Reinventing retirement

New pathways, new arrangements, new meanings

Bibliographic Data

ID9890772
AuthorsLeisa D Sargent (0000-0002-0712-4773, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author), Mary Dean Lee (McGill University, corresponding author), Bill Martin (The University of Queensland, corresponding author), Jelena Zikic (0000-0002-3026-2533, York University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume66
Issue1
Pages3-21
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0018726712465658
OpenAlexW2167440222
LanguageEN
Citations received43
References cited44

Retirement involves a set of institutional arrangements combined with socio-cultural meanings to sustain a distinct retirement phase in life course and career pathways. In this Introduction to the Special Issue: ‘Reinventing Retirement: New Pathways, New Arrangements, New Meanings,’ we outline the historical development of retirement. We identify the dramatic broad-based changes that recently have shaken this established construct to its core. We describe the main organizational responses to these changes, and how they have been associated with shifting, multiple meanings of retirement. Finally, we present a model that frames two general forms of reinvention of retirement. The first involves continuation of the idea of a distinct and well-defined period of life occurring at the end of a career trajectory, but with changes in the timing, the kinds of post-retirement activities pursued, and meanings associated with this period of life. The second represents a more fundamental reinvention in which the overall concept of retirement as a distinct period in an individual’s life is challenged or rejected, whether because it is not appealing or no longer realistic. We provide examples of how both types of reinvention may manifest in individuals’ careers and lives, and suggest future research directions that follow from our model

Aesthetics · Construct (python library · Core (optical fiber · Economics · Life course approach · Period (music · Positive economics · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Social Psychology