Living - Participating - Growing Old

Life must be understood as the result of evolution, and human life as the emergence of the species Sapiens from the genus Homo of the family of apes. If the emergence of human life as an evolutionary fact is coupled with the notion of social life, we are referred to the constructive production of human life forms, of which social participation is an integral part. On the one hand, participation is tied back to the phylogenesis of the species Sapiens, but on the other hand, it has to be newly acquired and practiced by every human being in the process of ontogenesis, depending on the environment. Participation in old age is a separate specification of the conditions of this process and can be illustrated on the basis of a large number of empirical findings.

Prof. (ret.) Dr. Anton Amann is the scientific director of the Paul. F. Lazarsfeld Archive at the University of Vienna and conducts research on life situations and participation in old age.