Built to last: ageing, class and the masculine body in a UK hedge fund

Kathleen Riach and Leanne Cutcher
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Kathleen Riach: Monash University, Australia
Leanne Cutcher: University of Sydney, Australia

Work, Employment & Society, 2014, vol. 28, issue 5, 771-787

Abstract: This article explores the ways in which male traders negotiate ageing in the highly competitive world of finance. It draws on a study of a UK hedge fund to show how ageing processes intersect with masculinity and class-based bodily practices to reproduce market-based ideals of the sector. Through developing the concept of body accumulation, this article provides a new framework for exploring ageing in an organizational context by demonstrating how masculinity, class and organizational values are mapped onto the traders’ bodies over time and in ways that require individuals to continually negotiate their professional value. This not only significantly advances current understanding of how one group of professionals navigate growing older at work, but also highlights the importance of understanding ageing as an accumulation process that takes into account temporal, spatial and cultural dimensions.

Keywords: age; body accumulation; Bourdieu; class; finance; fitness; masculinity; older worker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:28:y:2014:i:5:p:771-787

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