In many countries, the number of people working beyond pension age is increasing. This volume investigates the shifting relationship between work and retirement which challenges the traditional notion of work-free retirement. In the first part of the book, country studies discuss the individual drivers and institutional circumstances of work beyond retirement in the UK, the USA, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China and Russia. The contributions in the second part look at the contexts of longer working lives, focusing on company policies, pension systems and similar welfare regulations, including their cultural dimension. Finally, the chapters in the third part discuss the consequences of the changing balance between work and retirement for individual wellbeing, the meaning of old age and social inequalities.