"Active Living": Transforming the Organization of Retirement and Housing in the U.S.

Authors

Paul C. Luken, Arizona State University WestFollow
Suzanne Vaughan, Arizona State University WestFollow

Abstract

We examine the transformation of the social institutions of retirement and housing in the US in the latter part of the 20th century. Using institutional ethnography we explicate a woman's experience relocating to an age segregated community. Her relocation is predicated upon ideological practices that reconceptualize retirement as "active living" and the construction of a setting in which retirees engage in this new lifestyle. We demonstrate the textual mediation of this ideological and organizational reformation through an examination of an advertising campaign undertaken by the Del Webb Development Corporation in the marketing of Sun City, Arizona. The advertising texts provide an ideological code to manage and reorganize at multiple sites the social relations of one segment of the housing industry under late capitalism.

Recommended Citation

Luken, Paul C. and Vaughan, Suzanne (2003) ""Active Living": Transforming the Organization of Retirement and Housing in the U.S.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 30: Iss. 1, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.2878
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol30/iss1/9