'Old Man's Marbles': the Continuity of a Work-Based Identity into Retirement

Abstract

Retirement in New Zealand is characteristically thought of as a time of rolelessness in which the retiree has an increased amount of 'free time' that is ideally spent on leisure activities, or at its worst is wasted away. Rolelessness often conjures up images of the lonely isolated elderly person sitting in a chair 'doing nothing' - separated from the productive and active world of paid work. This ethnographic study of a group of retired men within a bowling club aims to challenge these popular beliefs, by arguing that retirement is not an entirely separate phenomenon to that of paid work. Instead, retirees can actively engage in ' leisure' in a way that exemplifies a continuity of a work-based identity, or way of life. Pierre Bourdieu's notions of field and habitus form part of a theoretical framework which explains the continuity and reproduction of these familiar practices, connected to the wider field of paid work. This basic framework is developed through understanding the club as analogous to a paid workplace where members can continue to engage in similar practices and forms of social relations. Without an actual workplace in which to practise an established 'working' way of life, the club becomes significant in retirement as 'a place to go', offering 'something to do' with 'people to see'.