Identity constructions for retirement: contents and processes of identity work in the transition to the post-acquisition phase

Against this background, the project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) examines the contents and processes in the discussion of identity concepts before and after the transition to the post-acquisition phase.Special consideration is given to possible differences according to economic, social, cultural and health capital. The project comprises a standardised survey, representative of German-speaking Switzerland, of people who are about six months away from retirement, and a qualitative follow-up survey of 25 people conducted about 1.5 years after the initial survey. Through the interdisciplinary and methodologically differentiated examination of identity work during the transition to the post-retirement phase, the project contributes to overcoming an existing research gap as well as to theory development in the field of identity and retirement research.