Quaderni IRCrES 25 – Capitolo 2
Capitolo 2
Diventare una ex: un caso di riconversione occupazionale over 50*
Becoming an ex: a case of occupational redeployment after 50
Anna D’Ascenzio
CNR-IRCrES, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ricerca sulla Crescita Economica Sostenibile, strada delle Cacce 73, 10135 Torino, Italia
corresponding author: anna.dascenzio@cnr.it
Abstract
This chapter examines the occupational transition of a woman over 50 who re-enter the labour market through the educational sector following career disruption and prolonged exposure to professional instability. This analysis is situated within the broader transformations of contemporary labour markets and draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the feminisation of labour to interpret the symbolic devaluation and precarization of educational work. School employment is approached not as a space of vocational fulfilment, but as an adaptive field increasingly characterised by care-oriented functions, low institutional recognition, and fragmented contractual arrangements. Adopting a qualitative life-history approach, this chapter focuses on the biographical account of a former freelance translator over 60 who entered the school system as a precarious teacher. The life history is treated as an exploratory methodological device, aimed not at empirical generalization but at analysing the symbolic and interpretative mechanisms through which occupational transitions in later life are rendered intelligible and socially legitimate. Attention is paid to processes of anticipatory socialisation, understood as adaptive practices through which individuals progressively internalise the norms, expectations, and pragmatic competencies of the educational field before formal entry. The analysis shows that anticipatory socialisation operates primarily as a mechanism of adjustment rather than professional identification, allowing the interviewee to reconfigure her occupational trajectory within a reduced temporal horizon and under conditions of structural precariousness.
Keywords: feminisation of the labour market, anticipatory socialisation, ageing workforce, precarious employment, life-history approach, educational sector.
DOI: 10.23760/2499-6661.2026.25_02
ISBN: 978-88-98193-40-0
ISSN (online): 2499-6661
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How to Cite
D’Ascenzio, A. (2026). Diventare una ex: un caso di riconversione occupazionale over 50. In D’Ascenzio, A., Errichiello, L., Falavigna, G., & Lamonica, V. (cur.). Mercato del lavoro e relazioni sociali dopo i 50. Riflessioni e politiche per il benessere in una società che invecchia (pp. 27-40). Quaderni IRCrES 25. CNR-IRCrES. http://dx.doi.org/10.23760/2499-6661.2026.25_02
* Questo lavoro è stato realizzato nell’ambito del progetto finanziato da Next Generation EU – “Age-It – Ageing well in an ageing society” (PE0000015), CUP B83C22004880006 – Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) – PE8 – Missione 4, Componente 2, Investimento 1.3. Le opinioni espresse sono esclusivamente degli autori e non riflettono necessariamente quelle dell’Unione Europea o della Commissione Europea. Né l’Unione Europea né la Commissione Europea possono essere ritenute responsabili dei contenuti qui riportati.