Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:46:04.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Fuller’ or ‘extended’ working lives? Critical perspectives on changing transitions from work to retirement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2018

CHRIS PHILLIPSON Open the ORCID record for CHRIS PHILLIPSON [Opens in a new window]
CHRIS PHILLIPSON*
Affiliation:
Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Chris Phillipson, Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research into Ageing, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research on older workers and retirement has yet to adjust fully to an environment influenced by a combination of demographic change, technological developments and economic recession. A key dimension to the changing relationship between ageing and work is the tension between policies to extend working life and the increasingly fragmented nature of late working life, with the emergence of varied transitions, including: bridge employment, second/third careers, part-time working, early retirement and other variations. These developments indicate both the challenge of conceptualising new forms of work-ending, and – in policy terms – the extent to which these can successfully accommodate longer working lives. The paper provides a critical perspective to the policy of extending working life and the narrative which underpins this approach. The paper argues that retirement has become a ‘contested’ institution in the 21st century, fragmented across different pathways and transitions affecting people in their fifties and sixties. The paper argues the case for improving work quality and security as a precondition for supporting policies for encouraging working in later life. An essential requirement for this will include linking debates on extending working life with technological developments and changes affecting the workplace, creating differentiated paths to retirement and labour force exit, enhancing the provision of training and continuing education, and re-thinking the idea of the ‘older worker’.

Keywords

older workersretirementextending working lifefuller working life
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , March 2019 , pp. 629 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altmann, R. 2015. A New Vision for Older Workers: Retain, Retrain, Recruit. Department for Work and Pensions, London.Google Scholar
Hewitt, Aon 2015. A Business Case for Workers Age 50+: A Look at the Value of Experience. American Association of Retired Persons, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Atchley, R. 1982. Retirement as a social institution. Annual Review of Sociology, 8, 263–87.Google Scholar
Avent, R. 2016. The Wealth of Humans: Work and its Absence in the Twenty-first Century. Allen Lane, London.Google Scholar
Becker, G. 1986. The economic approach to human behavior. In Elster, J. (ed.), Rational Choice. New York University Press, New York, 108–22.Google Scholar
Beehr, T. and Bennett, M. 2015. Working after retirement: features of bridge employment and research directions. Work, Aging and Retirement, 1, 1, 112–8.Google Scholar
Benjamin, K., Pransky, G. and Savageau, J. A. 2008. Factors associated with retirement-related job lock in older workers with recent occupational injury. Disability Rehabilitation, 30, 26, 1976–83.Google Scholar
Berg, P., Hamman, M., Piszcezk, M. and Ruhm, C. 2015. The Relationship Between Establishment Training and the Retention of Older Workers: Evidence from Germany. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Berkman, L., Boersch-Supan, A. and Avendano, M. 2015. Labor force participation, policies and practices in an aging America: adaptation essential for a healthy & resilient population. Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 144, 2, 41–54.Google Scholar
Buchholz, S., Hofäcker, D., Mills, M., Blossfeld, H.-F., Kurz, K. and Hofmeister, H. 2009. Life courses in the globalization process: the development of social inequalities in modern societies. European Sociological Review, 25, 1, 53–71.Google Scholar
Buchholz, S., Rinklake, A. and Blossfeld, H.-P. 2013. Reversing early retirement in Germany: a longitudinal analysis of the effects of recent pension reforms on the timing of the transition to retirement and on pension incomes. Comparative Population Studies, 38, 4, 881–906.Google Scholar
Burgess, E. W. (ed.) 1960. Aging in Western Society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Burtless, G. and Aaron, H. J. (eds) 2013. Closing the Deficit: How Much Can Later Retirement Help? Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Cahill, K., Giandrea, M. and Quinn, J. 2015. Retirement patterns and the macroeconomy, 1992–2010: the prevalence and determinants of bridge jobs, phased retirement, and reentry among three recent cohorts of older Americans. The Gerontologist, 55, 3, 384–403.Google Scholar
Carmichael, F. and Ercolani, M. 2014. Age–training gaps in the European Union. Ageing & Society, 34, 1, 129–56.Google Scholar
Conen, W., Henkens, K. and Schoopers, J. 2014. Employers’ Attitudes and Actions Towards the Extension of Working Lives in Europe. Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement, Tilburg, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Cooper, V. and Whyte, D. (eds) 2017. The Violence of Austerity. Pluto Press, London.Google Scholar
Cumming, E. and Henry, W. E. 1961. Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Cummins, P., Harootyan, R. and Kunkel, S. 2015. Working longer, learning longer. Public Policy & Aging Report, 25, 4, 120–4.Google Scholar
Czaja, S. and Sharit, J. 2009. Aging and Work: Issues and Implications in a Changing Landscape. Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Dannefer, D. 2003. Cumulative advantage/disadvantage and the life course: cross fertilizing age and social science theory. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 58, 6, S327–37.Google Scholar
Department for Work and Pensions 2014. Fuller Working Lives: A Framework for Action. Department for Work and Pensions, London.Google Scholar
Desmette, D. and Gaillard, M. 2008. When a ‘worker’ becomes an ‘older worker’: the effects of age-related social identity on attitudes towards work and retirement. Career Development International, 13, 2, 168–95.Google Scholar
Dvorkin, M. and Shell, M. 2015. Labor Force Participation: The U.S. and its Peers. Federal Bank of St. Louis. Available online at https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2015/june/labor-forceparticipation-the-us-and-its-peers [Accessed 20 June 2016].Google Scholar
Ehmer, J. 2015. Work versus leisure: historical roots of the dissociation of work and later life in twentieth-century Europe. In Torp, C. (ed.), Challenges of Aging: Pensions, Retirement and Generational Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 135–64.Google Scholar
Eurostat 2015. Employment Statistics. Available online at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php/Employment_statistics#Further_Eurostat_information [Accessed 2 May 2016].Google Scholar
Feldman, G. 2015. We Are All Migrants: Political Action and the Ubiquitous Condition of Migrant-hood. Stanford Briefs, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Fennell, G., Phillipson, C. and Evers, H. 1988. The Sociology of Old Age. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK.Google Scholar
Field, J., Burke, R. J. and Cooper, C. L. (eds) 2013. The Sage Handbook of Aging Work and Society. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Ford, M. 2015. The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment. Oneworld Books, London.Google Scholar
Frey, C. B. and Osborne, M. 2013. The Future of Employment. Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Frey, C. B. and Osborne, M. 2015. Technology at Work: The Future of Innovation and Employment. Oxford University Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Haldane, A. 2015. Labour's Share – Speech by Andrew G. Haldane to Trades Union Congress, London. Available online at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/speech/2015/labours-share.pdf?la=en&hash=D6F1A4C489DA855C8512FC41C02E014F8D683953 [Accessed 3 January 2018].Google Scholar
Hasselhorn, H. M. and Apt, W. (eds) 2015. Understanding Employment: Creating a Knowledge Base for Future Labour Market Challenges. Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Berlin.Google Scholar
Havighurst, R. 1954. Flexibility and the social roles of the retired. American Journal of Sociology, 59, 4, 309–11.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D. 2015. In line or at odds with active ageing policies? Exploring patterns of retirement preferences in Europe. Ageing & Society, 35, 7, 1529–56.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D., Hess, M. and König, S. (eds) 2016. Delaying Retirement: Progress and Challenges of Active Ageing in Europe, the United States and Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D., Hess, M. and Naumann, E. 2015. Changing retirement transitions in times of paradigmatic political change: towards growing inequalities. In Torp, C. (ed.), Challenges of Aging. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 205–26.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D. and Naumann, E. 2015. The emerging trend of work and retirement in Germany: increasing social inequality? Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 48, 5, 473–9.Google Scholar
Hokema, A. 2017. Extended working lives in Germany from a gender and life-course perspective: a country in policy transition. In Ní Léime, Á., Street, D., Vickerstaff, S. Krekula, C. and Loretto, W. (eds), Gender, Ageing and Extended Working Life. Cross-national Perspectives. Policy Press, Bristol, UK, 99–116.Google Scholar
Holley-Moore, G., Hochlaf, D. and Riaz, A. 2017. Working for Everyone: Addressing Barriers and Inequalities in the Extended Working Lives Agenda. Available online at http://www.ilcuk.org.uk/index.php/publications/publication_details/working_for_everyone [Accessed 3 December 2016].Google Scholar
Hyde, M. and Phillipson, C. 2015. How Can Lifelong Learning, Including Continuous Training Within the Labour Market, Be Enabled and Who Will Pay for This? Looking Forward to 2025 and 2040 How Might This Evolve? Government Office for Science, London. Available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-ageing-lifelong-learning [Accessed 1 June 2016].Google Scholar
James, J. and Pitt-Catsouphes, M. 2016. Change in the meaning and experience of work in later life: introduction to the special issue. Work, Ageing and Retirement, 2, 3, 281–5.Google Scholar
Karisto, A. 2007. Finnish baby boomers and the emergence of the third age. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2, 2, 91–108.Google Scholar
Kendig, H. and Nazroo, J. 2016. Life course influences in later life: comparative perspectives. Journal of Population Ageing, 9, 1/2, 1–8.Google Scholar
King, S. 2017. Grave New World: The End of Globalization and Return of History. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Kingsley, P. 2016. The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe's Refugee Crisis. Guardian Books, London.Google Scholar
Koenig, G., Trawinski, L. and Rix, S. 2015. The Long Road Back: Struggling to Find Work After Unemployment. American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Kohli, M., Rein, M., Guillemard, A.-M. and van Gunsteren, H. (eds) 1991. Time for Retirement: Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labor Force. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Koltikoff, L. and Burns, S. 2004. The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know About America's Economic Future. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
König, S., Hess, M. and Hofäcker, D. 2016. Trends and determinants of retirement transition in Europe, the USA and Japan: a comparative overview. In Hofäcker, D., Hess, M. and König, S. (eds), Delaying Retirement: Progress and Challenges of Active Ageing in Europe, the United States and Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 23–51.Google Scholar
Krekula, C. and Engström, L.-G. 2015. Swedish adult education: an undeveloped road toward an extended working life. Public Policy & Aging Report, 25, 4, 125–8.Google Scholar
Laczko, F. and Phillipson, C. 1991. Changing Work and Retirement: Social Policy and the Older Worker. Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.Google Scholar
Lain, D. 2016. Reconstructing Retirement: Work and Welfare in the USA. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Lawrence, M., Roberts, C. and King, L. 2017. Managing Automation: Employment, Inequality and Ethics in the Digital Age. Institute for Public Policy Research, London.Google Scholar
Léime, Á., Street, D., Vickerstaff, S., Krekula, C. and Loretto, W. (eds) 2017. Gender, Ageing and Extended Working Life: Cross-national Perspectives. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. 2006. Work/family reconciliation, equal opportunities and social policy: the interpretation of policy trajectories at the EU level and the meaning of gender equality. Journal of European Public Policy, 13, 3, 76–104.Google Scholar
Macnicol, J. 2015. Neoliberalising Old Age. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McDonald, L. and Donahue, P. 2011. Retirement lost. Canadian Journal on Aging, 30, 3, 401–22.Google Scholar
Naumann, E. 2014. Raising the retirement age: retrenchment, feedback and attitudes. In Kumlin, S. and Stadelmann-Steffe, I. (eds), How Welfare States Shape the Democratic Public: Policy Feedback, Participation, Voting and Attitudes. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 223–43.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics 2017. People in Employment on Zero-hours Contracts. Office for National Statistics, London.Google Scholar
Olshansky, S. J., Goldman, D. and Rowe, J. 2015. Resetting social security. Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Spring, 144, 2, 68–79.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2006. Ageing and Employment Policies: Live Longer, Work Longer. OECD Publishing, Paris.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2014. OECD Factbook: Economic, Environmental, and Social Statistics. OECD Publishing, Paris.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2015. Employment Outlook 2015. OECD Publishing, Paris.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. 2013. Ageing. Policy Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. and Ogg, J. 2010. Active Ageing and Universities: Engaging Older Learners. Universities UK, London.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. and Smith, A. 2005. Extending Working Life: A Review of the Research Literature. Research Report 299, Department for Work and Pensions Research, Leeds, UK.Google Scholar
Polivka, L. and Luo, B. 2015. The neoliberal political economy and erosion of retirement security. The Gerontologist, 55, 2, 183–90.Google Scholar
Porter, E. 2015. A migration juggernaut is headed for Europe. New York Times, 15 September. Available online at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/business/international/europe-must-plan-for-immigration-juggernaut.html?_r=0 [Accessed 2 November 2016].Google Scholar
Riach, K. 2009. Managing difference: understanding age differences in practice. Human Resource Management Journal, 19, 3, 319–35.Google Scholar
Rinklake, A. and Buchholz, S. 2011. Increasing inequalities in Germany: older people's employment lives and income conditions since the mid-1980s. In Blossfeld, H.-P., Buchholz, S. and Kurz, K. (eds), Ageing, Globalization and the Labour Market: Comparing Late Working Life and Retirement in Modern Societies. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 35–64.Google Scholar
Rowe, J. 2015. Successful aging of societies. Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Spring, 144, 2, 5–12.Google Scholar
Scherger, S. (ed.) 2015. Paid Work Beyond Pension Age: Comparative Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Sinclair, D., Watson, J. and Beech, B. 2013. Working Longer: An EU Perspective. International Longevity Centre, London.Google Scholar
Smeaton, D. and White, M. 2016. The growing discontents of older British employees: extended working life at risk from quality of working life. Social Policy and Society, 15, 3, 369–85.Google Scholar
Srnicek, N. and Williams, A. 2015. Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. Verso Books, London.Google Scholar
Standing, G. 2011. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. Bloomsbury, London.Google Scholar
Standing, G. 2014. A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens. Bloomsbury, London.Google Scholar
Statistics Sweden 2015. The Future Population of Sweden 2015–2016. Statistics Sweden, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Street, D. 2017. The empirical landscape of extending working lives. In Léime, Á., Street, D., Vickerstaff, S., Krekula, C. and Loretto, W. (eds), Gender, Ageing and Extended Working Life: Cross-national Perspectives. Policy Press, Bristol, UK, 3–27.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. and Earl, C. 2016. The social construction of retirement and evolving policy discourse of working longer. Journal of Social Policy, 45, 2, 251–68.Google Scholar
Taylor, P., Loretto, W., Marshall, W., Earl, C. and Phillipson, C. 2016. The older worker: identifying a critical research agenda. Social Policy and Society, 15, 4, 675–89.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. 1958. Essays on the Welfare State. Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. 1981. The structured dependency of the elderly: a creation of social policy in the twentieth century. Ageing & Society, 1, 1, 5–28.Google Scholar
Toynbee, P. and Walker, D. 2017. Dismembered: How the Attack on the State Harms Us All. Guardian and Faber Books, London.Google Scholar
United Nations 2015. World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision. United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2015. Mid-year Trends 2015. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.Google Scholar
Van Dyk, S. 2015. The decline of ‘late freedom’? Work, retirement and activation – comparative insights for Germany and the USA. In Scherger, S. (ed.), Paid Work Beyond Pension Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 278–98.Google Scholar
Vickerstaff, S. 2006. Entering the retirement zone: how much choice do individuals have. Social Policy and Society, 5, 4, 507–19.Google Scholar
Vickerstaff, S. 2015. Retirement. Evolution, revolution or retrenchment. In Twigg, J. and Martin, W. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. Routledge, London, 297–304.Google Scholar
Vickerstaff, S. and Cox, J. 2005. Retirement and risk: the individualisation of retirement experiences. Sociological Review, 53, 1, 77–95.Google Scholar
Vickerstaff, S., Phillipson, C. and Loretto, W. 2015. Training and development: the missing part of the extending working life agenda. Public Policy and Aging Report, 25, 4, 139–42.Google Scholar
Walker, A. and Maltby, T. 2012. Active ageing: a strategic policy solution to demographic ageing in Europe. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, S1, S117–30.Google Scholar
Wang, M. 2007. Profiling retirees in the retirement transition and adjustment process: examining the longitudinal change patterns of retirees’ psychological well-being. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 2, 455–74.Google Scholar
Wang, M., Henkens, K. and van Solinge, H. 2011. Retirement adjustment: a review of theoretical and empirical advancements. American Psychologist, 66, 3, 204–13.Google Scholar
Wang, M. and Schultz, K. S. 2010. Employee retirement: a review and recommendations for future investigation. Journal of Management, 36, 1, 172–206.Google Scholar
Weller, C. 2016. Retirement on the Rocks. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Willetts, D. 2010. The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future – And Why They Should Give It Back? Atlantic Books, London.Google Scholar
World Health Organization 2002. Active Ageing: A Policy Framework. World Health Organization, Geneva.Google Scholar