This policy brief is an attempt to respond to current challenges of social welfare systems in the context of population ageing and technological innovation. It defines Ageing 4.0 as a concept and provides a rationale for such a new policy framework. It therefore sets out to sketch approaches towards what could be coined as ‘Ageing 4.0’ as a concept that responds to new social and societal challenges that are currently debated under the headings ‘Industry 4.0’ or also ‘Work 4.0’. In particular, the brief will discuss life-course-oriented policies that are able to respond to these new challenges and to seize the opportunities of increasing longevity for individuals and society. This entails, first, a short overview of previous stages of views on ageing in societies and related social policies over the past century. Second, the policy brief includes a critical review of concepts that continue to uphold the traditional division of the life-course into pre-defined stages of education, work and pension. Based on this analysis it is argued in the final part that a more integrated life-course perspective is needed to adapt and to modernise social security systems in a direction that is appropriate to underpin the future construction of ‘Ageing 4.0’.
