No Cover Image

Journal article 1315 views 250 downloads

Reconstructing Retirement as an Enterprising Endeavor

Rebecca Whiting, Katrina Pritchard Orcid Logo

Journal of Management Inquiry, Volume: 29, Issue: 4, Pages: 404 - 417

Swansea University Author: Katrina Pritchard Orcid Logo

Abstract

This article explores issues of age and enterprise in later life as manifested in tensions between retiree and entrepreneurial identities. We utilise the concept of a discursive event to examine time-bound online data, specifically media texts and reader comments associated with the online news cove...

Full description

Published in: Journal of Management Inquiry
ISSN: 1056-4926 1552-6542
Published: SAGE Publications 2020
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa45997
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: This article explores issues of age and enterprise in later life as manifested in tensions between retiree and entrepreneurial identities. We utilise the concept of a discursive event to examine time-bound online data, specifically media texts and reader comments associated with the online news coverage on of an insurance company report. This report introduced the label Weary to describe ‘working entrepreneurial and active retirees’. Our analysis shows how keeping healthy and active are constructed as insufficient markers of a productive and successful older age. These markers are supplanted by a neoliberal discourse which prioritises enterprise and economic productivity in retirement. However, the Weary subject position has implications within this discourse which constrain the valued contribution of older adults to productive work yet deny access to this group to entrepreneurial endeavours. This highlights the de-stabilization of retirement and critical tensions in its discursive reconceptualization as a period of entrepreneurial endeavour
Keywords: Enterprise; retirement; successful ageing; productive ageing
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Issue: 4
Start Page: 404
End Page: 417