Introduction

Extended working life is but one component of the larger global political project of neoliberalisation, in this case centred on contextual issues associated with post-industrial economies and population ageing. In this book, we have refocused the issue by using a gendered lens, highlighting the failure of policy imagination associated with current approaches to extended working lives. One aim has been to point the way forward to a new theoretical and hence a new empirical and policy agenda for research in what everyone agrees will be continuing political, policy and private concerns for the next few generations. We have argued for a widening of the approach to studying older workers that more firmly situates them in their turbulent social, political and economic contexts, and have suggested the ways in which interlocking theoretical perspectives can provide a framework for understanding the complex reality in which older members of society approach employment in the later stages of their adult working lives.

All of the individual countries considered here share the dynamic of ageing populations in the context of global economic pressures that are diminishing national governments’ room for manoeuvre. Despite their very different political and economic backgrounds, all of the countries have, more or less, bought into the argument that ageing populations are a major problem unless more people delay retirement and work longer. Street (in Chapter One) uses a range of international data to underscore the problem of using such a simplified stance because it masks an incredibly complex set of multi-level interactions within country-specific labour markets. As Krekula and Vickerstaff argue (in Chapter Two), more people are expected to make the ‘right’ decision and continue working. Ní Léime and Loretto (in Chapter Three) provide a critical overview and analysis of the current policy landscape that bears on extending working lives.

This brief postscript fulfils several objectives: to briefly summarise the contributions of each of the individual country chapters; to highlight major cross-national similarities and differences; to emphasise topics where more research is needed to better understand the myriad implications of extended working lives; and to consider some policy directions that could improve prospects for extended working life by countering the increasing polarisation of later-life opportunities that current policy trajectories will create.