Current demographic developments and change due to long life expectancies, low birth rates, changing family structures, and economic and political crises causing migration and flight are having a significant impact on intergenerational relationships, the social welfare system, the job market and what elderly people (can) expect from their retirement and environment. The socio-political relevance of the categories of 'age' and 'ageing' have been increasing and gaining much attention within different scholarly fields. However, none of the efforts to identify age-related diseases or the processes of ageing in order to develop suitable strategies for prevention and therapy have had any effect on the fact that attitudes against the elderly are based on patterns that are determined by parameters that or not biological or sociological: age(ing) is also a cultural fact. This book reveals the importance of cultural factors in order to build a framework for analyzing and understanding cultural constructions of ageing, bringing together scholarly discourses from the arts and humanities as well as social, medical and psychological fields of study. The contributions pave the way for new strategies of caring for elderly people.

The foundation of the Young Rhineland in the spring of 1919 marks the start of extensive political activities amongst artists in Dusseldorf after the World War I. Already during the war in 1918 there was a call to 45 Rhineland artists demanding the "merger of the entire young Rhineland artist community. Up until 1933 the association numbers over 400 artists, whose aim is to create exhibition options locally and nationally as well as "visibility" for young art from the region. Over the course of the years The Young Rhineland develops into a platform for artists and intellectuals of various generations, trends and styles. On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of The Young Rhineland the contributions offer exciting new perspectives in the area of artist network research.