Ageism as labor precarity: Prescriptive stereotypes and the politics of informal work in the Global South

Abstract

This study examines the structural dimensions of ageism by analyzing how prescriptive stereotypes influence older workers’ experiences in the informal economy. While existing sociological research on ageism primarily focuses on formal labor markets and Western settings, this qualitative study shifts attention to informal work in the Global South, where institutional protections are lacking, and aging intersects with economic insecurity. Through in-depth interviews with 40 older informal workers (aged 55+) in Ghana, the study shows how these workers navigate competing societal expectations: resisting retirement as both an economic necessity and a form of identity preservation, while simultaneously contending with pressures to conform to youthful workplace norms. The findings challenge dominant sociological frameworks in two main ways. First, they show how informal economies transform cultural ageism into a mechanism of labor precarity, complicating universal theories of aging and work. Second, they highlight workers’ tactical agency – asserting seniority while adapting to constraints – to critique reductive narratives of older workers as passive victims of discrimination. By focusing on the lived experiences of informal workers, the study redefines ageism as a structural inequality maintained by economic systems rather than merely a cultural bias. It advocates a decolonized sociology of aging that prioritizes informal labor settings, where workers in the majority world negotiate ageist expectations amid neoliberal economic pressures. The article concludes with a call to expand sociological theories of work and aging beyond formal employment, and to support intersectional policies that address the compounded vulnerabilities of older informal workers in the Global South.