Social Participation and (Early) Retirement

SELF Project Line 5

Both life course sociology and life span (health) psychology acknowledge retirement as a crucial transition in individual biographies. Dissertation projects of Project Line 5 will study how individual agency and self-efficacy affect the multi-dimensional transition to retirement occurring in contexts of multiple constraints. Projects will build on the assumption that trajectories vary by gender and social context (household, income, class, or also country), and that different kinds of work and social participation go together with different opportunities to experience agency and self-efficacy. Thus Project Line 5 will focus on institutional and organizational factors that shape the relative emphasis that individuals place on independence-interdependence.

Download the long description of project line 5, including potential research questions on social participation and (early) retirement.