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This paper aims to consider how the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic questions the neoliberal project of ageing, based on a notion of a healthy, active, working older person. A long-term struggle to include older people has been (temporarily) replaced with a struggle to exclude them. This seems to be one of the most sensitive sore spots of the coronavirus crisis and one of the most serious challenges to social policy and welfare systems the world over. The purpose of this paper is to consider where the concepts of ageing and the action on ageing were at right before the crisis and what their further development may look like.

This paper provides a critical overview of main conceptions based on the neoliberal project of ageing.

The main principle of the neoliberal project of ageing, which had been formed on the crossroad of social theory and policy through decades, became vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The new forced ageing reveals its repressive nature through ensuring seniors’ safety from exposure, their removal from work and isolation. The theory now faces new challenges of meshing a neoliberal actor – active, independent and productive – with an older person in isolation, who needs safeguarding, of re-conceptualizing social exclusion of seniors in a situation where exclusion is equated with safety, of resolving a dilemma between isolation and respect of human rights and of keeping progress in anti-ageism.

This paper presents an overview of the main conceptions, underlying the neoliberal project of ageing. It aims to designate the vulnerabilities of the project, which were revealed under the situation of pandemic. Further development of the discussion needs detailed analysis of theoretical conceptions of ageing.

Theoretical debate reflects policy of ageing. Discussion of theoretical problems of ageism, social exclusion, safeguarding of the elderly and compulsion are necessary for improvement of social policy of ageing.

When the neoliberal project of ageing comes into collision with the reality with the reality, the authors recognize it as a crisis. It moves the society, and especially the elderly, to the situation of uncertainty. This paper calls for discussion and search for a new balance among the generations in a society.

This paper relies upon the current debate on neoliberal project of ageing and responds immediately to the situation of pandemic. Now conceptual problems in theories of ageing and policy projects became visible, and the authors suppose it is time to initiate this discussion.

The purpose of the chapter is to study the European experience of formation of information economy.

The methodology of this chapter is based on the method of statistical analysis, which is used for calculation of direct average of the values of the indicators of European countries for each indicator of information economy, scatter (variation), and deviation of the average value of European countries from the average value among the leading countries of the world (average global value). The objects of research of the European experience of information economy’s formation are the leading countries of Europe that have the largest potential and achieved the largest progress, setting the tone for other members of the European region. The leading countries are UK, Germany, and France. The data of 2017 are used.

The results substantiate that modern Europe achieved sufficient progress in information economy’s formation, and differentiation of the level of informatization of economic systems is expressed vividly, but only in certain aspects. In general, it is possible to determine common tendencies and peculiarities based on offered conceptual model of establishment and development of information economy in European countries. This new conceptual model takes into account and reflects the existing disproportions, of which the most vivid is overestimated massive technosphere, which is not implemented to the full potential due to social problems. Against its background, sociosphere and economic sphere that are standard for modern leading countries seem to diminish. At the same time, due to the strong role of the state in economy of European countries, high effectiveness of state regulation in the process of information economy’s formation is achieved if high share of high-tech export is expressed with smaller expenditures for innovations in the ICT spheres.

It is recommended to use the offered conceptual model to study the process of formation of information economy in European countries and comparing the effectiveness of this process in other regions of the world.

The purpose of this work consists in formulating the game strategy of business integration in special economic zones and its advantages for the sustainable development of regions of Russia.

The following methods are used in this work: comparative analysis, statistical method and the game method of business simulation.

The game strategy of business integration in special economic zones and its advantages for the sustainable development of regions of Russia are formulated. The government's requirements (within investing) and benefits in the context of taxation of income and property of the subjects of the economy and citizens, which exist within special economic zones of the Russian Federation, are analysed. The case advantages of activity (draft formulas of development) of the subjects of the economy within special economic zones of the Russian Federation are described compared to their possible individual development. The effects of implementing special economic zones, which are characteristic of the regions of their location, are revealed. A perspective formula for the development of participating enterprises of a special economic zone of the industrial type is formulated, and the directions for the optimisation of socio-economic and ecological development for a depressive region are given.

The novel aspect of this research consists in determining the specific features of the game strategy of business integration in special economic zones and its advantages for the sustainable development of regions of Russia.

This chapter elaborates on Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things to develop a strategy of optimization and achieve sustainable industrial development of Russia. We propose a framework strategy for perfecting the process of management of Industry 4.0 in Russia. The provision of the development strategy with financial resources is to be ensured by a public–private partnership and implementation of transnational initiatives for cooperation in the sphere of Industry 4.0. The critical result of this chapter is that Industry 4.0 must become a top-priority direction of modernization and sustainable growth.

Nowadays, the agri-food industry is called to face several sustainability challenges that require the development of new sustainable models. The adoption of new technological assets from Industry 4.0 supports the companies during the implementation of sustainability practices. Several models design the operation management of the food supply chains (FSCs). Because none extant models resulted complete in technological and sustainability elements, this paper aims to propose an innovative and sustainable agri-food value chain model, contributing to extend understating of how supply chains can become more sustainable through the Industry 4.0 technologies.

Thanks to a well-structured and replicable systematic literature review and sequent content analysis, this work recognized and compared the extant FSC models, focusing on the interaction of five key elements: activities, flows, stakeholders, technologies and sustainability. The output of the comparison leading in the definition of the proposed model is discussed in a focus group of 10 experts and tested in a case study.

Fifteen extant models were recognized in literature and analysed to discover their features and to putt in light peculiarities and differences among them. This analysis provided useful insights to design and propose a new innovative and sustainable agri-food value chain model; an example for the olive oil business case is provided.

The adding value of the work is the proposed model which regards innovative elements such as recirculation flows, external stakeholders and Industry 4.0 technologies usage which allows enhancing the agri-FSCs operational efficiency and sustainability.