Sociálne a individuálne koncepty dôchodku a ich zmeny

The article aims to review the research into the conceptualization of retirement in the social sciences and to point out the importance of this research, especially for people transitioning to retirement. Retirement concepts express the possibilities of identities, activities, and lifestyles of retirees. They represent the expectations and standards of retired life. Due to the changes in the institutional arrangement of retirement, the sociocultural discourses and retirement concepts of individuals are changing too. Creating a new identity and lifestyle in retirement is more complicated than ever. Previously, the sharp separation of work and retirement brought only the question of conceptualizing the retirement lifestyle. The contemporary blurring of the boundaries between work and retirement brings a new conceptualization of the transition to retirement. Newly emerging retirement concepts reflect the current ambiguity and even questioning of the traditional retirement arrangement. The author mentions changes in cultural codes that mark this stage of life in a concentrated manner. While the residual retirement code was the clinic, the current dominant code is the cruise, and the emerging retirement code is „the road trip” as an open journey over which the traveler has control. The article further presents research on media portrayals of retirement in different cultures. These reflect how society views retirees, influence society’s approaches to them, and simultaneously co-shape the identity of future and current retirees. The focus of the review is on individual conceptualizations of retirement. These gradually developed from the first „classical” concepts of retirement through their verification and quantitative investigations to qualitative studies on the complexity of retirement conceptualization and the sense-making of retirement by individuals. The author concludes that there is not a large number of studies on the conceptualization of retirement, but those conducted point to the importance of researching retirement concepts. At the same time, the results of more recent research studies observe the expansion of the meanings of retirement for individuals, which results in suggestions for the further direction of the psychology of retirement.