Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

participants in the relationship: the working population that is currentlysupporting the welfare system, and the retiring population that is becomingdependent on it.To dramatize the problem, the dynamic between the welfare system andits beneficiaries will have to be altered radically. Balancing the inputs andoutputs that feed the current system is one option, but Finland may alsoseek to redefine the entire system in such a way as to create a new relationshipthat encompasses a satisfactory balance.At the most elemental, such a redefinition must create new value if itis to produce a balanced system. Turning to the elderly—the fastest growingsegment of the population—as the potential source of this new valueis the most logical. The elderly cannot be considered a negative variablein the welfare system, a criteria that compels basic structures to be alteredso that ageing individuals become a positive contributing segment of thecommunity.Finding A Strategy For Producing ValueThe untapped potential value of the elderly population in Finland isboth economic and social in nature. The elderly should be given the opportunityto capitalize on their value potential rather than simply be cared forby the welfare system.Strategies such as raising the retirement age or extending functionalcapacity to delay retirement are too simplistic. The challenge demands thecreation of a more nuanced strategy that recognizes and capitalizes ontypes of value that are not immediately quantifiable in economic terms.This strategy must engage a range of different components and scalesof Finnish society, and address different structures and constituenciesthrough a variety of understandings and frameworks.A rich, multifaceted strategy should begin by addressing some of thefollowing structural concerns:The strategy must strike a balance between social and medicalapproaches to understanding and interacting with the elderly. Integrationof these two ways of thinking and acting will correctly frame the challengeby combining qualitative understandings of the elderly situation with moreanalytical, medical ones.➢ The strategy must also find a balance between social and institutionalproposals. Concentrating the focus only on institutional actions will provetoo inflexible and costly. A purely social focus will lead to a thin, unrealisticsolution. The strategy must consider distributed, subtle, social solutions inaddition to centralized, clear, institutional ones.280