(Non) institutional support for active aging in Belgrade: Qualitative analysis

Abstract

Process of the agening of the population characterizes all modern industrialized societies, and this demographic trend is subject of practical policy and scientific research, especially in developed countries. As regards the Republic of Serbia, research efforts and practical policies are more recent, even though the demographers found that our population is among the oldest on the European continent. If we add to this the fact that the elderly in our country are particularly vulnerable population -marginalized on several grounds, it is clear why this issue has to be relevant in scientific as well in the practical terms. In this article, we explored involvement of the elderly in the activities of active aging and the availability of, and reliance on the (non)institutional forms of support for this particular form of personal lifestyle. In the analysis, we used two approaches. Firstly, we conducted desk analysis, in order to describe the systemic policies and practices that support active aging. In the second step, we used qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 52 elderly citizens of Belgrade. The goal was to determine if, and to what extent subjects are involved in active aging, to recognize their needs and reliance on the systemic support in the third age. Findings showed that the majority of respondents are agening actively, on the one hand. On the other, respondent's lifestyle is largely dependent on their social status. Wider reliance on systemic support is absent due to poor social standard of respondents.