Introduction

Population ageing is a challenge for the post-communist societies of Central and Eastern Europe, among them Latvia and Lithuania. In the situation when the challenges of population ageing are interweaved with economic and social transition following the breakdown of communism, the demand for informed solutions of population ageing issues requires special solutions. Having an unique population ageing pattern and context, the sociological knowledge of ageing and the aged is of high importance for the sustainable development of these countries.

On the other hand, every science is as mature as it is able to reflect itself in the broader history of interdisciplinary contexts (Lynott and Lynott 1996; Chappell and Penning 2001; Walker and Hennessy 2002). In Lithuania some publications focusing on the development and inner problems of sociology itself could be found (Valantiejus 2002, 2004; Matulionis 2000, 2003; Poviliūnas 2009; Žemaitis, Kaminskas and Novelskaitė 2004). However still there is a lack of overview of current sociological research on ageing in Latvia and Lithuania.

The aim of the paper is to discover the state of art in a particular field of sociology – the sociology of ageing in Latvia and Lithuania. Consequently, following questions are raised: what is the demographic, socioeconomic, and political context of ageing in these countries – is it encouraging for research or not? What is the current institutionalisation level of sociological ageing research?