Tampere University
Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) in cooperation with
New Social Research Programme (NSR)
IASR Speakers Series 2019-2020
Cancelled due to the coronavirus situation
Is Retirement a Crisis for Men?
Dr Hanna Ojala, IASR, Tampere University
Time: Tuesday, 28 April 202o, at 16:15-17:45
Place: Pinni B, lecture hall B1096, Kanslerinrinne 1, 1st fl.
Because paid labour and its by-products (e.g., status, purpose, income, social ties) are taken to be central to manhood, scholarly and popular discourses have characterized retirement as presenting a “crisis of masculinity”. Popular press versions of crises for masculinity persist in the marketing of medicine, exercise, social events, financial advice, and counseling. The assumption made in such retirement planning is not merely that one needs to engage in financial preparation but also how one thinks about and plots postretirement activities and behaviours.
In this lecture, I will focus on retirement as a gendered and class-based transition. Based on interviews from a qualitative longitudinal study on men’s ageing (MANage study), I explore how middle-age and older men in different class positions interpret their forthcoming or present lives in retirement. Do men’s talk about their expectations regarding retirement reflect the crisis discourse? Do men’s experiences reflect that discourse? Does class shape their experiences with the crisis discourse and adjustment to retirement? How expectations and experiences are changing over time and one’s own ageing?
The lecture aims to show how men’s perceptions of retirement reflect an ageing society, such as changes in labour market, pension system reforms and extending working careers, ageism, discourses and practices of successful ageing, and paradigm of “never-ageing masculinities”.
Welcome!