Ageing: the lived experience of growing up and older in organizations

Everybody ages as they work. But not everybody experiences ageing in the same way. Given that philosophy provides us with ways of making sense and meaning of our day to day experiences within particular settings, it is surprising that theorizing ageing as both organizational and an organizing concept through drawing on key philosophical traditions still remains an in its infancy in accounts of age in Organization Studies. By way of surveying why this might be the case and suggesting ways into a philosophy of ageing in organization studies, this chapter will begin by suggesting what a more philosophical orientation might bring. It will then briefly outline the influence of functionalist, life course, political economy and poststructuralist traditions in exploring age in an organizational context. In reflecting on the enduring challenge facing organization studies that requires sensitivity to both socio-cultural aspects that shape our meaning of age and the situated materiality of ageing, I will suggest how a turn towards the lived experience of ageing may open up new opportunities for the philosophical investigation of ageing in organization studies.