Cultural participation of elderly Belgraders

Abstract

Population ageing is a phenomenon that is characteristic of all European countries. It affects both economic and social development and imposes an obligation to use public policy measures to protect the rights of the elderly, prevent their marginalization and discrimination, and create conditions for their equal participation in all spheres of life. Accordingly, it is necessary to create cultural policy measures that will enable conditions for equal participation of the elderly in cultural life. This paper deals with the cultural participation of senior Belgraders. It has examined their cultural interests, private and public cultural consumption and cultural production. The goal of the paper is to investigate to what extent the interests of elderly Belgraders coincide with cultural practices, how much they use the Internet to participate in cultural life, and how much the pandemic has affected their cultural needs and habits. An additional goal of this paper is to draw attention of the public and the policy makers to improvement and promotion of the cultural needs of the elderly in Belgrade and to provide data that can be useful for creation of a cultural policy that will enable greater participation of the elderly in the cultural life of the city.