Negotiating Leisure Lives in a Culture of Active Ageing

Abstract

People negotiate leisure in the context of everyday lives from the refuge of home, they are connected and engaged with life through ‘windows on the world’ that enable participation in the social world. They care deeply about others and find ways to contribute to society while managing the patronising attitudes of others. They introducing ideas about being selfless and honoured agers. They explained there was ‘no great virtue in all this active ageing’, casting active ageing a chore, which was neither virtuous nor leisurely. The active ageing messages were pragmatically engaged with or subverted. ‘His Lordship goes off to work’ illustrates how paid work provides an enviable alternative to being a hyperactive ager. There are households where the work and leisure ethic differ, causing discord. The correspondents engage with ideas of luck and chance and courage that explain with compassion the situations that unfortunate ‘other old people’ find themselves in.