Age boundaries as a regulation of individual life courses: An anachronism?

As part of the modern institutionalization of the life course, chronologica l age boundaries have become highly salient even though they seem to contra dict many of the values and systemic requirements of modern societies. Duri ng the past few decades, strict age boundaries have been increasingly criti cized, and empirically they have became somewhat more fluid. Are they today an anachronism? I treat this question by focusing on the age boundary betw een work and retirement, and distinguish two levels: its weight for structu ring behavior and its meaning for the actors. On both levels, the age bound ary is still highly effective. As a last step, I discuss whether the age bo undary is (still) "reasonable", especially with regard to the functional co nditions of labor markets and social security systems.