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The Affective Economy of the Business Case for Mature Aged Workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Kathleen Riach  and
Gavin Jack
Kathleen Riach
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University E-mail: [email protected]
Gavin Jack
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article draws on Ahmed's (2004) concept of affective economies as a means of critically exploring the nature and consequences of the ‘business case for mature aged workers’: a framework that underpins recent government and corporate policy focusing on extending working lives. Contra to the claims of the business case as wholly rationalistic ‘common sense’ and logical, the article argues that the business case operates discursively by drawing on latent but potent circuits of emotionality. Drawing on a range of government ‘best practice’ resources for employers, we show how the ‘rippling effects’ of emotionality result in particular systems of valuation pertaining to mature aged workers and later life working. In situating these dynamics as important to a broader affective political economy, we argue this may inadvertently undermine current initiatives seeking to promote the retention and recruitment of mature aged workers.

Keywords

Affective economiesageingage discriminationbusiness caseemotions at workolder workers
Type
Themed Section on Policy Responses to Ageing and the Extension of Working Lives
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , October 2016 , pp. 611 - 623
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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