Doctoral Dissertation Research: Retirement Practices, Resource Management, and Financial Planning

本博士论文研究项目科学地探讨了如何在人口老龄化中管理资源和财务规划策略。本研究以年龄限制的退休社区为研究对象，探讨了哪些经历会影响老年人的退休行为，以及退休人员如何理解和利用经济和生态资源。这项工作将揭示美国退休如何塑造美国西南部的未来；是什么阻碍了未来几代人退休的可能性？以及当前的退休人口对这些变化的影响。该项目的一个关键影响将是通过将退休的选择和经历与财务规划和生活史联系起来，扩大学术界和公众对老龄化的讨论。此外，它将重点关注人口增长对资源规划的影响，并将增加公众对该地区环境资源的认识。除了培养研究生收集和分析科学数据的方法外，它还将为在老龄化政策、退休计划和城市发展领域工作的政府和非政府专业人员提供有价值的材料。研究人员将跟踪退休人员，进行媒体和档案研究，并进行深入访谈和生活史，以了解美国老年人，遗产规划师，市政水务官员和退休人员亲属如何理解或经历退休。研究人员有几个具体的目标。她打算回答以下问题：今天的退休实践能说明美国梦的哪些方面？它是如何被理解的？它在西方当地是如何发挥作用的？退休实践如何揭示社会群体之间的内部分化？美国西部退休社区的扩张如何影响现在和未来的经济、生态条件和基础设施？通过回答这些问题，研究人员将有助于更好地理解资源管理，以及异质群体建立新社会形式的方式。她建议将民族志方法与强大的历史框架结合起来，以提供对老年人护理、金融和环境的多维见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project scientifically explores how resource and financial planning strategies are managed among aging populations. Focusing on an age-restricted retirement community, the researcher examines what experiences influence retirement behavior in older age, as well as how economic and ecological resources are understood and utilized among retirees. This work will shed light on the ways American retirement is shaping the future of the U.S. Southwest; what obstacles are inhibiting the possibility of retirement among future generations; and what influence the current demographic of retirees has in shaping these changes. A key impact of this project will be to expand academic and public discussions on aging by linking choices about and experiences of retirement with financial planning and life histories. Further, it will focus on the way population growth impacts resource planning and will increase public knowledge about the environmental resources in this region. In addition to training a graduate student in methods of scientific data collection and analysis, it will also provide valuable material for governmental and nongovernmental professionals working in the fields of aging policy, retirement planning, and urban development. The researcher will shadow retirees, conduct media and archival research, and conduct in-depth interviews and life histories in order to understand how retirement is understood or experienced by older Americans, estate planners, municipal water officials, and relatives of retirees. The researcher has several specific goals. She intends to answer the following questions: What can retirement practices today illuminate about the American Dream, both how it is understood and the way it plays out locally in the West? How do retirement practices reveal internal differentiation among social groups? And how does the expansion of retirement communities in the American West shape present and future economic and ecological conditions and infrastructures? By answering these questions, the researcher will contribute to a greater understanding of resource management, as well as to the way heterogeneous groups build new forms of sociality. She proposes to combine ethnographic approaches with a robust historical framework in order to provide multi-dimensional insights into eldercare, finance, and the environment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.