Suchergebnisse

Contrairement aux dynamiques de mortalité des anciennes économies socialistes d'Europe durant leur période de transition, les changements de la mortalité en Chine depuis le début des réformes ont été peu étudiés. Cet article analyse les tendances de la mortalité des résidents permanents de Shanghai au moment où la Chine est passée du socialisme planifié au capitalisme d'État. L'amélioration constante de l'espérance de vie a connu un ralentissement entre 1992 et 1996. La mortalité des jeunes hommes adultes d'âge actif (20 à 44 ans) a augmenté, principalement à cause d'une progression des maladies cardiovasculaires et des morts violentes. Les décès dus aux transports ont connu une hausse, tandis que les suicides et les maladies du foie sont restés stables. Cette détérioration de la mortalité est liée aux changements structurels, parmi lesquels une détérioration de la protection sociale, une progression du chômage et du stress, ainsi que des transports et un environnement dégradés. Cependant, les effets défavorables sur la mortalité ont été atténués grâce à une stratégie de réformes graduelles, des institutions fortes et une croissance économique rapide. L'expérience de Shanghai peut s'avérer utile pour d'autres pays socialistes qui souhaiteraient passer à une économie de marché.

Research has demonstrated the cognitive and mental health benefits of learning new skills and content across the life span, enhancing knowledge as well as cognitive performance. We argue that the importance of this learning – which is not available equally to all – goes beyond the cognitive and mental health benefits. Learning is important for not only the maintenance, but also enhancement of functional independence in a dynamic environment, such as changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and technological advances. Learning difficult skills and content is a privilege because the opportunities for learning are neither guaranteed nor universal, and it requires personal and social engagement, time, motivation, and societal support. This paper highlights the importance of considering learning new skills and content as an <i>important privilege</i> across the life span and argues that this privilege becomes increasingly exclusionary as individuals age, when social and infrastructural support for learning decreases. We highlight research on the potential positive and negative impacts of retirement, when accessibility to learning opportunities may vary, and research on learning barriers due to low expectations and limited resources from poverty. We conclude that addressing barriers to lifelong learning would advance theories on life span cognitive development and raise the bar for successful aging. In doing so, our society might imagine and achieve previously unrealized gains in life span cognitive development, through late adulthood.

The first Science Meets Parliament event in Canada was held in November 2018 in Ottawa, where twenty-eight Tier II Canada Research Chairs (a specific class of Canadian university professor acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field) from diverse disciplines met with forty-three Members of Canadian Parliament and Senators. The main goal of this event was to facilitate communication between these two key pillars of the society, to promote mutual understanding of the nature of their respective work, roles, and responsibilities, and to build long-term relationships. Here, we, representatives of the first cohort of scientists to participate in the program, summarize our experiences and lessons learned from this event, as well as our assessment of the benefits of attending this event for scientists, policy decision-makers, and institutions. Furthermore, we provide suggestions for similar future events in Canada and elsewhere.