2016/05/23 by Simon Biggs, SIMON BIGGS, Michael McGann +5
Health Professions · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aging and Gerontology Research #Cognitive reframing #Commodification #Economics #Economy #Employment and Welfare Studies #Legitimacy #Life course approach #Narrative #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Retirement, Disability, and Employment #Social psychology #Sociology #Work (physics) #Work–life balance
paper · doi:10.1017/s0144686x16000404
crossref issued 2016/05/23 · crossref published 2016/05/23 · crossref published-online 2016/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2016/05/23 · crossref created 2016/05/23 · crossref published-print 2017/08/01 · crossref deposited 2024/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04
ABSTRACT How to respond to an ageing society has become an increasingly important question, for employers, workers and policy makers. Here we critically engage with that debate, arguing that future approaches to the relationship between work and age should take into account multiple influences on older worker behaviour, including the combination of economic, lifecourse and personal priorities. We consider the international consensus that has emerged about the primacy of work as the solution to what to do with a long life. We then address the uncertain nature of work as it affects older workers, and discuss the commodification of time in relation to a productivist approach to demographic ageing and the attitudes of older workers themselves. A tension is noted between pressures for continuity and discontinuity within the adult lifecourse which is often eclipsed within a policy discourse that tends to focus on continuity as a route to social legitimacy. Thinking about life-time as a meta-narrative, a tension between existential life priorities and commodification, may help to explain the ease with which ‘live longer–work longer’ policies both dominate and obscure the potential of a long life. Finally, we examine the implications for work–life balance and suggest this needs to be radically re-thought when addressing the purpose of a longer working life and the promise of a long life in general.