The Experience of Retirement in Second Modernity

Abstract

Retirement and later life are taking on new forms and these may be related to what Ulrich Beck and others have referred to as the birth of the ‘quasi-subject’. This article addresses the ways in which retirement, for some, is actively constructed as a lifestyle option or choice. We present findings from a study based on 20 qualitative interviews with UK men and women who had previously worked in executive and higher management posts and who had recently taken early retirement as a matter of choice. Our aim was to explore the experiences of retirement, changes in lifestyle and social roles and the meanings associated with retirement. We focused on the extent to which the attitudes and beliefs of retired people resonated with the idealized ‘quasi-subject’. Our article concludes by considering the extent to which these reported experiences and understandings reflected a generational habitus in retirement.