The Longevity Project – A Short Account of 2021 Century Summit.

From the outset, it should be appreciated that the views from this initiative are largely seen through the lens of the developed world. The Longevity Project website opens with the question – what are we going to do with our longer lives? – and the point is, in an era of a global pandemic and dramatic climate change, in the US, Canada and other western world countries, with the promise of longevity, a 100-year life – does it not feel like we’re barely clinging to a swinging chandelier?

The 100-year life is here. We’re not ready.

So reads the headline in the November 2021 intro flyer to the New Map of Life update report shared at the front end of this Century Summit. Throughout the three-day summit, most speakers did a level headed job of outlining the challenges; how in America, as an early quote in the report states: “…the social institutions, economic policies, and social norms that evolved when people lived for half as long are no longer up to the task.”

Many examples in this up to the task question, but first let me choose to focus on one, simply for the fact that it has been such a major topic over these last almost two years – the care agenda. In a prelude conversation to the discussion panel on Rethinking Care, Ai-jen Poo, the accomplished and eloquent Co-Founder and Director of Caring Across Generations spoke not only to “why is the US behind?” but also to the fact that a “care economy” is a global jobs priority.

Not that this should be surprising news, but since listening to Ai-jen Poo speak, I’ve noticed a recurring radio advertisement in Ontario promoting the benefits of careers in care professions, such as personal support workers in long-term care. Returning to Poo’s comments, to this point of attracting people to care jobs/careers, she restated what many other professions are facing in their recruitment/retention – at the front line, care jobs must be met up front offering a living wage.

While posing the question almost as a request, is there a global caregiving jobs model to be had, it should be noted that Ai-jen Poo is also Co-Founder, Executive Director of The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) in the US. Yet we must remember that so much care work, be it for younger or older persons is provided by a family member, largely by women.

As Poo pointed out that while we’ve internalized caring in the family, there is tension between that and what should be a collective societal responsibility. When it comes to care for older persons, or for that matter any economic, financial or social initiative addressing specifics of a transforming 100-year life, as Poo also observed that we have erected our own barriers by see ageing as a crisis, catastrophizing it. Like we love to do with just about everything as if in a futuristic metaverse.  

New Map of Life and the Intergenerational Compact.

Switching gears somewhat, the other session that caught my attention was the New Map of Life and the Intergenerational Compact. In particular were the insights from Trent Stamp, CEO of The Eisner Foundation, which advocates and invests in innovative programs that unite multiple generations for community enrichment. Paraphrasing the most poignant statement from Stamp – not putting generations together is like societal malpractice.

In tune with the Map of Life report statement about how institutions, policies and norms of previous times are no longer up to the task, Stamp reminded us that we created the social constructs that promoted age segregation; think of grade schools, kids blocked in classes by age at one end, and gated retirement communities at the other. Made me think of earlier points in history – whatever became of the one room schoolhouse as a concept?

As Trent Stamp spoke of recreating the spirit of the village for all ages, he noted examples of shared intergenerational sites in the community such as joint child and elder day care centres and he referenced the US organization Generation Exchange for shared learning and mentoring. These are only two examples and there are various models of this ilk around the world, but they have certainly not replaced the familiar hangover 20^th century norms of age contained fortresses.

Aspirational indeed is The New Map of Life. It builds on the dialogue from the highly lauded, well-structured book from 2016, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in and Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. In their 2020 sequel The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World, Scott and Gratton set the pace for how our societies might evolve, and this was well before we began to learn new lessons in a COVID world.

With this in mind, signing off from the Century Summit I was left reflecting about the possible future for a 100-year life in other countries, in what we have in contrast called the developing world; where diverse cultures, with poorer economies, and currently shorter life expectancies, (not to mention at risk from climate change, famine or social conflict), would struggle to even articulate their unique version of a new map of life – for next week let alone over the next decade.