Working Until the End of Their Lives. Older People Working as Itinerant Peddlers in the Centre of Athens
Working Until the End of Their Lives. Older People Working as Itinerant Peddlers in the Centre of Athens

Summary/Abstract: This article focusses on a new phenomenon, which has been obtaining increasingly larger dimensions during the last few years in Athens, particularly in the years of the financial crisis after 2009, i.e., older people (over 60 years old), who either do not receive a pension or receive extremely low pensions, and work as peddlers. Particular emphasis shall be given to old age, not as an age of “withdrawal” from the daily struggle, but as a dynamic age during which many people are forced to work, for themselves and the members of their families to survive; (a contradiction in terms) to a more general mapping of this group of older peddlers (age, financial situation, objects that they trade, whether their occupation is temporary or permanent etc.); and to survival strategies they follow in their working daily routine, in order to ensure even a very small daily income.

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