Welcome Background « A society for all ages » In 1999, for the International Year of Older Persons, the UN adopted an ambitious slogan, calling for the building of ‘a society for all ages’. Going beyond institutional formulas, some social science researchers, who were already working on international comparisons, decided to use this theme as a point of departure to be developed over time. The initial focus was on understanding the various types of involvement or exclusion of cohorts and generations of ‘elderly’ people in contemporary societies in different parts of the world. Publication of two volumes of the Cahiers de la FIAPA (2002-2006) The first step was to bring together researchers from various countries to contribute to two publications on the political, economic and social influence of the elderly. At the beginning of the current decade, thanks to the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Personnes Agées – a body with official NGO status that represents retired people at the UN – two special issues of the Cahiers de la FIAPA were published on the theme of ‘Grey Power’. These two volumes, instigated and coordinated by Jean-Philippe Viriot Durandal, contained articles by 45 researchers from 23 countries, representing over half of the total world population. Setting up of a non-profit-making association (2006) Following on from this first collaboration, the network was organized into a non-profit-making association, set up in the autumn of 2006 by Daniel Reguer, Jean-Philippe Viriot Durandal and Annick Tamaro (Doctor of Economics at Paris Dauphine University) with the active involvement of Elena Mashkova and Mélissa Petit in the symposium organization. The Réseau d'Étude International sur l'Age, la Citoyenneté et l'Intégration Socio-Economique (International Network on Age, Citizenship and Socio-economic Integration) was formally established to meet the need for a proper administrative structure.