an understanding of residential mobility of older people which in tum can contribute to academic debate and aid the development of successful housing and social policy. Most geographical studies of older people have focused on retirement migration, centring on long distance moves or moves into supported housing (such as residential care). Very little research has examined residential mobility at the local scale, moreover, many studies have investigated actual moves and have consequently neglected the study of non-moves or ageing in place. Research conducted into the residential mobility of older people has predominantly relied on quantitative approaches. Whilst recognising that quantitative studies have yielded some useful insights, it is argued in this thesis that to gain a deeper understanding, qualitative methods are necessary. It thereby responds to recent calls for new approaches to the study of population geography and residential mobility which incorporate methods allowing sensitivity to context, diversity, difference and biography. A qualitative approach with an emergent design was therefore adopted in the research in order to allow individuals to express their feelings, experiences and perceptions regarding the home and moving in later life. In-depth interviews were conducted with 37 older people from two study areas in the city and provided a rich source of information encompassing the ageing milieu. Life histories were recorded to enable decisions made in later life to be placed in the context of the whole life experience. It emerged that housing decisions are formed and reformed out of the vast experiences and processes taking place in individual's lives. The reasons behind moving were found to be numerous and elaborate in that they rarely acted alone, were inter-linked and often specific to the context of each person. Influences on decisions around moving/non-moves are grouped into three main themes: firstly, the internal and external environment; secondly, home, community and family; and thirdly, health, well being and ageing. Both the physical and psychological aspects of the home and the neighbourhood were important, as were friends, family and health, each playing a part in residential mobility. The role of place (home and neighbourhood) as a site of memories, attachment and experiences emerged, as did the interaction of place with identity, independence and control. The complexity and diversity behind individuals' reasons for staying or moving are indicated throughout the thesis. The study emphasises the necessity of recognising such complexity and multiplicity in housing choices, and contends that the qualitative methods adopted allowed this diversity to emerge, providing originality in the research. The thesis makes an important contribution to understanding housing choices made in later life, highlights the need to recognise the heterogeneity existing in old age, and contributes to the current policy debates surrounding housing and community care.

Between July 2000 and July 2016 around 3.5 million Australian citizens and residents will reach a minimum age pension age with, on average, considerable remaining life expectancy. Contemporary policy settings would lead this demographic group to expect to enter and remain within an environment of near universal access to an age or similar pension program. This is mainly because Australian public retirement transfers are non-contributory, means tested, marital status differentiated and indexed to inflation and male wages. They are also available to age qualified residents irrespective of home ownership. These factors mean that discretionary private retirement income is both encouraged and discouraged by tax and means test treatments. Private retirement income above various annually reset thresholds would cause a gradual withdrawal of public transfers, progressively greater income tax and a Medicare levy. Thus saving choices can alter the relative income of pensioners at the cost of working age income and retirement age taxes and transfers. Australian social policy creates various interesting intertemporal income trade offs for individuals between private retirement income provision and pre-retirement saving. This thesis quantifies the trade off for single and married males and females who earn previous or projected average incomes prior to their minimum applicable age pension ages from July 2000 to July 2016. It does this by recreating and projecting the post age 45 saving efforts needed to produce three alternate retirement income profiles for outright homeowners. The first income profile is that of the Age Pension maximiser who retains no retirement savings. The second is the income profile of the ‘theoretic’ pension maximiser who saves sufficient to utilise the means test ‘free area’ of income available to pensioners. Third is the income profile for individuals who seek to annuitise their income to create a combined publicly and privately funded income stream that remains above the Age Pension income means test exclusion points for an average remaining life expectancy. Continuation of late 20th century pension maximisation and limited saving into the first half of the 21st century seem an inevitable consequence of present and foreseeable retirement income policies for the selected demographic group. However, this thesis explores a more optimal social policy outcome of significantly greater financial independence from the tax transfer system. This is in an environment where the compulsory superannuation system will produce an insufficient supplement to the Age Pension system for the researched demographic group. Consequently, this thesis explores the capacity for average income earners to produce a comparatively high income during a standard retirement.

What factors explain pension reform decisions in countries with generous public pension systems and an ageing population? To answer this question I analyze four countries with some similar characteristics: (1) a well expanded and fragmented public pension system that follows the traditional Bismarckian structure of different funds for specific occupational categories; (2) a public pension system with high degrees of coverage and based on the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) principle in which current workers pay for current retirees; (3) increasing public pension spending levels that towards the 1990s made the public pension system unsustainable. The four selected countries differ along one significant dimension. Two of them are newly industrialized countries and in Latin America: Argentina and Uruguay. The other two countries are industrialized economies of the European Union: Italy and Spain.I hypothesize that while international and domestic factors matter in explaining pension reform, the former will play an indirect role by stressing the need to make the pension system more sustainable to put public finances in order. Thus, I contend that domestic economic and political factors will determine the reform outcome.I find support for my theory in the analysis of the four countries. International and supranational organizations played a role in supporting policymakers' reform efforts and highlighting the necessity to reduce pension liabilities in the long run to put public finances in order. However, these organizations did not determine the reform outcome. Instead, I find that domestic economic and political factors explain the final reform decision. On the economic side, the maturity of the pension system - represented by the magnitude of pension promises to future retirees - and the state of public finances, determined policymakers' first choice for reform; which ranged from proposals to change the parameters of the public pillar to that pillar's structural reform together with the introduction of a private pillar of individual accounts. Once this choice was made, the reform was negotiated with those with a special interest in the pension system: pensioners and labor. Thus, these actors' organizational strength and preferences explains the type of specific pension reform finally adopted in each country.

Since the Internet was introduced, it has taken over faster than anyone was ever expected it to do. It has taken over how we, humans, today live our life and is expected to accomplish our errands, such as paying our bills, ordering clothes and looking up information about travelling. With that said it is important to remember and have in thought that not everyone has the knowledge and skills to use the Internet, this because of the extreme development that the Internet brings. As mentioned above there is one group of people that has been called the “forgotten group” when it comes to the expansion of Internet, and those are the seniors. Most of the seniors today have difficulties using the Internet due to either lack of knowledge or due to the size of the text on the websites, as well as the different color combinations. Since the seniors today have special needs on how to easily use a website, they are forgotten since most websites aren’t developed for seniors. However, sometimes appearances are deceiving and that is what this study has shown us. By questionnaire and interview study, the result of this study has showed us that the majority of the informants do use Internet, but they have special needs when it comes to the design on a website, and that includes color combinations, sizes of the text as well as on how to navigate from one page to another.

In 1991, the Swedish Social Democratic government established the Pensioners’ Council at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Council’s purpose and structure were spelled out by the Government in a Commission of Inquiry Directive. According to this, the Council is to be a forum for deliberations between the Government and pensioners’ organizations. At the municipal level, Senior Citizens Councils have existed since the 1970s. They fill a similar purpose to that of the Pensioners’ Council at the central level, namely to be an arena for political discussions between representatives from pensioners’ organizations and the municipality. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, I describe the influence of pensioners’ organizations on the establishment of the pensioners’ councils and their political influence – potential as well as actual – in these councils. Second, I seek to explain the influence of pensioners’ organizations from a power resources perspective. By doing so, I hope to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between the welfare state and organized interests. Does this relationship imply the existence of a corporatist or pluralistic power structure? Finally, I also hope to contribute to our understanding of the future development of the welfare state in the light of a global economy and aging population. The empirical investigation on the central level suggests that pensioners’ organizations influenced the decision to establish the Pensioners’ Council. Moreover, they had actual as well as potential political influence through the council since the early 1990s. There success in influencing government policy is due to the fact that pensioners’ organizations represent an important voting group and their employees have expert knowledge. At the local level, the empirical investigation suggests that pensioners’ organizations had influence on decisions made by municipalities to establish Senior Citizens Councils. However, opportunities to influence vary at the local level, and pensioners’ organizations actual political influence is limited. This limited influence can be explained as a consequence of pensioners’ organizations lack of an important power resource at the local level – employed expertise. It is argued in the dissertation that the empirical results do not suggest an existence of a corporatist power structure in social issues. Rather, they point to a pluralistic power structure – i.e. along side producer organizations, other organizations (such as those for welfare consumers) also have an important power position. This, in turn, limits the ability of politicians to cut welfare spending. The case of pensioners’ organizations therefore suggests that we cannot expect any drastic downsizing of the Swedish welfare state due to factors such as the globalization of the economy. In light of the aging population, the empirical results suggest that politicians will have to seek other solutions to be able to meet the challenge of financing welfare programs targeting the elderly than making drastic cutbacks in those programs.

Выпускная квалификационная работа посвящена исследованию феноменов самоактуализации, мотивации работающих пенсионеров в контексте удовлетворенности жизнью. Актуальность исследования заключается в недостаточной изученности данных феноменов, как и указанного возрастного периода в целом. Объектом исследования явилась самоактуализация личности в пенсионном возрасте. Предметом исследования стали самоактуализация личности и мотивация работающих пенсионеров в контексте удовлетворенности жизнью. Целью исследования стало выявление взаимосвязи между самоактуализацией, мотивацией и удовлетворенностью качеством жизни у людей пенсионного возраста в зависимости от их профессиональной занятости. В результате нами была выдвинута гипотеза, что между уровнями самоактуализации, мотивации и удовлетворенности качеством жизни у неработающих и работающих пенсионеров существует взаимосвязь, а также могут присутствовать различия в характере этой взаимосвязи. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, выводов по главам, заключения, списка использованной литературы и приложений. Во введении раскрывается актуальность исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, ставятся цель и задачи, исходя из которых выдвигается гипотеза исследования. Также во введении указываются теоретико-методологические основания исследования, методы и эмпирическая база. В первой главе самоактуализация, мотивация и удовлетворенность качеством жизни в пенсионном возрасте рассмотрены в теоретических аспектах этих конструктов. Проведен теоретический анализ, в котором раскрыты понятия самоактуализации, мотивации и удовлетворенности качеством жизни в данном возрастном периоде. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава представляет собой эмпирическую часть исследования. В ней представлены: описание выборки испытуемых, методики исследования, сравнительный и корреляционный анализы. Выборка испытуемых состоит из 231 человека пенсионного возраста, разделенных по критерию профессиональной занятости. В качестве диагностического инструментария использовались методики: метод мотивационной индукции Ж. Нюттена, опросник по оценке удовлетворенности качеством жизни, самоактуализационный тест CAT. Выводы по второй главе включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении обобщены результаты по теоретической и эмпирической частям исследования. Обозначены выводы по выдвинутой гипотезе, а также обоснована практическая значимость исследования. / The final qualifying work is devoted to the study of the phenomena of self-actualization, motivation of working pensioners in the context of life satisfaction. The relevance of the study lies in the insufficient knowledge of these phenomena, as well as of the indicated age period as a whole. The object of the research was the self-actualization of a person at retirement age. The subject of the research was the self-actualization of the personality and the motivation of working pensioners in the context of life satisfaction. The aim of the study was to identify the relationship between self-actualization, motivation and satisfaction with the quality of life in people of retirement age, depending on their professional employment. As a result, we put forward a hypothesis that there is a relationship between the levels of self-actualization, motivation and satisfaction with the quality of life of non-working and working pensioners, and there may also be differences in the nature of this relationship. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, chapter conclusions, a conclusion, a bibliography and annexes. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research, defines the object and subject of research, sets the goal and objectives, based on which the hypothesis of the research is put forward. Also, the introduction indicates the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study, methods and empirical base. In the first chapter, self-actualization, motivation, and satisfaction with the quality of life at retirement age are considered in the theoretical aspects of these constructs. A theoretical analysis is carried out, which reveals the concepts of self-actualization, motivation and satisfaction with the quality of life in a given age period. Conclusions for the first chapter represent the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is the empirical part of the study. It presents: a description of the sample of subjects, research methods, comparative and correlation analyzes. The sample of subjects consists of 231 people of retirement age, divided by the criterion of professional employment. The following methods were used as diagnostic tools: the method of motivational induction by J. Nütten, a questionnaire for assessing satisfaction with the quality of life, and the self-actualization test CAT. The conclusions of the second chapter include the main findings of the empirical study. In the conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the study are summarized. The conclusions on the hypothesis put forward are indicated, and the practical significance of the study is substantiated.

This Ethnological study, based on interviews with 8 pensioners with photography as a hobbyaims at finding the reasons the pensioners indicate are vital to them choosing photography asa hobby. The theoretical framework consists of Arnold Van Gennep’s ideas about Rites ofPassage and Gilles Deleuze’s theories of Becoming as a way to understand transitions in life.The results indicate that most of the interviewed persons seem to make a rather seamlesstransition from working life into retirement. The ones bringing their photo-hobby with themfrom earlier in life seem to make the smoothest transition of all.

The diploma thesis "Ageism in the Czech republic" explores areas, where Czech seniors are perceived in discriminatory manners. It maps where they can encounter such behaviors, how do they manifest and which parts of society display those ageist attitudes. For the research I have used a qualitative inquiry way of focus groups and further individual interviews. Research sample was formed partly by seniors living in nursing home and partly by those ones living at home, relatively self-reliantly. The obtained data was analyzed, coded by opened and selective coding and after that evaluated. To achieve good validity of research I have used Q-sorting as an auxiliary method in research sample of young adults working in social services or in related areas. The data I received was analyzed by correlation analysis. I have defined basic and most important points from all levels of research where seniors perceived discriminatory behavior and pressure for young and adult populations. As a suitable prevention I have established the education to values and familiarization with problems of seniors.

This diploma thesis studies the issue of spatiotemporal mobility of pensioners in the environment of the city of České Budějovice and its hinterland. This research uses a combination of two methods. The first method is a questionnaire survey in witch each respondent received two questionnaires. Journeys made were recorded into the first questionnaire and characteristics of respondents and their households into the second one. The second method uses GPS loggers to collect spatial data on mobility of people. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with concepts of time geography, mobility specifics of pensioners, the issue of retirement age in the Czechia and the potential use of modern geoinformation technologies for mobility research. The methodology part presents methodological procedures for evaluating the obtained data, criteria for selection of respondents and the process of research. Followed by evaluation of actual results of surveys and their interpretation with regard to sub-goals of this thesis. The results are in many cases formed using a combination of data from both research methods. The main results, that relate to the specified individual goals and their consequent hypotheses, deal with the daily rhythms of the spatiotemporal mobility, evaluate the use of vehicles with regard to...