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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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It was all planned ... now what?
— Claiming agency in later life in reforming China | | Author(s) | Jiayin Liang, Baozhen Luo |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 37, no 10, November 2017 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, November 2017 |
| Pages | pp 2074-2102 |
| Source | http://www.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Well being ; Retirement ; Life span ; Social change ; Urban areas ; Qualitative Studies ; China. |
| Annotation | This study explores the social construction of agency and well-being among 20 Chinese urban retirees aged 50-82 (mean age 67), with a special focus on the impact of earlier life experiences in shaping later-life pathways. Today's retirees in urban China have experienced the communist collectivist ideology during the Mao era as well as the changes to everyday life brought about by the economic transformation from centrally planned socialism to a market-orientated economy. Thereby, life in retirement for Chinese elders becomes more than just an issue of dealing with increases in discretionary time after exit from full-time work, but also one of making sense of their earlier life experiences in the midst of dramatic social changes. A grounded theory approach with semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews was used for data collection and analysis. Three interrelated themes emerged: reminiscence as a mechanism of meaning-making; discovery and exercise of agency in later life in contrast to a rigidly structured earlier life; and varying pathways to constructing the life-stage of retirement. The findings have refuted gerontological literature and public discourse that often portray Chinese elders as passive care recipients or helpless dependants. Further, the present study has practical implications for developing policies, designing programmes and providing services to improve the quality of life for today's older Chinese people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-171110005 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: G3: BG6: TMH: RK: 3DP: 7DC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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