Shifting Realities
Values, Exchanges, and Solidarity in Active Spanish Elders
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matteo Moscatelli, Donatella Bramanti
We present work on values transmission between generations and about the relationship between solidarity, support and transmitted values. We have built research that has allowed us to work on four generations focusing on the generation of active elders (respondents are 600 elders, 65-74 years hold, who live in Spain), their parents, children and grandchildren. The survey was carried out, in 2016, through a collaboration between the Catholic University of Milan (Italy) and the International University of Catalonia (UIC). We have referred to the Lusher ambivalence model to identify four types of solidarity then we tried to understand how the patterns are related to the values and the help given. The first results allow us to identify which values are associated with the most functional reciprocity patterns (emancipation and solidarity). In particular: those who are placed in the emancipation mode to mature reciprocally (12.5%) have received and transmitted mainly the values of friendship, religion and solidarity, while those who are in solidarity mode to preserve consensually (18.5%) have received and transmitted the values of culture, environment, fidelity and family. Moreover this generation of young Spanish elders allows us to understand well the route of secularization that has gone through Western societies, noting that it is not so much the reference to the value that has changed, but the meaning that is attributed to the different values.
A New Plan For The Later Years: A Study On Planning For Ageing In Chennai City, India
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sangeetha Esther Jeyakumar
In a traditional country like India, children have always been the main source on which parents have depended on being cared for in their later years. However, this millennium, we have seen drastic changes taking place in the economy, society, and social norms, changing the conventional and traditional family setups. Migration of young persons to cities for work and families becoming nucleated is leading to a decline in filial care of the elderly. The condition of the elderly is further aggravated in light of the extension of the later years of one's life. With the rise of individualism, even the new entrants into the elderly population want to assert their independence and live life on their own terms. Thus, to ensure a decent living it is important to plan for the old age by mobilizing and redistributing resources such as money, social support, and putting effort into self-care. In this study we see how coming generations of elderly plan on spending their later years, especially in terms of the changing socio-economic setting. Through the survey of persons aged 55-65 yrs old persons in Chennai, we look into the different approaches the new entrants employ in the planning for their ageing. The types of plans and strategies employed are examined by considering the six main domains of planning – living arrangements, finance, health, social interaction, legal, and leisure activities.
Migration, Ageing, and Being Grandma: Policy Discourse and Cross-border Childcare Arrangements Among International and Internal Chinese Migrant Families
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jingjing Zhang
Migration and ageing are intrinsically related. In China, a dramatic surge of migrants (both international and internal) after the Reform and Opening-up has changed the traditional perceptions of family culture, as well as the scenarios of intergenerational interactions. While left-behind children and their grandparents have drawn considerable research interests, insufficient studies have been carried out on the grandparents, particularly grandmothers, who follow their adult children’s migration to a new country or city to provide family support. This paper draws on data from interviews with two groups of Chinese grandmothers, one is international migrants who live in Auckland, New Zealand, and the other is internal migrants who live in two big cities (Zhengzhou and Nanjing) in China.Taking a neo-familism perspective, this paper explores how the grandmothers use their own migration as a strategy to help their adult children out of the disadvantages in the host society, and how they negotiate their identity and status within and outside the migrant family in regards to the intersection of gender, age, and migration. It is found that the two groups of grandmothers share many similarities in their post-migration experiences though migrant grandmothers in New Zealand tend to be more proactive balancing the younger generations’ benefits and their own wellbeing. Conflicts are manifest in public and policy discourses in China usually concerning encouraging childbirth, meeting childcare needs, advocating filial piety, and supporting old family members.
Lifestyle Projects as Alternatives to Social Aging: An Ethnography of Age In Style-Based Subcultures
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leah Bush
Subcultural participation has generally been studied as a space created by and for youth, despite some subcultures retaining members into older age. Literature on subcultures has primarily been performed by sociologists concerned with the functions of youth subcultures in relation to stylistic and social deviance. But how do “old” punks and “aging” Goths maintain their subcultural identities as they move throughout the lifespan? What spaces might they transform through their presence? This paper explores alternatives to Pierre Bourdieu’s “social aging” through a long term ethnographic study of the punk and goth subcultures in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Bourdieu defines “social aging” as a slow renunciation of self-worth which leads older workers to make do with what they have in life even if it means deceiving themselves. Yet must aging always come at a societal cost? I introduce the term “gothic temporalities” to explore how older members of the Goth subculture combat ageism by creating alternative individualized lifestyle projects based around subcultural tastes and values. Rather than “making do” with what life hands them, these Goths celebrate their present and welcome their future, transforming nightclubs into communal spaces for aging outside of mainstream culture. The purpose of this project is to push back against the societal and economic stigma of aging by understanding how identity is expressed across the life course. Ultimately, this study emphasizes the power of human agency by encouraging us to remain true to ourselves throughout the lifespan.
