The Retirement process: Making the Person and Cultural Meanings malleable

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Life-course transitions, particularly retirement, involve complex reorganizations of meaning and identity.
• Traditional gerontology and medical practices often overlook the active role of retirees in shaping their post-work lives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the dynamics of meaning and life reorganization during retirement.
• To understand how retirees actively engage in self and social identity reshaping.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative interviews were conducted with 32 retiring workers in the United States.
• Analysis focused on the narratives and behaviors associated with retirement transitions.

Main Results:

• Retirees engaged in physical projects (e.g., rebuilding backyards) to reorganize self and social identity.
• These projects served as a behavioral narrative, mirroring the temporal order of reorganization from self to social identity.
• Symbolic use of elements like dirt, birth, and death facilitated the development of new self-images and social lives.

Conclusions:

• The physical and symbolic work undertaken by retirees is integral to their transition, fostering creativity and reintegration.
• Retirement transitions should be viewed as situated within individual histories and cultural contexts, not as phenomena to be avoided.
• Rethinking the approach to retirement transitions in gerontology and medical practice is necessary to embrace these active reorganization processes.