ABSTRACT
Recent sociological studies of the history of ageing and retirement in Britain and the United States have argued that retirement is essentially the product of economic and political decisions to which individuals are required to adjust as they grow older - Graebner (1980), Phillipson (1977, 1982). The more societies find it necessary to restrict the employment of older workers the more they find it expedient to make retirement a palatable and attractive experience. By the closing years of the nineteenth century it was recognised that a basic requirement for satisfactory retirement was a minimal degree of financial security and from this basis the idea of providing various positive inducements to retirement was slowly elaborated into the conept of retirement as an active lifestyle: a concept which has been more speedily developed during the last two decades under the influence of an expanding consumer culture.
