The future of active ageing and related needs for research

‘Active ageing’ is a concept that has received increasing scientific and political attention during the last two decades and yet still requires further conceptualization and deeper theoretical grounding. The chapter provides an overview of the definitions of active ageing with respect to different theories of ageing and outlines major lines of criticism regarding the active ageing framework by sociologists and critical gerontologists. It also discusses the ways in which active ageing can be measured and provides a brief discussion of the Active Ageing Index methodology and its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the future research agenda of active ageing is discussed, including the need for interdisciplinary and empirical research aimed at a deeper understanding of the relations between different components and significant factors of active ageing at macro- and micro-levels as well as on the meso-level with a view on physical and social environments to enable active ageing.