Affective Practices in Transition(s): Learning as Becoming in the Transition into Retirement

Anna Wanka

doi:10.4312/as/19828

Authors

Anna Wanka Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as/19828

Keywords:

affects, work, transitions, becoming, transformative learning

Abstract

This paper explores how affects shape life course transitions and processes of learning and becoming. Life transitions involve shifting self-world relations, changing social positions, and reconfiguring boundaries, which can be understood through transformative learning and theories of becoming. Drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study with 29 older adults experiencing work-related transitions (unemployment, retirement, encore careers), I analyse episodic interviews and photographic diaries spanning over a period of three years using constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis. The findings show that out-of-work transitions evoke a queer, erratic affective attunement, moving from exhaustion to restlessness, and eventually to calm and joy. Affects are inherent to transitions, emerging within transitional assemblages and as properties of practices like repetition, recognition, and novelty. They act as connective tissue between practices and practitioners, co-constituting the entities undergoing transition. Affects also materialise in bodily perceptions and specific transitional temporalities. The study highlights how examining affective practices enriches the understanding of transformative learning and becoming in work-related life transitions.

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