The Alliance for the Golden Years stems fromthe Ravasi Garzanti Foundation’scommitment to building a new urban welfare system dedicated to longevity. It is a civic and generative pact that goes beyond a simple welfare program, transforming vulnerability and needs into opportunities for community, solidarity, and social innovation.
Research
The Ravasi Garzanti Foundation, in collaboration with CERGAS – SDA Bocconi School of Management
2024
SDA Bocconi, Milan
A roundtable discussion with urban planners, sociologists, public officials, and representatives of the Milanese community.
Public presentation followed by a discussion among economists, researchers, social welfare professionals, and representatives from the private sector.
To better understand the aging process, promote the active participation of older adults, and encourage city investments in 2020, the Foundation supported CERGAS (Center for Research on Health and Social Care Management) at SDA Bocconi, which launcheda research project to analyze and evaluate the potential for turning the aging population into a major opportunity for economic and social innovation in Milan.
The study, developed by the research group with the contribution of scholars from various disciplines and practitioners from different economic and social sectors, aims toidentify stakeholders and sectors ready to invest in the potential of an age-friendly community—analyzed and understood through multidisciplinary perspectives—where longevity is experienced and recognized as a driving force capable of generating opportunities and resources for people of all ages.
Moving beyond the approach that views old age solely through the lens of care and a state of dependency, as if the additional years of life were attributable only to needs and a logic of dependence. For over twenty years, international organizations have been providing recommendations to adopt the perspective of active aging to guide national policies, defined as “the process of optimizing opportunities for health, security, and participation in order to improve quality of life as people age” (UN 2002).
For these reasons, the Foundation has supported CERGAS’s work and, specifically, its research aimed at analyzing the Silver and Longevity Economy in the context of the city of Milan.
The terms “Silver Economy” and “Longevity Economy”are used to viewpopulation aging not as a cost but as a genuine resource that triggers positive economic and social outcomes.This shift in perspective allows us to view older adults not merely as recipients of social services, but as active participants in the process of societal development.
The report published by Egea underthe title“If Only YouKnew How Strange It Is… to Grow Old in Milan: Votes, Society, and Economies Reshaped by Longevity”(edited by Andrea Rotoli and Elisabetta Donati) and presented at Bocconi in July 2021, explores the range of services currently available to the so-called “elderly” population, both within the White Economy (care services and social-healthcare services) and in other areas of activity and potential market development related to aging and longevity. The report then presents an analysis of Milan’s current position and a proposal to rethink intergenerational relationships in order to foster collaboration and value creation for the benefit of the entire city.