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Life-Course Transitions and Leisure in Later Life: Retirement Between Continued Productivity and Late Freedom

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Book cover Positive Sociology of Leisure

Part of the book series: Leisure Studies in a Global Era ((LSGE))

Abstract

This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the transition from work to retirement and its consequences for positive leisure in later life, asking how everyday life leisure practices transform in this transition and how those changes are experienced, facilitated, and evaluated by older adults. Quantitative analysis of German time use data shows that time previously spent on paid work-related activities becomes re-allocated to domestic work, personal activities (sleeping, eating and personal hygiene), as well as practices of media use. Based on qualitative material, such transformations are exemplified by three practice vignettes: having breakfast, watching television and volunteering. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to the concept of positive leisure, arguing for a critical gerontological perspective on leisure in later life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The project is part of the DFG-funded interdisciplinary research training group ‘Doing Transitions—The Formation of Transitions over the Life Course’ based at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the University of Tübingen, Germany.

  2. 2.

    Case-control matching is a statistical procedure used to construct quasi-experimental designs and hence interpret relations as quasi-causal. Matching confounding variables accounts for pre-existing differences, reduces selection bias and improves internal validity. Matching is generally used to account for selectivity in certain events and to answer questions about the conditionality of these events taking place. Constructing a matched sample of working and not-working adults aged 55 years and older allows for approaching the question regarding which changes in everyday life practices might occur if the respondents who were still working by the time the survey had been taken would retire. Hence, matching is used to allow for a quasi-longitudinal analysis despite being limited to cross-sectional data (cf. Lewis & Michel, 1990). To obtain a matched sample, employment status was dummy-coded into ‘working’ (1, including all types of paid work) and ‘not working’ (0, including retired, unemployed and other non-working persons). Age, gender, marital status and education were defined as matching criteria. Matching criteria should consider variables that are, based on the literature (see above), most likely to influence the outcome in question; in this case, retirement lifestyles.

  3. 3.

    We can find a similar discourse about the harmfulness of watching television and use of new media targeted at children and adolescents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe University, Research Group Doing Transitions, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Anna Wanka

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  1. Anna Wanka
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Correspondence to Anna Wanka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Shintaro Kono

  2. Government Meera Girls College, Rajasthan, India

    Anju Beniwal

  3. Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India

    Priyanka Baweja

  4. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Karl Spracklen

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Wanka, A. (2020). Life-Course Transitions and Leisure in Later Life: Retirement Between Continued Productivity and Late Freedom. In: Kono, S., Beniwal, A., Baweja, P., Spracklen, K. (eds) Positive Sociology of Leisure. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41811-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41812-0

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