Retirement on the Line

In Retirement on the Line, Caitrin Lynch explores what Vita Needle's commitment to an elderly workforce means for the employer, the workers, the community, and society more generally.

Caitrin Lynch is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Olin College. She is the author of Juki Girls, Good Girls: Gender and Cultural Politics in Sri Lanka’s Global Garment Industry, also from Cornell.

The book is based on intensive ethnographic research undertaken by the author during 2006-2011. Working on Vita's shop floor, side by side with factory employees, enabled the author to produce a rich, nuanced, and insightful piece of anthropological writing that not only explores "what work means for people...of conventional retirement age," but also touches upon broader social issues such as aging, productivity, and work ethic in the contemporary United States...Lynch’s book expands beyond a mere case study and proposes broader reflections on the struggles and aspirations of elderly employees—a group rarely studied by sociologists of work.

Stressing a 'cultural anthropology' vantage point, and claiming that new understandings may arise from duly considered work in its culture-related dynamics, this book actually delivers valuable learnings on capitalism as a cultural frame. We learn from it not so much on the meanings of working at old age, but rather on old age capitalism and its meanings. Studying workers who take the accumulation of surplus-value as the measure of all values— this certainly provides a lesson on the undeniable resilience and continuance of the capitalist worldview.

Toni Calasanti:

In Retirement on the Line, Caitrin Lynch provides a welcome ethnography of the labors of old workers at Vita Needle, a family-owned factory in Needham, Massachusetts...Lynch does a superb job of attending to the voices of old workers in this factory, revealing the complex labor relations within contemporary capitalism, and complicating the discussion of exploitation. The readability of her book makes it an excellent addition to courses not only on aging but in the sociology of work, which tends to ignore old workers or see them as something 'other'—and for this reason, it also stands as a scholarly contribution for those who examine paid work.

Jane Collins, University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of Threads: Gender, Labor & Power in the Global Economy:

Through her moving ethnography of the Vita Needle factory and its elderly workers, Caitrin Lynch raises provocative questions about what it means to age and what it means to work in our contemporary global economy.

David J. Ekerdt, University of Kansas:

There is a great, strong story at the heart of Retirement on the Line: a light industrial factory staffed by persons in their seventies, eighties, and even older. Caitrin Lynch's book is about a concentration of old (not older) workers and the local work culture they have created. Because she, too, worked at Vita Needle among them, her account is all the more trustworthy and vivid.

Jennie Keith, Swarthmore College, author of Old People, New Lives:

Caitrin Lynch's ethnography of Vita Needle is excellent. Retirement on the Line brings vivid humanity to the issues of aging and the meaning of work.

Francille M. Firebaugh, Dean Emerita, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University and Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Families and Work Institute:

Are there workers with an average age of 75 years who have freedom, flexibility, choice, and a personal sense of control in the workplace and who are willing to accept minimum wages and (with Medicare coverage) no other health insurance? The author found them at Vita Needle, a small factory in Needham, Massachusetts that manufactures needles for a wide array of uses. Caitrin Lynch's skilled and thorough analysis of the workers' stories is sure to capture readers' interest in the value of employment after 'retirement.’ Lynch’s interviews and sympathetic participant observations also inform her portrait of Vita Needle’s employment tactics and the effects of extensive media coverage on the workers’ lives. Policymakers, students of labor, and individuals facing retirement will find this book absorbing and revealing.

Sarah Lamb, Brandeis University, author of White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India:

Retirement on the Line is an outstanding ethnography carrying readers inside a suburban U.S. needle factory whose employees' median age is 74. As Caitrin Lynch explores the daily lives of elder factory workers who choose to remain economically productive long after retirement, she challenges taken-for-granted assumptions about aging, work, and value in late life and helps us rethink what retirement can mean at a time when economic crises are threatening state and private pensions. Its mix of wise insight into big-picture themes and intimate portraits makes the book a truly engrossing and enlightening read. It will have a large impact and a wide audience, both lay and academic.