This article was published by our postdoctoral researcher Francisca Ortiz, and by Elisa Bellotti. The study seeks to discover how cumulative social inequalities intersect with social support networks, impacting the retirement experience, through the analysis of the social support networks of the elderly over time.

Methodology: Mixed-method project that compiled qualitative life history interviews of 30 older women and men in Santiago de Chile.

Main findings: The results show that socioeconomic status plays a role in the configuration of individual retirement experiences, but that these experiences are configured through the structural and compositional characteristics of social support networks.

This article concludes that social support networks during retirement are determined by the socioeconomic status and life history of people.