Abstract
Demographic decline and ageing have a deep influence on the functioning of the social institutions in a country, region, city, or village. They influence the political relationships, affect the economy and leave their mark on the shape and content of civil society. A declining and ageing society differs greatly from a growing society with large numbers of young adults. Different norms and values and other institutions and organisations apply. In a society with many young adults, these young people dominate the society—not only in numbers. In a declining society, the ‘ageing power’ is clearly present. In this case, the elderly have more informal and formal powers in civil society and on political decision making.
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Oswalt and Rienits (2006) group these causes accordingly: destruction, loss, shifting, and change. The treated decline causes vary from earthquakes and lack of water to sub-urbanisation and ageing.
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Hospers, GJ., Reverda, N. (2015). Population Decline and Society. In: Managing Population Decline in Europe's Urban and Rural Areas. SpringerBriefs in Population Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12412-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12412-4_6
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