Rediscovery of agency in later life after experiencing a planned earlier life

Jaylene Liang will present on her doctoral dissertation which examines the phenomenon of experiencing post-retirement life in the context of social change among a sample of chinese urban retirees. She will reveal how human agency can be rediscovered, claimed and practiced to shape how life in retirement is lived and constructed despite a rigidly planned earlier life trajectory. She will discuss reminiscence as the mechanism of meaning-making, the resources and constraints that condition human agency in making choices and adaptations, and their selective attitude toward activity, relationship, and media/technology.

This presentation has implications for cross-cultural aging and life course studies and for designing and implementing intervention programs to improve the quality of life of older chinese.