The Business Life of Labor-Active Elderly Members of Society at the Time of the State of Emergency: An Anthropological Analysis

Abstract

Based upon the more comprehensive ethnographical research continuously lasting since 2020 it will be possible to more thoroughly refer to some aspects of the business life of the elderly members of society during the state of emergency due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in Serbia. The frequently overlooked fact that the large corpus of the so-called old – pensioners and/or people older than 65 years of age who are not assigned this status – also accounts for a considerable share of the labor-active elderly population has had multiple implications in the past period. On the one hand, the unison voice was being heard directing the attention of the public towards the elderly as those being threatened in multiple ways, additionally supporting the generally accepted perspective implying the old as the frail and unproductive members of society, whereas on the other, the burden of the problem of those who labor-engage themselves in order to earn their subsistence and the other important elements taking part in the preservation or improvement of the quality of the life of the old – whether that work is done legally or in the grey zone – has remained out of focus. Therefore, this contribution is turning into an effort to include the missing perspective as well in the analyzed problems with the aim of emphasizing the fact that the so-called help, especially when determined and given by decision-makers, has to be targeted so as to be efficient.