摘要：The rapid ageing of the world population has led social scientists to speak about anageing society, posing new questions and concerns, and to advance different theoreticalperspectives. Among these, Positive Aging, Successful Ageing, Active Ageingconstitute social psychological and social policy models explicitly designed to helppeople face later phases of life at their best. Various studies also exist on the SocialRepresentations of ageing, while less attention has been given directly to ageing-well.The aim of this study is to explore the issue as considered by people living in contextscharacterized by different societal situations and trajectories: an Italian and a Braziliancontext. Geopolitical belonging and age were taken into account: 360 participants, with a2 (geopolitical context) ×3 (age group: young, adult, elderly) design, equally balancedby gender, were invited to complete a free associations task on “ageing-well” and toanswer an open question on what they see as being most important in order to live longerand better. Results relating to the more implicit level of analysis highlight a hegemonicrepresentation enhancing individual accomplishments and resources in both contexts, aswell as relational bonds to the detriment of societal commitment. The importance ofsocietal concern is clearly advanced in the explicit argumentations made mainly byBrazilian respondents, while Italian ones place high expectations on research butbasically interiorize the individualization of risks and demands brought by ageing. Theseand other results are discussed – theoretically and methodologically – in relation to theproposed models and to urgent challenges that the ageing society is posing on aworldwide scale.
