The Path Ahead: Breaking down reflexes to respond to demographic changes in Zeeland
The province of Zeeland started thinking about the consequences of demographic change in 2007. This resulted in an analysis about demography (
Onverkende Paden - Unexplored Paths) and an awareness campaign called
Nieuw!Zeeland. The next step is the strategic view on demography: what wille be the new policy of the provincie of Zeeland that is 'demograhy-proof'? The answer is The Path Ahead! (Op Pad!) that is written in Dutch but shortly alos avaliable in English.
Unexplored Paths showed us that the population of Zeeland is going to experience a radical demographic development. This will have major consequences in many policy fields. Zeeland is undergoing a transition, i.e. a change from growth to stabilisation and shrinkage, with fewer employed people and more elderly people. The population increase in the past decades has resulted in our taking growth for granted in our thinking and acting. Nobody has experienced times of population shrinkage other than through war and the flood disaster that struck Zeeland in 1953.
This 'growth mindset' and the automatic assumption of growth have become rooted in all kinds of policy and principles. This makes it necessary to break through these 'reflexes' to ensure that in 2030 there will still be a prosperous, happy and healthy Zeeland. The degree of urgency differs from region to region. People in the western part of Zeeland Flanders are already being confronted by the consequences of demographic developments, while on the island of Tholen nothing appears to be out of the ordinary as yet. But in due course the people there will also be confronted by the consequences to a lesser or greater degree (in the labour market, for example).
The awareness campaign Nieuw!Zeeland learn us that thinking in terms of growth leads to 'reflex' thoughts that is not applicable in the present situation anymore. The ambition is to identify those reflexes and frmulate new guiding principles on each subject. The major guising principles are described with thethree key-words for areas dealing with a demographic transition: Quality (instead of quantity), Cooperation and a New Perspective.
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