Times of Our Lives: Making Sense of Growing Up & Growing Old

Edited by Harry Blatterer & Julia Glahn Times of Our Lives Probing the Boundaries Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher ...

Author: Edited by Harry Blatterer and Julia Glahn

69 downloads 2445 Views 2MB Size Report

This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form

DOWNLOAD PDF

Edited by

Harry Blatterer & Julia Glahn

Times of Our Lives

Probing the Boundaries

Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Nancy Billias

Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Dr Peter Mario Kreuter Professor Margaret Chatterjee Martin McGoldrick Dr Wayne Cristaudo Revd Stephen Morris Mira Crouch Professor John Parry Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Paul Reynolds Professor Asa Kasher Professor Peter Twohig Owen Kelly Professor S Ram Vemuri Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E

A Probing the Boundaries research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/ The Making Sense Of: Hub ‘MSO: Times of Our Lives – Growing Up, Growing Old

Times of Our Lives

Edited by

Harry Blatterer and Julia Glahn

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2010 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press. Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-904710-91-2 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2009. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction Harry Blatterer and Julia Glahn PART I

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS The Meaning of Age: Cultures Meet Biology Jan Baars

PART II

ix

3

The Irrelevance of Chronological Age Peter Caws and Julia Glahn

15

Human Aging: A Social Collaborative Itinerary? Alexander J.J.A. Maas

23

Re-Writing the Myth of Women and Aging Barbara Flood

33

TRANSITIONS Contemporary Adulthood and the Devolving Life Course Harry Blatterer

45

Teen Brain Science and the Contemporary Storying of Psychological (Im)maturity Monica A. Payne

55

Theorising Liminal Adulthood and its Consequences for Childhood, Youth and Adulthood Rebecca Raby Blurred Transitions: Revisiting the Significance of Work and Parenthood for Young Adults in Italy Valentina Cuzzocrea and Sveva Magaraggia

69

79

The Light and Shadow of the Active and Independent Senior: From the Life History of Japanese Pre-elderly 91 Eiji Gon

PART III

WELLBEING AND HEALTH The Positivity Effect in Old Age: Is it Real? Christie Chung

103

Longevity Meets Brain Wellness Roger Anunsen

115

Higher Education in Later Life: Cui Bono? James H. Cook

127

Storied Lives: An Exploration of Life Course Narrative Identities and the Factors Linked to Happiness in Later Life Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan Positive Life Models After Normative Retirement Age: Toward a Typology Construction Miwako Kidahashi Intimacy among the Socially Dead: Examining Intimacy among Institutionalised Elders with Mid to Late Stage Dementia Johanna M. Wigg Practical Wisdom and Overall Life Satisfaction in Aging Sheila Mason PART IV

145

161

181

193

PRACTICES AND ETHICS Being Heard: Community Participation Across the Life Course Peter Whitecross

209

Making Sense of Aging: Multidisciplinary Course Modules Provide a Guide to Creating Age-Friendly Communities 219 Judie C Davies and Verena H. Menec

Get Me To A Nunnery: A Reflection on Aging in Two Different Cultural Contexts, The Nursing Home and the Religious Convent Christina Maria Olohan A Time to Keep Silent and a Time to Speak: Past and Present in a Group for the Elderly Judith Fadlon

249

Sartorial Identity of Professional Women Over Age 60 Claire Lacoste Kapstein

259

Learning through Consumption: Placing Aging through the Life Course Juliana Mansvelt

271

Middle Aged Immigrants in Israel Pnina Dolberg & Julia Mirsky PART V

235

285

GENERATIONS Together For Tomorrow: Building Community through Intergenerational Dialogue and Action James V. Gambone

297

Growing Up and Growing Old: Negotiating the Generational Shift in Midlife Bethany Morgan

307

Constructing Generations in China: A Mannheimian Approach Tam Chen Hee

317

Like Fathers, Like Sons: The Boran Gadaa Experience Andrea Nicolas

323

Fathers and Sons: The Generation Gap in the History of Imperial Russia Nataliya Rodigina and Tatiana Saburova

335

PART VI

CONTEMPLATING LIFE, DEATH AND IMMORTALITY Wisdom and Old Age Giuliana Di Biase Last Works: The Late Life Creativity of Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse John-Raphael Staude The Love Stories and Impact of HIV/AIDS: Generations of Gay Men in Urban Australia and New Zealand Ian Flaherty World Without End Ian Nichols

345

355

365

379

Introduction Harry Blatterer and Julia Glahn From infancy to the last moments of our lives we are, as individuals and groups, subject to and agents of interpersonal and institutional power. Those forms of power depend on prevailing assumptions about age and the ageing process. Often these assumptions are reproduced by the natural sciences, i.e. the sciences that deal with cumulative and quantifiable outcomes and expressly not with relationships and meanings. Of course, many of the great advances in quality of life have occurred because of advances in the biological and medical sciences, which have gone hand in hand with technological innovation. But for all of those gains the differentiating and often hurtful dynamics of ageism persist. Here, the natural sciences are helpless and at times, as an unintended consequence of research efforts perpetuate stereotypes. It is therefore up to practitioners in life course research, whatever their various disciplines, to keep their senses finely tuned to the sometimes flagrant, but mostly subtle interferences with human dignity and respect in everyday life and culture on account of age, and to challenge outmoded assumptions, cultural stereotypes and questionable traditions. Indeed, the common orientation that unites the papers presented at the 1st Global Conference on Times of Our Lives: Growing Up, Growing Old is a commitment to the furtherance of dignity and respect for all persons regardless of their position in the life course, and a commitment to intergenerational understanding and cooperation. Times of our Lives: Growing Up, Growing Old was an extraordinary event in many regards. Held in the time-honoured buildings of Mansfield College, it captured the place’s spirit of tradition and history; an ideal setting in which to share and discuss innovative research and bold new ideas. The themes for the conference – the life course, childhood, adulthood, old age and generations – attracted interest from an international selection of participants in anthropology, the care professions, gerontology, history, human geography, literature, philosophy, psychology and sociology, which goes to show that issues concerning the life course and generations do not only matter to the conference organizers, but to a genuinely interdisciplinary cohort of academic and non-academic practitioners. Discussions centred on such topics as psychological, neurological and social processes of ageing, the social maturation of teenagers, transitions to adulthood, coping with (midlife) crisis, community building among elders, the historical emergence of and interactions among different generations in a variety of cultural contexts, intimacy amongst dementia sufferers, care relationships, wisdom and the ageold dream of immortality. A number of papers also attended to theoretical conceptualisations and empirical elaborations of the meanings of age – how

x

Introduction

______________________________________________________________ these meanings are socially and culturally constituted, why they matter and why there is cause for a rethinking of age categories. Let us, then, briefly introduce the individual contributions. Part I consists of four papers that all in their own ways and with different approaches question everyday assumptions about the ageing process. Jan Baars is an articulate defender of cultural processes as more accurate instances of senescing than the deeply ingrained logic of the chronological imagination. His argument in favour of a sociocultural approach to ageing is illustrated with reference to the Age-Period-Cohort complex, a central theoretical device in life course studies. Peter Caws and Julia Glahn meditate on the possibilities of intergenerational friendship against the background of persisting stereotypes about such bonds. Their advocacy for the transcendence of cultural constraints invokes Aristotle’s ‘substratum’ and Husserl’s phenomenological ‘bracketing; and finally, by bringing their own experiences to bear on the discussion, they deliver a convincing account also for the need to challenge taken-for-granted ideologies. Alexandre Maas reminds us that in societies where individualism is proffered as a moral good and where entitatism – our thinking in reified organizational categories – are strong bulwarks against a humanist approach to ageing, and that therefore we need to affirm ageing as a fundamentally relational process. The contribution offered by Barbara Flood tells the story of women’s liberation from the shackles of dependence up to World War II, and the subsequent reconstruction of women’s personhoods. Her original research gives voice to women without whose own experiences, visions and actions this ongoing reconstruction would be an impossibility. Part II addresses the highly contentious notion of life course ‘transitions’ in the social sciences. Monica Payne’s paper is a repudiation of an increasingly dominant perspective on adolescent development and shows up some of the social limits to simplistic biological explanations of human life. Harry Blatterer discusses the empirical invalidation of the linear, tripartite life course and the consequences for our evaluations of adulthood as the destination to ‘youth transitions.’ Three theoretical perspectives are marshalled in Rebecca Raby’s account of the unsettled quality of adulthood in contemporary western societies. Finally decentring the notion of adulthood with the tools of post-structural theory, she asks us to further ponder adulthood’s other(s): childhood and youth. The problematic nature of a transition to adulthood – to a socially fixed point of arrival – is clearly highlighted by the contribution of Valentina Cuzzocrea and Sveva Magaraggia. Their research attends to Italian youth’s uncertain negotiations of non-linear transitions with specific reference to work and parenthood. Eiji Gon elaborates theories of ‘individualization’ and ‘detraditionalisation’ – labels that are mostly used to in sociological writing to describe rapid social change in the western context – in the context of contemporary Japan and the


xi

______________________________________________________________ changing meaning of the transition to old age in a society that for political and economic reasons is fast losing its traditional culture of ageing. Gon’s research charts the everyday issues amongst the elderly that emerge from individualization processes. Pnina Dolberg and Julia Mirsky explore the experience of middle-aged immigrants to Israel at the junction of two transitional positions: immigration and middle-age. António Fonseca discusses the process of ageing in the Portuguese context and alerts us to the intersection of material, social, behavioural, psychological and emotional factors when researching the possibilities for good quality of life outcomes for older people. Christina Olohan’s paper discusses the transition of elderly nuns from convent life to mainstream aged-care institution, that is, from communal care to an individualized, contractual setting subject to biomedical models of care and so raises important questions about home, belonging and identity. The seven papers that make up Part III discuss health and wellbeing in later life. Christie Chung’s research shows that positive self-evaluations of life amongst older adults cannot simply be traced to cohort effects, and that depression may curtail their capacity to recall positive memories. Roger Anunsen examines how a methodology which he developed with his associates translates and delivers current neuroscience knowledge and how it motivates older adults to make a sustainable personal commitment to their own brain’s wellness. James Cook argues against a purely instrumental approach to learning and advocates for a perspective on life-long learning in Higher Education that has as its focus non-quantifiable ends such as quality of life. Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan provide a snapshot of their research on older people from disadvantaged backgrounds in which they analyse the storied lives of older people and provide insight into the connection between integrative life narratives and eudemonic happiness in later life. Miwako Kidahashi introduces her typology for a positive model of ageing post normative retirement age and in so doing challenges the conventional notion of leisure-filled retirement. Intimacy among dementia sufferers is a notion that comes up sharply against stereotypes concerning those considered to lack the capacity for meaningful intimate interaction. Johanna Wigg explores intimate relations between elders living with dementia in long-term care settings and provides data that strongly challenges received wisdom in regards to both our perceptions of the ‘socially dead’ and our constructions of intimacy. Sheila Mason discusses the findings of several intensive qualitative of life review studies based on extensive interviews and tests administered to several groups of elderly people. Her defence of philosophical approaches to life satisfaction illustrates the limits of empirical research and so emphasises the tremendous importance of considered reflection on pressing issues.

xii

Introduction

______________________________________________________________ Part IV of the collection attends to a variety of practices and experiences amongst older persons in a variety of contexts. Peter Whitecross reflects on community participation with reference to two Australian projects designed to amplify community voices in relation to health service design. Judie Davies and Verena Menec present their multidisciplinary approach to age-friendly communities which, among other beneficial uses, has produced a teaching module for present and future practitioners with an interest in active ageing and community building. Judith Fadlon’s contribution engages with social interactions amongst a group of elderly in a day centre that, in contrast to most types of institutional care, provided a relatively unstructured space for the exploration of memories. She shows that when elders are allowed to take control of their time and activities, nostalgia for the past did not serve as an end in itself, but rather as a means for dealing with the present and for finding a voice in it. Claire Lacoste Kapstein’s research delivers insights into the sartorial practices of women over 60, and thus their constitution of a shared identity that seeks to transcend the cultural confines of chronological age. Juliana Mansvelt’s paper highlights the social significance of consumption in an intergenerational context. Her research reveals how the ways in which processes of distancing and identification with parental choices in consumption practices extend beyond one’s childhood years and well into later life. Part V engages with ‘the problem of generations’ in western and non-western contexts, in the past as well as the present. James Gambone introduces his own model for intergenerational dialogue, which has been used successfully to address a great range of social issues. Bethany Morgan’s paper explores the psychological effects of generational transitions during midlife, how people feel about becoming the next older generation and how this impacts upon their sense of self and relationships. While Mannheim used as heuristic background to his famous essay on generations the specific situation of early 20th century Germany, Chen Hee Tam marshals Mannheim’s conceptual work in order to analyses the formation of the Xiagang generation of layed-off, Chinese state workers. Andrea Nicolas raises questions about the basis for the strict age-grading of roles amongst the Boran of Kenya and Ethiopia and so provides yet another important counterpoint to western conceptions of and research into the meaning of age. Nataliya Rodigina and Tatiana Saburova take us on a journey back to Imperial Russia with their study of generational cleavages between fathers and sons in the early 19th century, and in the latter part of that century with the formation of a revolutionary ‘Young Russia’. The papers collected in Part VI offer reflections on wisdom and creativity, love and immortality. Giuliana di Biase traces occidental assumptions of wisdom in connexion with old age in the works of Aristotle and Plato as well as the Old and New Testaments and in so doing shows that


xiii

______________________________________________________________ this commonsensical link is subject to significant cultural and historical variation. Taking Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse as his exemplars, John Staude first reflects on the late-life creativity of these literary figures and then offers his own reflections on the issue in more general terms. Against the background of a well-known Australian literary text depicting the love story of two gay men, Ian Flaherty elicits reflections on love and HIV/AIDS in both an intra and intergenerational context from gay men. And finally, and fittingly, Ian Nichols discusses immortality in the speculative fiction genre, with particular reference to the work of Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson and Larry Niven. Together these inquires can only ever constitute pieces of a bigger puzzle; but there emerged a strong sense that in order for us to make sense of the biological and social realities of the human life course interdisciplinary dialogue is vital. And this dialogue, we would argue on the strength of our experiences at this conference, ought to be the kind that respects disciplinary boundaries and specific types of knowledge, then finds ways to communicate across disciplines, thus bridges divides and ultimately leads to learning and intra-disciplinary reflexivity. We are proud to say that Times of our Lives: Growing Up, Growing Old fulfilled all that it promised and even exceeded our expectations. None of this would have been possible without the work of the organising team. We would especially like to thank Rob Fisher, Mira Crouch, Abi Cannons, Nancy Billias and Maria Vaccarella for making it all possible. And finally our thanks go to the participants without whose generosity of spirit this conference could not have been the constructive and enriching exchange of ideas that is was.

PART I CONCEPTUALI6ATIONS

The Meaning of Age: Cultures Meets Biology Jan Baars Abstract In demographic studies, policy statements and public discussions of the complex temporal horizon that is presupposed when we want to ‘make sense of aging’, or explore the ‘times of our lives’ is usually reduced to chronological time. Although chronological measurements have their own role to play, there is a clear overemphasis of chronological time / age which may be explained by its practical usefulness in budgetary calculations. The preciseness of chronological measurements, however, suggests that chronological age is also a precise and important indicator of senescing as a biologically driven process. In this paper, these arguments are critically interrogated, arguing that environments have a constitutive influence on aging processes, at different levels. The epistemological riddle of the Age– Period–Cohort constellation undermines the exactness that is supposed to be presented in analyses of populations in terms of their chronological ages. The problematic flipside of the dominance of chronological time/ age as an instrument of categorization is an impoverishment of the experience of aging as living in and through different times. In the final part of this paper some of these times will be discussed, such as the interrelatedness of present, past and future, Kairos time and narrative time. Key Words: chronological aging, age labels, biological clock, elderly, social dynamics of aging, menopause ***** 1.

Aging and Chronological Age All human beings are constantly aging, but at a certain moment in life they will be labelled ‘aged’ or ‘older’ (older than whom?) and life beyond that point is labelled ‘aging’. The expressions ‘aged’ and ‘aging’ are without any justification understood as references to a special and abnormal group, although these expressions actually indicate a universal and continuous process of living in time. Persons are transformed into an ‘aging’, ‘aged’ or ‘older’ body at a particular chronological age without any evidence that important changes are taking place at that age, apart from this sudden cultural relocation. This relocation into the category of the ‘aged’ or ‘older’, which may – in the case of the unemployed ‘older worker’ - already take place at the age of 40 years, depends on contexts and changes with them. This means that these practices are not grounded in a process of senescing, which runs with an even pace, like a biological clock inside human beings.

4

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ The usual question that will be posed is whether the female menopause would not represent a clear sign of aging that is biologically grounded? There is some truth in this objection, but the specific phenomenon of the menopause can hardly explain the organization and interpretation of aging. In a historical perspective of the last two centuries, the societal organization of the life course has turned around the male head of the family; it would be surprising if the biological senescing of female reproductive capacities would suddenly serve to explain aging processes in general, at a moment when developments in reproductive technology make this transition less clear. The cultural importance of the menopause is related to specific views on the role of women as sexually attractive procreators. Moreover, the processes that are leading to the menopause may be seen as the transition to aging and cannot account for its further development; this biological transition can hardly be seen as a clear indication that creativity or productivity in other areas has ceased or should be terminated. Even the role of the mother does not cease when her children have grown up. There are no biological transitions that are not interpreted, influenced and co-constituted by persons in historical, cultural and social contexts. The organization of aging processes has many complicated aspects; one of them is the way this organization is informed by statistical overviews and aging studies, which are based on calendar age or chronological age. The vast majority of studies of aging begin by defining their population in terms of chronological age and present their results in diagrams where we find ‘age’ on one axis and on the other axis certain (social, economic, health etc.) characteristics that are shown to change with increasing ‘age’. Such visualizations suggest that ‘aging’ processes can be clearly and unequivocally related to chronological age, although the presented data are mostly unexplained connections. This may lead to an accumulation of data, but in itself not to explanatory knowledge. Human aging cannot be simply conceptualized as ‘getting a higher chronological age’. This does not imply that chronological time is not an important tool for many purposes, nor that chronological age should be banned. For the purpose of understanding human aging, however, the relevance of chronological age is quite limited and its use often serves to evade the question what aging actually is. That aging is poorly indicated by higher chronological ages may sometimes be admitted but this does not appear to lead to much change in research practices. Chronological time serves many purposes well but becomes a source of problems when it gets more credit than it deserves. There is an unreflected overemphasis on chronological time, which leads to problems, as if the precision of chronological time would in itself give a solid foundation to the study of aging. The grand ambition of many studies of aging still seems to be to establish how the chronological or calendar age of persons determines the

Jan Baars

5

______________________________________________________________ characteristics of aging persons or even of all humans. This would eventually result in a straightforward set of simple formulas in which scientific precision and practical use would be united. Almost fifty years ago this option was already stated with much self-assurance: ‘Chronological age is one of the most useful single items of information about an individual if not the most useful. From this knowledge alone an amazingly large number of general statements or predictions can be made about his anatomy, physiology, psychology and social behaviour.’ Although the author of these lines has later expressed serious reservations about these claims, most institutions and organizations that finance research on aging and ask for data about ‘the aged’, ‘elderly’ or ‘seniors’ are still under their spell. The scientific precision that is associated with chronological time has led to an uncritical acceptance of certain constructions of chronological age. We have reasons to doubt whether chronological age is really the ‘independent’ or even ‘explanatory’ variable much research assumes it to be, which leads to the question whether the age related definitions of ‘aged’ populations make sense. The chronologisation of aging – the assumption that chronological age determines characteristics of ‘aging’ persons - presupposes and reinforces an organization of the life course in which chronological time has become an important instrumental perspective. Concepts as ‘age groups’, ‘age norms’ or ‘age grading’ presuppose chronological age, which has become the typical instrument to regulate many transitions or entitlements. Concepts used in the discussions of ‘aging’ societies, such as ‘age-structure’, ‘birth cohorts’, ’dependency-ratio’, ‘age-cost profile’, ‘age-associated diseases’ and all kinds of tables in which ages are associated with particular characteristics, pretending to give a quick informative overview, have become so much taken for granted general that their credentials are rarely questioned. The problem with this chronologization of aging and the life course is that this approach suggests that the exactness of measuring chronological time would also give exact results in terms of age-related properties. Although aging processes can be measured chronologically they are not regulated by chronological time. The step from chronological time to chronological age should be taken very cautiously if we want to take aging seriously, especially because chronological age is widely used in contemporary societies to regulate all kinds of processes and distinguish categories of people from others, with many consequences for the persons concerned. To counteract these tendencies it is good to emphasize that the search for general aging characteristics that could clearly be related to chronological ages has produced many unclarified data that demonstrate the many differences in aging. Such counterevidence comes hardly as a surprise when we try to imagine persons with the same chronological age but living in

6

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ very different circumstances. Think for instance of sixty year olds: one would expect enormous differences in terms of empirical data and personal experiences between, let us say, a contemporary poor African woman, a Japanese man or a homeless American of that age; not to mention sixty year olds in pre-historic times, in the Roman Empire, in classical China or among 19th century factory workers. The fact that in Western Europe the average life expectancy for males has practically doubled in the last 150 years implies that chronological age cannot by itself explain aging processes. Chronological projections of life expectancy and mortality rates also offer no explanation of aging processes. Although they may have a certain relevance at a governmental level, they tend to play an under reflected role in the institutionalized overemphasis on chronological age. They are major generalizations – and often extrapolations of trends reaching half a century or more into the future - across whole populations although different backgrounds within these same populations, for instance, in education, labour markets, pension systems, housing, care arrangements, genetic codes, medical histories or available medical technology are likely to result in different life expectancies. Even a ‘cohort identity’, established by contrast with other cohorts within the same historical context, remains to a high degree an abstract construction, which has to tolerate a considerable amount of internal differentiation. Therefore, the analysis of inter-cohort differences has to be supplemented by an analysis of intra-cohort differences. Major longitudinal studies like the Berlin Aging Study or the Seattle Longitudinal Study offer many examples of these differences. Because ‘aged’ human beings with the same chronological age can show – even from a mere biological point of view – very different characteristics that may be relevant from the perspective of senescing, we can no longer assume that such processes develop in synchrony with chronological time. The many faces of aging between the extremes of a teenager suffering from Progeria and a vibrantly alive centenarian are like laughing mirrors in which the prejudiced citizen, scientist or bureaucrat who count the ages should be able to see their own distorted views. 2.

Intrinsic Time and Intrinsic Malleability There have been some attempts to emancipate the study of aging from this superficial or ‘extrinsic’ chronological time and develop a more ‘intrinsic’ time perspective for aging or, rather, senescing processes. In biological perspective, such an intrinsic measure of senescing, at least, would require establishing clear indicators of ‘normal’ functioning for different biological ‘ages’. Differently marked ages would ideally have to be synthesized in a continuum, as subsequent phases, which would demonstrate a structured development away from a state of adult ‘health’ or ‘normality’. It is doubtful whether all biological processes of human senescing can be

Jan Baars

7

______________________________________________________________ adequately seen as continuous functional deterioration; some may just suddenly collapse and some may become stronger by training or medical interventions. If we define senescing in terms of biological reliability theory as a phenomenon of increasing risk of failure with the passage of time, the question returns in what way a statistical notion of increasing risk can lead to an understanding of senescing. Even if we would have reliable biomarkers of age, such as the aspartate racemization in the teeth which is used in forensics, this would not allow us to explain why a person who would have a ‘biological age’ of 62 years dies within a year, while another person with a ‘biological age’ of 82 years will live for another twenty years. From a functional perspective, the complicated processes of human senescing in cells, tissues, organs or different parts of the brain may have their specific dynamical properties, but these usually include – to make it even more complicated – an openness to the environments inside and outside the human body, extending through personal lifestyles to ecological or social contexts. These processes must be discovered in their specificity and in the course of this discovery chronological time can only function as a measurement of durations and should not be extended to represent human aging. Generalizations about people with a certain calendar age actually presuppose a causal concept of time: because time has worked for a certain duration in aged people, certain inevitable effects should be reckoned with. Moreover, the effects are assumed to develop steadily and universally according to the rhythm of the clock. However, such a causal concept of time in aging can never generate knowledge that might explain something of the differences that exist between human beings of the same age, nor allow us to understand that aging is a generalizing concept that is actually composed of many specific processes. While it is true that all causal relations are also temporal relations, or relations working ‘in time,’ it would be wrong to identify causality with time or to reduce the process of aging to the causal effects of time. The same Jim Birren whose high expectations of the predictive power of chronological age I quoted earlier, has later dealt with time extensively and articulated a similar view: ‘By itself, the collection of large amounts of data showing relationships with chronological age does not help, because chronological age is not the cause of anything. Chronological age is only an index, and unrelated sets of data show correlations with chronological age that have no intrinsic or causal relationship with each other.’ Although processes (which, like all processes, can be measured in chronological time) will have their effects, time by itself does not have any effects. To assume this leads away from an understanding of aging although it may produce neat distributions of average characteristics of persons according to their ‘ages’.

8

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ It is impossible to study processes of aging as we would study many other processes because we cannot observe aging in an experimental group and compare the results with a control group, which does not age. We are, like everything that exists around us, embedded in time and although (unlike stones or trees) we can be aware of this, we cannot step out of time or aging to observe it purely. Getting a clear understanding of time is not only hard because it is always difficult to distance ourselves from what we take for granted. Time slips away because we are living in time and cannot distance ourselves from it. This fundamental human condition leads to problems even in the most sophisticated research strategies. The notorious Age-Period-Cohort problem confronts us with questions about what we have actually established when we have found, for instance, that a high percentage of a group of 70-year olds suffers from obesity. Is this because of their age? Is it part of their specific ‘cohort identity’? Is it because they grew up and older in a specific period in a specific society? Is it ‘a little bit of all that’? Human aging cannot be studied in a pure form: even a scientifically controlled life in a laboratory would be a life in a specific context, which would co-constitute the processes that would take place. The epistemological riddle of this Age-Period-Cohort problem is another example of the enveloping and elusive nature of time: we cannot step out of time to pinpoint it clearly. We can never find aging in a pure form: aging can only be experienced or studied in specific situations, which influence and co-constitute the processes that are involved. 3.

Constitutive Social Context Every step in studying or even discussing aging already involves metaphors, images or vague ideas about time, and they often make an implicit but major contribution behind the scene to the results of these studies or discussions. Moreover, as aging involves many different processes at different levels, all these processes must be precisely understood in their own temporal qualities, which require adequate theories and concepts. Because time and aging cannot be perceived directly, the dynamics of aging cannot be grasped without concepts. More clarity about concepts of time should be a major priority for aging studies because only if we can specify more precisely the nature of different aging processes will it be possible to arrive at better explanations of the variations in aging among humans of the same chronological age, which are often hidden in average scores. The specific chronological approach to time has many important limitations but is nevertheless quite dominant, as its measurements and agerelated generalizations seem to offer a superficial clarity that can be applied in policies regarding aging and the life course. Through such applications, the interrelated complex of gerontological research and age-related policies further strengthen the chronologization of the life course. Not only are

Jan Baars

9

______________________________________________________________ contexts co-constitutive for aging, this also holds for research on aging. In all instances where age-related generalizations are presented without further questioning their suggested meanings, conventional prejudice about aging and the aged are reproduced or new ones introduced. That such generalizations are unfounded does not imply that they are without any effect; even unfounded statements about categories of people with certain ages can be implemented in policies regarding, for instance, specific forms of care or housing for ‘the aged’ and thus contribute to a reality which forces aging people to fit in, because they have no other options than those that were organized for them. Consequently, later research can affirm the earlier generalizations, not because they grasped the realities of aging, but because the researchers have played their uncritical role in co-constituting the realities of aging. In such cases, research on aging runs the risk of becoming an uncritical instrument catering to all kinds of organizational contexts, in which aging people are mainly relevant as the subjects of planning procedures and average estimates, even if the objective is to help and support them. Chronological time appears to be indispensable, also for research on aging processes as it can be used to measure and compare durations, but this covers only a part of the complex realities of aging. As far as aging studies limit their approaches to chronological age, because of its readiness to be used in generalizations and planning procedures involving large numbers of people, they tend to neglect the meaning that comes from non-bureaucratic agents. But the one-sided emphasis on chronological time tends to neglect not only personal meaning but all meaningful dimensions of aging. The abstract nature of chronological time is increasingly pervading aging processes and voiding them of meaning as chronological age and chronological duration are used as main instruments in the organization of the life course. To understand human aging this can hardly be satisfactory. To avoid any misunderstanding: these arguments are no denial of the finitude of human life, nor do they deny that ‘aging’ can be observed in any human being, if we compare characteristics of the same person over a relatively long period of time. The question is how to approach these themes to get a better understanding. To achieve this it is essential to understand the specific significance and relativity of chronological time and its unfounded seductions in relation to aging. The seduction of chronological measurement is that it could represent directly and exactly the natural (physical and biological) rhythms that are constitutive of aging as this remains a process that is ‘bodily driven’, but the complexity, variability and intrinsic openness of these rhythms cannot be grasped by establishing chronological age. The biological processes or rhythms co-constitute the materiality or corporeality of human aging in interaction with physical, social and cultural contexts. Especially in premodern times, natural rhythms have been seen as the foundation of the

10

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ ‘seasons’, ‘phases’ or ‘ages’ of human lives. Such ideas derive their meaning, however, from the socio-cultural narratives, which articulate how these natural rhythms should be seen. Such meaningful content has been stripped from chronological time. Characteristic of this form of time is that it contains only instrumental properties of measurement. Besides the difference between precise or imprecise measurement it contains no meaning of itself; all meaning has been ascribed to it from other temporal dimensions. Confronted with the enormous quantity of unexplained empirical data gathered in the last decade, demonstrating the differences among ‘the aged’, Settersten has given an overview of what gerontologists say makes ‘old people’ different from other adults. He sums up: losses in physical and cognitive capacities; increased likelihood of failing health, and a centrality of health concerns in self-definitions; shorter time horizon and a more pressing need to come to terms with one’s mortality; personal loss, bereavement and more restricted social networks; being perceived and treated by others in ageist ways; a greater acceptance of things that cannot be controlled in life, coupled with a greater fear of losing control over one’s life. On the one hand, these statistically based characteristics of ‘old people’ show one more the weaknesses that were discussed above. On the other hand, they introduce with themes such as ‘a shorter time horizon’ and ‘ the need to come to terms with one’s mortality’, a more personal involvement in temporal living than can be understood from chronological time. Such other forms of temporality are important to highlight, as the chronologization of time that manifests itself as a chronologization of aging, is one of the problematic aspects of contemporary culture, which tends to occlude the richness of experiences and reflections of time we can still find in many traditions. 4.

Beyond the Numbers of Time Let me finally distinguish three approaches to (living in) time, which allow more elaboration of personal experiences of aging as living in time. A first has been initially developed by the 5th century philosopher Augustine and had a major influence on contemporary philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. This approach articulates the interrelatedness of the past, present and the future. It offers opportunities to understand that we experience a present, in which we read a text, speak with somebody or listen to music. Such a ‘broad’ experience of the present gets completely lost in the blur of rapidly rolling digital numbers. Moreover, although the duration of each event or experience could be measured, such measurements are completely irrelevant for the intensity of the experience. Even short moments, in which ‘time seems to stand still’, may be unforgettable and life changing.

Jan Baars

11

______________________________________________________________ This experience of the present is inherently connected with a remembrance of the past and an anticipation of the future. This opens a different perspective on time as becomes clear when we experience that something which happened ‘a long time ago’ (from a chronological perspective) can be vividly remembered as if it happened yesterday; whereas something (for instance a personal relationship) that was important a year ago can be experienced as way back in the past. Experiences of the past, present and the future do not follow the orderly arrangements of chronological time. This does not exclude the possibility to locate the situations and experiences in chronological time, but this occurs in another perspective and consequently we can wonder about the differences between them. Memory as presence of the past does not just comprise what or how we want to remember. We only evoke a part of our memories consciously; a much greater part evokes us or keeps asking our attention, although we might prefer to forget it. In this context, Hannah Arendt referred not only to memory as a typically interhuman characteristic, but also to forgiveness. Resentment or bitterness can be a destructive form of what Augustine called the presence of the past in which painful events remain as vivid as if they took place only recently and no time seems to have passed since. Ultimately non-forgiving obstructs one’s openness to the present and to the future so that the past cannot be a source of inspiration for the future. We may be able to understand our lives backwards, but must, as Kierkegaard remarked, live forward and are inevitably confronted with uncertainty about a finite future; an uncertainty, which opens, however, the opportunity to live one’s life. That there are nowadays no generally accepted structures of meaning in aging can be seen as a loss but the obligation to follow fixed patterns or phases of life might weigh heavily and frustrate creativity. The awareness that our confrontations with the contingencies of life are not based on unquestioned structures of meaning, makes life more insecure but also potentially richer. We may not know how to live with fundamental uncertainty, but cannot live well without it either. A second temporal concept is even older than Augustine’s path breaking work and can already be found in Hesiod. This is the idea of ‘kairos’, which plays an important role in early Greek Pythagorean philosophy and in Stoic thought: the idea that the present offers or denies a particular opportunity. The idea has clearly pragmatic origins in experiences of sailing, fishing and agriculture. For the Stoics it was important to live according to what opportunities were given or denied by the gods or the course of nature. This concept of time is still presupposed when we are thinking about when the ‘time is ripe’ to do or say something and when not. We know this from everyday expressions such as: ‘If you want to do it, do it now’; ‘It’s now or never’; ‘Now is not the right time’. This sensitivity for the right moment cannot be derived from chronological time. The idea of kairos

12

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ has in the past often been interpreted in relation to life’s phases or ‘seasons’, which may be adequate if it does not unnecessarily limit the opportunities of persons. It is more generally relevant for important situations in life. Finally, human aging is always interpreted through socio-cultural narratives that are interrelated with articulations of personal experiences. Moreover, socio-cultural narratives are not just ‘stories’, but are connected in complicated ways to structural contexts which co-constitute aging processes. Socio-cultural narratives about aging that articulate when ‘aging’ is supposed to begin, what its challenges, qualities and drawbacks are; how the ‘aged’ should be approached; whether they are respected or not; what counts as ‘young’, ‘normal’, ‘old’, ‘very old’, ‘innocent’, ‘experienced’, ‘wise’, etc.. All this depends on interpretations of what it means to ‘age’ and these interpretations are transmitted and renewed through socio-cultural narratives. These narratives are not just ‘stories’: they carry structural weight in the way markets are organized, political power is exercised, income and life chances are distributed, etc. Human aging is, inevitably, interpreted and connected with narratives about the value, glory, misery, happiness and finitude of human life. When aging is only approached from a chronological perspective the necessarily abstract character of chronological time discussed above will empty human aging from the meaningful contents that are essential to understand it. Once time perspectives have been emptied of all content, commercial images tend to fill up the void. Many contemporary narratives about aging that are based on an idealization of youth, resulting in ideas of aging as ‘staying young’ or submitting aging to standards of ‘success’ or ‘productivity’ can hardly be seen as adequate for an inspiring and supportive culture of aging where people can continue to participate actively but where limitations and loss are dignified and not seen as a personal failure.

Bibliography Arendt, H. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1958. Augustine, A. Confessions. Penguin, London, 1961. Baars, J.. A triple temporality of aging: Chronological measurement, personal experience and narrative articulation. In Aging and Time: Multidisciplinary perspectives, J. Baars and H. Visser (eds.), Baywood, Amityville, 2007a, pp. 15- 42. –––, ‘Introduction. Chronological time and chronological age: Problems of

Jan Baars

13

______________________________________________________________ temporal diversity’. In Aging and Time: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, J. Baars and H. Visser (eds.). Baywood, Amityville, 2007b, pp. 1 – 14. –––, ‘The Challenge of a Critical Gerontology. The Problem of Social Constitution’, in: Ageing, Susan McDaniel (ed.), Volume 4 ‘Key Debates’. SAGE, London, 2008, pp. 227 – 262. –––, ‘Problematic Foundations: Theorizing Time, Age, and Aging’, in ‘Handbook of Theories of Aging. Second Edition’, V. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, Putney (Eds.), Springer, New York, 2009, pp. 87-99. Baltes, P. and K.U. Mayer (eds.) The Berlin Aging Study: Aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Birren, J. ‘Principles of research on aging’. in Handbook of Aging and the Individual: Psychological and biological aspects, J. Birren (ed.). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1959. –––, ‘Theories of aging: A personal perspective’, in Handbook of Theories of Aging, V. L. Bengston and K. W. Schaie (eds.). Springer, New York, 1999. Burrow, J.A. The ages of man. A study in medieval writing and thought. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986. Dannefer, D. ‘Adult development and social theory: A paradigmatic reappraisal’. in American Sociological Review, 49 (1984), pp. 100-116 . Dannefer, D. ‘Cumulative advantage/disadvantage and the life course: Crossfertilizing age and social science theory’. Journal of Gerontology, 58b, (2003) S327-S337. Gavrilov, L. A., and N. S. Gavrilova. ‘Reliability theory of aging and longevity’, in Handbook of the Biology of Aging, E. J. Masoro and S. N. Austed eds.), Academic Press, San Diego, 2006. Hesiod. Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia. G. W. Most (ed.), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2006. Kierkegaard, S. Either-Or. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987. Kohli, M. ‘The world we forgot: a historical review of the life course’ in V. Marshall Later Life. The Social Psychology of Aging. (ed), Sage, London, 1986, pp. 271 – 303.

14

The Meaning of Age

______________________________________________________________ Leisering L. and S. Leibfried Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Mayer, K.U. and W. Müller ‘The State and the Structure of the Life Course’ in Human Development and the Life Course. Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum, London, 1986, pp. 217- 245. Oeppen, J. and J. Vaupel. ‘Broken limits to life expectancy’. Science (296), 2002., pp. 1029-1031. Ricoeur, P. Time and Narrative. 3 vols. University of Chicago Press, Chicago:, 1988. Schaie, K. W.. Intellectual Development in Adulthood: The Seattle Longitudinal Study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,1996. –––, ‘The concept of event time in the study of adult development’. In Aging and Time: Multidisciplinary perspectives, Baywood, Amityville, 2007. pp. 121 – 136. Sears, E. The ages of man. Medieval interpretations of the life cycle. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1986. Settersten, R. A. ‘Linking the two ends of life: What gerontology can learn from childhood studies’. Journal of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 60, 2005, S173-80. –––, ‘Aging and the life course’. In Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, Academic Press, Boston, 2006, pp. 3-19. West, M. L. Greek Lyric Poetry (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993. Westendorp, R. G. J., and T. B. L. Kirkwood. The biology of aging. In Ageing in Society: European perspectives on gerontology, F. DittmannKohli, and G. Westerhof. Sage, London, 2007, pp. 15 - 37. Jan Baars is Professor of Interpretive Gerontology at the University for Humanistics in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Professor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences and the Humanities at Tilburg University (The Netherlands). His current interests are philosophy of time and the presuppositions of theories and practices regarding aging.

The Irrelevance of Chronological Age Peter Caws and Julia Glahn Abstract Ageing is, obviously enough, a process of change over time. Some of the changes involved assign individuals to markedly different groups (‘agegroups’) at different stages in the process, and make social relations across age-group boundaries problematic except as they fall into conventional categories. This paper postulates and explores constant factors underlying the changes due to ageing that can minimize these problematic differences and make possible social relations transcending chronological age. Because such relations are likely to encounter cultural stereotypes establishing them may not be easy, but it can be successful and rewarding. The paper follows two distinct strategies, one testing the concept of a timeless transcendental subject not affected by ageing, the other postulating an ‘immediate otherness’ between subjects that might bracket differences of chronological age and render them irrelevant to the enjoyment of mutual presence. The first strategy appeals to the Aristotelian analysis of change as requiring the continuity of something unchanging (the ‘substratum’ of Metaphysics 983a30), which finds an echo in the contrast between the ‘naively interested Ego’ and the phenomenological Ego as ‘disinterested onlooker’ in Husserl’s Cartesian Meditations. It seeks to reconcile the powerful intuition of the self as selfidentical from first awareness to whatever age it has attained with the equally powerful intuition of difference from moment to moment and situation to situation. The second explores different modes and settings of immediacy and intimacy, from common interest in external objects (the ‘parallel’ case) to shared concern of the subjects involved for one another (the ‘diametric’ case). The paper’s authors offer themselves as existence proofs of these possibilities. Key Words: Age, (Cross-) Age-Groups, Generation, Timeless Transcendental Subject, Immediate Otherness, Presence at Distance. ***** ‘Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese’ Billie Burke Although there is no doubt that none of us is a cheese, reality does not hesitate to provide us with situations, which tell us: Age does matter! It matters when the neighbourhood boys don’t want to play with you as the little kid, or when you are a minor trying to buy a drink or to get into a club,

16

The Irrelevances of Chronological Age

______________________________________________________________ and it matters even more when you discover wrinkles around your eyes, when you spot a grey hair that hasn’t been there before or when no one understands your jokes as your refer to things that have happened half a century ago. Situations like these teach us the merciless truth: we do age and this process is inexorable, irreversible and unstoppable. We grow from birth to maturation to maturity to decline, eventually to death. These different steps in human development mark us individually on the physical as well as on the psychological level. But as we hope to show, the psychological is less tightly tied to the physical than popular convention suggests. Thus unsurprisingly, people tend to categorize themselves and others within certain homogeneous age groups: children, adults, or seniors. The concept of ‘generations’ perfectly serves this human intuition: there is the generation of hippies, the so-called ‘Generation Gap’, the generation who experienced WWII, the generation of the internet, etc. There is something arbitrary and suspect about these dogmatic generalizations, and yet the temptation to make them is hard to resist. Clearly there are external indicators of age, and the impulse to classify individuals accordingly is entirely understandable. But it gives rise to the question: What is it that marks people as a member of a certain age group, a certain generation? How and by what criteria do we recognize someone as a member of a certain age group? The first, intuitive answer might be: the way someone looks, as age is a criterion obvious on the face and body. Usually, one is able to distinguish whether a person is 5, 25 or 50 years old, just by looking at him or her. But this is only easy in very obvious cases. We cannot say so easily whether someone is 5 or 6, or 23 or 24, or 57 or 60 years old. Our every-day-strategy to guess people’s age better than just by looking at their faces and bodies is to relate to their social situation. When a child tells you that he goes to kindergarten you know (depending on the country you are living in) that he might not be older than 6, nor younger than 3. Equally for students: If someone tells you she is going to university (again depending on the educational system), you might guess he is somewhere between 20 and 27. Factors like: having children, being married, being retired, having grandchildren etc. also help when we are guessing someone’s age. So what marks someone as a person of a certain age-group is not merely her physical appearance but rather her social embedding. This becomes striking when people do not fit our expectations: a boy graduating from high school at the age of 15, a girl being a mother at the same age, a man not having graduated from university at the age of 40, a man becoming a father very late in life or a grandfather very early, etc. When people do not fit the age categories that society has established collectively we experience dissonance in ascribing the correct age.

Peter Caws and Julia Glahn

17

______________________________________________________________ Failure to fit into certain age groups encounters another dimension when it comes to cross-age-relations: Society allows and even demands certain social relations between different age groups: parents take care of their children, adult teachers educate minor children and teenagers, nurses care for very old people. As these relations are less homogeneously constructed, it is not only harder to guess people’s age in these situations, but conflicts are also likely to arise. These problems may be inherent in the crossage relation - what is often called generational conflict - in view of the fact that people at different ages share different views, values and interests. But some of them may have external causes, in the sense of being attributed from the outside, by people who are not participants in the relation in question. As long as these cross-age relations have an ‘official’, socially accepted or even required legitimation, as in the examples given above, their existence is not questioned or morally judged. But as soon as they break out of the established and accepted pattern they run up against cultural stereotypes. When a woman chooses a partner who is twenty, thirty or even forty years older than she is, people’s reaction may range from being amused to being shocked, but in any case questions are likely to be raised about the sincerity and integrity of her motivations. Some critics may suspect that she is just on the make (assuming him to be rich) or accuse him of serving his own pride in having captured her youth and beauty (assuming her to be beautiful). And not all asymmetries in such relations are attributable to wealth on one side and beauty on the other - variants might include influence over against ambition, professional experience over against first apprenticeship, mature learning over against a desire for enlightenment, and so on. A case closer to home, to which we may refer from time to time, would be that of a philosophical collaboration having come into being between scholars and colleagues whose ages are separated by a half century. It is clear that one of the biggest stereotypes confronting crossgenerational relationships is the suspicion or accusation of mutual or unilateral abuse. A mere age-difference seems to be a sufficient argumentative ground to question the sincerity of feelings of affection, care and interest in the other person. This stereotype is based on the assumption that only persons of roughly the same biological age can have authentic or disinterested non-hierarchical regard for one another, whether on the basis of attraction or love or friendship or collegiality. Back to the cheese, then. We want to claim that this is nonsense! that there are important ways in which chronological age really doesn’t matter. There can be cross-age-relations, which are based on mutual affection and shared feelings rather than on mutual (if tacitly accepted) abuse or exploitation. A woman who is marrying an older man is not necessarily hoping for his premature death in order to inherit all his money, nor has the only interest of an older man in a younger woman to be her beauty and youth.

18


______________________________________________________________ Similarly for other advantages such as age and experience on the one hand, enthusiasm and vigour on the other: we may share philosophical interests and we may ‘use’ one another in the furtherance of these interests, but - following the good old Kantian maxim of the categorical imperative in its second formulation - we treat each other not merely as means to our selfish ends, but also as ends mutually respected as such. And this treating of the other as an end is independent of our biological ages or the difference between them. Age may play a role, when we want to engage in activities together that are linked to certain physical or mental capacities. For example it is hard to do philosophy with a five-yearold brother who is still lacking the education for it, just as it would be hard to go skiing with a hundred-year-old grandmother. But this link between age and physical or mental capacities is just relative, not absolute. It is likely, but not necessary. Over time individuals make transitions, more or less abruptly, from younger age groups to older ones. The indicators that mark these transitions graduation, the first entry into the workforce, retirement - may be accompanied by social losses or upheavals, which may be ridden out without incident but may have difficult psychological consequences, depending on the degree of identification with the group that is being left behind. But what or who is it, exactly, that undergoes the transition? If there is any merit to Aristotle’s notion, that if change is to occur there must be an underlying substratum that does not change, it would seem that under the physical conditions we have been associating with age there must be something timeless. Tolstoy expresses the same idea: ‘I am conscious of myself in exactly the same way now, at eighty-one, as I was conscious of myself, my ‘I,’ at five or six years of age. Consciousness is immovable. Due to this alone there is the movement which we call ‘time.’ If time moves on, then there must be something that stands still. The consciousness of my ‘I’ stands still’1 (Journal, January 15, 1910). Perhaps it is the meeting of two timeless subjects that makes possible the cross-age connections we have described. Bodies, roles, social positions and the like are assigned to age groups, but that does not mean that the subjects who inhabit and animate them need also be so assigned. It is all too easy to identify oneself with these categorizations, but it is also possible to resist this identification - not to do so, in fact, is to fall into what Jean-Paul Sartre would call ‘mauvaise foi’ or ‘bad faith’2 Insisting on a possible disconnect between the subject and its body, role, social position etc. has a liberating effect, and makes possible relationships that transcend chronological age - to which chronological age proves to be irrelevant. There is not time to go here into a full theory of subjectivity, but if we adopt the Kantian or Husserlian view of the transcendental subject we can attributes timelessness to it, a denial of change even in the midst of change, and even (to allude to an earlier paper in this


19

______________________________________________________________ series) up to the point of death. There is a provocative anticipation of this (as of so much else!) in Aristotle, who, using his own terminology of ‘mind’ or ‘soul,’ explicitly addresses the issue of ageing: Mind seems to be an independent substance engendered in us, and to be imperishable. If it could be destroyed the most probable cause would be the feebleness of old age, but, in fact, probably the same thing occurs as in the sense organs; for if an old man could acquire the right kind of eye, he would see as a young man sees. Hence old age is due to affection, not of the soul, but only of that in which the soul resides […]. Thus the power of thought and speculation decays because something else within perishes, but itself is unaffected.3 So to the extent that the subject is affected by ageing (and we do not seek to deny the external realities) this need not harm the prospects for a potential friendship. In fact, this timeless transcendental subject is not only without biological age, it is detached from any kind of physical embodiment. Without going too deeply into the big problem of personal identity over time, we want to emphasize that such a timeless subject may even be necessary for the constitution of any friendship, no matter whether it is a friendship between people of the same or of different ages. In fact it is being an end as such, acknowledged by the other that constitutes me as a partner in a relation to that other. By regarding and respecting a person as an end, as something that does not need any further justification; I discover and acknowledge an unchanging moment, which is stripped of any dimension of time. To repeat: this does not only apply to cross-age relations, but is rather a characteristic of any kind of friendship. Whenever we feel friendship and closeness for another person, we automatically and intuitively detach him or her from his or her physical embodiment anyway. The discovery and the unveiling of the timeless transcendental subject in the other is not only necessary for the emergence of a real friendship, it is also the natural and automatic way towards it. It is just in cases of cross-age friendships that this becomes so obvious right from the first moment. If two people of the same age meet and get along well with each other, it might be due to their time-related subjects liking each other. But as soon as a real friendship gets established, the time-related subject, manifested by the physical embodiment of the person, namely her body, more and more takes the back seat. Friends who are friends for years and decades do not look at the physical embodiment of each other but rather through that embodiment, at the timeless subject it carries. This gains more and more importance for the friendship; if this doesn’t happen, a real and long lasting

20


______________________________________________________________ friendship will not be established - all the changes that people go through over the years would be a threat to the friendship. All we would be left with would be a transient relationship, ending as soon as the time-related subjects underwent sufficiently drastic changes. As this kind of process is inevitable, we all develop, grow, and age, even friendships between people who share chronological age need to be sustained by timeless transcendental subjectivity. This perspective introduces a new and profound possibility. Relations between individuals are usually mediated by external factors. As we have seen, social expectations and cultural stereotypes trap people in age groups and also in groups constituted on other bases - gender, nationality, language etc. By transcending these categorizations a relation of what may be called ‘immediate otherness’ can come into play. It may be quite hard, given the conditions of daily life, to achieve, let alone to sustain, this immediacy, but the effort is richly rewarding. It enables us to be with another person in complete indifference to his or her physical or social embodiment and to focus solely on the timelessness of the transcendental subject. The couple and at this point we do not envisage immediate otherness in any situation beyond the binary, though this would be a possibility worth exploring - exists in these privileged moments outside of time. Immediate otherness is clearly situational - it requires (with a significant exception to be noted below) that the others in question be present to one another. Two interesting variants can be distinguished, which may be called ‘parallel’ and ‘diametrical’ immediacy. In the parallel case the participants are side by side, so that they can attend in common to some third thing; in the diametrical case they are face to face, and are in effect attending to one another. It is obviously easier in the parallel case to ignore differences in embodiment that arise from age or gender, but even in the diametrical case these soon become unimportant. The exception to the rule of presence arises through possibilities made available by media technology. As its name already reveals, the invention of the telephone made it possible to speak to some one absent and even far away. Remote communication was born. New technology goes far beyond these early effects. Communication via chat and email happens instantly. It enables the participants to communicate in a mode that is completely detached from their physical presence and embodiment in general, thus appearing to satisfy the conditions for immediate otherness. We can chat as if we were sitting next to one another as mutual partners, no external (physical, material etc.) factors necessarily having any influence on our conversation. External factors may have an influence on the conversation, as well as on the friendship, but they don’t have to. It’s up to us to what degree we want them to become a part of it.


21

______________________________________________________________ This fact leads to some problems that are inherent in the communication tool of chat, e.g. that older men can virtually molest younger girls by hiding their identity, or giving wrong information about their age and even more important about their intentions. But this is only the negative side of the structure of these media, not in itself an argument against using them and appreciating their advantages. It would be easy to overestimate these advantages, however. An interesting question arises about the adequacy of the relationships, especially across age boundaries that instant communication makes possible. To revert to the case we know best: in spite of what must appear to be dramatic differences in age, gender, nationality etc., not to mention physical location, we can claim, I think, a relation of immediacy that is perhaps rare even among colleagues and collaborators who are much closer in all these respects. Partly this is due to a disposition to openness and honesty that, as it turned out, we happen (among many other things) to share. But we discovered this - or at any rate came to full awareness of it - wholly through the medium of electronic mail. This paper was proposed, agreed to, submitted, and written in this mode. The interesting question is this: had it not been for a brief period of personal acquaintance before our correspondence began, during which there were already intimations of the immediacy that would eventually be reached, would these developments have been possible? Could the presence-inabsence, or presence-at-a-distance, that we have enjoyed during this collaboration have been realized without a foundation in some moments of presence-in-proximity? I do not think at this point that there is an easy answer to this question. What can be said is that the technology has made it easier for us to encounter and recognize the timeless in one another, and thus to reach a point at which age has been as effectively transcended as we believe it has been. So we are not cheeses. Billie Burke was right. We offer a case of an interpersonal relationship to which chronological age is irrelevant, in which it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately there are plenty of people to whom it does matter. Perhaps for some of them we can serve as an existence proof.

Notes 1

L N Tolstoy, Journal, Rochester, New York, 1988, January 15, 1910. J-P Sartre, Being and Nothingness, Chicago University Press, Chicago 1985. 3 Aristotle, De Anima, E. J. Brill, New York 1994, 408b19 et seq. 2

22


______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Aristotle, De Anima, E. J. Brill, New York 1994. Sartre, J.-P., Being and Nothingness. Chicago University Press, Chicago 1985. Tolstoy, L. N., Journal. Rochester, New York, 1988. Peter Caws is University Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Human Sciences at the George Washington University. His eight books and more than 150 articles include work on the philosophy of the natural sciences, on ethics and continental philosophy (Sartre, and the structuralists), and more recently on psychoanalysis and the human sciences. Julia Apollonia Glahn is, after graduating in Philosophy in 2008, a research fellow at the Institute of History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine at the RWTH Aachen, Germany, where she is mainly working in philosophical thanatology. Currently her research and writing is devoted to various problems with death, dying and the dead. Moreover, she is interested in moral theory, ethics and applied ethics.

Human Aging: A Social Collaborative Itinerary? Alexander J.J.A. Maas Abstract In this paper I explore the social and behavioural positioning of especially aging people in their social contexts. Main argument is that in a society where individualism and entitatism (the thinking in entities like the market, the institution, the policy, the technology) are hailed, one is forgetting that we are in a collaborative or relational process with other people. We enter into daily relationships carrying with us a history of relations. Through interaction and communication the world and our identity come to be what they are for us. As a consequence, in defining ourselves, we position the other who is positioning us. Ongoing. In multiple contexts, spaces, at different times. In the paper I elaborate two theoretical positions in particular that help us to understand and analyse the relational practice of an aging man or woman. Key Words: Aging, Social Constructionism, Social Interaction, Social Context ***** 1.

Aging and Social Constructionist Perspectives The number of elderly people in Europe continues to increase and the old continue to become older. Both scientists and healthcare providers are increasingly aware of the need for change in elder care. If nothing changes in the way elderly care is organized, we will soon no longer be able to provide good care to any of them. Change in care for the elderly requires an open view of the scientist. In addition to conventional theory and evidence-based research, research into experiences of elderly people, their family, caretakers, managers and policymakers is also required. It is the ongoing interaction between all participants that makes innovations succeed in practice. It helps to tell the stories of older people, their family, professionals, managers and policymakers and to give a thorough analysis. Scientific research also focuses too often on increasing the professionalism; profitability and the development of (technical and medical) care criteria. The needs of stakeholders – for example, the need to feel at home and feel happy, the need for social contact, cohesion and community building, the wish to have control of one’s own life, remain in the background in research and practice these days. A problem with these needs are that they, even for elderly people, may change and can differ from situation to situation. In this paper, I analyse some aspects of a social theory that help to take into account the human side of care in a humane way.

24

Human Aging: A Social Collaborative Itinerary?

______________________________________________________________ My main argument is that in a society where individualism and entitatism (the thinking in entities like the market, the institution, the policy, the technology) are hailed, one is forgetting that most times in our lives we (young and old people) are in a relational process with other people. Through interaction and communication, the world and our identity come to be what they are for us. As a consequence, in defining ourselves we position the other person who is positioning us – thus it is an ongoing process in multiple contexts, places or spaces at different times. In this paper, I elaborate what such a perspective could mean for research into aging and the relating process between inquirers and elderly in particular. When it comes to aging, it is also important to study and compare insights on social construction. In particular, the contributions of Kenneth Gergen, Mary Gergen, John Shotter, Peter Dachler, Dian Marie Hosking and Henk van Dongen offer us a perspective to generate a social theory that can support us to manage the care of large numbers of aging people and in a global context where interdependency in and between care organisations increases. Here, I restrict my exploration to a brief sketch of two perspectives: the social construction approach of Kenneth Gergen and the matter of difference approach by van Dongen et al. 2.

Kenneth Gergen Gergen is among the first to develop a critical attitude towards mainstream psychology and suggest an autonomous social theory that has as a basis an actor-in-connection with others. He considers the four following working assumptions as basis for his approach: 1.

Terms by which we understand our world and ourselves require nor ask for ‘by what there is, or something outside us.’ Man is not essentially independent. S/he is not living in a world driven only by a biological clock that makes a man feel and act in characteristic ways. Buber (1996) summarizes this principle gracefully when he suggests: ‘In the beginning was the relationship.’ For a good understanding of the world, ourselves and other cultures surrounding us, social interaction is a human condition.

2.

Our ways of describing, explaining and/or representing are derived from the relationship between people. In the relationship with others, we use language and other means to construct time and place with a specific meaning. This will give words a different meaning. ‘Give me a pan! No, that other one, fool!’ are not the words of two early lovers, nor are these words to be shared between a grandparent and a grandchild, but it could be ‘everyday language’ in a marital cooking situation in the kitchen, or between two cooks,

Alexander J.J.A. Maas

25

______________________________________________________________ or in the Netherlands (where pan has the double meaning of tile) on a roof between two workmen. In each situation, these words will hold another meaning that requires further investigation. 3.

. 4.

If we describe, explain, or otherwise represent, so do we change our future. As our practices of language are bound to a specific relationship that we have in a detailed context, so are relationships interwoven with broader patterns, like rituals, traditions or other life forms. The world of aging people depends on a discourse of an ‘elderly’, ‘their family’, ‘care professionals’, ‘care programmes’, ‘management’ and ‘policy issues’. Without these shared languages of description and explanation, care organisations would fail to exist in their present form. At the same time. social life challenges the generating of new meanings, of becoming activists who sometimes feel the need to transform social life and to build new futures. Reflection on our forms of understanding is vital to our future wellbeing. An actor-in connection will play in the social interaction between context-specific conventions and the search for non-paved paths. We will constantly search their premises, suspend the obvious, and listen to other ways of constructing reality together.

He understands the ongoing production of meaning through common activities of one actor in connection with another actor, as well as between actors as a central activity of human life, and summarizes this process as ‘social construction.’ Such a starting point helps to look at reality with new eyes, for example to the construction of meaning, sense making, or meaning making. As we just have illustrated in the pan episode, an individual expression of someone has no meaning. The potential for meaning making becomes only visible as someone else responses to the manifestation (or utterance). In the example, the answer ‘which pan?’ offers an alternative behaviour and knowledge exchange than when one throws a pan saying, ‘Here, catch!’ This example also illustrates that the action itself also asks for a supplement, a response, or will result in action or other activities. Together, human beings construct meaning making by what precedes and follows in a conversation between people. For Gergen, human life is a permanent process of human relating, or interpersonal communication. We have a lively conversation with someone or others. As the conversation continues, the result will be an entirely unique creation. We can agree to play the situation or to ‘fool around’ and make one or more jokes. We say and do unconventional things and produce original words and phrases that generate novel sequences of behaviour. Together, we laugh

26


______________________________________________________________ profusely in the situation. And, as a consequence, new insights and ideas may even be created. Gergen explicitly makes it clear that we should not speak of an ‘I’ as an entity. He prefers to talk about ‘a relational self’, an actor in the making, an actor in becoming. Our thoughts, feelings, desires, memories and the like find their origin in relationships with others. Outside this relationship, outside this social use, these thoughts, feelings, desires, memories, etc., become meaningless. We have various behavioural repertoires to attract attention. This is not only the case because we have many brain activities, but also because we live in a complex and interwoven web of social relations and, therefore, develop our opportunities for diverse behaviour. The communities in which we live and are active direct most of the forms we look at in the world. We usually describe events from a particular perspective of communication, but we can perform conversations from multiple conventions. We, therefore, have the possibility of reconstruction. Another consequence of Gergen’s argument is that we, besides language, use facial expressions and body movements to express something. In other words, behaviour and emotions also matter. The result? As words are dependent on the context in which they are utilized, so are our thoughts, behaviour, feelings, etc., interwoven with the ‘here and now’ of the relationship with another actor or others actors. Throwing a pan may keep the other indifferent, but also may make the other angry or prompt a joke. It depends on the context in which both ‘live’. On the one hand, this ‘social construction argument’ has inspired many professionals in the course of time. On the other hand, there is much criticism on this perspective. I briefly want to elaborate one criticism in particular; social constructionists would regard ethical standards from a relativistic position. Gergen et al. (2009) suggest that moral standards are generated within the context of certain communities, and thus will be different from context to context, culture to culture, and so on. In their eyes, moral standards are not necessarily ‘given by God’, ‘rationally necessary’, or ‘universally binding.’ Because they themselves are members of different communities where various traditions and moral principles are involved, they emphasize another characteristic of moral principles. These principles help, in particular, non-dominant groups in society and in organisations to speak openly and to have dialogues with other participants in the same context and in different contexts. Here, social constructionists take a different position than fellow researchers. 4.

Henk van Dongen, Willem de Laat and Alexander Maas Van Dongen and his group take a different position that both amends and supplements the positive and constructive theories of Kenneth Gergen. Based on knowledge and experience in organisation and change


27

______________________________________________________________ processes, they develop a social behavioural theory in which social interaction and the production of difference prevails. Studying the manifold manifestations of social life in organisational context and comparing these with the ways they are described produces three striking postulates that cannot be proved: 1. 2. 3. .

Stress difference (and similarity) as a basic building block for social processes, Pay attention to reality construction as a social production process, and finally Recognise the importance of the relational nature of this process

Social and cognitive difference and similarity matter, also for elderly living in an organisational setting! Many approaches to sense-making presume some kind of ‘shared meaning’ or the existence of consensus. This sheds little light on how new meanings unfold or change. At the same time, such positions provide hardly anything to hold onto in situations in which ‘non-dominant’ or ‘weak signals’ of sense-making gradually develop into ‘dominant signals’ and start to replace or supplement existing meanings. Taking this social dynamic of (re)producing differences seriously permits van Dongen et al. to pay attention to both consensus and dissensus. Both processes can be viewed as co-genetic; each enables the birth of the other. Generating consensus stimulates dissensus and vice versa. Dissensus can be related to the introduction of a third actor, meaning or relationship. In cases characterised by consensus, differences can also be recognised. At the same time, antagonists and antagonisms must also be guarded. Reality construction can be understood as a social process, for young and elderly people alike! Sense-making is rather socially constructed in relations-to-another. Such a social, relational perspective has consequences because, in essence, it generates a ‘disclosure’ strategy (‘Let’s investigate further in order to see how it is or might be.’). Such a strategy is characterised by the fact that slowing down, reflection, temporality and postponement are potentials. It can help detect differences within and between configuring people. So, the strategy becomes a relational and active methodology for organising and change and can be applied both within and between social settings at any time and without any restrictions on frequency. The social production process can be understood as a relational process between two people, open for one or more ‘possible contexts’ (‘a third’, ‘thirdness’)! To illustrate this position, van Dongen et al. take a pragmatic stand (e.g., a conversation in the context of a dynamic organisation). How do we structure such a conversation as researcher? We might ask for some observations of the situation, we might search for the antagonism of the observation, and finally we might look for other possible

28


______________________________________________________________ way(s) to view the situation. In social settings (e.g., aging), researchers may follow these strategies in all kinds of conversations. The diagnosis and analysis would pay special attention to the social production process actorsin-interaction use to organise their reality differently, and to trace future needs they have. They develop a behavioural theory that examines how people in a relational process produce ‘similar patterns’ and ‘differences.’ Then they ask how they can handle this variety in sense making, behaviour, rule setting, perspective and approach. Besides, they wonder whether similar patterns and differences in a relating process may be appreciated as constructive or destructive. In particular, four implications of their thought I consider here: 1.

An interaction or conversation process between two people will be understood in its context – that is, in relation to ‘a third’ or ‘thirdness’ that we can described as other actors, meanings, interactions, rules, contexts, artefacts (like technologies, instruments, methods), etc. While one actor is talking to another one, there is continuous interaction between the first and his context (‘a third’) before the other. Without the others or ‘that others’, those directly involved in a conversation would act and live as in a vacuum. Each of the three involved (actor 1, actor 2 and the social context) is connected synchronous in different ways to its context(s). And each actor is both actor, partner and context in the relating process. In this way, around the permanent interaction between people, multiple and synchronous contexts and thus different rules will manifest themselves simultaneously. Synchronising is a main characteristic of ongoing interaction. Multiple perspectives actively operate simultaneously. They ‘become’ at the same time. One of the implications of this observation is that a synchronous analysis of ‘organisational contexts’ is self-evident. Only synchronous analyses can visualise plurality and heterogeneity. In a triadic concept of interaction, contextuality is a facticity from the beginning.

2.

In their behavioural theory, van Dongen et al. develop a methodology that helps to diagnose social dynamics between people in interaction in an organisation context by observing the social cognitive configuring (Maas, 1988). This methodology permits access to the process of social production in configurations. Looking at the social dynamics, we detect two extremes as basic for the understanding of social processes: a configuration as well as an aggregate. In short, a configuration refers to a ‘network of people’ who for outsiders of the network are strongly organized with what constructions and rules of the relating process (how), when and why.


29

______________________________________________________________ An outsider (e.g., an observer, researcher, consultant or manager) decides which elements are parts of the sum and how it is made. Studied as a snapshot, social-cognitive configurations are characterised by matching and relatively stable ongoing interaction patterns and shared cognitions. In short, an aggregate is essentially a ‘collection of people’ or ‘ (social or cognitive) elements without ongoing interaction’. Both social situations must be interpreted as studies of an instantaneous exposure or random indication (that are often only recognisable and knowable in retrospect). They both refer to a process. Using this methodical concept offers a researcher opportunities to explore how people in and between various configurations produce synchronously multiple realities. 3.

Van Dongen et al. particularly raise the question of valuing the relational process: Are there moral moments or spaces in relational processes? As long as participants are able to generate new interaction possibilities of organizing, as long as their interaction or relating process continues, ‘differences between participants’ are positively valued. When people follow this pattern, they each can make a meaningful connection to the context in which they work or live. People live with a constructive difference. For example, when we try to determine what interaction between people exactly means, we may see that in a specific social setting many definitions for concepts like quality, effectiveness, flexibility, happiness, truth and so on are possible and are under conversation (van Dongen, 1983). The issue here is sought-after differences. It is about those differences from which we can learn to develop ourselves, play, organise, bargain, negotiate, etc. In this situation, the relating process or ongoing interactions between people remain a possibility. The moment people harm or damage cognitive or social opportunities, however, they notice that violation of a relationship is indicative for the continuity of the other. This criterion refers to the ‘hindrance of othering’ or safeguarding the ‘continuity of othering’, and is therefore an ethical procedure. Differences of interpretation mean that a third or thirdness is excluded, forbidden or violated, and immediate attention is required. Here, van Dongen et al. (1996) speak about a blocked or fixed relating process. People live in a destructive difference. For example, when participants in a relating process do not succeed in establishing a connection to the context and thus remain stick to their own world, this situation will be valued differently. In practice, the different validation means that ‘ethics as a positively defined criterion for behaviour (‘truth’)’ is

30


______________________________________________________________ replaced with ‘an ethical procedure in which a possible violation of interaction is specified in negative terms.’ In an operational strategy, the hindrance, violation, fixation and obstruction of social relations has priority over the production of variety in interaction. An ethical procedure thus precedes the production of realities, or ethics precedes ontology. This procedure may differ from configuration to configuration, from community to community and from culture to culture. There is not one standard ethical procedure under destructive circumstances. In each configuring situation, people in cooperation with a ‘fourth party’ or mediator follow together a methodical trajectory to achieve in each situation a unique ethical judgment that binds those involved to ‘a limit in their relating process.’ 4.

Based on this distinction in differences, two possible intervention programs can be generated. If the difference in a relating process between actors is positively or constructively validated, van Dongen et al. speak of functional differences or situations of learning. An intervention in constructive differences demands a methodology of strengthening, empowering, and one that develops feedback and reflexivity. Intervention is directed towards keeping social interaction going. This involves the development of learning situations in which players try to manage their diversity in a constructive way, with or without the help of a mediator. If the difference in a relating process between actors is negatively validated as destructive, we speak of dysfunctional differences or conflicts. Here people disqualify, hinder or violate their relating process with another actor or actors. An intervention in destructive conflicts demands methodical strategies of resolving blockades, fixations, exclusions or violations. Most of the time by a mediator or fourth party who will be in a double somersault: how do I stay in (the situation), without finishing outside (the situation), and how do I stay outside (the difference), without going into (the difference)? The mediator start to operate beside the destructive difference, is not disconnected to the destructive situation and is aimed at an invitation strategy that ‘seduces’ parties to introduce another context or space.

Fixation and continuity of interaction can be tested and defined in terms of access to third(s), thirdness or other context(s). A dearth of third(s) or thirdness means lack of reflexivity and, therefore, takes priority. In an instrumental way, this reasoning implies that in a specific situation, we explore first in particular the production of differences on non-reflection


31

______________________________________________________________ (irreflexiveness) and fixation. Having discussed these moments of nonreflection together, in a second stage of the process we may be able to restore in the relating processes the opportunity to produce variety. Multiple strategies of these kinds show people the ways to produce differences and similarities. 5.

Towards a Grammar of Social Aging as Humane Condition? My preliminary conclusion? As transdisciplinary critical thinkers on aging, we should find ways to bond and bridge differences, connect to each other and cooperate. Besides, we as scientists should inquire methods to relate to the elderly and those who construct everyday aging organisations. An inquirer enters the only world we know. We ask people to speak, we give them a voice, we learn to listen, negotiate; do not avoid debates, etc. In this way, we learn to see connections and explore potential differences and opportunities. We will conclude that we only can live in this world around us as we are aware of the relationship between us and the world. In this world, a researcher not in relation with the field is actually unthinkable.

Bibliography Bakhtin, M.M., Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. C. Emerson en M. Holquist (eds.). Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1986. Buber, M., I and thou. New York: Touchstone, 1996. Gergen, K.J., ‘Social psychology as history,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 26, 1973, pp. 309-320. –––, Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1994. –––, An Invitation to Social Constructionism. 2nd Edition. London: Sage, 2009. Gergen, K.J., S.M. Schrader en M. Gergen, Constructing Worlds Together: Interpersonal Communication as Relational Process. Boston: Penguin, 2009. Hosking, D.M., ‘Can Constructionism be critical?’ in: J. Holstein, en J. Gubrium (eds.). Handbook of Constructionist Research, 2007, pp. 669-686. NY: Guilford Publications.

32


______________________________________________________________ Levinas, E., Basic Philosophical Writings. A. T. Peperzak, S. Critchley, R. Bernasconi (Eds). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. Maas, A.J.J.A., Ongedefinieerde ruimten [Undefined Social Spaces – social symbolic configurations]. Delft: Eburon, 1988. Slagmolen, B., ICT en het gekluisterde denken [ICT and confined to one’s thinking]. Tilburg: DUP, 2004. van Dongen, H.J., ‘Regeren is achteromzien, methodische kanttekeningen bij het nadenken over de Staat’ [Governing is looking back: methodical comments about thinking the State], in: In ‘t Veld. R.J., and De Koningh, J. (Eds.). Toekomstdenken en Openbaar Bestuur, 1983, pp. 107-127. The Hague: Staatsuitgeverij. van Dongen, H.J., de Laat, W.A.M. and Maas, A.J.J.A., Een kwestie van verschil [A Matter of Difference: Conflict Handling & Negotiating in a Configurative Integration Theory]. Delft: Eburon, 1996. van der Zijden, J., Over het managen van complexe projecten in politieke context [On managing complex projects in a political context]. Delft: Eburon, 1998. Weick, K.E., Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. Wierdsma, A.F.M., Co-creatie van verandering [Co-creating Change]. Delft: Eburon, 1999. Alexander J.J.A. Maas is Humanitas endowed chair in Humanising and change of care, University for Humanistics (UvH), Utrecht (The Netherlands), and Associate Professor in Organisational change and Social Integration at Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Alexander gives special attention to changes in care for the elderly, changes in communities in cities and villages (related to elderly and integration challenges), and changes in managing change.

Re-Writing the Myth of Women and Aging Barbara Flood Abstract The cultural myth of the Western World prior to World War II held that women were generally not financially or socially independent nor did they desire to be so. Women were regulated to the duties of the home not the world. Women who were independent were referred to as ‘Spinsters’ or ‘Old Maids’. As women aged they were generally invisible. Women had lost their place as spiritual wisdom keepers and were no longer consulted when important decisions were made, politically, spiritually, financially, either within families or within communities. The onset of Feminism challenged that myth and created a cultural conversation addressing the contribution of women in all areas of life. Our aging process as women can not be exempt from this conversation. This paper will offer anecdotal research from both individual and group conversations/interviews with women in the US and Europe that explores the origination of the myth, the responsibility of the spiritual elder/crone, and the legacy of a generation inspired by the cultural onset of feminism. Key Words: Women, Aging, Wisdom, Spiritual. ***** A young woman in her 30’s is preparing for a trip overseas. As she is sharing her plans with her mother, who is in her late 70’s, she notices a longing in her mother’s eyes. The mother simply say, ‘I was just thinking about what I was doing at your age…. I had six children…’ Dr. Elliott Jaques, 83 who has studied aging for 45 years, has suggested a new name for old age, the third stage. He offers that there are 3 stages to adult hood; ‘the first being 18-40, the second 40-62, and the third 62-85.’ David Hackett Fischer in Growing Old in America describes how at the close of the eighteenth century there was cultural shift from veneration to condescension of the old and the elderly that was then reflected in our language and our manner of dealing with our older population. Thus the descriptive of spinster, crone, old maid, and witch to describe single women as they aged. The helpless and needy widow ascribed to the married women who outlived their husbands, which was the majority. Mrs. Dalloway, a best seller in Britain and the United Sates in 1925, was Virginia Woolf’s conversation about aging women veiled within the internal thoughts of one character to the internal thoughts of another. Mrs.

34

Re-Writing the Myth of Women and Aging

______________________________________________________________ Dalloway offers us the images of aging women deeply embedded in the cultural worldview. Mrs. Dalloway we are told immediately in the story is 50 and has become a solitary, isolated and invisible woman whose thoughts are often consumed with feelings of death and mortality. She is troubled by the fears and questions of age. Was Virginia Woolf prophesying the isolation that more and more aging women were to experience as we moved into World War II and beyond or was she reflecting a phenomenon that had already taken root? The daughter in our previous story would liken herself self to Mrs. Dalloway’s daughter Elizabeth Dalloway, a younger woman considering a career while her mother reflected on the limitations and expectations of her life raising 6 children. But the time for true freedom had not yet arrived for Elizabeth Dalloway. She had to choose between family and career, and eventually one would assume succumbed to normative culture in finding a husband. He then could provide her the luxury of pursuing her career as more of a hobby than an opportunity to fully participate in influencing the changing workforce. 1.

Review of the Research In November 2002, The National Centre on Women and Aging released their findings of a national poll of 1001 women 50 and over, with a significant representation of women over 80 (8%), inquiring about the experience of women and aging. In the Executive Summary of their finding they state…’The aging of America is greatly influenced by decades of change in roles and expectations of women – changes that affect workforce participation, family structure, informal care giving, and even how women age.’ They go on to say,’ If the current trends continue they will produce a new generation of elders quite different from their mothers and grandmothers. But to date this new generation of aging women – those 50 and older – have largely been ignored or been treated as a ‘problem’ that burdens, or threatens to burden, the younger population.’ What this tells us about women and aging is supported by a similar study conducted by the National Council on Aging in 2002 designed as a follow up on a study done 25 years prior in 1977. Both studies attempted to study the perceptions of aging held by Americans. They looked at 1155 men and women over age 65 and 3048 18 and over. Of those over 65 the survey demonstrated very similar results to the National Centre on Women and Aging in that 58% say they are happy to live to an older age. When asked what made aging vital for people 67% said that spiritual life was vital second to friends and family and health. This aspect of Spiritual Life and it‘s impact on aging is the focus of my research. In June of 2007 Indigenous grandmothers from North and South and Central America gathered together in what was called a ‘Grandmothers

Barbara Flood

35

______________________________________________________________ Circle’. This research was inspired by that gathering as I pondered what it truly meant to be a spiritual elder and more directly what it meant for me personally to take my place in this wisdom circle of women as a spiritual elder. I found that as there are few role models for this journey into aging in a postmodern world, there are even fewer roles models for aging with a spiritual awareness. Traditionally women have had little material wealth to offer to their children in the form of inheritance. The true legacy of women over generations has been in the form of the simple wisdom that mothers and grandmothers quite naturally pass on to their daughters; wisdom regarding children and relationships and the nurturing of the family. Numerous traditions acknowledge the return to a spiritual awareness. Sara Davidson tells us of several examples; Rabbi Zalmon Schacter-Shalomi, founder of B’nai or Religious Fellowship in Philadelphia, has developed a program that he calls Spiritual Eldering based in his own tradition. Marion Woodman, the Jungian author, believes the soul’s journey voice and urgings become imperative, as we get older. She says ‘I ‘m talking about the small voice that says: I want, before I die, to find out who I am in my soul and who that soul is in relation to the divine.’ Betty Fredian says…’ there is a sense that the mystery and the meaning of life is one’s ultimate quest – to be achieved somehow by a wholeness, an integration of the self, a naming and atonement of sin, an accounting of the use of one’s talents, and some achievement of ‘amazing grace’ that does not imply religion or stained glass.’ 2.

Research Analysis Myth here is defined as a legendry narrative that presents part of the beliefs of a people…In looking at the myth of women and aging it is clear that society overall still holds to the belief that aging women are generally poor, unhappy, unhealthy, and afraid. Yet as the Baby Boomer Generation joins the ranks of AARP and other post 50 memberships it is probable that the face of aging for women will change dramatically. In an unprecedented moment of history these women will be coming of age in the second and third adulthood with more financial power, more education, more self – awareness, greater health and more intention than any previous generation of women. They will either by default or by conscious intention re-write the mythos of our understanding of age and the aging process. It is apparent by the sheer volume of literature now available on menopause and its symptoms a topic previously hidden and silent at best, that a new myth is already emerging. The subject of this study was designed to explore the beliefs that women hold presently about their aging and what they see as different, if anything, from the aging process of their mothers and grandmothers. This is a


36

______________________________________________________________ work in process. It is not by any means complete. The research we anecdotal based on interviews of 32 women ages 50-75 from the United States and Europe. This study did in fact bring groups of women together to discuss how aging actually is for each of them. There were 6 groups. They were asked a series of questions concluding with a bequeathing statement written by the participants. The study tool place over the past year (2007-2008) and included women from a range of economic and personal circumstances. None of the women defined themselves as religious although many attended church or participated in a spiritual community. 12 12 17 3 12

Housewives or stay at home moms Career women Married Widowed Single or divorced

The questions included the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

As a child what was your understanding of aging or elderly women? Who were your role models and how did they impact your life choices and your understanding of aging How do you see yourself now as you are aging? Do you find others, family, culture, media, responds to you differently as you are aging? How are you a role model for younger women What is the myth or story of aging you would like younger generations to understand from your aging process?

Interviews were taped and hand recorded. There were several themes that emerged in the interviews: Question One: As a child what was your understanding of aging or elderly women? Overall the women agreed upon the mythos of women and aging that they were exposed to as children for the larger society. They saw aging women as generally more dependent then they themselves are and more likely to stay in marriages even if they were unhappy. The coping strategies that women developed as they aged, in their view, were not healthy or positive. Aging meant no fun and no money – appearance meant everything to mom at 78. When their mothers or Grandmothers did not meet that myth they tended to see them as the exception rather than the norm. The tendency of the participants to see globally that aging women and men are more

Barbara Flood

37

______________________________________________________________ concerned about money, health loneliness and crime than they actually are is congruent to the data gathered by the National Centre on Aging in the United States. Question Two: Who were your role models and how did they impact your life choices and your understanding of aging? Career women indentified fathers as role models citing their personal and financial independence, work away from the home which gave the appearance as more interesting and mysterious as the role their mother played. They also admired father’s ability to interact with people and sense of mastery over his life. These women developed careers in what had previously been considered ‘men’s fields’ and found affirmative action to be supportive to their attaining these positions. In addition they found the limitations placed on their mothers to be a negative role model and expressed clearly ‘they did not want to be like them’. One woman described her mother as having ‘taught me women are powerless – perpetual good girl’. Other role models were movie stars, single aunts who demonstrated financial independence, teachers, the Catholic nuns, and older women who were very accomplished in their industry. There were exceptions. One woman described her mother’s involvement in the civil rights movement; another told a story of her grandmother travelling to China in the 1920’s, which set a precedent for women to be independent. Another said that she ‘saw transformation of women kind in 20 years with my mother – she changed.’ One woman described leaving London when she as 2.5 during WWII with her Grandmother who cared for her until the war was over 3 years later. When they returned to England her Grandmother who had been very strong and independent suddenly became more invisible and meek. Question Three: How do you see yourself now as you are aging? Do you find others, family, culture, media, responds to you differently as you are aging? All of the women were very comfortable with the understanding that the feminist movement of which they had been a part in some way had and would continue to impact how they themselves saw themselves as they aged. All expressed a period of loss of identity and purpose as they found themselves ‘looking in the mirror and not knowing the person who was looking back at them’. One woman said that ‘Other people respond to me different at the gym – step back a little – now I am the other not one of them.’ Another

38


______________________________________________________________ woman said ‘my view of aging is not pleasant, women become more powerless as they get older what shocked me is becoming so invisible… that is the hardest for me. They no longer notice me; people assume I should be invisible. But all of the women agreed that they were very visible to their friends and that their friends made the aging process exciting and supportive. Single women more than married women expressed a sense of being ‘invisible’ knowing as one said that ‘when the clerk at the grocery store is giving me attention I know that he is seeing his mother or grandmother’. Some expressed that they could go for several days and not see anyone. Retirement meant loneliness for these women where as for married women it meant the usual adjustments of spending more time with there husbands. Married women tended to continue to feel sexually attractive whereas single women often did not. Most of the women, married or single, expressed a loss of feeling valued by the larger society particularly in regards to beauty and sexual appeal. One woman commented ‘I don’t see myself in the media’. Question Four: How are you a role model for younger women? This was the most difficult question for the groups to answer. Many did not initially see themselves as actively being a role model for younger women. The conclusion they came to was that simply by being who they were as strong, independent women influenced greatly by the feminism they entered adult hood with that they were modelling a way of coming to aging that younger women could benefit from. Some specific ways to contribute were to support the efforts for political interests such a global warming, that they are still growing and learning and having fun. One woman told a story of having had a birthday party at 60 to let the younger women know what turning 60 or 70 really looked like. Question Five: What is the myth or story of aging you would like younger generations to understand from your aging process? For all of the women this question brought forth the spiritual dimension. Though few mentioned their mothers or grandmothers as having modelled a spiritual wisdom, many of them saw themselves as ‘passing on a spiritual torch filled with the wisdom of having lived and grown and made mistakes and picked themselves up’. The story of aging really became a blessing they bestowed upon the generations to come after them. Here are some examples:

Barbara Flood

39

______________________________________________________________ Love yourself, be confident, know what you want to do and be happy doing it., embrace age as a vibrant stage of life, appreciate wisdom for we all have wisdom. Know the value of women, of yourself as a woman, live your life and don’t give it away. Maintain your integrity and honesty, don’t sell out. Take on new challenges; do not put yourself on hold. Trust your intuition, regardless what others may say or believe, and keep an open mind; the answers may not be revealed right away, hopefully eventually they will; but if not, trust your gut, because more than likely, if your being honest with yourself, so is your intuition. I hope to share with you all the joy and contentment of having a relationship with a loving God; harmony and peace start with oneself. Be willing to be kind, considerate, compassionate, loving and understanding. Realize that happiness is yours right now. There is no ‘way to happiness’. Love your neighbour as you love yourself and don't forget to love yourself as God loves you. Always, always believe that you are a good and worthy child of God. You are perfect just as you are. Don’t hang out with people who tell you otherwise. Happiness arises when you have a grateful heart, not from the ‘stuff’ you amass or the position you hold. Take the leap. Divine protection is always by your side. Take the love of God and my love with you wherever your path leads you.

40


______________________________________________________________ Know that we have each been placed on this earth to discover and recognize the truth of this universe and of our own being. Know that we are meant to know our essential nature that is pure and infinite love, compassion and joy. Know that we are, each of us, a perfect, beautiful, and loving embodiment of the divine.

Bibliography Davidson, S., Leap. Ballantine Books, 2007, p249. Executive Summary; National Centre on Women and Aging 2002 National Poll of Women 50+. National Centre on Women and Aging, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, November 2002. Friedan, B., The Fountain of Age. Simon and Schuster, New York 1993, p.625. Gannon, L., Women and Aging;Transdending the Myth. Routledge, London and New York 1998. Hackett Fischer, D., Growing Old in America. Oxford University Press 1979 pp91-92. Houston, J., A Mystic Life; Learning to Live Our Greater Story. Harper, San Francisco, 1996. Jaques, Dr. Elliott, NY Times 10-08. MacKinlay, E., The Spiritual Dimension of Aging. Jessica Kingsley, London and New York, 2001. Moody, H., The Five Stages of the Soul. Anchor Books, New York. 1997. National Council on Aging, 2002. Northrup, C., The Wisdom of Menopause. Bantaom Books, New York, 2001.

Barbara Flood

41

______________________________________________________________ Sellers, R., Fifty Things to do When You Turn Fifty. Ronnie Sellers Productions, Inc. 2005. Wiliamson, M., The Age of Miracles. Hay House, Inc, New York 2008. Woolf, V., Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, Florida, 1925. Barbara Flood, Ph. D., holds a Masters in Social Work and a Ph. D. in Transpersonal Psychology. She is a published author, ordained minister, spiritual director and life coach.

PART II TRANSITIONS

Contemporary Adulthood and the Devolving Life Course Harry Blatterer Abstract The traditional, tripartite life course is deeply edged in Western societies’ collective imagination. In this image, childhood and education precede adulthood and work and are followed by retirement and old age. While owing to biological realities, historical longevity, but also the continued centrality of work, this image is difficult to dislodge, today social trends question its empirical validity. Delayed or forfeited marriage and family formation, prolonged cohabitation of parents and children and late entry into the fulltime labour market – practices that are increasingly common among contemporary ‘twenty and thirtysomethings’ – are just some of the most salient trends that have given cause to a rethinking of the traditional life course in the social sciences. This rethinking has precipitated a more critical stance towards our conceptions of childhood and old age. Adulthood, however, remains envisaged as the unchanging centre stage of the life course, the destination to adolescent development, whose achievement connotes independence and ‘maturity’ which are rendered socially ‘legible’ by the attainment of social markers such as marriage, independent living arrangements, parenthood and fulltime work. This paper argues that changes in the life course concerning the timing of these achievements constitute a practical, historically unprecedented redefinition of adulthood. I trace the shift from the traditional life course (and the ‘standard biography’) to fragmented life trajectories following the postwar economic boom era. I elaborate some of the consequences of this shift for the meaning of adulthood by taking a (broadly) generational perspective comparing the social conditions of ‘baby boomers’’ coming of age with that of the post-1970 generation. Here, I single out and contextualise a perception of unlimited options on behalf of contemporary young adults concerning their. As actors in a world in which the normative underpinnings of adulthood are no longer clear I suggest that many ‘young adults’ adapt to uncertainty by internalizing an imperative flexibility in all domains of life. I suggest this to be symptomatic of their way to be adult in a set of social circumstances that requires not so much an egoistic self-centeredness marked by disinterest in others (as we are sometimes lead to believe) but a particular kind ‘selfcentring’. Key Words: Adulthood, Flexibility, Generations, Life Course, Options. *****

46

Contemporary Adulthood and the Devolving Life Course

______________________________________________________________ 1.

Introduction My interest in the topic was piqued by newspaper headlines in the Australian press such as these: ‘Adults’ fail the age test, Kids who refuse to grow up and Forever young adultescents won’t grow up. This shows that while there is some concern about kids growing up too soon, about the ‘end of childhood’1 – with a perceived early sexualisation of children, their early exposure to violence, the imperative to make career choices at ever younger ages etc. – there coexists the exact opposite assumption, namely that young people either refuse to grow up, or delay that process by a number of years, especially when compared to their parents’ generation. So it seems that sometime in the 1980s or early 1990s a generation of teenagers, branded with the label ‘Gen Y’, suddenly thought to themselves: ‘marriage, mortgages, children and fulltime work ain’t for me; not now and not until I’m very old, say about 37.’ Not satisfied with an explanation that suggests a massive shift in the mindset of a large collective without consideration of possible alternative explanations, I set about investigating that other, often neglected, aspect of the human experience where individual actions intersect with the economic, political, scientific and cultural exigencies of the times. This paper is an attempt to clarify that alternative view by attending specifically to the notion of a prevalent delayed adulthood among people in their mid-20s to early 30s, and I do so with specific attention to transformations in the life course in affluent societies. 2.

Adulthood as a Social Category For all the work that in recent decades has been done in the social sciences on the changing face of the life course,2 the image of adulthood as life’s centre stage, flanked by dependent childhood and old age, is difficult to dislodge from the social imagination. There are good reasons for this. After all, we experience ageing as a linear process, which allows us to perceive of the lived-through past and of life yet-to-come from the vantage point of the present in an embodied sense. This biological maturation of the human body is culturally framed and socially shored up in institutions, which accommodate, reproduce and so help us make further sense of, that process of maturation. The standard life course, then – where dependent childhood in education is followed by independent adulthood in work and a family of one’s own and dependent old age in retirement – is the social analogue to individual experience. But that experience cannot be divorced from our culturally specific ‘ways of seeing.’ The prevailing imagery of childhood, adulthood and old age further crystallizes the taken-for-granted notion of life’s orderly unfolding. To name just one, and perhaps the most famous cultural keystone in the formation of the social representation of ageing, at least in Anglophone societies: Shakespeare’s famous verse from As You Like It, has us ‘Mewling

Harry Blatterer

47

______________________________________________________________ and puking in the nurses arms’ only to have us leave the stage less than gracefully in ‘second childishness and mere oblivion / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.’ Science has done its part in the congealment of the standard life course ideal. From the late 19th century, once developmental psychology had outlined the ‘ages and stages’ approach to human life, maturity3 became the explicit goal of ‘normal’ development; it became scientifically ascertainable. And taking its cues from developmental psychology, the law began to establish exact age-thresholds for the coming into effect of legal responsibilities, culminating with the ‘age of majority’ somewhere between 18 and 21 years of age, depending on country and legislature. But neither psychological theory nor legal practice solves the issue of the ‘when and how’ of adulthood; if anything it makes matters more complicated. For example, those who diagnose a prolongation of youth talk about people who are biologically mature and are legally of age, but do not fulfil the social criteria for maturity which make the achievement of adulthood visible, readable, intelligible and thus assessable on a societal level. So these individuals are then adult in some ways and not in others, delay some of the markers of adulthood while reaching others, are then both children and adults at the same time. That, in my version of the story is not good enough, because adulthood has something to do with a person’s social validation of their full personhood. You can’t be half a full person. Adulthood is a social absolute. For now, let me name the three criteria that for most of the 20th century have been core social markers of adulthood, markers that are likely to garner social validation of individuals’ adult status: a family of one’s own, permanent living arrangements and fulltime work for the (usually male) breadwinner. I call these the ‘classic markers of adulthood’4, all of which presuppose a good measure of financial independence, of course. What is decisive here is not only the achievement of these markers, but the timing of those achievements. Because, after all, the issue for some commentators today is not that young people don’t achieve any of these things, but that they do so later, and by implication, too late. Timing is everything. Research in the U.S. has shown people strongly believe that adult achievements – from financial independence, to stable relationships, fulfilling careers and family relationships – ought to be finalized by the time we reach 26.5 3.

Adulthood, Generations and Social Change Where does this figure come from? By definition, if a generation of young people can be judged as achieving adult status too late, then there must be a generation of young people who did so right on time and whose collective experiences and values provide the benchmark for present-day evaluations. In fact, the historically unprecedented economic, marriage and

48


______________________________________________________________ baby boom of the postwar era – Hobsbawm’s ‘Golden Age’6 – provides that benchmark. Without going into too many details here, the baby boomers’ coming of age was marked by early marriage and family formation; by the 1960s family roles and adult responsibilities were nearly synonymous; most women married before they were 21.7 There was also a strong policy orientation in all western countries up to the rise of neo-conservative politics in the 1980s, toward fulltime employment, and often there were Government schemes that enabled homeownership, subsidized higher education and guaranteed retirement on secure pension plans. In other words, the social values of the time which stressed the early uptake of adult responsibilities were underpinned by economic and political arrangements that stressed stability and the long term.8 (It is likely that still vivid memories, on the part of decision makers and ordinary people alike, of two World Wars and the Great Depression made stability in all areas of life a highly valued good.) All this had a tremendous impact on the solidification of the standard, tripartite life course, because the structural possibilities of entry into adulthood according with prevailing social values were indeed given for a sufficient number of people for experience and ideal to congeal into a coherent reality. The fulfilment of the classic markers of adulthood – family, stable relationships, work and independent living – brought in its wake the social recognition, or validation, necessary for adult status to become a meaningful achievement for baby boomers in their early to mid twenties. And it was ‘meaningful’ because being an adult can’t simply be decided by the lone individual, but is reliant – as a ‘status’ – upon a degree of conferral by the social institutions and persons that guide and accompany us in everyday life, as elderly people or marginalized individuals who are subject to infantilising practices know all too well.9 Of course, when I speak about ‘the baby boomer experience’, I do not mean to infer that everyone shared the same experiences. What I want to get across is that ‘stability’ was the guiding motto for adult life; that there was an orientation toward a particular enactment of adulthood, for which the tripartite life course is an apposite schema. As one writer puts it, since the 1970s once ‘highly standardized life trajectories have been ‘shattered’ by structural and cultural developments in all major social institutions.’10 To provide some concrete examples: in the area of intimacy, stability has given way to a kind of ‘until-furthernoticeness’, which – to counter conservative critiques of the contemporary family – has also meant greater freedoms of sexual expression, has provided women with greater say over their reproductive futures, as well as opening legal doors for them to exit unsatisfactory marriages.11 The demise of the manufacturing sector across the industrialised world and the concomitant rise of so-called ‘knowledge societies’ has meant a prolongation of young people’s education, and late entry into the fulltime labour market. The rise of

Harry Blatterer

49

______________________________________________________________ part-time and temporary work has precipitated unprecedented labour market participation by women, which for all its benefits has also resulted in a generational de-synchronisation of biological and social clocks. As a consequence of these labour market changes, school and university students are no longer strangers to work; they no longer have to wait to enter ‘the real world’ after their stint in the education system, but increasingly have to juggle both. Furthermore, education is today more and more a life-long endeavour, both because technological innovation calls for a constant updating of skills, but also because it is today possible for older people to undertake university study. All this signals a transformation of the temporal unfolding of the life course with the implication that, while institutional arrangements persist (e.g. education, work, retirement), the life course is today better conceptualized as a series of single or parallel trajectories which may encounter stops and starts, one-way streets, reversals as well as u-turns. By extension, there is a greater potential for social asynchronicity as individuals are ‘less likely to experience and/or recognize their own trajectory as part of the ‘collective destiny’’ of their friendship networks and families.12 Under these conditions, then, the simultaneity of plural, asynchronous and fragmented biographies becomes a normalized part of the ‘continuum’ of life. In my mind the single most important change here is the curtailment of the long-term future, and thus a new impossibility to project one’s life beyond the here-and-now and the immediate future as far as social achievements are concerned. ‘Settling down’, which has for some time was a key phrase connoting adulthood, makes little sense today. As others have pointed out, the fact that the ‘new economy’ favours those who are flexible, mobile and willing to change, and thus by proxy discriminates against those who want stability and linear, predictable work careers, that is, the crux of postwar work arrangements, is a cardinal factor in these changes.13 And so today, flexibility has superseded stability as the marker of a successful adult life. The upshot is not so much that young people delay their adulthood, but that they grow up differently, that is, in accordance with the economic, political and social exigencies of their times. In so doing, they are also changing the meaning of adulthood. 4.

Self-Centring Against All Odds? My study of contemporary modalities of adulthood – a qualitative theory building exercise – attempted to (1) reply to the age-old handwringing over the next generation’s inadequacies in a theoretically informed manner, and (2) in so doing attempted to find out how people in their midtwenties to early thirties make sense of their adulthood as part of a highly contingent life course without recourse to adequate blueprints handed down from previous generations.

50


______________________________________________________________ I want to now very briefly comment on one specific aspect of what came through in the interviews, and that is young people’s relative optimism about the road ahead, an optimism that has been commented upon by others in the field of youth research. One important factor in this optimism is the perception of proliferating options in all spheres of life. This is also the aspect of their lives that is often stressed in the media, and some writers have found cause in this to speak of ‘the options generation’.14 What is often forgotten in this story is that these are also people who have to choose; and that choosing among a number of possibilities can be very stressful indeed; that there is a feeling that if you put a foot wrong, you’ve made a mess of your life. But on the other hand the respondents’ positive outlook prevailed; none had any doubts that they’ll do fine, even if rarely anything concrete was said about future plans, and here their positions in education and the labour market doesn’t seem to matter as other research too has found.15 I suggest that this optimism is underpinned by the belief in the necessity to be open to change, to flexibly adapt to the unpredictability of social relations, and so to the unpredictability of their adult lives; that flexibility is seen as a kind of virtue. Growing up therefore also is a process of internalization of the uncertainty into which they were born. And being adult, finally, means to have successfully reconciled the uncertainty of the world they face with an advantageous stance toward it. To internalize flexibility as a way of life is to shun (or be at least suspicious of) the securing ties of long-term commitments even if they were available. These attitudes are symptomatic of a kind of self-centring for these individuals gradually come to realize that the only center that promises stability lies within. This is the latent rationale that often lies behind remarks such as ‘[growing up means] taking responsibility for yourself . . . first and foremost’ (Isabelle, 30); or, ‘If something upsets you then change it. Make it better for you. You gotta look after number one and that’s yourself’ (Anthony, 25). So, if being grown up today means to have acquired the confidence and skill to adapt to uncertainty, then this also means that today’s young adults have acquired the confidence and skill to mould and shape the one aspect of their world that is still predictable for all its plasticity, and over which they perceive having ultimate control: themselves. These young adults posit themselves as malleable, flexible, and open to new experiences. Indeed, the social category ‘adulthood’ is heavily invested with a psychological vocabulary. It appears that the respondents compensate for the increasingly abstract nature of standard adulthood by recourse to a language that signifies things that are no less intangible and yet have become part of everyday discourse: personal development and growth, ‘realizing your potential,’ ‘being true to yourself,’ ‘putting number one first,’ ‘accepting me,’ and so on. Pop psychology furnishes a set of readily available ideas that people draw upon to think about themselves. Hence, adulthood too is most

Harry Blatterer

51

______________________________________________________________ easily described in these terms. Now I could go on to argue that these ‘new adults’ constitute the perfect subjects of the ‘new economy’, and of a politics that from the 1980s onwards sought to devolve government responsibilities as far as possible on to private individuals. But I’d like to end on a more salutary note, although I will leave this up to someone else, namely the American cultural anthropologist Ann Swidler: In some ways the reaction to [rapid social change] seems to be a culture of narcissism, in which the self and its perpetuation become all, in which the trick is to remain alive and whole without risking attachment or making binding choices. But the other side of these cultural explorations is a search for models of self ... that are compatible with continuing growth and change, that permeate with moral significance the ups and downs of daily life, the struggle to live well, rather than giving moral meaning only to the dramatic moment of the shift from youth to adulthood.16

Notes 1

N Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood: How TV is Changing Children’s Lives, Comet, London, 1982. 2 Cf. M Kohli, ‘The World we Forgot: A Historical Review of the Life Course’, In Later Life: The Social Psychology of Aging, V W Marshall (ed), Sage, Beverley Hills, 1986; U Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, Sage, London, 1992. 3 For a critique see A. Rosenfeld and E Stark, ‘The Prime of Our Lives’, Psychology Today, vol. 21, 1987, pp. 62–72. 4 H Blatterer, Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2007. 5 T W Smith, ‘Coming of Age in 21st Century America: Public Attitudes Towards the Importance and Timing of Transitions to Adulthood’, NORC, Chicago, 2003. 6 E Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 19141991, Abacus, London, 1995. 7 F F Furstenberg, ‘Growing Up is Harder to Do,’ Contexts, vol. 3(3), pp. 33– 41, 2004. 8 N Lee, Childhood and Society: Growing Up in an Age of Uncertainty, Open University Press, Buckingham, 2001. 9 J Hockey and A James, Growing Up And Growing Old: Ageing And Dependency In The Life Course, Sage, London, 1993.

52


______________________________________________________________ 10

M Buchmann, The Script of Life in Modern Society: Entry into Adulthood in a Changing World, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989, p. 186. 11 A Giddens, The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1992; U Beck and E Beck-Gernsheim, The Normal Chaos of Love, Polity, Cambridge, 1995; Z. Bauman, Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds, Polity, Cambridge, 2003. 12 M Buchmann 1989, The Script of Life, p. 86. 13 U Beck, The Brave New World of Work, Polity, Cambridge, 2000; R Sennett, The Culture of the New Capitalism, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2006; R Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism, W.W. Norton, New York & London, 1998. 14 H. Mackay, Generations: Baby Boomers, Their Parents and Their Children, Macmillan, Sydney, 1997. 15 See also, J Wyn and R White, ‘Negotiating Social Change: The Paradox of Youth’, Youth and Society, vol. 32(2), 2000, pp. 165-83. 16 A Swidler, ‘Love and Adulthood in American Culture’, Themes of Work and Love in Adulthood, N Smelser and E H Erikson (eds), Harvard University Press, Boston, 1980, p. 114.

Bibliography Bauman, Z., Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds. Polity, Cambridge, 2003. Beck, U., Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Sage, London, 1992. Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E., The Normal Chaos of Love. Polity, Cambridge, 1995. Beck, U., The Brave New World of Work. Polity, Cambridge, 2000. Blatterer, H., Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty. Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2007. Buchmann, M., The Script of Life in Modern Society: Entry into Adulthood in a Changing World. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989. Hobsbawm, E., The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 19141991. Abacus, London, 1995.

Harry Blatterer

53

______________________________________________________________ Furstenberg, F. F., ‘Growing Up is Harder to Do,’ Contexts, vol. 3(3), 2004, pp. 33–41. Giddens, A., The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1992. Hockey, J. and James, A., Growing Up And Growing Old: Ageing And Dependency In The Life Course. Sage, London, 1993. Kohli, M., ‘The World we Forgot: A Historical Review of the Life Course’, in Later Life: The Social Psychology of Aging. V.W. Marshall (ed), Sage, Beverley Hills, 1986. Lee N., Childhood and Society: Growing Up in an Age of Uncertainty. Open University Press, Buckingham, 2001. Mackay, H., Generations: Baby Boomers, Their Parents and Their Children. Macmillan, Sydney, 1997. Postman, N., The Disappearance of Childhood: How TV is Changing Children’s Lives. Comet, London, 1982. Rosenfeld, A. and Stark, E., ‘The Prime of Our Lives’, Psychology Today, vol. 21,1987, pp. 62–72. Sennett, R., The Culture of the New Capitalism. Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2006. Sennett, S., The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. W.W. Norton, New York & London, 1998. Smith, T. W., ‘Coming of Age in 21st Century America: Public Attitudes Towards the Importance and Timing of Transitions to Adulthood’, NORC, Chicago, 2003. Swidler, A., ‘Love and Adulthood in American Culture’, in Themes of Work and Love in Adulthood, N. Smelser & E. H. Erikson (eds), Harvard University Press, Boston, 1980. Wyn, J. and White, R. ‘Negotiating Social Change: The Paradox of Youth’, Youth and Society, vol. 32(2), 2000, pp. 165-83.

54


______________________________________________________________ Harry Blatterer is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Macquerie University, Sidney, Australia. His areas of research are: contemporary redefinition of adulthoods; ‘generations’ and intergenerational relationships; theories of intimacy; friendship. He teaches Introductory Sociology as well as three upper-level units on Generations, Intimacy and Social Theory (Honours).

Teen Brain Science and the Contemporary Storying of Psychological (Im)Maturity Monica A. Payne Abstract Mainstream developmental psychology has always striven to be ‘scientific’, yet its influential mid-twentieth century conceptualization of adolescence––as ideally a ‘moratorium’ from major social responsibilities to facilitate selfexploration and pre-adult commitment to a self-constructed ‘identity’––was primarily the work of staunch nonempiricist, Erik Erikson. Despite accusations of Eurocentrism, androcentrism and classism over the years, Eriksonian theory endured thanks to requisite evidential support subsequently provided by numerous researchers. Nevertheless, by the end of the century some critics were convincingly arguing that adolescence for many was becoming less a period of freedom and opportunity and more one of dysfunctionally retarded progress towards social maturity. Contemporaneously, however, neuroscience researchers began publishing data seeming to offer not merely support for a psychological ideal of delayed adulthood but evidence for its biological authorization: brain imaging studies unexpectedly revealed maturation of the prefrontal cortex was not fully completed until at least the mid-20s. Swiftly popularized notions of ‘the teen brain’ as ‘a work in progress’ energized a new discourse of developmental immaturity incorporating propositions of severe and expectable problems of intellectual and emotional incompetence, temperamental unpredictability and poor self-control, even beyond the teenage years. Notwithstanding occasional cautions and caveats, the new science was (unsurprisingly) embraced quickly and fairly uncritically by many leading adolescent psychologists, and widely disseminated in (often questionable) advice for the general public. This presentation offers a contribution to the small but growing multidisciplinary critique of this new empiricist theorizing through considering its current and potential operation within the broader context of changing lifespan discourse and our understandings of physiological and psychological (im)maturity. Key Words: Adolescence, Cogwheeling Of Generations, Developmental Neuroscience, Erik Erikson, Immaturity, Psychological Neoteny, Teen Brain, Youthfulness. ***** 1.

Constructing Twentieth Century Adolescence Wilhelm Wundt’s establishment of the first experimental laboratory in 1879 is often cited as a chronological marker of the emergence of

56

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ psychology as a new discipline. Although Wundt vigorously supported maintenance of links with the ‘social’ sciences, the desire to secure a distinctive contribution to the study of human behaviour would promote psychology’s allegiance to the natural science paradigm of systematic and objective measurement, and generally discourage researchers from exploring the potential benefits of a multidisciplinary perspective on developmental issues. My objective in this paper is to interrogate possible consequences of ongoing scientism within developmental psychology as it contributes to the contemporary storying of adolescence to affect not only the positioning of young people within society but also the theorising of (im)maturity across the entire lifespan. Somewhat ironically, but perhaps inevitably, this involves engagement with the conceptual legacy of Erik Erikson––one of the very few writers of influence within mainstream developmental psychology both avowedly multidisciplinary and staunchly nonempiricist. Thus I choose to problematize the enduring influence of his theorizing on adolescence, partly through utilizing his notion of ‘cogwheeling of the generations’––which invites examination of how the discursive construction of adolescence may be seen as influenced by, and as having an influence on, the psychological nature of all other lifespan stages. Erikson had offered mid-twentieth century Western society a view of adolescence focused on the developmental task of ‘identity achievement’.1 He proposed the second decade of life should ideally be a moratorium or time out from ‘adult’ responsibilities of marriage, childbearing and economic contribution to allow the psychological exploration required to replace the ‘conferred’ self of childhood with a ‘constructed’ identity to carry forward into adulthood. Although this ideal was soon attacked as having Eurocentric, androcentric and classist limitations,2,3 it was in many respects right for the times. James Marcia and other enthusiastic researchers would subsequently provide empirical support lacking in Erikson’s own writing, and arguably succeed in gaining acceptance for identity achievement as the more universal marker of psychological health Erikson envisaged. However, as participation in tertiary level study increased, Marcia and others shifted normative completion of the task into the third decade.4,5 By the turn of the century new challenges emerged. It was suggested, for example, that contemporary societal demands for, and expectations of, personal and vocational flexibility now disrupted the relationship between moratorium and achievement and was possibly making the goal of strong and secure commitment to particular identities psychologically counterproductive.6 It was also being argued that adolescence for many was becoming less a period of freedom and opportunity and more one of dysfunctionally retarded progress towards social maturity, Writing about North American culture, for example, Thomas Hine observed:

Monica A. Payne

57

______________________________________________________________ When I speak about the rise of the teenager, I’m really talking about the acceptance of the idea that youth is a time for experimentation and protracted preparation, usually in school. … For many individuals, such a long period of education, exploration, and deferred responsibility has been a tremendous gift. For other individuals, it has not been a blessing. The absence of a significant economic role for young people has made them dependent on their families for longer periods than their ancestors often were. Young people are often judged to be less able than they are. The concept of the teenager has been an impediment that has kept them from becoming the people they are ready to be.7 Others were speaking of a growing segregation of adolescents and adults in Western society that was creating a climate in which the adolescent is at once both infantilized and feared––resulting, as Robert Epstein put it, in a vicious cycle where ‘restrictions on teens have produced more teen problems and teen problems have in turn produced more restrictions.’8 Epstein has recently argued for a revision of developmental theorising that would encourage ‘rediscovery’ of the competent teenager, while adolescent scholar Daniel Offer has long encouraged psychologists to recognise that Cultural definitions of what is desirable or expectable have a significant impact on the adolescent’s psychological experience of puberty.9 Nonetheless, despite by now being almost taken for granted in sociological writing on childhood and youth, such a social constructionist perspective was still widely ignored or resisted within psychology by the time a new storyline entered the picture. Even as deconstruction of the notions of hormonal ‘storm and stress’ and adolescent moratorium gained momentum,10,11 neuroscience research started producing data seeming to offer not merely support for the psychological ideal of delayed adulthood but evidence for its biological authorization. 2.

The Emerging ‘Teen Brain’ Story Advances in non-invasive brain imaging technology during the 1990s, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allowed researchers to acquire a more detailed knowledge of brain development throughout childhood and beyond. Overturning assumptions that hardwiring of the brain was mostly completed in the first three years, studies unexpectedly revealed a further major period of neuronal growth and pruning beginning in early adolescence. Moreover, maturation of the prefrontal cortex––responsible for

58

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ the so-called executive functions of planning, judgment and impulse control–– was shown not to be finalized until at least the mid-20s, and scans of the brain in action performing recognition and problem-solving tasks also suggested that until structural maturation is complete young people must rely on less sophisticated areas of the brain for processing emotions and interpreting social situations.12,13 This seemed to explain––even more successfully than the traditional storm and stress story––why teenagers may be able to demonstrate reasonable decision making skills under certain ‘cold cognition’ conditions but experience far more problems than adults when operating under ‘hot’ or high arousal conditions,14 and so to confirm the ‘fact’ of their behavioural unpredictability. Pioneer researcher Jay Giedd of the U.S. National Institutes of Health managed to significantly enhance the status of this account by introducing the now widely established catchphrase of the adolescent brain as ‘a work in progress’. The teen brain literature had immediate appeal for mainstream developmental psychology. Although some fairly authoritative caveats might convey the impression this enthusiasm generally remains tempered by caution––for example, as late as 2008 eminent psychologist Laurence Steinberg acknowledged most writing to date about the neural underpinnings of adolescent behaviour remained ‘what we might characterize as ‘reasonable speculation’’,15 while leading textbook author John Santrock continues to advise students the study of brain development in adolescence is ‘in its infancy’16––the weight of evidence suggests the opposite. Interpretations of MRI data have been characteristically embraced and embellished in uncritical fashion and quickly on-sold as essentially uncontested advice for policy makers, practitioners and the general public. According to Judith Bessant: Those who popularise the idea of ‘the adolescent brain’ are so confident that they argue that anyone questioning or rejecting ‘the science specifically around adolescent brain development’ is a bit like being a member of the Flat Earth society.17 What explains developmental psychologists’ unguarded willingness to buy into the teen brain story? Arguably, as suggested above, a major reason was compatibility with the visions of adolescence offered by its earlier eminent theorists, Hall and Erikson. The pictures they supplied of adolescents as––either ideally or unavoidably––moody, stubborn, rebellious, risk-taking, irresponsible and unpredictable was well established as the discourse into which Western (perhaps particularly Anglophone) teenagers were being socialised. Interpretations of teen brain research were instantly at home in this discursive environment and served to expand and reinforce it. In addition, these studies, even when small and exploratory, appeared to be offering

Monica A. Payne

59

______________________________________________________________ neutral and objective ‘hard science’ that could be accorded a priori legitimacy. Although Bessant rightly points out the need to acknowledge a distinction between the research findings themselves and how they are being interpreted and used by others, it is also true to say that some neuroscientists have––in interview if not in writing––encouraged unwarranted readings of their own data. Before proceeding to raise broader intergenerational questions, it therefore seems worth including some demonstration of the teen brain story’s power to push the boundaries of pre-existing versions of adolescent immaturity. First, it has apparently persuaded some writers that lack of a fully mature prefrontal cortex implies almost zero ability to plan ahead or make good decisions. For example, Australian psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has offered the following expert advice in the wake of a fatal car crash: Teenage boys flirt on the edges of danger. They engage in risky behaviour because they think they have a cloak of invulnerability draped around them. They believe that nothing will ever happen to them. Recent advances in functional MRI technology … demonstrate that adolescents have significant neurological deficiencies that cause stark limitations of judgment. … It is clear from the research that a unique characteristic of adolescent boys is an inability to predict the consequences of their actions. …So part of the reason for what happened on Sunday night is that the driver was a teenage boy and his brain was simply not capable of making a sensible judgment.18 Campaigning for abolition of the death penalty for minors, the International Justice Project invoked the teen brain to claim: The inability of adolescents’ (sic) to fully understand the consequences of their actions in the adult sense impacts upon their culpability in committing the deviant act. Teenagers look only to the immediate future, with a time horizon of 1 – 3 days. The lack of capacity to plan ahead exemplifies the problems in treating the culpability of adolescents in the same way as that of a fully mature adult.19 Neuroscientist Deborah Yurgelun-Todd has explained in interview that teen brain research should help adults understand that teenagers cannot ‘take the information that is in the outside world and organize it and understand it the same way we do.’20 Her original (already somewhat

60

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ questionable) illustrations ended up even more strangely recycled in an online article for educators, health professionals and youth workers: Asking a teenager to multi-task (i.e. ‘Clean your room, take the garbage out, and put your bicycle away’) can overwhelm an adolescent brain that is just learning how to sort and prioritize.21 Other researchers’ meaningful study of empathy development in early childhood notwithstanding, British neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore has been quoted in interviews apparently suggesting this to be a quality no longer identifiable in teenagers: There’s a whole host of things that teenagers are famous for. Yes, being impulsive, being risk-takers, not being very good at empathy, not being very sociable, or at least sociable with certain groups but not with others like adults.22 We think that a teenager’s judgment of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: ‘What would I do?’ Blakemore said. ‘Adults, on the other hand, ask: ‘What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?’23 Taking matters to another level, some writers have used neuroscience to justify positioning adolescents essentially outside society as ‘no longer normal’ in mental health terms.24,25 In his best-seller Michael Bradley told parents of teens to expect a repeat of toddlerhood, because ‘Both that toddler and adolescent brain are at times unstable, dysfunctional, and completely unpredictable.’26 He advised: Don’t talk to crazy people like they make sense. …Your child doesn’t qualify as sane for now, and that’s not a happy way to be … Adolescence, at times, is a kind of mental illness.27 3.

Intergenerational Implications I am not the first to complain about such talk,28,29,30 but here am most interested in exploring implications for the discursive construction of the lifespan beyond the teenage years, taking on board Erikson’s ideas about the psychological interface between generations:

Monica A. Payne

61

______________________________________________________________ By cogwheeling, Erikson meant to show how the various life stages of persons interconnect with the stages of othergenerational persons and how that series of generational wheels supports and moves each other along through time. At their best, these operate with strength and support, functioning as a set of tightly connected, smoothly fitting cogs that bolster abilities and ease transitions instead of roughly abrading or disconnecting.31 I suggest the idea of cogwheeling invites consideration of at least the following. First, it demands historical location of the teen brain story within the broader framework of a century or more of ‘scientific’ accounts of development that have served to pathologize/marginalize particular populations and groups. Most obviously, therefore, it may be recognised that [C]laims that young people are naturally irrational or antisocial entails the same kind of prejudice displayed by those who spoke of the ‘Jewish brain’, the ‘female brain’ or the ‘Negro brain’ to explain how those groups were both different and problematic.32 It might be argued that the ‘teen’ brain differs from its other prejudiced counterparts in not constituting a handicap ‘for life’––but if so it is worth considering what purpose this exaggerated picture of second decade incompetence performs in relation to psychology’s re-construction of developmental stages and tasks for the third and fourth decades of life. Thus far, for example, it has produced interesting controversy regarding the ‘labelling’ of individuals during the third decade. Some favour retention of the term ‘adolescent’ for those in their early twenties to be followed by ‘early adulthood’, while probably the most widely embraced of recent innovations is Jeffrey Arnett’s proposal for the new stage of ‘emerging adulthood’ for years 18 – 25 (and possibly longer).33 Arnett said it is pointless for psychology to call people in their early/mid-20s adolescents when they themselves would never use the term––but are yet also unlikely to think of themselves as adult. Moreover, he argued, viewing oneself as an adult in today’s world has much less to do with biology and much more with subjective feelings of autonomy. Anecdotal evidence from discussions I have witnessed at conferences suggests those who align themselves with the apparent implications of teen brain research tend to vehemently reject Arnett’s concept as unnecessary and/or ‘unscientific’, preferring to retain the labels that better accommodate and support a story of prolonged immaturity. Furthermore, it arguably remains more generally true that psychologists are much less likely than sociologists to raise the criticism of ‘adultism’––that is, to explicitly acknowledge

62

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ disciplinary promotion of a view of adolescence that overwhelmingly reflects how adults view teenagers rather than how teenagers view themselves. It seems also worth exploring similarities between teen brain implications for adolescent behaviour and more disparate manifestations of scientific pathologizing––for example, the hard-to-shift notion that women become ‘slightly mad’ during menstruation.34 Concerns currently appear to be growing around the ‘new human phenomena’ created by interface between decline in age of onset of puberty (especially in girls) and new interpretations of adolescent social/emotional immaturity.35 How might this also interface with pressures on young girls to look older, on women to look younger, and the common problematizing of both teenage pregnancy and the menopause? Alternatively, how is the teen brain story interfacing with contemporary discourses of masculinity and boys’ educational underachievement? To avoid simplistic answers Mike Males cautions that: Biodeterminist claims are the most profound and potentially dangerous that scientists can make about human beings. They posit a group as innately limited by unalterable biology. …When groups labelled by scientists as biologically limited are also publicly feared and politically powerless––as they always seem to be before brain scientists appear on the scene––legal and social repressions can be serious and long-lasting.36 The teen brain story also raises some important questions about the discursive construction of ‘(im)maturity’. In this literature adolescents (and young people who would probably no longer answer to that label) are regularly compared to the ‘fully mature adult’, who apparently no longer manifests any of the immature shortcomings noted above. However, as Bessant comments: ‘The accompanying prejudice that adults are models of rationality, morality and good judgment and are prosocial is not well grounded.’37 Moreover, Males claims that (in the US at least) many of the ‘risk factors’ allegedly associated with biological immaturity are actually better predicted by socioeconomic status: that is, the experiences and behaviours of teenagers and middle-aged adults living in poverty are more similar than those of poor and wealthy teens or poor and wealthy adults.38 Taking another perspective, the teen brain story is serving to reinforce and extend the prominent brand of current advice to parents that at once tells them to maintain responsibilities of surveillance, protection and providing ‘good role models’ over an ever-extending period, yet anticipate having to live with young people who they have no hope of understanding–– or even liking––most of the time. In the context of the trend for later

Monica A. Payne

63

______________________________________________________________ childbearing, this potentially has significant implications for developmental expectations in middle age. Approaching from yet another angle, there could also be value in exploring the teen brain story within the broader context of a contemporary lifespan discourse characterized by veneration of protracted youthfulness. In his musings on what he calls ‘psychological neoteny’, evolutionary psychiatrist Bruce Charlton identified ‘unfinished’ intellectual development as a positive adaptation to contemporary life: So long as a person is in formal education, or is open to the possibility of returning for more formal education, their minds are in a significant sense ‘unfinished’ … we may expect to accumulate ever-more chronologically middleaged and elderly people who remain youthfully minded. …The modern exemplary geriatric should continue to compete for high status, remain actively interested in love and sex, show themselves adaptive to change, and continually seek new experiences and challenges. Because such attributes are highly valued, they seem to have become much more common.39 There is an obvious contrast between this developmental storying of older people rising to new challenges and experiences and that of teenagers rendered vulnerable or dangerous by unwise risk-taking. Arguably the ‘youthfulness’ Western adults are now encouraged to maintain has little to do with the expanding package of gross incompetence currently attributed to youth. How will these various generational discourses ‘cogwheel’ and influence each other? What social and educational policymaking will they inspire? For the time being at least it is hard to avoid seeing the teen brain story as serving overwhelmingly to foster disrespectful attitudes to young people, and in so doing encouraging ‘abrading and disconnecting’ rather than the facilitation of healthy and productive intergenerational relations.

Notes 1

E H Erikson, Identity, Youth and Crisis, Norton, New York, 1968. C Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1982. 3 B R Slugoski and G P Ginsberg, ‘Ego Identity and Explanatory Speech’, in Texts of Identity, J Shotter and K J Gergen (eds), Sage, London, 1989, pp. 3655. 2

64

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ 4

T Honess and K Yardley (eds), Self and Identity: Perspectives Across The Lifespan, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1987. 5 J J Arnett, ‘Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens through the Twenties’. American Psychologist, vol. 55, no. 5, 2000, pp. 469-480. 6 J E Côté and S J Schwartz, ‘Comparing Psychological and Sociological Approaches to Identity: Identity Status, Identity Capital, and the Individualization Process’. Journal of Adolescence, vol. 25, no. 6, 2002, pp. 571-586. 7 T Hine, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager, Avon Books, New York, 1999, p. 7. 8 R Epstein, The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen, Quill Driver Books, Sanger, 2007, p. 374. 9 D Offer and K A Schonert-Reichl, ‘Debunking the Myths of Adolescence: Findings from Recent Research’. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 31, no. 6, 1992, pp. 1003-1014. 10 G S Hall, Adolescence, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1904. 11 Erikson, op. cit. 12 J N Giedd, ‘The Teen Brain: Insights from Neuroimaging’. Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 42, no. 4, 2008, pp. 335-343. 13 D Yurgelun-Todd, ‘Emotional and Cognitive Changes during Adolescence’. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 17, no. 2, 2007, pp. 251-257. 14 L Steinberg, ‘Cognitive and Affective Development in Adolescence’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 9, no. 2, 2005, pp. 69-74. 15 L Steinberg, ‘A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risktaking’. Developmental Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 2008, p. 81. 16 J W Santrock, Life-span Development, 12th edn, McGraw-Hill, Boston, 2009, p. 360. 17 J Bessant, ‘Hard Wired for Risk: Neurological Science, ‘The Adolescent Brain’ and Developmental Theory’. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, 2008, p. 348. 18 M Carr-Gregg, ‘Dr Michael Carr-Gregg: Answers to an Accident’, Herald Sun, 11 December 2007, viewed on 2 June 2009, . 19 ‘Brain Development, Culpability and the Death Penalty’, The International Justice Project, n.d., viewed on 16 December 2008, http://www.internationaljusticeproject .org/pdfs/juvBrainDev.pdf. 20 ‘Interview: Deborah Yurgelun-Todd’. Public Broadcasting Service, 2002, viewed on 10 December 2008,

Monica A. Payne

65

______________________________________________________________ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/interviews/todd.ht ml. 21 LB Chamberlain, ‘The Amazing Adolescent Brain: Translating Science into Strategies’. Institute for Safe Families, 2008, viewed on 2 June 2009, http://instituteforsafefamilies.org/pdf/theamazingbrain/The_Amazing _Adolescent_Brain.pdf. 22 ‘Teenagers’ Brains’. ABC Radio National, 14 October 2006, viewed on 11 December 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006 /1764412.htm. 23 S Goudarzi, ‘Study: Teen Brain Lacks Empathy: Area of Brain Associated with Higher-level Thinking Underused in Youths’. MNSBC, 8 September 2006, viewed on 2 June 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14738243. 24 B Strauch, The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids, Doubleday, New York, 2003. 25 N Latta, Before Your Teenagers Drive You Crazy, Read This,. HarperCollins, Auckland, 2008. 26 M J Bradley, Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind, Harbor Press, Gig Harbor, 2001, p. 8. 27 ibid., p. 15. 28 Bessant, op. cit. 29 R Epstein, ‘The Myth of the Teen Brain’. Scientific American Mind. vol.18, no. 2, 2007, pp. 56-64. 30 M Males, ‘Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable? A Skeptical Appraisal’. Journal of Adolescent Research, vol. 24, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-20. 31 C H Hoare, Erikson on Development in Adulthood. Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, p. 156. 32 Bessant, op. cit., p. 357. 33 Arnett, op. cit. 34 A E Walker, The Menstrual Cycle, Routledge, London, 1997. 35 M E Hermann-Giddens, ‘The Decline in the Age of Menarche in the United States: Should We Be Concerned?’. Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 40, no. 3, 2007, pp. 201-203. 36 Males, op. cit., p. 5. 37 Bessant, op. cit., p. 357. 38 Males, op. cit.

66

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Arnett, J. J., ‘Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens through the Twenties’. American Psychologist, vol. 55, no. 5, 2000, pp. 469-480. Bessant, J., ‘Hard Wired for Risk: Neurological Science, ‘The Adolescent Brain’ and Developmental Theory’. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, 2008, pp. 347-360. Bradley, M. J., Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind. Harbor Press, Gig Harbor, 2001. ‘Brain Development, Culpability and the Death Penalty’. The International Justice Project, n.d., viewed on 16 December 2008, . Carr-Gregg, M., ‘Dr Michael Carr-Gregg: Answers to an Accident’. Herald Sun, 11 December 2007, viewed on 2 June 2009, http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story /0,21985,22901382-5000117,00 .html. Chamberlain, L. B., ‘The Amazing Adolescent Brain: Translating Science into Strategies’, Institute for Safe Families, 2008, viewed on 2 June 2009, http://instituteforsafefamilies.org/pdf/theamazingbrain/The_Amazing_Adoles cent_Brain.pdf. Charlton, B. G., ‘The Rise of the Boy-Genius: Psychological Neoteny, Science and Modern Life’. Medical Hypotheses, vol. 67, no. 4, 2006, pp. 679-681. Côté, J. E. and S. J. Schwartz, ‘Comparing Psychological and Sociological Approaches to Identity: Identity Status, Identity Capital, and the Individualization Process’. Journal of Adolescence, vol. 25, no. 6, 2002, pp. 571-586. Epstein, R., The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen. Quill Driver Books, Sanger, 2007. –––, ‘The Myth of the Teen Brain’. Scientific American Mind, vol.18, no. 2, 2007, pp. 56-64.

Monica A. Payne

67

______________________________________________________________ Erikson, E. H., Identity, Youth and Crisis. Norton, New York, 1968. Giedd, J. N., ‘The Teen Brain: Insights from Neuroimaging’. Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 42, no. 4, 2008, pp. 335-343. Gilligan, C., In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1982. Goudarzi, S., ‘Study: Teen Brain Lacks Empathy: Area of Brain Associated with Higher-level Thinking Underused in Youths’. MNSBC, 8 September 2006, viewed on 2 June 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id /14738243. Hall, G. S., Adolescence. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1904. Hermann-Giddens, M. E., ‘The Decline in the Age of Menarche in the United States: Should We Be Concerned?’. Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 40, no. 3, 2007, pp. 201-203. Hine, T., The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager. Avon Books, New York, 1999. Hoare, C. H., Erikson on Development in Adulthood. Oxford University Press, New York, 2002. Honess, T. and Yardley, K. (eds), Self and Identity: Perspectives Across The Lifespan. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1987. ‘Interview: Deborah Yurgelun-Todd’. Public Broadcasting Service, 2002, viewed on 10 December 2008, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline /shows/teenbrain/interviews/todd.html. Latta, N., Before Your Teenagers Drive You Crazy, Read This! HarperCollins, Auckland, 2008. Males, M., ‘Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable? A Skeptical Appraisal’. Journal of Adolescent Research, vol. 24, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-20. Offer, D., and Schonert-Reichl, K. A., ‘Debunking the Myths of Adolescence: Findings from Recent Research’. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 31, no. 6, 1992, pp. 10031014.

68

Teen Brain Science

______________________________________________________________ Santrock, J. W., Life-span Development. 12th edn, McGraw-Hill, Boston, 2009. Slugoski, B. R. and Ginsberg, G. P., ‘Ego Identity and Explanatory Speech’, in Texts of Identity, J. Shotter, and K. J. Gergen (eds), Sage, London, 1989, pp. 36-55. Steinberg, L., ‘Cognitive and Affective Development in Adolescence’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 9, no. 2, 2005, pp. 69-74. –––, ‘A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-taking’. Developmental Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 2008, pp. 78-106. Strauch, B., The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids. Doubleday, New York, 2003. ‘Teenagers’ Brains’. ABC Radio National, 14 October 2006, viewed on 11 December 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006 /1764412.htm. Walker, A. E., The Menstrual Cycle. Routledge, London, 1997. Yurgelun-Todd, D., ‘Emotional and Cognitive Changes during Adolescence’. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 17, no. 2, 2007, pp. 251-257. Monica A. Payne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development & Counselling, University of Waikato, New Zealand. Her current teaching and research interests focus mainly on promoting multidisciplinary interrogation of contemporary discourses of human development, with a particular emphasis on the social construction of adolescence and youth.

Theorising Liminal Selfhood and its Consequences for Childhood, Youth and Adulthood Rebecca Raby Abstract Youth has been defined as a liminal, in-between phase before the stability of adulthood. Blatterer (2007) contends that with a shift towards neo-liberal economies and the marketing of youthfulness, adulthood is now also coming to be defined by liminality. The first part of this paper presents three positions which challenge the modernist, binary positioning of young people as liminal and adulthood as stable: the emphasis on childhood agency in the present within the sociology of childhood; the emerging liminality of adulthood through neo-liberal individualization and flexibility; and the poststructuralist deconstruction of the modern, unitary self. The second part of this paper considers what these positions imply for young people. I first reflect on the ramifications of focus on becoming, or developing, childhood/youth, particularly in terms of young people’s marginalization and/or protection. I then consider the ramifications of lifelong liminality, arguing that an individualization approach maintains a flexible, psychological adulthood which continues to position young people as psychologically incomplete while a flexible poststructural subject has the capacity to displace the centrality of a unified, rational, self-knowing subject. Finally, agency and autonomy are fundamental to the modern (and neoliberal) concept of the self. I draw on several theorists to argue that agency can be refigured from a poststructural position. Yet these explorations leave us with the question of what childhood and youth are if not ‘becoming adults’. Key Words: Liminal, selfhood, adulthood, adult stability, neo-liberal, individualisation, poststructural position ***** 1.

Growing Up and the Endpoint of Adulthood Modern understandings of growing up have conceptualized childhood through progressive movement towards the endpoint of adulthood, with youth as a liminal, in-between phase before such adult stability.1 This position is reinforced through socialization theory and more dominant forms of developmental psychology which foreground movement towards social completion, allowing for an understanding of adulthood as a stable subject position. As the lesser half of the binary pair, childhood (adolescence or youth) has been framed as incomplete, emotional, irrational, peer-focused, dependent and closer to nature. These figurations in turn have allowed

70

Theorising Liminal Selfhood

______________________________________________________________ adulthood to take the dominant half of each of these pairs: complete, rational, civilized, independent, and fully social.2 Lee contends, for example, that modern sociology has commonly understood socialization to be the process through which the social is overlaid onto nature in the gradual creation of fully socialized adults.3 Yet this understanding of the developing, young person shifting into stable adulthood has come under serious revision. This paper presents three positions which potentially challenge this modernist, binary positioning of young people and adulthood and explores their ramifications in terms of how they are, and can be, deployed in relation to understanding youth. Ultimately I consider questions that arise in favouring a lifelong, fluid, contextualized and inter-connected selfhood. 2. Three Positions which Disrupt the Binary between ChildhoodInstability and Adult-Stability The ‘sociology of childhood’ provides a valuable argument for considering children as legitimate beings in their present, with voice and agency.4 Agency is often understood to presuppose a clear self, and independence from which to act. The sociology of childhood critiques traditional socialization theory for marginalizing young people through framing them as merely vessels for the reproduction of the social. To counter such marginalization, those working in the sociology of childhood have sought to legitimize children as subjects of modern sociology through essentialising children’s agency and independence.5 In this way, the sociology of childhood suggests an ontological understanding of children similar to adults: momentarily stable, self-knowing, and agentic. Second, various scholars have reflected on material and psychological changes brought about by the rise of neo-liberalism and the erosion of the welfare state which have affected how we understand adulthood. Individualization theorists have argued that the globalized, reflexive modernity of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has loosened class structures and other social ‘anchors.’ Consequently, individuals are increasingly required to shape their own, flexible and insecure life trajectories thus individualizing risk and inequality.6 Blatterer contends that with neo-liberalism, the loss of stable careers, and the marketing of youthfulness, the liminality traditionally associated with youth has extended into a liminal adulthood.7 The basis for the social recognition of adulthood is changing as adults must now focus on the present in the face of open-ended, temporary, reversible and individualized options for the future. While western adulthood remains commonly and problematically measured through the dominant, middle class narratives of career, house, family, etc. these emergent definitions emphasize internal, psychological achievements such as self-confidence and flexibility to define adulthood.

Rebecca Raby

71

______________________________________________________________ Finally, poststructuralist deconstruction of the modern, unitary self has destabilized past and present subject positions such that both young people and adults are produced within shifting and intersecting, contextualized discourses, potentially removing the stable end-point of adulthood.8 Within such subject formation, people attempt to create unifying narratives of the self as individual biographies are central to modern individuality, but the self remains ever-changing and contextual. Such instability is made visible through looking at how discourses and practices shift with context, are in tension and can even contradict.9 Poststructural theorizing into childhood, adolescence, youth and adulthood has also sought to denaturalize and deconstruct these categories, further undermining their categorical distinctions.10 3. The Consequent Reconceptualising of Youth and its Political Implications Each of the abovementioned positions reflects and informs an understanding of the relationship between how we understand childhood/youth and adulthood with effects in terms of the disruption and/or reproduction of young people’s marginalization. The sociology of childhood sought to embrace young people as active, participatory subjects, or beings, to counter their social marginalization. While sociologists of childhood, critical psychologists and poststructuralists legitimately problematise socialization and developmental approaches, others are concerned with shifts away from what is considered the protective focus of childhood as becoming (adults). For example, to critical pedagogue and youth advocate Henri Giroux, the modern social contract invested in young people as future citizens, workers and symbols of progress.11 As neo-liberalism has made most workers unnecessary or interchangeable, marginalized, American youth are no longer considered an investment in the future but rather ‘disposable’ and therefore contained within prisons and prison-like schools. The modern liminality of youth afforded young people important protection; if we no longer consider youth as becoming they are no longer worthy of investment. Grossberg argues that this ‘war against youth’ reflects attempts to permanently end modern investments in citizenship through an erosion of any future focus in a triumph of short-term finance capital over commodity production.12 Jen Qvortrup brings a similar dilemma into the foreground when reflecting on how the historical compartmentalization of childhood brought children protection and investment but in turn denied them widespread participation in the community.13 Concerns have been raised about conceptualizing young people as being like adults, so what of conceptualizing adults as becoming, or as permanently liminal? Might this erode the lesser status of childhood and

72


______________________________________________________________ youth? One might first assume that a focus on liminal adulthood would shift adulthood onto a par with youth. Yet instead, some individualization theorists have re-imposed more traditional, stable markers of adulthood to problematize youth/adults who cannot attain them. They argue that in the face of losing the structural ‘anchors’ of adulthood, young people enter into a listless, ‘prolonged adolescence’ as they become overwhelmed, passive and irresponsible through the range of options and challenges they face.14 Blatterer, critical of these representations of youth that disparage their failure to attain increasingly elusive markers of stable adulthood, finds instead that young people are redefining adulthood through psychological rather than material measures of attainment.15 Ironically, this definitional shift stabilizes a flexible, psychological adulthood that continues to position childhood, adolescence and youth as psychologically incomplete. A focus on psychological markers may in turn increase the distinction and inequality between young people and adults because, unlike paid work or parenthood which can and have been concreted accessed by young people, the psychological self is vague and immaterial, with its boundaries patrolled by adults and experts. The poststructural subject offers another way to conceptualize lifelong liminality, with the self as always changing alongside its social context. Some may consider the fluid, poststructural subject as the perfect neo-liberal subject, with the theory a logical outcome of this particular economic juncture. Such a relationship is challenged, however, by the critiques of neo-liberalism embedded in poststructural theorizing. Fundamentally, neo-liberalism focuses on the individual detached from context while poststructuralism considers the individual to be made, understood and constantly embedded in the social.16 Part of what poststructuralism accomplishes is a displacement of the centrality of a unified, rational, self-knowing subject, thus undoing a psychological adulthood and potentially eroding clear lines between childhood, youth and adulthood. While there is potential here, Claudia Castaneda has provided a strong critique of common poststructural figurations of the child. She contends that Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, and Leotard all project a prediscursive freedom onto the concept of child in order to find ways to oppose adult subjection, for instance.17 As she says of Deleuze and Guattari, ‘To inhabit the child, then, is to inhabit the condition, once again, of possibility itself.’18 de Lauretis, Butler and Walkerdine also come under her scrutiny for interpreting child subjectivity and desire through an adult lens. In contrast, she and others have tried to include children in redefinitions of agency, which I examine below. Agency and autonomy are fundamental to the modern (and the neoliberal) concept of the self in which full subjects are constrained by the

Rebecca Raby

73

______________________________________________________________ social and yet act as independent, self-knowing actors.19 The sociology of childhood has attempted to elevate the child self through accepting this framework and embracing children’s agency but this position raises concerns about the protection of young people and whether the concept of agency in itself needs to be rethought. Lee raises this latter argument by suggesting that agency can be reconceptualised through dependency.20 He makes this argument by looking at how children’s court statements are mediated through video-recording and interviewing that are staged to show that there is no mediation in order to ‘…[make] the child's ontological status decidable.’21 This child’s agency is dependent on mediation, but adult agency is also mediated when they must indicate self-possession in court through being sworn in – both are therefore dependent. Lee’s position opens up the question of how agency can be understood in ways that do not require a modern, autonomous, individual subject, although his examples still maintain an adult arbiter of the agentic voice in the judge and/or jury. While many view poststructuralism as incompatible with agency because it emphasizes the discursive construction of the subject, others have countered this representation. For example, Laws and Davies draw on Judith Butler to argue that ‘one is simultaneously subjected and at the same time can become an agentic, speaking subject … [as] the subject eclipses the conditions of its own emergence.’22 From this position, both young people and adults are active in the process of being subjected, embracing it and making choices, although agency itself requires certain resources, which I discuss below. 4.

Distinguishing Childhood and Youth Through poststructuralism, we can break down the distinction between an unstable selfhood and a stable adulthood. Yet without such a distinction, what are childhood and youth, if anything at all, and what might be lost by failing to distinguish such young selves from adult ones? I am tentatively suggesting that there are three ways in which to conceptualize both poststructural life-long instability of the self and a uniqueness to young people that requires investment in them: embodiment, skills and creativity. Castaneda, in her critique of poststructuralists for framing childhood as outside of the social argues that we need to redefine agency in order to include the agency of nature, with both young people and adults constituted by the contextual, discursive social but also their own embodiment.23 This introduces what she calls the ‘wildcard’ of nature but also the relevance of the growing, changing body itself. Davies, in contrast, argues that agency is made available to people, as constructed subjects, through certain discursive practices that may (or may not) provide an understanding of themselves as agentic.24 Agency is thus

74


______________________________________________________________ contingent on certain resources such as the desire to be agentic; access to the imagination, knowledge and skills to embrace alternatives; and access to others who will accept discourses of agency (which is hampered by age and other structural inequalities). For example, do we recognize young people as having agency or dismiss them, as mindlessly rebelliously? She cites a specific classroom teacher who provides his students with these resources in a way that values both their present participation and their skill development. Based on this position, I tentatively suggest that an emphasis on skills which need to be imparted and developed over time can constitute young people as particularly in need of investment and consequent protection – their becoming is therefore indistinguishable from adult becoming but also 1) differently embodied, 2) in need of exceptional nurture due to young people’s relative dependence, newness and need for skills and 3) uniquely creative for these very same reasons. 5.

Conclusion In summary, the sociology of childhood brings childhood and youth into the ontological status of adulthood through considering young people as beings in the present. By looking at economic shifts, others have destabilized adulthood. This position has contributed to negative representations of some young people as faltering in the face of a chasm of possibility and failing to live up to modernist adult landmarks. Young people in turn figure strongly in a redefinition of a flexible yet distinct psychological adulthood.25 Poststructuralism suggests that stable adulthood has always been an illusion – a position that may now be more evident in light of a materially destabilized adulthood. Shattering the binary between incomplete young people and stable adulthood has raised concerns among some that this closes off possibilities for investment in young people and among others that it undermines agency altogether. This latter contention is countered as poststructuralists attempt to redefine agency, some within the context of young people. I have drawn on Davies to argue that certain ways of constructing the subject and agency facilitate young people’s legitimacy as social participants, and cautiously proposed how to maintain this position alongside young people’ protection and skill development.

Notes 1

The concept of liminality primarily marks a transition stage, wherein someone has separated from a former stage but not yet assimilated into the next. As such, it has been used to mark youth as a liminal state between childhood and adulthood. Liminality includes the status of being between,

Rebecca Raby

75

______________________________________________________________ indeterminate and ambiguous. In this paper it is the ambiguousness, instability and flexibility of liminality which is the focus, not transition between two clear stages. 2 B Davies, Shards of Glass: Children Reading and Writing Beyond Gendered Identities, Hampton Press, New Jersey, 2002; N Lesko, ‘Denaturalizing Adolescence: The Politics of Contemporary Representations’, Youth and Society, vol.28, no.2, 1996, pp. 453-161. 3 N Lee, ‘Towards an Immature Sociology’ in The Sociological Review, vol. 46, no.3, 1998, pp. 458-482. 4 A James & A Prout, Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, Falmer Press, Bassingstoke, Bristol, 1990. 5 Lee, op. cit. 6 U Beck and E Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences, Sage Publications, London, 2002. 7 H Blatterer, Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty. Berghahn Books, New York, 2007. 8 J Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, New York, 1990. 9 Davies, op. cit.; R Raby, ‘A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence’ in Journal of Youth Studies, vol.5, no.4, 2002, pp.425-450. 10 N Lesko, op cit. 11 H Giroux, ‘Racial Injustice and Disposable Youth in the Age of Zero Tolerance’ in Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 16, no.4, 2003, 553-565. 12 L Grossberg, ‘Why Does Neo-liberalism Hate Kids? The War on Youth and the Culture of Politics,’ The Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, vol.23, no.2, 2001, pp.111-136. 13 J Qvortrup, ‘Varieties of Childhood’ in J Qvortrup (ed), Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, Hounsmills, 2005, pp.1-20. 14 J Cote, Arrested Adulthood: The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity, New York University Press, New York, 2000. 15 H Blatterer, op. cit. 16 B Davies, Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales: Preschool children and gender, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, Australia, 1989. 17 C Castaneda, Figurations: Child, Bodies, Worlds. Duke University Press, Durham, 2002. 18 Castaneda, op cit. p.146.

76


______________________________________________________________ 19

B Davies, ‘Agency as a Form of Discursive Practice. A Classroom Scene Observed.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol.11, no.3, 1990, 341-361, p.343. 20 Lee, op. cit. 21 Lee, op. cit., p.471. 22 C Laws and B Davies, ‘Poststructualist Theory in Practice: Working with ‘behaviorally disturbed’ children’ in Qualitative Studies in Education, vol.13, no.3, 2000, pp.205-221, pp.206-207. 23 C Castaneda, op. cit., p.166. 24 Davies, ‘Agency as a Form.’ 25 Blatterer, op. cit.

Bibliography Beck, U., and Beck-Gernsheim, E., Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences, Sage Publications, London, 2002. Blatterer, H., Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty. Berghahn Books, New York, 2007. Butler, J., Gender Trouble: Routledge, New York, 1990.

Feminism and the Subversion of Identity,

Castaneda, C., Figurations: Child, Bodies, Worlds. Duke University Press, Durham, 2002. Cote, J., Arrested Adulthood: The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity, New York University Press, New York, 2000. Davies, B., Shards of Glass: Children Reading and Writing Beyond Gendered Identities, Hampton Press, New Jersey, 2002; N Lesko, ‘Denaturalizing Adolescence: The Politics of Contemporary Representations’, Youth and Society, vol.28, no.2, 1996, pp. 453-161. Davies, B., Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales: Preschool children and gender, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, Australia, 1989. Davies, B., ‘Agency as a Form of Discursive Practice. A Classroom Scene Observed.’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol.11, no.3, 1990, 341-361, p.343.

Rebecca Raby

77

______________________________________________________________ Giroux, H., ‘Racial Injustice and Disposable Youth in the Age of Zero Tolerance’ in Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 16, no.4, 2003, 553-565. Grossberg, L., ‘Why Does Neo-liberalism Hate Kids? The War on Youth and the Culture of Politics,’ The Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, vol.23, no.2, 2001, pp.111-136. James, A., and Prout, A., Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood, Falmer Press, Bassingstoke, Bristol, 1990. Laws, C., and Davies, B., ‘Poststructualist Theory in Practice: Working with ‘behaviorally disturbed’ children’ in Qualitative Studies in Education, vol.13, no.3, 2000, pp.205-221, pp.206-207. Lee, N., ‘Towards an Immature Sociology’ in The Sociological Review, vol. 46, no.3, 1998, pp. 458-482. Qvortrup, J., ‘Varieties of Childhood’ in J Qvortrup (ed), Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, Hounsmills, 2005, pp.1-20. Raby, R., ‘A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence’ in Journal of Youth Studies, vol.5, no.4, 2002, pp.425-450. Rebecca Raby, PhD., is an associate professor in the Social Sciences Department of Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario.

Blurred Transitions: Revisiting the Significance of Work and Parenthood for Young Adults in Italy Valentina Cuzzocrea and Sveva Magaraggia Abstract Almost everywhere in Europe, transitions from youth to adulthood are being prolonged and destandardised. 1 Similarly, a common trend can be identified in terms of disinvestment in welfare measures. This in turn puts pressure on parents and young people, and establishes specific models of welfare state. However, young adults in Italy constitute a case in its own right for a particularly delayed transition to adulthood. International sociological literature on the life course identifies five thresholds that have to be overcome in order to reach adulthood. Among these, we concentrate on obtaining a stable working position and becoming parent. Findings from our two different research projects strongly converge in criticizing the necessity, for the young adults interviewed, to refer to such thresholds. ‘Yo-yo’ modalities have been identified to interpret transitions that are not only prolonged and destandardised, but also uncertain and reversible. Pushing further in this direction, our interview material suggests to re-conceptualize the intrinsic value of reflexively ‘passing’ turning points to consider oneself fully adult and to problematise adulthood itself as an unquestionable ‘point of arrival’2. Key Words: Adulthood, Parenthood, Transitions, Thresholds, Work. **** 1.

Introducing Transitions and Thresholds Corresponding to deep transformations such as the extension of education, the diffusion of birth control devices and the individualisation of social life, transitions from youth to adulthood are being prolonged and destandardised all over Europe. Similarly, a common trend can be identified in terms of disinvestment in welfare measures. This in turn puts pressure on parents and young people, originating specific models of welfare state. Italy falls within the category of the southern group of welfare states whose features are low levels of welfare provision and reliance on the family as a form of support. However, young adults in Italy constitute a case in its own right for a particularly delayed transition to adulthood. The question is what conditions allow a young Italian to consider himself/herself an adult? International literature on life course identifies five thresholds which have to be overcome in order to reach adulthood: completing education, reaching a relatively stable working position, leaving the family of origin,

80

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ creating one’s own partnership and becoming parents. Indeed, the junctures that traditionally mark the passage from youth to adulthood involve a transition along two axes: the first refers to the public sphere. The second relates to the private sphere. The transition from one stage to another would thus imply a definitive abandonment of the first and a complete entry in the second. This threshold approach does not seem able to grasp the fluidity with which young people are confronted with in this period of life nowadays: transitions to adulthood no longer seem to be a path characterized by well defined stages. In the literature, several categories have been formulated to analyse young peoples’ issues according to the threshold approach. In the late eighties, two Italian sociologists3 referred to the ‘young-adult’ as an oxymoron that efficaciously renders the ambivalence of this new ‘in between’ age. Instead of ‘young-adults’ James Côté uses the term ‘psychological adulthood’ to refer to the pressure to auto-determination that young people face in the increasingly difficult transition to adulthood4. Côté takes the concept of ‘youthhood’5, reading it as a new phase of life during which, through individual efforts, one achieves a ‘psychological adulthood’. According to this author, the decline of the importance of the traditional markers associated with the transition has helped to bring out an emotional and cognitive 'psychological adulthood’. Arnett6 introduces the concept of ‘emerging adulthood’ as neither adolescence nor young adulthood. This is theoretically and empirically distinct from both. Marriage and parenthood appear to be the ‘real’ markers that determine the completion of the transition. Recently, Feixa used the term ‘adolescent’ (kidult/adultescent). The Yo-yo approach7, instead, shows how the simultaneity of various transitions is becoming more and more of a challenge for young people’s agency. It also reflects on the fact that nowadays being adult does not necessarily imply a clear-cut change from the past: you do not stop being something that you were for something else. Rather, being adult implies dealing with highly contradictory demands, and embracing a ‘nomadic’ status, that is made of ‘transitions, successive shifts, and coordinated changes’8. All these approaches show the necessity to break from the rigid dichotomy of youth / adulthood; what unites these readings of the ages of life is the idea that, given the social and cultural transformations of recent decades, it is no longer enough simply to contrast the two stages. Rather, we should consider other models taking into account the high porosity of life stages. They do not appear as parts of a linear path leading to a complete assumption of adult roles. The fact that the thresholds traditionally articulating the transition to adulthood have changed their ritual and symbolic value and that, in parallel, the timing of this process is prolonged, implies also a profound transformation of the ‘condition of arrival’ into adulthood. It

Valentina Cuzzocrea and Sveva Magaraggia

81

______________________________________________________________ is therefore not enough to focus on the changing ways in which structure affects how young people grow up. It also becomes necessary to discuss how the norms associated with adulthood are changing, without making young adults loosing the ‘right’ to be identified as adults 2.

Problematising the Threshold Approach We find existent approaches conservative in terms of the inescapable role-played in it by thresholds. Even if multidisciplinary literature underline the role of rite of passage in creating one’s own identity, we all bring with us something from previous experiences when we move through the life course. The concept of identity relies on a double recognition: one’s own identity is peculiar and specific, but also based on a subtle repetition of the self. The threshold approach implies disagreement with these premises, instead emphasising a sharp, clear-cut passage from a defined condition to another defined condition. According to the Oxford dictionary of English, a ‘marker’ is ‘an object used to indicate a position, place or route’, a ‘distinctive feature or characteristic indicative of a particular quality or condition’. It is used as a ‘thing serving as a standard of comparison’. ‘Threshold’ is accordingly ‘a strip of wood or stone forming the bottom of a doorway and crossed in entering a house or room’. Both meanings underline the definite passage to a subsequent condition. We propose to concentrate on obtaining a stable working position and becoming a parent: these thresholds have a complementary significance. Findings from our two respective research projects9 converge in criticizing the necessity, for the young adults interviewed, to refer to such thresholds. These elements make them a suitable lens through which to problematise the threshold approach. The reason why the work threshold is important is firstly that work belongs primarily to the public sphere. Secondly, given the expansion of higher education and the increasing rate of female employment, work is increasingly an inclusive experience, in the sense that it is experienced by more and more people. Thirdly, given the precarisation of work conditions, work has lost its potential of granting security once and for all. Thus, it is a reversible marker. The threshold of parenthood seems an interesting one to contrast with work. Firstly, it belongs to the private sphere. Secondly, while it used to be an experience that most adult people would have at one point in life, it is becoming an increasingly rare experience, and this would define it as an exclusive marker. Last, becoming parent is an irreversible experience. 3.

The Work Threshold/ Work as a Marker The reasons why the literature on transitions to adulthood considers obtaining a stable working position as a marker are found in its capacity to guarantee a stable income, and in the potential to channel one’s identity. Thus

82

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ there is a convergence of two sorts of elements: an economic and a symbolic one. Empirical findings10 show that both these elements are to be put into question. Primarily, we should consider that recent transformations in the labour market have completely transformed the role of work. The situation in Italy is even more dramatic than other European realities11, making Italian sociologists to say that we have left behind the so-called ‘Società del Lavoro’ to embrace the ‘Società del Lavori’ (where jobs is plural). This does not mean that there is not work to do, but only that there are fewer jobs associated with the rights typical of the welfare states. We often misconceive work; that is, we say ‘work’, but we mean ‘employment’. This is a very crucial point because the sort of work / employment we mourn is itself confined to a specific historical period (roughly 1945-1975). Employment is the contractual fact, which guarantees rights and entitles one to have a position in society. Yet, it cannot be said in any sense that before this age people did not work, as in fact work primarily indicates the accomplishment of an activity. Such an acknowledgement is very relevant because a discussion on transitions to adulthood must consider the progresses that the sociology of work have made in recent years to recognise differences in the nature of work. Also, an international debate on the ‘end of work’ points to the fact that work has lost the centrality in people’s lives. The emergence of portfolio careers puts into question vertical progressions: workers are more likely to move across different working groups (although, this does not imply improvements in salary levels, promotions, higher visibility and responsibilities and so on). With the increased possibility of experiencing unemployment, the ‘work’ concept is becoming an increasingly unstable indicator. Few feel that they require a ‘job for life’ to go on with a professional life. Also, we should consider that some jobs might be good in terms of contents and satisfaction, but not equally good for the protection they offer. What makes a ‘good’ job is an increasingly a dubious matter. It is thus useful to unpack the notion of a ‘good job’ as well as work. Different dimensions emerge, and questions such as ‘what is a good job?’ or ‘what makes a job good?’, produces interesting responses. One axis along which evaluations over a good job can be done is the personal estimation of one’s employability in the labour market. Why is it fruitful to employ the concepts of security in everyday life? The link between employability, security and certainty is defined by the following relations: if I consider myself employable, if I have qualifications and a vocational portfolio flexible enough to adapt itself to a variety of available projects, then I will perceive myself as secure, in other words, in my capacity to occupy a certain position. If having occupied a certain position I feel secure, I will therefore also feel certain in the continuation of my activity and with regard to my total situation with life. If, on the contrary, in a society that is increasingly organised around


83

______________________________________________________________ projects, I feel unable to adapt my knowledge and competences to a variety of work solutions, I will achieve security only in minimum terms. As a result, I will feel uncomfortable with my surroundings. The centrality of the perception of employability to one’s sense of security holds true whether such a perception is high and positive or the opposite: if it is poor, it is very likely to affect negatively security (and therefore certainty) in all its manifestations. As Giulia, an engineer from Cagliari says: the problem is in relation to future possibilities, to be able to have a minimum of certainty for the future, which does not necessarily mean having a salary at the end of the month, but being sure that in the next six months, […] there will be some money which guarantees the payment of rent, eventually of a mortgage. The variety of meanings attached to ‘work’ are extremely rich and expressive and cannot be reduced to the Fordist dimension. Speculating on the representations of security, Du Gay suggests that ‘the identity of both labour and capital is invariably represented as stable and unchanging, while lived history is reduced to a series of ‘empirical variations’ on a constant theme12. Work emerges with infinite nuances in the interviewees’ accounts, in a way that suggests a radical redefinition of the terms used in everyday language. Another aspect deserving some attention is the fact that workplaces are not neutral, rational entities, yet each organization has its own characteristics that affect that grade of control that one is able to develop over his or her own working position. Cuzzocrea’s research stresses that in many cases the branch specificities and their own specific precariousness seem to absorb most energies of employees, making organisation’s needs take precedence over personal inclinations. Status and position are repeatedly negotiated through every day practices, but in a fairly implicit form, so that it is very difficult to understand what one can and cannot do and achieve, and in which time-frame. As a young professional in Human Resources states: variations [in my career] depend […. ] on top management, […] at times the managing director saw my role in a certain way and therefore I played it in that way. Other times different managing directors asked me for another kind of intervention, and I adopted it. But in the end it depended it […] on the standpoint of the one who ruled the company.

84

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ This is to say that many companies are very de-structured and it is very difficult to predict how one is going to find his or her own role and positions within it in a few years time. Another inconsistency with the predominant model of threshold is the fact that certain careers, like for instance positions of self-employment, cannot ever be consider secure, because, in this context, making a career means to get more clients. All these emerging results indicate that there is a strong subjective element to be considered, and this should remind us of what sociologists of the Chicago School first pointed out, i.e., a career does not necessarily follow a path of vertical progression within the boundaries of an organization. It could instead be considered in its own right as a much wider phenomenon, and regarded as a term indeed used with a larger meaning. In fact, anyone who works has a career. In concluding these remarks, it is important to make the point that all these elements suggest to us that the passage from one state to another is not clear cut, not only because of the current economic situation and the low wage of new entrants making early career professionals not entirely economically independent, but also because the role and significance of work has changed. What we seek from work has changed, and similarly, what the world of work is able to offer to us has changed too. In particular, it becomes extremely difficult to identify when a job position has the characteristics to guarantee income and define one’s working identity. In this sense, entering the word of work does not mean leaving behind the economic insecurity and the search for one’s self that is more characteristic of a younger youth. 4.

The Parenthood’s Threshold/ Parenthood as a Marker Alongside the transformations in forms of work, there are changes in patterns of family formation13 and a reduction in the stability of households, with a consequent decrease in the protective role of the family. As highlighted amongst others by Giddens14, worldwide any change is more important than those related to our intimacy: sexuality, love, marriage and family. This pertains to the weakening of the model that had previously colonized the collective imaginary and dominated the official statistics: the nuclear family, composed of married couples and children born of their legitimate union. In the middle of the industrial society, for example, a young woman’s entrance to adulthood corresponded to the acquisition of the role of wife and mother, and marriage was no doubt a crucial threshold of this transition; nowadays, the conjugal union loses this aura of sacredness. Its meaning changes, and as it is no longer the major rite of passage between youth and adulthood as it no longer legitimates access to sex and procreation. The model of the family crumbles. Becoming and performing as a parent is in turn affected by these changes. Such acknowledgements from the sociology of family life are relevant to a specific discussion on transition to adulthood.


85

______________________________________________________________ If we try to understand parenting in the light of the entire life course of the agents, it becomes clear that the experiences of this last step to adulthood are diverse and heterogeneous. Empirical findings from previous pieces of research15 show that young men and women perceive the formation of a family as a choice entailing personal risks, as their projects become more frequently embedded in informal networks. Intergenerational relationships, instead of becoming looser, are in fact getting tighter when young people become parents. With low levels of welfare provision, the former generation has to supply support to neo-parents, both in an economic and relational sense (is. help in the caring activities). The expectant/neo parents look for intergenerational solidarity in order to deal with the paradox inherent in making plans nowadays. Radically different ways of acquiring the role of parent emerge if we look at parenthood in relation to, on the one hand, the duration of the pathway to adulthood along with, on the other hand, the lack of linearity with which the different stages of the transition are achieved. In other words, looking at the transition to parenthood in a temporal perspective allows us to conceive of it not only as the marker that signals the end of youth, but also as a more complex and variegate experience of life, capable of re-signifying the very concept of adulthood. So for example, if we compare early and late parenthood we’ll see two different ways of being a parent: Early parenthood: fast track parents. The first type of parents, i.e. those who give birth to their first child having experienced a straight and fast transition path, can be called ‘fast track’16, which leads them to be ahead of the average Italian parents. Parents who arrive early at the decision to have a child often do not see this as a socially recognized choice: in the Italian context, this can be seen less as a choice than as an unintended occurrence. These young parents must face a common sense that has changed over time, which does not deem ‘reasonable’, a parenting pattern that thirty years ago would not have attracted any kind of astonishment. Many early parents do not use public services for maternity and paternity (such as childbirth classes, counselling, etc.) because they do not feel accepted and understood because of their age. They seem poorly involved in the process of semiprofessionalization. Late parenthood: slow track parents. The second type is that of ‘late’ mothers and fathers or ‘slow trackers’17, i.e. those who become parents over the average age, having slowly reached the different stages, of which procreation is the last one. These parents rely on a support network (i.e. family of origin and peer group) that feels very much involved. From the point of view of the meaning that youth of the second type attribute to parenthood, the ‘slow trackers’ seem to be much more apprehensive towards the children, they adhere strictly to paediatricians instructions, and seem to

86

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ surround the long awaited event of the birth of the first child with many precautions and concerns. These are mothers and fathers who experience motherhood and fatherhood in a highly ‘professional’ way, investing a lot on their child. They stress that through the relationship with the new-born, they found a sense of life and a rhythm that had been lost. If looking at non-linear transitions, we see even more diverse experiences: the ‘yoyo mothers and fathers’ and ‘young mothers and fathers’ may be considered as the real innovative groups in here. Data analysed suggests a working definition of these two types, which identifies those who assume the parental role having passed just a few of the canonical pathways to adulthood. In practice, some interviewees become parents while they are still struggling with the definition of their adult identity. This sudden biographical restructuration regards those who, given their age, had not yet begun to problematise the transition. These situations involve a particularly difficult passage as, in one moment, at least two markers of the transition are completed: the creation of an autonomous nuclear family and procreation, each of which are rich in their own way of difficulties. For mothers and fathers aged at or above the national average, with a non-linear path behind one, the transition to parenthood involves a biographical reorganization that is relative, although not without obstacles and specific characteristics. Couples of ‘young’ and ‘yoyo’ parents not infrequently after the birth of a child reside in the home of their parents. The support provided by the family is very consistent, also time-wise, while they are not supported by peers. In sum, the long wave of changes that are investing life courses also has considerable impact on how they perceive themselves as parents and on how they perform parenthood, and thus become adults. These experiences show that there is not a clear-cut definition of traditional youth boundaries. This does not mean, however, that we cannot consider them (full) adults. 5.

Discussion and Conclusions Transitions to adulthood are increasingly slower everywhere in Europe. However, Italy is a very interesting context due to its capacity to catalyse the characteristics of the Southern European model. In looking at the transitions of two groups of young adults interviewed for different pieces of research, we cannot ignore the fact that the social context in which they operate show important differences from the one that gave rise to the threshold approach. The very nature of youth is the legitimate claim for experimentation, which allows us to find out what young people want to become. Such a social suspension, nevertheless, is not done in a social vacuum, and is not passive behaviour tout court. Quite the contrary, it implies the assumption of a considerable amount of individual responsibility and strong activation of one’s agency. This is due to the remarkable


87

______________________________________________________________ psychological and social costs involved in making the sort of decisions we have explored in this paper. I.e., constructing a career path or taking an irreversible decision such as giving birth to a child, involves such a strong capacity of decision that youth is an increasingly difficult phase of life to be in. Significantly, in our empirical pieces of research we have seen different ways of becoming parents, as well as different ways of constructing a meaningful career path. All of these, in their increasing complexity, do involve ‘adult’ responsibilities, as well as active agency, in order to be able to juggle with the difficulties of everyday life. One of the reasons why this transition has become more blurred is that entering a new phase of the life course involves bringing along some significant remaining parts of the previous phase: one does not cease to be a son / daughter when he / she becomes a parent. Similarly, one does not find once and for all a working identity (or regrettably, full economic independence) when assuming a working position. Furthermore, it is plausible to think that our comments, referred to the markers we have studied the most, might be generalised to other markers. The different existent categories seem to necessarily refer to the threshold mechanism. We propose to question this supposed inevitability in more depth. Ultimately, we suggest to re-conceptualise the intrinsic value of reflexively ‘passing’ turning points to consider oneself fully adult and to problematise adulthood itself as an unquestionable ‘point of arrival’18.

Notes 1

The arguments presented in this paper express the view of both authors. However, Magaraggia has written sections 1 and 4, and Cuzzocrea 2, 3 and 5. 2 P Kelly, ‘The Entrepreneurial Self and 'Youth at-risk': Exploring the Horizons of Identity in the Twenty-first Century’. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 9(1), 2006, pp. 17-32. 3 P Donati & E Scabini (eds), La famiglia lunga del giovane adulto, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 1988. 4 J Côté, Arrested Adulthood. The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity, New York University Press, New York, 2000, p. 29. 5 S Mørch, ‘Culture and the Challenge of Adaptation: Foreign Youth in Denmark’. International Journal of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, vol. 2(1), 1995, pp. 104. 6 J Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: the Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004.

88

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ 7

A Walther, et al., ‘Regimes of youth transitions. Choice, flexibility and security in young people's experiences across different European contexts’. Young, vol. 14(2), 2006, pp. 119-139. 8 R Braidotti, Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994, p. 22. 9 One piece of research (Cuzzocrea 2008) is a comparative study on the constructions of careers. For this paper, thirty in-depths interviews conducted with professionals in the fields of engineering, human resources and accountancy have been analysed. These professionals had all between five to ten years working experience after graduation. The other piece of research (Magaraggia 2008) is a qualitative study on the process of becoming parents, empirically informed by forty in-depth interviews conducted with neoparents aged between twenty and thirty-seven, all living in Milan. 10 V Cuzzocrea, Flexi-jobs or flexi-lives? Professionals’ early career-paths in Italy and England, unpublished PhD thesis, Essex University, 2008. 11 ISTAT data emphasise that 15-18% of the Italian workforce is atypical. 12 P Du Gay, Consumption and Identity at Work, Sage, London, 1996, p. 50. 13 In Italy, the average length of marriages is 14 years, but 38% of the separations happen within nine years. In 1995-2005, the birth out of the wedlock almost doubled (from 8% to 15%), and nowadays the average age at the first child is 30,8 for women and 34,6 for men (Istat 2007). 14 A Giddens, The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992. 15 M du Bois Reymond et al., ‘Thematic Report Young Parenthood’. unpublished Draft Report of UP2YOUTH FPVI Research Program, 2008. 16 G Jones, The Youth Divide. Diverging Paths to Adulthood, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2002; J Bynner, et al., Young People’s Changing Routes to Independence, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2002. 17 Ibid. 18 P Kelly, ‘The Entrepreneurial Self and 'Youth at-risk': Exploring the Horizons of Identity in the Twenty-first Century’. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 9(1), 2006, pp. 17-32.


89

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Arnett, J.J., Emerging Adulthood: the Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. Bynner, J., Elias, P., McKnight, A., Pan, H. and Pierre, G., Young People’s Changing Routes to Independence. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2002. Braidotti, R., Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. Columbia University Press, New York, 1994. Côté, J., Arrested Adulthood. The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity. New York University Press, New York, 2000. Cuzzocrea, V., Flexi-jobs or flexi-lives? Professionals’ early career-paths in Italy and England. Unpublished PhD thesis, Essex University, 2008. Donati, P., & Scabini, E., (eds), La famiglia lunga del giovane adulto. Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 1988. du Bois Reymond, Manuel et al., ‘Thematic Report Young Parenthood’ unpublished Draft Report of UP2YOUTH FPVI Research Program, 2008. Du Gay, P., Consumption and Identity at Work. Sage, London, 1996. Giddens, A., The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992. Istat Le condizioni sociali delle famiglie in Italia. Istat, Roma, 2007. Jones, G., The Youth Divide. Diverging Paths to Adulthood. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2002. Kelly, P., ‘The Entrepreneurial Self and 'Youth at-risk': Exploring the Horizons of Identity in the Twenty-first Century’. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 9(1), 2006, pp. 17-32.

90

Blurred Transitions

______________________________________________________________ Magaraggia, S., Being Young and Becoming Parent. Transformations in the Transition to Adulthood Pathway and New Parenthood. Unpublished PhD thesis, Università di Milano-Bicocca, 2008. Modell, J., Furstenberg, F., & Strong, T., ‘The Timing of Marriage in the Transition to Adulthood: Continuity and Change, 1860-1975’. The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 84, 1978, pp. 120-150. Mørch, S., ‘Culture and the Challenge of Adaptation: Foreign Youth in Denmark’. International Journal of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, vol. 2(1), 1995, pp. 102-116. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003. Walther, A., ‘Regimes of youth transitions. Choice, flexibility and security in young people's experiences across different European contexts’. Young, vol. 14(2), 2006, pp. 119-139. Valentina Cuzzocrea is researcher in the Department of Economic and Social Research, University of Cagliari, Italy. Sveva Magaraggia is researcher at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy.

The Light and Shadow of the Active and Independent Senior: From Life History of Japanese Pre-elderly Eiji Gon Abstract This paper targets people in their fifties or early sixties and defines them as ‘pre-elderly’. This study considers what ‘old age’ means to them today. 16 pre-elderly people were investigated in semi-structured interview method. The author focuses on how informants connect their lives’ trajectories to their future and how they place their familiar others in those trajectories. Contemporary Japanese elderly stand at a crossroad. The circumstance around them has changed since 1990s: First, the image of ‘an active and independent senior’ has been propagated by the government, academics and mass media. Second, social security system of care has been completed, which means socialization of care. These two processes, individualisation and completion of the welfare state, brought both gain and loss. These processes can be regarded as detraditionalisation, which characterizes the late modern society. The loss of tradition caused a loss of what is called ‘aging culture’ which used to interpret the experience of ‘declining’ as something meaningful. That means the elderly today have no reference to rely on. This leads them to endless efforts to be subjective. It becomes difficult for aging people without ‘aging culture’ to accept their own aging bodies and imagine their own old age. That is ‘individualisation of aging’. Can ‘being subjective and independent’ be a new model of aging to pursue? The result shows that most informants cling to construct ‘private sphere’ to live their own old age. The informants repeated needs to be independent, because reflexive self-identity to construct ‘private sphere’ does not tolerates dependence on others or even mutual dependent relationship. Although old people go on to inevitable dependence on others, they disconnect interdependent relationship with others. Individualized aging process appeared as ambiguous process. Key Words: Aging, Individualisation, Reflexive modernity, Self-identity, Giddens, Beck, Social gap. ***** 1.

Introduction After 1990s, the image of ‘an active and independent senior’ has often appeared in white paper or political scheme1. In 1980’s, sociologists and the civil service had already referred to ‘active’ or ‘independent’ as

92

The Light and Shadow of the Active and Independent Senior

______________________________________________________________ concepts to stand for the ideal image of way of life in old age. This has two main social backgrounds. The first social factor is the protest against the conventional understanding of old people, which was made by both old people themselves and sociologists. Life course approach study, for example, argued that ‘the aged’ defined only according to age was not appropriate to comprehend a variety of old people who should have each trajectory of life. As a result, the new model being different from ‘the aged’ appeared; ‘active senior’ or ‘independent senior’. Secondly, a financial crisis of social security system can be pointed out. An expenditure on old-age pension, medical and care insurance for old people increased even to an extent that persistence of social security system is questioned. One way to restrain the financial expenditure is to expand the appliance of the beneficiary payment principle to old people. The other is the control of the amount of necessary service itself, which means asking old people for management of their own health and daily lives. Both physical and economical independence directly contributes to reduction of the expenditure. Thus, ‘an active and independent senior’ has appeared as a response to the social problems. In some aspects, this image has released ole people from the conventional understanding of them as passive existence to be taken care of, which used to cause the age discrimination. In my opinion, however, the attitude to pursue an ideal way of life in old age in terms of concepts of ‘active’ or ‘independent’ contains some problems not to be overlooked. They are related to the cooperativity between self and others in old age. Humans can never live alone. Furthermore, daily lives of old people are filled with various relationships with children, spouses, friends, neighbours or social workers. Nevertheless, too much emphasis on the ideal image of ‘active’ old people makes all these relationships fall into the negative value ‘dependence’. That means the new model has a risk of disconnection of the relations with others. The author tries to describe the problematic as to ‘active and independent senior’. The material is the interview research conveyed at Kohoku new town in Yokohama city in 2009. In the next section, we go on to the theoretical analysis of ‘individualisation of aging’. 2.

Individualisation of Aging First, the author defines ‘individualisation of aging’. ‘Individualisation of aging’ is the process in which people positively undertake the problems accompanying their aging as their own private ones and in which they disconnect the interdependent relationship with other, determining the ‘private sphere’. In Japan, ‘individualisation of aging’ emerged in 1990s when the social gerontology generated many studies to

Eiji Gon

93

______________________________________________________________ deal with ‘subjective happiness’ or ‘ikigai’, a reason for being or something important to live for. The protest against the uniform and homogeneous image of ‘the aged’ generated a moment for individualisation. We have to demonstrate how the conventional image of ‘the ageds’ was constructed. In Japan, ‘the aged’ was closed up as a social group, which faced many problems such as a loss of income, a risk of dementia and chronic illness or costs for bedridden2. As Phillipson or Estes mentioned, old age or old people as a category is a social construction and is constructed in relation to labour above all3 . From a Marxist feminism view, Chizuko Ueno criticized the modern power, which confines women to reproductive labour in family. She indicated that modern industrial society values productivity and reproductivity, marginalizing women or ‘the aged’, who don’t engage in production, as second-class citizens 4 . The mandatory retirement system structurally outputs a valueless existence and drives it into a category ‘the aged’. From the late 1970s to early 1990s, an amount of protest against the concept ‘the aged’ as second-class citizens had been made by intellectuals and old people concerned. They accused the power of creating a social category ‘the aged’ to confine old people in and also argued that they should recover their subjectivity and diversity. Criticism of ageism, the active theory and the life course approach study revealed irrationality of grasping old people uniformly as ‘the aged’ with the standard criteria of the retirement age. ‘Individualisation of aging’ starts from here. To overcome ‘the aged’ concretely meant recovery of subjectivity of old people. For subjectivity is the most fundamental element and, at the same time, an ideal symbol in modern era. Indeed, the miserable image of ‘the aged’ came from lack of this subjectivity. Then, what can assure their recovered subjectivity? Actually, modern subjectivity has two phases as the reflexive modernization theory argued. In the ‘first modernity’ defined by Ulrich Beck, only a man can be a modern subject through the mechanism, which alienated women, old people or defectives as an object to reflect subjectivity on the margin of or outside of the society 5 . That is to say, subjectivity of ‘first modernity’ implicitly requires the existence of ‘others’ such as women. Then how can old people be modern subjects? In 1960s, the protest against racism, sexism and ageism in the civil rights movement were the demand to recover the subjectivity of the objects, which had supported modern subjectivity in shadow. This consequently included a further criticism for creating a new object. Here reflexive self-identity appears as subjectivity peculiar to the ‘second modernity’6.

94


______________________________________________________________ Self-identity does not require an external social group to reflect it. Instead, it asks itself a question ‘who am I?’ at all times and respond it. By doing this, it secures is own consistency and behaves as a subject. Old people’s subjectivity recovered through deconstruction of ‘the aged’ is based on reflexive identity. This can explain the reason why the ‘ikigai’ or ‘subjective happiness’ studies came into fashion in 1990s as an answer to the question ‘who am I’. ‘Ikigai’ and ‘subjective happiness’ studies offer good materials to explain the mechanism of ‘individualisation of aging’. In the perspective of ‘subjective happiness’ study, as this word already exhibits, what is felt happy is a subjective matter. An individual can arbitrarily choose anything to fill the sign (signifier) ‘happiness’ or ‘ikigai’. So, we only share the sign, not the contents, what can be ‘happiness’ in old age. Even if we can find something in common, insofar as the validity is based only on each individual’s preference, the commonality is just incidental and the words end up flowing as socially meaningless signs 7 . On the other hand, individuals regarded ‘ikigai’ and ‘happiness’ as one of the most important concerns. Because these become indicators to show whom they are and what they want to be. That means the society requires individuals to have ‘ikigais’ but it is thoroughly indifferent to what their ‘ikigais’ are. The crucial gap between self and others on ‘ikigai’ and ‘happiness’ suggests ‘individualisation of aging’. What establishes subjectivity is the positive attitude in selecting their ‘ikigais’ by themselves, which is the other side of exclusiveness. Of course, the actions like hobbies or regional activities can be shared with others. That, however, doesn’t mean that people share ‘ikigai’. It is supposed that they happen to gather as a result of their respective choices and the actions are a part of attempts to build the private spheres. 3.

Constructing ‘Private Sphere’ in Old Age For those who lives individualized aging processes, what kind of practice can be an attempt to construct a ‘private sphere’ in old age? In this section, we will examine the data from interview research. The author interviewed 9 men and 7 women in their 50s or 60s living in Kohoku new town in Yokohama city. Interviews were held for about 2 hours per each. The reason why this pre-older people were picked up is that they are now facing the individualized aging process. The research shows the informants have many features in common about family relationships. They did not intend to bother their children about problems with aging; insufficient pensions, economic and working costs for care, arrangement of a future funeral and disposition of bequest. Not only that they don’t want to trouble their children, but they feel they ‘shouldn’t’. Even

Eiji Gon

95

______________________________________________________________ the informants who took care of their parents until ending would not ask their children for the same behaviour. ‘My son has his own life, and me too, I have to take care of myself’, one informant said. Dependence on a child seems prescriptively forbidden. They also said ‘but when I have no other choice, I have to depend on my son’, however, in this sense, they talked about economic support not physical care support. They prefer to receive nursing care from a stranger to a family member. It is difficult to define ‘independence’ in old age, but for example in America; purchased care service is not considered to prevent their independence as far as they pay for it8. Our informants as well tend to be more generous to financial dependence than calling for other supports from children. Comparing the informant’s understanding of family relationship to the image, which had been conventional until 1990s, it is clear that the distance between parents and children increase and, in contrast, husband-andwife relationship becomes closer. Especially for men, the most important other in old age is a wife not a child. On the other hand, women seem to have a complex emotion about their husbands. Ms. Junko Kawakami had decided not to go with her husband who changed the job from a government employee to a university professor and moved to Kyusyu area. Husband‘s business bachelor is not rare in Japan, but in this case, wife did not have any deterrent like a child’s school or her own job. She is a housewife and two children had already left home. ‘Everybody is surprised at my choice, I know’ she said: I’m on very good terms with my husband. We call each other almost everyday. We trust each other, so I was able to make a decision like this. My life is going on here and my husband has something to do in Kyusyu, that’s it. Mother in law (who went to Kyusyu with her son) must be pleased that she can look after her son without restraint. Although Ms.Kawakami and her husband’s relationship are good, she has a little worry. ‘My husband will come back soon after retirement. The rhythm of my life might be changed then’. She thinks about a necessary effort to redefine her boundary. In the Ms.Kazuyo Koyama’s case, the same weakness of ‘private sphere’ makes her cling to ‘private sphere’ in the future. Ms.Koyama lived in Singapore for 9years and in London for 4years with her husband who works for a general trading company and went back to Japan last year. Their first son was born in Singapore and Ms.Koyama brought up two children in her wandering life. Though she did not complain about the husband’s decision that family member would move with him, after her son got married and her

96


______________________________________________________________ daughter went out to enter the university, she faces her own time and thinks as below. I always had something to do in each place. But I feel like they were interrupted by husband’s transfer and it disappeared in chores. Now I feel my life is cut off. Probably husband will not transfer to anywhere and children have already been independent, so now Ms.Koyama is determined. I want to study and challenge a certain qualifying test. During last year, I experienced regional activities, too. I had not thought about my own aging, but you know, from now on, I have to make circumstances where I can do what I want to do, I feel. While the boundary between ‘me’ and close others like children or partner means spatial individualisation of aging, the management of their own death means chronological individualisation of aging. Ms. Kawakami attended the class of making an ‘ending note’, which lets her relatives know where the seal or the important documents are and how her relics should be dealt with after her death. Other informants did not go so far as to actually writing ending notes, but they recognize the need of that kind of act. Mr.Takashi Oda who had worked for a funeral company for ten years emphasized an importance of preparation after death. He lost his wife 20years ago and now lives with a new partner who also lost her former husband. But he does not mean to get married with her lest they should worry their children about distribution of inheritance. These two cases may not be general, but, at least, almost of all informants have once thought about affairs after death, especially about purchasing a grave for their own. Over 90% of residents in Kohoku new town come from local areas. Their family graves are in their hometowns, and it is not a realistic option to lie in family graves because they have already lost a foundation of life there. Therefore informants need to prepare their own graves. Though they say, ‘It doesn’t matter where, ‘cause I’m already dead, though.’, they consider how to avoid the troubles for the children with management of the graves. Location is more important than price. If they expect the grave to be visited, it should be placed where the children access easily. Another important factor is the type of grave: a private grave, a charnel or dispersal. A charnel may save the children’s troubles or dispersal may be a realistic option. They continue to wonder.

Eiji Gon

97

______________________________________________________________ 4.

Shadow of the ‘Active and Independent Senior’ The result of the field research supports the theoretical assumption that ‘individualisation of aging process’ forces old people to construct and maintain their ‘private spheres’. Now we go back to first question what is the problem of ‘an active and independent senior’. Why does construction of ‘private spheres’ go so far as to management of one’s own death? It is because reflexive self-identity must sustain itself through preoccupation of the future. The reflexive identity has no reference to reflect it other than itself, so it continues to inquire ‘who am I?’ and have to answer it. It can never settle in the present and has to be renewed toward the future. In order to maintain the self, the self-image in the future must be conceived in advance. A gap lies between this image and the present self and this gap always makes the present self an incomplete collection of possibilities. This is why the informants feel it necessary to manage their future even after death. In the process to sustain the self according to the gap with the future, there is no chance or moment for others to step in. The most important other for this self is a self in the future. Not like individualisation in 19 century, the individualisation as a part of reflexive modernization makes people individuals without constructing others as objects. In this era, mutual dependent relationships are replaced by the equal relationships among independent individuals in which they value the decision-makings and choices of each other more than a social norm of gender or family. There even a husband or a child is one of the others. However, is this process really possible for old people? At first, let us consider what discriminates ‘aging’ from just putting on years. That is the appearance of changes of mind, body and social position in the form of dependence on others; to be a pensioner, to spend more time in a local community than before retirement and the literal dependence on family or welfare service because of physical decline. The problem and irony of pursuing ‘active and independent senior’ appear here. Reflexive self-identity with the secure ‘private sphere’ does not tolerate dependent or interdependent relationships with others. This leads the informants to the repeated phrase, ‘I don’t want to be a burden on anyone.’ Although old people necessarily go on to inevitable dependence on others, they disconnect inter-dependent relationships with others by themselves. Individualized aging appears as a contradictory process. Aging itself requires cooperativity but reflexive self-identity rejects it and tries to make old people stand up in the ‘private sphere’. This trial, destined to fail, sends back old people to the only others to depend on: the states. An entitlement of service from welfare states does not prevent independence because it’s regarded as an impersonal relationship between

98


______________________________________________________________ individual and the state. This suggests people will have more and more interest in social security system. Then, how long and how far can the welfare state support us? There is another irony. In 1980s when individualisation went on, the limit of the welfare state began to come out. The last others left for individuals turned out to be too weak to support ‘independence’ of all individuals. From here, we could suppose a certain crisis, which is now appearing among young generation; expansion and stabilization of structural social gap. This phenomenon will divide the people into two strata. On one hand, the rich can afford enough services from market. On the other hand, the poor have to be content with insufficient services from the state9. We have discussed the problems generated by ‘individualisation of aging’. It is impossible to show the solution for it in this short paper, but let us suggest some points of views below. The people tend to value the time of future, rather than that of past, in the reflexive modern society, because personal identity is based on preoccupied future, not accumulation of past. Anthony Giddens argued that authority of tradition comes from accumulation of past. Modernization as a process of ‘detraditionalisation’, as Giddens mentioned, necessarily deny the accumulated time and make people head for the future. But endless preoccupation of the future will face an inevitable failure. We need to think about the function of accumulated time which modernization has thrown away and to seek a way to take it back. The author wants to shed light on an ‘aging culture’. An ‘aging culture’ is a set of practical knowledge, images or norms to help people adapt to aging. It is not imagined in nostalgia but derives from people’s daily lives. Even though reflexive self-identity wants to ignore the others and to talk to the self in the future, it can’t be denied that we coexist with the others in the present time and space. We still can discover an imprint of others in the manner of life and interpret it as a seed of ‘aging culture’.

Notes 1

Refer to the followings. Office of Administration in Management and Coordination Agency, Trend and outlook in measure of longevity society, Gyosei Publishing, Tokyo, 1993. Ministry of Health and Welfare, Annual report of Health and Welfare, Gyosei Publishing, Tokyo, 2000. 2 C Campbell, How policies change: the Japanese government and the aging society, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1992. 3 Both of Phillipson and Este argued with constructing of old age in terms of critical gerontology. Refer to the followings. C Estes, The aging enterprise, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1980. C Phillipson, Reconstructing

Eiji Gon

99

______________________________________________________________ old age: new agendas in social theory and practice, SAGE Publications., London, 1998. 4 Ueno argued that modern industrial society defined old people as ‘after human’. This type of alienation is not same as just ageism. C Ueno, Patriarchy and Capitalism: Horizon of Marxist Feminism, Iwanami-shoten Publishing, 1990. Refer to the following also. E Palmore, Ageism: Negative and Positive, Springer Publishing Company, New York, 1990. 5 U Beck; A Giddens and S Lash, Reflexive modernization: politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1994. 6 A Giddens, Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age, Polity Press., Cambridge, 1991. And Ulrich Beck also mentioned that individualisation needs self-identity. U Beck, Risk Society: towards a new modernity, SAGE Publications, London, 1992. 7 Y Soeda, ‘Perspective and Criticism of Social Gerontology’, in Sociology of mature and aging in Course of Contemporary Sociology. M Mita, C Ueno, M Osawa, S Inoue and S Yoshimi (eds), Iwanami-shoten Publishing, 1997. 8 T Sano, and M Fujita, Independent old age: historical anthropology of small town in middle western America, Keisui-sha., Hiroshima, 2001. 9 U Beck, and E Beck-Gernsheim, Individualisation: institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences, SAGE Publications, London, 2002.

Bibliography Beck, U., Risk Society: towards a new modernity. SAGE Publications, London, 1992. Beck, U., Giddens, A. and Lash, S., Reflexive modernization: politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1994. Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E., Individualisation: institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. SAGE Publications, London, 2002. Campbell, C., How policies change: the Japanese government and the aging society. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1992. Estes, C., The aging enterprise. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1980.

100


______________________________________________________________ Giddens, A., Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Polity Press., Cambridge, 1991. Ministry of Health and Welfare, Annual report of Health and Welfare. Gyosei Publishing, Tokyo, 2000. Office of Administration in Management and Coordination Agency, Trend and outlook in measure of longevity society, Gyosei Publishing, Tokyo, 1993. Palmore, E. Ageism: Negative and Positive. Springer Publishing Company, New York, 1990. Phillipson, C., Reconstructing old age: new agendas in social theory and practice. SAGE Publications., London, 1998. Ueno, C., Patriarchy and Capitalism: Horizon of Marxist Feminism, Iwanami-shoten Publishing, 1990. Sano, T. and Fujita, M, Independent old age: historical anthropology of small town in middle western America. Keisui-sha., Hiroshima, 2001. Soeda, Y., ‘Perspective and Criticism of Social Gerontology’, in Sociology of mature and aging in Course of Contemporary Sociology. M. Mita, C. Ueno, M. Osawa, S. Inoue and S. Yoshimi (eds), Iwanami-shoten Publishing, 1997. Eiji Gon is a visiting senior researcher in Keio Research Institute at SFC in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan. Email: [email protected]

PART III WELLBEING AND HEALTH

The Positivity Effect in Old Age: Is it Real? Christie Chung Abstract Although many studies have documented that older adults remember positive better than negative information, others have not found this positivity effect in their studies, thus raising the question of whether the positivity effect is a reliable cognitive phenomenon. In the present study, I examined the possibility of the positivity effect as a cohort effect. The positivity effect could be a cohort effect because older adults have been through more unfortunate events than most young adults; therefore, their positive attitude now may subsequently enhance their memory for positive information. My results, however, did not support this hypothesis. Participants who rated life as better now than before did not show better recall for positive information than those who rated life as the same or worse than before. This finding suggests that positive memory bias in old age is not a cohort effect. Moreover, older adults who have fewer depressive symptoms, tend to remember emotional information better than those who show more depressive symptoms. This important finding suggests that the positivity bias in memory may not be a universal cognitive change in old age. Factors such as older adults’ mood traits should be taken into account while evaluating their emotional memory performance. Key Words: cognitive ageing, emotional memory, positivity effect, cohort effect ***** Introduction A growing literature documents evidence that we experience fewer negative emotions as we age. For example, when tested on an incidental picture memory task, older adults remembered fewer pictures overall, but the age difference was greater for negative pictures than for positive and neutral pictures.1 Researchers have found a similar positivity bias in other paradigms, such as reviewing past choices2 and autobiographical information.3, 4, 5 Carstensen and colleagues suggested that this age-related difference in memory for emotionally valenced information is related to older adults’ greater motivation than young adults to regulate emotional states.6 According to the socioemotional selectivity theory, when one’s lifetime is perceived to be limited, emotionally meaningful thoughts, for example viewing the past as positive, are emphasized more than thoughts directed toward gaining new information. 1.

104

The Positivity Effect in Old Age

______________________________________________________________ Yet, the positivity effect in old age may be caused by factors other than ones posited by the socioemotional selectivity theory. The positivity effect may be a cohort effect because older adults who are living in this era have been through many unfortunate events in their lives, for example, the Great Depression, World Wars I and II, and the Korean Campaign. In addition, due to technological advances, life is much more comfortable today than it was 50 years ago. As a result, the decreased emphasis on negative memory may not be an age-related cognitive phenomenon but may instead be related to the individual’s year of birth, i.e., cohort. Further, older adults who in general hold positive views on life may remember more positive information on a memory test, thus, exhibiting a positivity effect. Similarly, older adults who are going through positive changes in life may also hold more positive attitudes toward life than ones who are sick and alone. Consequently, the decrease in negative memories observed in some studies of emotional memory may be related to environmental factors instead of agerelated cognitive changes. Another possible explanation for the positivity effect is that older adults who volunteer for laboratory studies are in general healthy individuals living independently. As a result, this self-selected volunteer sample may have a more positive attitude toward life than healthy older adults who are unable or unwilling to participate in laboratory studies due to family commitments, decreased mobility, or other obligations. The present study explored the possibility of the positivity effect being a cohort effect with an emotional picture memory task. I correlated participants’ performance on the emotional picture memory task with answers from a carefully designed questionnaire. Participants were asked to rate their lives now compared to lives in their young adulthood (20 to 30 years old). If the cohort effect hypothesis were true, participants who rated life now as better than life before should have a more positive attitude towards life than those who rated life as the same or worse than before. I expected this group to show a stronger instance of a positivity bias in memory. I was also interested in the effect of depressive symptoms on healthy older adults’ emotional memory performance. Therefore, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to access mood trait in clinically nondepressed older adults alongside the examination of their emotional memory ability. I hypothesized that participants with fewer depressive symptoms, i.e., lower BDI scores, would show a more prominent positivity bias in memory. 2.

Method Participants. Participants were 49 older adults recruited from the Claremont and East Bay communities in Southern and Northern California, USA. Participants’ ages ranged from 57 to 87, with a mean of 74.65.

Christie Chung

105

______________________________________________________________ Participants were paid $10/hr for participation. English was the participant’s first language or had been learned before age 7. Participants with a history of neurological/psychiatric disorders, diabetes, stroke, or vision difficulties were excluded. All participants were equated on health condition (health questionnaire), education level (≥ 12 years), mental/dementia status (Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE ≥ 27 – non-demented); and depression (BDI ≤ 10 – non-depressed). They completed a personality questionnaire (NEO-Five Factor Inventory)7 and a frequency of forgetting questionnaire (Rasch Modelled Memory Self-efficacy Scale)8 for sample characterization purposes. Materials. The stimuli were 30 pictures (10 positive, 10 neutral, 10 negative), plus 2 fillers at the beginning and end of each encoding list. These pictures were obtained on the internet and were rated for valence and arousal by younger adults and older adults in a separate cognitive neuroscience experiment conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA (MIT). Only pictures that were representative of each valence were used in the present study. Charles and her colleagues1 suggested that pictures that include human faces are ones that would most likely evoke the positivity effect. I examined this claim by using pictures that did not include human beings or animals. Two counterbalanced encoding lists were created with pictures of objects and scenes. The Ageing Questionnaire I designed was administered at the end of each session. In order to access participants’ attitudes towards ageing, they were instructed to write five words or phrases on a blank piece of paper that came to mind when they thought of ageing and then answer the view of life questions that followed. Procedure. Participants viewed a list of positive, negative, and neutral pictures presented individually for 4 sec/picture on the computer screen. They were told to view the pictures as if they were watching television and were not informed of the memory test that would follow. After viewing the pictures, a 5-minute filler task was administered. Then, participants recalled aloud pictures that they could remember using brief verbal descriptions. After this picture task, participants completed the BDI, personality, frequency of forgetting, and Ageing questionnaires. 3.

Results An alpha of .05 was used for all analyses. Figure 1 shows the pattern of recall by valence for older adults divided into two sub-groups: young-old adults were 55 to 69 years old (n = 9) and old-old adults were 70 to 87 years old (n = 40). A 2 (age) X 3 (valence) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant main effect of valence, F(2, 94) = 7.85, p < .01, 2 = .14, but no significant main effect of age, F(1, 47) = .002, p = .97, 2 < .001,

106


______________________________________________________________ or age x valence interaction, F(2, 94) = .37, p = .69, 2 = .01. However, upon closer inspection, old-old adults appeared to have recalled more positive and fewer negative pictures than young-old adults. This trend is consistent with our hypothesis that the positivity effect should increase as age advances chronologically.

5

Number of pictures recalled

4

Y-OA (55-69 yrs) O-OA (70-87 yrs)

3

2

1

0 Pos

Neu

Neg

Valence Figure 1. Picture recall performance by valence in young-old (Y-OA) and old-old adults (O-OA) (means ± standard errors).

Christie Chung

107

______________________________________________________________ I then examined the difference between participants who thought life was better now (n = 34) compared to those who rated life as the same or worse than before (n = 14). One participant failed to answer this question, i.e., N = 48. As shown in Figure 2, a 2 (view of life) X 3 (valence) ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of valence, F(2, 91) = 6.92, p < .01, 2 = .13, but no significant main effect of view of life, F(1, 46) = .40, p = .53, 2 = .01, or view X valence interaction, F(2, 88) = 1.02, p = .36, 2 = .02. Thus, I concluded that the positivity effect in old age might not be simply due to a cohort effect.

5 Number of pictures recalled

Life better now now 4

Life not better now

3 2 1 0 Pos

Neu

Neg

Valence Figure 2. Picture recall performance by valence in older adults who rated life as better now or not (means ± standard errors).

108


______________________________________________________________ I next examined the contribution of depressive symptoms to emotional memory performance. Although all participants were classified as clinically non-depressed according to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), I further categorized the participants into a low depressive symptoms group (BDI scores 0 to 5; n = 34) and high depressive symptoms group (BDI score 6 to 10; n =15). I hypothesized that participants with fewer depressive symptoms, i.e., lower BDI scores, would show a more prominent positivity bias in memory. As shown in Figure 3, the two groups of older adults had different patterns of emotional memory performance.

7 Low depressive symptoms 6 Number of Pictures Recalled

High depressive symptoms 5 4 3 2 1 0 Pos

Neu

Neg

Valence Figure 3. Picture recall performance by valence in older adults who showed low and high depressive symptoms (means ± standard errors).

Christie Chung

109

______________________________________________________________ A 2 (depressive symptoms) x 3 (valence) ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of valence, F(2, 94) = 8.15, p < .01, 2 = .15, and a marginally significant interaction between depressive symptoms and valence, F(2, 94) = 1.97, p = .10, 2 = .04. Although post-hoc t-tests did not reveal any statistically significant differences in recall patterns between the two groups (possibily due to small sample size), it is obvious that older adults with high depressive symptoms had a recall pattern that differed from those with low depressive symptoms. Older adults with high depressive symptoms did not have better recall for emotional pictures, or an emotional enhancement effect, as shown by older adults with low depressive symptoms. 4.

Discussion According to the socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults tend to focus on emotionally salient and positive instances due to age-related motivational and cognitive changes.6 In due course, older adults are also more likely to remember positive information than young adults. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of the positivity bias in older adults’ memory as a cohort effect instead of a cognitive-related change in older adulthood. My results clearly demonstrates the trend of a positivity bias as age increased, however, the cohort effect explanation was not a sufficient answer for the observed emotional memory difference in our participants. Mood trait, on the other hand, was a factor that significantly contributed to differences in older adults’ emotional memory. In general, we found an emotional enhancement effect consistent with the rest of the cognitive literature, in which participants remembered more emotional (positive and negative) information than neutral information.9 Figure 1 illustrates the trend of a positivity bias in memory as participants’ age increased – old-old adults (70 to 87 years old) remembered more positive and fewer negative pictures than young-old adults (57 to 69 years old). This result coincides with many others in the cognitive ageing literature, yet, the basis of this finding is unclear. The reasoning behind the examination of the positivity effect as a cohort effect is two-fold. First, older adults may have been through many more unfortunate events than young adults, therefore, their points of view towards life are bound to be different from that of the young adults. I hypothesized that older adults may have a more positive view on life because those who live in the U.S. now are more likely to experience life that is more stable and of higher quality than when they were younger, especially if they have been through wars and other political campaigns. Young adults have not been through as many life events overall, let alone unfortunate ones. Thus, their view of life maybe less positive than older adults’ merely due to a lack of reference points in history. In fact, many studies have found a negativity

110


______________________________________________________________ bias in young adults’ memory.10 Second, our views of our own cognition, namely metacognition, as well as personal attitudes have also been found to directly impact cognitive performance.11 These findings further strengthen my claim that young and older adults’ view of life may affect their memory performance. With a carefully designed questionnaire, I was able to categorize my older participants into two separate groups – 1) rated life as better than in their 20’s or 30’s, and 2) life is the same or worse than in their 20’s or 30’s. I hypothesized that the group who rated life as better now would also exhibit a stronger positivity bias in memory. To my surprise, the results did not support my hypothesis. As shown in Figure 2, older adults who viewed life as better now had similar emotional memory recall patterns as those who viewed life as the same or worse than before. Thus, I concluded that the positivity effect in old age is more than merely a cohort effect. Apart from cohort factors, I was also interested in the role that mood trait may play in older adult’s emotional memory. In one of my previous studies, depression significantly decreased the instance of emotional enhancement in young women.10 Therefore; I also examined the contribution of depressive symptoms on older adults’ picture recall performance in the present study. I further categorized my non-depressed older adults into a low depressive symptoms group (BDI 0-5) and a high depressive symptoms (BDI 6-10) group. My results clearly illustrate that only participants with few depressive symptoms exhibited an emotional enhancement effect. That is, participants with more depressive symptoms recalled positive, neutral, and negative pictures at similar rates. This finding supported my hypothesis and is also consistent with my previous finding on women and depression.10 One way to explain the above finding is that perhaps older adults with fewer depressive symptoms were able to appropriately allocate their limited cognitive resources to information that were emotionally salient and meaningful. Older adults with more depressive symptoms, however, were not able to complete this task as adequately. They ended up remembering more information that was not necessarily emotionally important. Another possible explanation is that older adults with more depressive symptoms interpreted the neutral items as negative. Thus, their better memory for these neutral items may merely be a reflection of their heightened awareness of negative information in general. Only further studies would allow us to fully examine the underlying mechanism of this interesting finding. Nevertheless, this serendipitous finding proclaims the utmost importance in considering healthy older adults’ mood traits while evaluating their cognitive ability. As the population grows older, it has never been more pressing for us to understand age-related changes in cognition and motivation. The present study shed light on the understanding of the positivity effect in old age, which is a well documented yet poorly understood phenomenon in the

Christie Chung

111

______________________________________________________________ cognitive ageing literature. I found that the positivity effect is not a cohort effect, but depressive symptoms appear to be an important factor that influences the way older adults remember emotional information. Future research would allow us to tease apart the possible contributing factors to this fascinating change in older adults’ memory.

Notes 1

S Charles, M Mather and L Carstensen, ‘Aging and Emotional Memory: The Forgettable Nature of Negative Images for Older Adults’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol.132, 2003, 310-324. 2 M Mather and M Johnson, ‘Aging and Emotional Memory: The Forgettable Nature of NEG Images for Older Adults’. Psychology and Aging, vol. 15, 2000, pp. 596-606. 3 D Field, ‘Retrospective Reports by Healthy Intelligent Elderly People of Personal Events of their Adult Lives’. International Journal of Behavioral Development, vol. 4, 1981, pp. 77-97. 4 Q Kennedy, M Mather and L Carstensen, ‘The Role of Motivation in the Age Related Positivity Effect in Autobiographical Memory’. Psychological Science, vol. 15, 2004, pp. 208-214. 5 W Wagenaar and J Groeneig, ‘The Memory of Concentration Camp Survivors’. Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 4, 1990, pp. 77-87. 6 L Carstensen, ‘Motivation for Social Contact Across the Life Span: A Theory of Socioemotional Selectivity’, in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. J. E. Jacobs (ed), University of Nebraska Press, Linclon, 1993. pp. 209-254. 7 P Costa and R McCrae, Neo Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. 2003. 8 E Zelinski and M Gilewski, ‘A 10-item Rasch Modeled Memory Selfefficacy Scale’. Aging and Mental Health, vol. 8, 2004, pp. 293-306. 9 E Kensinger, B Brierly, N Medford, J Growdon and S Corkin, ‘Effects of Normal Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease on Emotional Memory’. Emotions, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 118-134. 10 C Chung, F Sharifi, E Mahinda, S Wong, and J Johnson, Negativity bias in young women’s memory. Manuscript in preparation, 2009. 11 B Levy and E Langer, ‘Aging Free from Negative Stereotypes: Successful Memory in China and Among the American Deaf’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 66, 1994, pp. 989-997.

112


______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Carstensen, L. L. ‘Motivation for social contact across the life span: A theory of socioemotional selectivity’. in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. J. E. Jacobs (ed.), University of Nebraska Press, Linclon, 1993. pp. 209-254. Charles, S. T., Mather, M., and Carstensen, L. L. ‘Aging and Emotional Memory: The Forgettable Nature of Negative Images for Older Adults’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol.132, 2003, 310-324. Chung, C., Sharifi, F., Mahinda, E., Wong, S., and Johnson, J., ‘Negativity bias in young women’s memory’. Manuscript in preparation, 2009. Costa, P. T. and McCrae, R. R., Neo Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. 2003. Field, D., ‘Retrospective Reports by Healthy Intelligent Elderly People of Personal Events of their Adult Lives’. International Journal of Behavioral Development, vol. 4, 1981, pp. 77-97. Kennedy, Q., Mather, M., and Carstensen, L. L., ‘The Role of Motivation in the Age Related Positivity Effect in Autobiographical Memory’. Psychological Science, vol. 15, 2004, pp. 208-214. Kensinger, E. A., Brierly, B., Medford, N., Growdon, J. H., and Corkin, S., ‘Effects of Normal Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease on Emotional Memory’. Emotion, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 118-134. Levy, B., and Langer, E., ‘Aging free from negative stereotypes: Successful memory in China and among the American deaf’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 66, 1994, pp. 989-997. Mather, M., and Johnson, M. K., ‘Aging and emotional memory: the forgettable nature of negative images for older adults’. Psychology and Aging, vol. 15, 2000, pp. 596-606. Wagenaar, W. A., and Groeneig, J., ‘The memory of concentration camp survivors’. Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 4, 1990, pp. 77-87.

Christie Chung

113

______________________________________________________________ Zelinski, E. M. and Gilewski, M. J., ‘A 10-item Rasch modeled memory selfefficacy scale’. Aging and Mental Health, vol. 8, 2004, pp. 293-306. Christie Chung is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Mills College in Oakland, California, USA. Email: [email protected].

Longevity Meets Brain Wellness Roger Anunsen Abstract One of the most alarming challenges in this age of extended human longevity is understanding the aging brain. In a race against time, researchers around the globe are collaborating in what many consider the ‘Golden Age of Neuroscience’ where cognitive decline is no longer considered inevitable. Tomorrow’s health care strategies for older adults offer pioneering visions that will integrate findings from the new frontier of the neuroscience of aging. Harnessing today’s cascade of evidence-based research can provide leaders with compelling arguments for sustainable, cost-efficient behavioural changes that can result in comprehensive brain wellness benefits. mindRAMP & Associates posits that cognitive health across generations begins with evidence-based brain healthy strategies answering: where? what? how? why? The insights emerging, often gushing from neuroscience will become especially valuable and effective when provided within a multidisciplinary approach to ‘SPACE’ and ‘TIME.’ This new knowledge will leverage ‘mindful’ designs of built spaces, brain healthy built-environments WHERE older adults live that will soon be leveraged with multiple active cognitive intervention therapies that guide WHAT older adults do with their hours, days and years over the remainder of their life-courses. HOW these interventions are delivered will require methods that will effectively and economically empower the three segments of every ‘care team’: elders, their family caregivers and health care professional. The goal of this supportive team is to learn WHY and then apply current brain health knowledge with proven therapy techniques to improve the elder’s life at every available opportunity. Sir Francis Bacon understood that ‘Knowledge is Power.’ This paper will examine how mindRAMP’s unique methodology was developed, how it translates and delivers current neuroscience knowledge and how it motivates older adults to make a sustainable personal commitment to their own brain’s wellness. Key Words: brain wellness, cognitive interventions, neuroeducation, brain health, positive aging, neuroscience, neuroarchitecture. ***** 1.

The State of Brain Health Three realities are converging with the potential to create a perfect storm capable of devastating an aging population and challenging society as a whole. First, the huge baby boomer generation is reaching traditional

116

Longevity Meets Brain Wellness

______________________________________________________________ retirement age, increasing the percentage of the population that are considered old. Second, most of us can expect to live increasingly longer lives, well into our eighties (unless diseases like obesity and diabetes reverse this longevity trend). Third, there is a strong correlation between advanced age and cognitive decline and dementia. Faced with these facts, boomers are increasingly anxious about being able to maintain an acceptable quality of life and cognitive acuity across an extended lifespan. We all eagerly await news of a breakthrough discovery that will control or cure Alzheimer’s and even hear talk of the search for a magic pill that will improve diminished cognition. But, the hoped for a dementia cure continues to be about ‘ten years down the road’ and the magical brain enhancement pill is little more than a quick-fix fantasy. Beyond the personal concerns of the boomer generation, an expanding population of aging individuals, increasingly susceptible to debilitating illness and diminished cognitive abilities, would place increased burdens on all aspects of society, placing particular stress on economic and medical systems already stretched to the breaking point. The impact of growing legions of cognitively deficient elders, should it come to pass, will create devastating emotional and economic costs for the individual, their families and their caregivers. In addition to the rapid increased cost of medical care, the loss of cognitive abilities robs society a priceless intellectual resource. With this perfect storm on the horizon, it is clear that we all need to do what we can to prepare. Fortunately, resources and energies are being focused on a valiant effort to find cures for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. But there is another approach that may be even more effective, more plausible and immediately available; the preventive approach. While we can continue to support current research directions, we can all begin taking action immediately with what might be called a ‘Do It Yourself’ approach to brain health. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience research concerning neural plasticity in central nervous system functioning, neurochemistry and neural architecture have clearly demonstrated that positive behaviour change can promote successful cognitive aging.1 An increasing body of knowledge is identifying the risk factors for cognitive decline, as well as the protective factors that promote brain health. By choosing behaviours that minimize the risk factors and maximize the protective factors, we engage the power of brain plasticity to restructure our own brains in preparation for a positive longevity. This is the approach developed, tested, advocated and supported by mindRAMP & Associates. The ‘Decade of the Brain’ was declared in 19902, and after a stumbling start, the scientific investigation of the brain built up a head of steam. Many now feel that we have entered the ‘Golden Age of Neuroscience’ and that the coming century will be known as the ‘Century of

Roger Anunsen

117

______________________________________________________________ the Brain.’ Neuroscientists submit that 95% of everything we know about the human brain was learned in the last 30 years and, they add, the most of the exciting breakthroughs were in the last ten.3 That pace continues to accelerate with new sources of private and public research supporting a vanguard of talented, determined brain scientists outfitted with revolutionary tools and the excitement of legitimate hope reverberating with the publication of each new study. Neuroscience has been called ‘the most exciting frontier of human knowledge since the Renaissance.’4 Four centuries ago, a new technology – the telescope -- allowed scientists to expand their range of investigation of the skies, suddenly making billions of stars visible for exploration.5 The invention of moveable type and the printing press led to the publication of manuscripts, journals and later books that allowed early scientists to better build upon the work of others and to record their insights. Maturing trade routes and improved sailing vessels allowing global explorations and the dissemination of knowledge across cultures. Today, a wave of new imaging technology (CAT, PET, (f)MRI, MEG), enable a new vanguard of scientists to explore the largely unknown frontier of the human brain. The fascination with billions of stars has been replaced with awe and wonder as we explore the complexity and power of our brain’s billions of neurons. Computer technology and the Internet allow these modern pioneers in neuroscience to collaborate around the globe in real time. Each publication enriches and pollinates budding fields of research. The result is another extraordinary leap of knowledge in an incredibly short time span. 2.

Life’s Lessons in this Age of Longevity Dan Buettner, an aging researcher working through National Geographic, has searched the globe for populations that have the greatest longevity. He has identified four self-contained populations of extraordinary longevity that he calls ‘The Blue Zones,’ which he describes in his book of the same name. The Blue Zone6 project offers significant insights based on a simple premise: Do what they did. Buettner searched for commonalities in the lifestyles and behaviours of the long-lived populations in Sardinia, Okinawa, the Nicoia Peninsula of Nicaragua and in Loma Linda California with a fifth Greek Isle candidate now being researched. Some of the common behaviours Buettner uncovered were daily ‘unintentional’ exercise, consumption of nuts, moderate eating habits with an emphasis on plants and habits of life long socialization. Perhaps most important, the lives of these centenarians are shaped by an inner drive, an unending desire to look ahead, and a reason to get up every morning. It seems clear that somehow their ‘Hope Springs Internal.’7 A robust body of recent research supports the power of maintaining that refusal to ‘give up.’ Harvard Medical School’s No. 1 strategy for

118


______________________________________________________________ memory improvement is ‘Believe in Yourself.’8 It is that internal belief that can circumvent the lingering obstacle of ageism, a term coined years ago by Dr. Robert Butler M.D., founder and president of the International Center for Longevity.9 Dr. Butler witnessed an example of this inner self-confidence when one of his centenarian research subjects interrupted a regular assessment session with a question. ‘Dr. Bob’ asked the 105-year-old man ‘could I get your opinion of what’s wrong with my left knee?’ ‘Well’, Butler replied, ‘you know I’m not a ortho specialist but what’s the problem?’ ‘Well, I’m the leader of that walking group and I don’t want to disappoint anyone but my left knee is killin’ me.’ ‘Did you fall or twist it?’ asked Butler. ‘No, it just started hurtin’.’ An authority on longevity and centenarians, Dr. Butler knew that he was out of his depth. ‘I don’t really know what that could be but I will get you right into a young orthopedist who be able to help you.’ His patient thanked him and Dr. Butler completed the assessment session. Later, Butler was surprised to see his patient back in the waiting room asking for another referral. It seems the appointment with the young doctor began just fine with an explanation that his left knee was in pain, he had not fallen or been injured, and that he was a regular walker. He explained to Butler that the young doctor looked up from his clipboard and said ‘Well sir, you ARE a hundred and five.’ ‘So I stood up to walk out,’ declared the centenarian, ‘looked him in the eye and said ‘Well, my right knee is a hundred and five. How come IT don’t hurt?.’’10 Examples of successful aging and the stories of positive aging11 will be an increasingly important focus of future research. 3.

The mindRAMP Methodology The mission of mindRAMP & Associates12 is to enhance the quality of life across the lifespan by ramping up the brainpower of the mature mind. The unique mindRAMP approach combines the cognitive intervention methods developed over the last decade by Roger Anunsen through his work with aging populations in Oregon, California and Idaho and ideas and methods developed by Michael C. Patterson while running AARP’s Staying Sharp program,13 developed in association with the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. The mindRAMP methodology was developed to deliver translational neuroeducation programs to professionals as well as to lay audiences. It is rooted in a non-traditional route to an invention method that ‘jump starts’ older adults’ minds. A key aspect of the mindRAMP approach is to stimulate critical thinking about the capabilities of the human brain with a structural framework for critical thinking. Ongoing mental exercise is clearly beneficial for brains at any age but in order to sustain interest and engagement in mental exercise, it is important for mature minds to understand key neurological aspects of brain function that support positive aging and to be able to recall these points and apply them in new situations. When teaching critical

Roger Anunsen

119

______________________________________________________________ thinking skills, according to Diane F. Halpern, past president of American Psychological Association, ‘one should ensure that the structural aspects of problems and arguments are made salient so that they can function as retrieval cues.’14 This paper reviews a number of the structural frames that mindRAMP uses to inform our work and that we find are successful in engaging the mature mind and motivating the behaviour changes needed to sustain brain health and cognitive enhancement. These structures include what, when, how, where and why, the critical questions about cognitive enhancement, intentionally reducing risk factors, increasing protective and enhancement factors and the actual benefits of a positive aging mindset. We focus on two main areas: (1) brain health and brain function the physical condition of the human brain and (2) how well it is performing the emotional and cognitive tasks we ask it to perform. In crafting and implementing our programs we ask what, when, how, where and why questions about both topics. WHAT are the actions, behaviours and interventions that can be taken to improve brain health and brain function? What evidence-based research exists to support the potential efficacy of the intervention? WHEN and often must the interventions and behaviours be practiced in order to have an impact? Can the improvements be sustained over time? HOW does the brain work? Given how the brain works, how does the proposed intervention work? Knowledge about core elements of brain science and aging is empowering. WHERE does the aging brain thrive? The new discipline of neuroarchitecture recognizes that the environment – the space in which we operate – has a strong effect on our cognitive well being. WHY should I? Motivation is key to behaviour change. Without a compelling reason we resist change and stay within our comfort zone. mindRAMP confronts false myths about the inevitability of cognitive decline and stresses the potential for mature minds to continue to learn, create and have meaning. This learning structure suggests that every recommendation concerning brain health and cognitive enhancement (including those by mindRAMP) should be subjected to a series of probing critical questions. The cognitive enhancement field is growing by leaps and bounds with ethical concerns about catering to anxiety about cognitive decline. Many products and services are sincere attempts to provide benefit with fewer actually based on serious, evidence-based research. Unfortunately, a great many make extravagant anti-aging claims based on little more than marketing hyperbole. Critical questions include mechanisms of delivery, evidence of effectiveness, dose, and cost/benefits. The guiding principal is ‘do no harm’ but when the

120


______________________________________________________________ weight of evidence suggests that an intervention could help, and there is no harm in doing it, why not? Brain health and cognitive well being are influenced by a number of factors that have either a negative or a positive effect. Brain research has made great progress in identifying the risk factors associated with cognitive decline, as well as the protective factors, mindRAMP structures its educational courses and presentations around risk factors and protective factors across three domains: the internal environment (the body) the external environment, and behaviour. Areas of discussion might focus, for example, on the risk factors associated with the physical environment or discussing the negative impact of a stressful environment. Other topics might focus on behaviour risks to the brain associated with such things as smoking, over eating or substance abuse. On the positive side, certain conditions promote brain health and cognitive fitness with a strong consensus in the scientific community, for example, that what is good for the heart is good for the brain. Good cardiovascular heath is highly predictive of protection against cognitive decline and dementia. Christopher Hertzog and colleagues Art Kramer, Robert Wilson and Ulman Lindenberger summarized recent research by extending the folk wisdom of ‘use it or lose it.’ They propose a cognitiveenrichment hypothesis that states that ‘the behaviours of an individual (including cognitive activity, social engagement, exercise, and other behaviours) have a meaningful positive impact on the level of effective cognitive functioning in old age.’15 In sum, mindRAMP clients and audiences learn to identify risk factors and protective factors that arise from body conditions as well as the environment behavioural choices. 4.

Jump Starting Mature Minds Some mindRAMP clients had fallen into what we call the slippery slope of cognitive decline. Many had withdrawn from stimulating activities and allowed their cognitive abilities to fade. When an older brain has been without novel stimulation for an extended period of time, it is, in essence, a stagnant pond. Without sufficient mental challenge, without adequate nutrition, the brain will, over time, turn that stagnation into a dangerously toxic decline. Fortunately, just as a single pebble can cause a sequence of ripples across an entire pond, targeted brain stimulation can initiate ripples of activation through the mature mind. Certain types of regular brain stimulation and cognitive interventions have the potential of slowing and even reversing the decline. During four years working at typical assisted living facilities in Oregon, it was abundantly clear that while many of these older brains were near stagnation, they proved to be magnificently resilient if given the proper stimulation. ‘I’m not finished!’ was the message signalled from the eyes of those who were jump-started. Once stimulated, the exhilaration rippled not

Roger Anunsen

121

______________________________________________________________ only through their own brains, but also to their peers, staff and family who became eye and ear witnesses to the re-energized minds. One the most exciting and powerful jump-start methods was what we called ‘Mind Dancing.’ Beginning in 2002, a series of activities were designed specifically for a group of older adults with limited mobility, most using canes, walkers or wheelchairs. The idea was to find a way to expose the brains of elders with limited mobility to the actions and movements of others who were not limited. The first Mind Dancing experiment took place when a dozen residents were transported to a Texas line-dancing club. We wanted to determine whether there were benefits from watching others engage in this physical activity. As the group ambled from the bus to their waiting chairs next to the dance floor, the half-hour instruction session began with the instructor leading two-dozen young patrons through the basics of Texas line dancing. Our group, sitting on the sidelines, was intently focused on the instruction and, when the music began, each seemed ready to put their newfound skill to the test, even though none had moved a muscle. Their minds, I realized, were learning just as much as the young line dancers. So when the music began, their minds would be put to the same test as the actual dancers. Our group followed each song with hands clapping, feet tapping, smiles and laughter. After an hour of dancing, I explained that we were ready to go and with a clear and unanimous voice their message was delivered: ‘What’s the hurry?’ We left after another hour, but their minds were eager for more. Our mind-dancing discovery was successfully replicated in a wide variety of venues including up-close observation of quilting, bowling, horseback riding, berry picking and even a day at a construction site. But the mother lode of cost-effective mind dancing programs was the local high school plays and the marching, orchestra and jazz bands. Sitting next to young musicians as they rehearsed, our brains heard, saw, felt and even smelled combined sensations and energy as these groups of players created music. These series of visits to the rehearsals brought the generations together with each benefiting. It was clear that something positive was happening in their aging brains as they watched the musicians and actors practice and rehearse. When we attended the dress rehearsal or the opening night of their performance, the elders arrived with butterflies in their stomachs focusing their complete attention throughout. At this phase of the mind dancing events, the effect within their brains seemed to be magnified as was the positive residual benefits, the ripple effect. They talked and talked about the experiences; they befriended some of the students who had, over time, greatly improved their skills. It was as though the elder had also improved their skills even if only ‘in their mind’ as they beamed with pride during and long after the performance. Years later, research in the field mirror neurons16 offers solid explanations for was going on when the

122


______________________________________________________________ attention of our mind-dancers was riveted to the action and movement of another person. 5.

The Cornerstones of a Healthy Brain While neuroscientists differ in terms of which factor they emphasize, there is general consensus that the following factors are critical to positive aging and cognitive well-being: physical exercise, mental exercise, adequate levels of social engagement, good nutrition, adequate amounts of sleep, stress maintenance and overall control and maintenance of chronic diseases. We place an emphasis on recent findings that offer compelling data that socialization with others releases ‘something’ in the brains that masks, delays, or even prevents the symptoms of dementia from manifesting even though autopsies revealed significant neuromarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.17 What is that ‘something?’ Perhaps this too is a yet undiscovered neurochemical18 and maybe tomorrow’s prescription for cognitive improvement just might include: Enjoy time with others.19 mindRAMP recognizes the power and potential of mature minds and rejects the view that cognitive decline is inevitable with age. We resolutely believe that learning, creativity and meaningful engagement can - and should - continue throughout the lifespan as essential ingredients for healthy, vibrant minds. The mindRAMP approach is grounded in the positive aging movement within the field of gerontology and enlists the insights of neuroscience and cognition to develop evidence-based approaches to promoting positive outcomes. mindRAMP subscribes to an asset-based attitude toward aging. This approach looks for the benefits of aging rather than assuming that age equates to debility and decline. The metaphor of the ramp captures our approach to the pursuit of brain health and cognitive enhancement. By charting a course of action that can be initiated with single, incremental, strategic steps in the right direction. We recognize that whatever stimulations reach the human brain will, at that particular moment, make that brain either a smidgen20 better or a smidgen worse. Will those smidgens ever make a difference? Evidence strongly suggests the answer is yes. It seems that with enough of the right smidgens an aging brain can achieve and then maintain a tipping point toward a healthy brain.21 We call this motivational fact the ‘Power of a Smidgen’.22 If a person is not getting enough physical exercise we recommend doing something that is a smidgen, a little bit more physical than what is being done now. Each small step encourages the next step recognizing that there are two forces at work across the ramp. Negative influences are pushing in a downward, declining direction. Doing nothing makes one vulnerable to this downward push and initiates a slippery slope of debility. Action must be taken to, at least, maintain one’s position on the slope, or better, to begin moving up the ramp towards improved cognitive health on a ‘cognitive incline.’

Roger Anunsen

123

______________________________________________________________ While there is abundant anecdotal evidence that the mindRAMP approach successfully engages mature minds and encourages sustained positive behaviour change, the gold standard of assessment is clinical trials. mindRAMP has been able to test aspects of its approach in a formal clinical trial, with significant positive results. While conducting a program at an assisted living facility, a student researcher from nearby Western Oregon University happened to be in the building on an unrelated project and saw the residents excitedly engaging in a mindRAMP MemAerobics session. The student told her professor who was intrigued and came to see the MemAerobics program for himself. He was impressed by the program and obtained a grant to conduct a clinical trial. The trial was designed to determine whether the MemAerobics method really was an effective cognitive intervention or did it just appear to work. Seven assisted living facilities participated in the trials and the results, published two years later, established that MemAerobics did, indeed, achieve positive results. As stated in the final report, ‘MemAerobics participants experienced an increase in memory ability as well as a decrease in depressive symptoms.’23 The conclusion was clear: ‘residents in ALF facilities who participate in MemAerobics or similar programs will probably experience an increased quality of life, through better moods, more social contacts, and increased cognitive abilities.’ Perhaps most importantly, gaining an understanding of how the older brain really works lowered anxiety and renewed self-confidence, which led participants to engage in other positive activities. ‘The increased perceived memory ability may have given participants the confidence to engage in other stimulating activities outside of the MemAerobics sessions.’24 The clinical trials of the MemAerobics/mindRAMP method confirmed that a supportive group setting that both explained the aging brain and demonstrated these facts with brain exercises improved the individual’s perceived cognitive ability and their confidence in their own cognitive abilities. The findings also revealed a lowering of depressive symptoms and a significant improvement in the actual cognitive abilities.25 The subjects not only believed their memory was better, it was better. 6.

Conclusion Recent advances in neuroscience have uncovered the powerful plasticity of the human mind as well as a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to both cognitive decline and cognitive enhancement. As we confront the ominous trends of increased longevity and the aging of the boomer population, we must not squander the rapidly growing knowledge about the brain especially the value of taking preventive measures to minimize cognitive decline and delay or prevent the onset of the symptoms of dementia. The mindRAMP mission is to enhance the quality of life across the

124


______________________________________________________________ lifespan by ramping up the brainpower of the mature mind. mindRAMP employs a variety of conceptual structures designed to engage the critical thinking of mature minds in the service of adopting behaviours that promote brain health and improved cognitive function. The courses and programs include elements of built environments, brain healthy nutrition programs, and cognitive intervention therapies. These evidence-based approaches are costeffective and non-invasive methods developed to re-engage that internal drive that can begin by inching away from cognitive decline and up a gradual upward sloping ramp that can lead to a lifetime of cognitive incline.26

Notes 1 C Hertzog, A F Kramer, R S Wilson, U Lindenberger, ‘Enrichment Effects on Adult Cognitive Development: Can the Functional Capacity of Older Adults be Preserved and Enhanced?’. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, vol. 9, no. 1, 2009. 2 ‘Decade of the Brain’, 1990-2000, Geo. H.W. Bush, Presidential Proclamation 6158, July 17, 1990, U.S. House Joint Resolution 174. 3 OHSU Brain Awareness Season, Townhall session, 2003, Portland, Oregon. 4 Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, www.anfa.org. 5 Refracting telescopes from The Netherlands, observations of Galileo and others. 6 D Buettner, The Blue Zone, National Geographic Press 2008. 7 R Anunsen, ‘Hope Springs Internal’. LTC Professional, Spr. 2005, p. 56. 8 Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Memory, Harvard Med., Sept. 2007. 9 Dr. Robert N. Butler President and CEO of the ICL/USA and Pulitzer-prizewinning author of Why Survive? Being Old in America. His new book, The Longevity Revolution, (2008) challenges policy makers around the world to take advantage of these new lifespans. 10 Address to 2005 White House Conference on Aging, Washington, DC. 11 ‘Facing Aging, Finding Answers: Stories of Positive Aging’, Ardis Stevenson, (2009). 12 mindRAMP & Associates, LLC, based in Bethesda, Maryland, translates cutting-edge scientific research into practical education programs and services for mature individuals and for organizations that serve mature clients. The mission of mindRAMP is to make longevity worth living with a goal of improving the quality of life as we age by protecting, nurturing and respecting the brainpower of the mature mind. East Coast Principal: Michael C. Patterson, West Coast Principal: Roger Anunsen, www.mindramp.org. 13 2006 MindAlert Awarded presented to the Staying Sharp program at the American Society on Aging annual conference, Anaheim, CA. March 2006.

Roger Anunsen

125

______________________________________________________________ 14

D Halpern, ‘Teaching Critical Thinking For Transfer Across Domains: Dispositions, Skills Structure Training, and Metacognition Monitoring’. American Psychologist, vol 53, no 4, 1998, pp. 449-455. 15 C Hertzog et. al., ‘Enrichment Effects on Adult Cognitive Development: Can the Functional Capacity of Older Adults be Preserved and Enhanced?’. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, volume 9, 2009. 16 G Di Pellegrino, L Fadiga, L Fogassi, V Gallese, and G Rizzolatti, ‘Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study’. Experimental Brain Research, 91, 1992, p. 176-180. G Rizzolatti, M Fabbri-Destro, L Cattaneo, ‘Mirror neurons and their clinical relevance’. Nat Clin Pract Neurol, vol. 5, no. 1, 2009, p. 24–34. 17 ‘Our findings suggest that social networks are related to something that offers a ‘protective reserve’ capacity that spares them the clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease.’, D Bennett, J Schneider, Y Tang, S Arnold, R Wilson, ‘The effect of social networks on the relation between Alzheimer's disease pathology and level of cognitive function in old people: a longitudinal cohort study’, The Lancet Neurology, vol. 5, issue 5, 2006, pp. 406-412. 18 Neurotransmitters: First discovered in the 1920s, Discoveries of astrocytes, olegodendrocytes, B.D.N.F, etc. followed during the next 90 years. What other neurochemical faucets are regularly releasing substances, both good and bad for brain health, have yet to be discovered? 19 ‘Others’: It is worth noting that many researchers in the area of social cognition do not limit the recommendation to socialize with ‘others’ to humans. Could others include non-humans? Surely the human-animal bonding should release that same type of neurochemical. What about plants? House plants and especially gardens would seem to possess the same potential to release that ‘something’ when done as a regular basis. 20 Smidgen: a tiny amount, bit, pinch, dollop, dash, morsel, tad or speck. 21 This note was removed from text. 22 ‘A smidgen isn’t much ... but if you do a smidgen of something every day, every week, every chance you get, you can make a difference.’ Fred S Anunsen, 1961, Salem, Oregon, personal communication. 23 ‘We believe that these stimulating activities and an enhanced understanding and awareness of memory functioning caused the increase in memory ability. Also, the increased perceived memory ability may have given participants the confidence to engage in other stimulating activities outside of the MemAerobics sessions.’ R Winningham, et al., ‘MemAerobics: A Cognitive Intervention to Improve Memory Ability and Reduce Depression in Older Adults’. Journal of Mental Health & Aging, vol. 9, no. 3, 2003, pp. 186-192.

126


______________________________________________________________ 24

ID at 191 (emphasis added). ID at 191. 26 ‘Cognitive Decline’ with age indicates that something is going wrong with emerging research that makes it clear that cognitive incline should be our expectation for normal aging. ‘The Debility Spiral’, Michael C Patterson, August 8, 2008, personal communication. 25

Bibliography Buettner, D., The Blue Zone. National Geographic, 2008. Cohen, G., The Mature Mind. Basic Books, 2006. Icoboni, M., Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 Rizzolatti, G.; Sinigaglia, C., Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience. Oxford University Press, 2008 Zeisel, J., ‘I’m Still Here’. Penguin Group, USA, 2009. Roger Anunsen is a principal with Michael C. Paterson in mindRAMP & Associates, LLC offering brain wellness program consulting to individuals, researchers, businesses and professional organizations. Mr. Anunsen is the creator and developer of clinically proven non-computer cognitive intervention methods and brain wellness course curriculum and was appointed a voting delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.

Higher Education in Later Life: Cui Bono? James H. Cook Abstract Literature on lifelong learning is predominantly concerned with the utility of learning in relation to work and training. This narrow conceptualisation of lifelong learning-work nexus marginalizes and almost invalidates the idea that learning can be done for pleasure or sapiential reasons. When focusing on lifelong learners other than those involved for some vocational meritocratic intent, the dominant approach is concerned with learning for remediation of some kind of deficit or for assisting with social skills that help in the adaptation to changing life and health circumstances. This situation raises the question; what about older people who are relatively ‘healthy, wealthy, and wise’ who engage in learning for pleasure or for non-utilitarian aims? This trend may be revelatory of the shift in ‘social facts’ about human aging that may now be understood less as chronologically and milestone driven, and be more a reflection of comprehending the human lifespan in terms of a quality of life paradigm. Undertaking education for its own sake by older adults reflects research about the need for ‘self-actualisation’ in later life and the concomitant desire for intergenerational interaction and transfer of knowledge and experience. This paper discusses and analyses the issues surrounding the changing nature and meaning of later life learning with a focus on Higher Education. Key Words: Lifelong learning, contemporary universities, massification, ageism, Senior Adult Learners, post-modern, renewal, Gerontagogy. ***** 1.

A University is for Whom? Cardinal John Henry Newman’s seminal work The Idea of a University follows the medieval scholastic tradition of the purpose of a university.1 Knowledge itself is valued and growth in wisdom rather than vocational training is treasured as an outcome of a university education. German and American universities of the 19th century focussed on research and academic freedom, underwritten by ‘practical’ studies such as Science and Philosophy. Karl Jaspers believed that there was a place for professional education at a university, but that the main thrust of a university should be that it is a place where a community of scholars can work for an independent seeking of truth and knowledge and help to transmit culture based on critical inquiry.2 Rather than be beholden to the community and demonstrate utility of education, particularly by vocational training, universities should be places

128

Higher Education in Later Life: Cui Bono?

______________________________________________________________ of top quality research3. A model of a university designed to encompass a wide variety of interest groups such as students, staff, administration, and community that is accountable to government called a ‘multiversity’ gained currency in the late 20th century.4 The modern challenge to the medieval institution of the university has turned about; universities find themselves faced with demands for life-long learning, but this time there are demands for education to be made available easily and cheaply and sold to a commercial market5 Could contemporary Higher Education be considered like a case of Procrustes bed where students are made to conform to an unreasonable model of education? How does the contemporary focus by universities impact on Senior Adult Learners {those students aged 60 years and older} who attend university for personal non-vocational reasons? This paper will analyse and discuss issues surrounding the changing nature of Higher Education in relation to senior adults who choose university as a cynosure for activity in their later life years. There will be a consideration of contemporary universities, a look at the nature of involvement of Senior Adult Learners at university, an examination of the intersection between the institution and the individual, followed by a general discussion. 2.

What is the Contemporary Shape of Universities? The notion of universities being a place of non-instrumental liberal education where an ideal of ‘education for its own sake’ may be sustained has been subsumed and transformed by market driven imperatives and governmental directives. The shift from social democratic ideals to the rhetoric of efficiency and economic probity has seen an intensifying of the idea of a university education as a means of social mobility to the weakening of any sense that it could be a means of self-direction and self-realisation.6 Increased managerialism in universities has reduced the power and influence of academics within and throughout universities creating a tension about how a university should operate and progress 7. This reduction of academics’ voice in the direction and operation of a university may explain the move away from a broad liberal based education to an education that is based on the primacy of the economic viability of courses. Perhaps the increasing perception of universities as a product provider and students as ‘consumers’ has in part contributed to a different dynamic between students and faculty evident in 21st century university life8. Imperatives such as fiscal self-sufficiency, economic rationalistic management and accountability to government, drive a university’s focus when developing and delivering educational resources and priorities. The

James H. Cook

129

______________________________________________________________ ‘creeping credentialism’ that has discoloured the concept of a liberal education underlies the delivery of courses that increasingly have a vocationally oriented focus. The push-pull forces of government policies and funding, changing demographics, e-education systems are some elements that are helping to create what Assiter terms as the inauguration of a ‘postmodern’ university.9 The ‘massification’ of higher education, where courses and degrees are commodified for ‘clients’ and sold in an ever increasingly competitive market place, is a recognisable characteristic of ‘post-modern’ universities.10 It may be suggested then that universities are entities that exist for themselves as businesses that provide a product for a market and less a meeting place where users employ the services of the university to develop themselves and the entity as they do so. This representation suggests that current practices and directions of universities are increasingly becoming outdated and in need of review and concomitant reform. 3.

Representations of ‘Aging’ Just as the shape and dynamic of universities has changed in the ‘post-modern era’, so too has the understanding about getting old and being old. Media discussions and the portrayal of chronologically older people consider aging in narrow terms focussing on a sense of loss of physical and mental faculties that require costly social services.11 Stereotyping of older people in pejorative terms such as useless; prescriptive terms such as a burden; and in economic terms like unproductive perpetuate untrue myths about being old and underpin ageist attitudes and behaviours toward them.12 A by-product of stereotyping older people is the practice of ageism,13 ‘…the process of systematic stereotyping and discrimination against people on the basis of age’ 14 Terminology related to ‘aging’ and being old often falls short of reality and is indicative of how difficult it is to simply define older people as a homogeneous group of people who are chronologically old 15 The term ‘older people’ is one of chronological relativity, as the continuity of self transcends time or body limitations. Identity is a cumulative process where aging per se is not a substantive issue in the lives of older people as ‘the concept of aging is too abstract, too impersonal to be an integral part of identity’. 16 The continuum of human lives can be considered as an accumulation of phases of existence, each having its particular orientation.17 Accordingly, human identity is personal, authentic, unique yet valid and heterogeneous. Senior adults are now more affluent, healthier, longer living and better educated than previous cohorts and have a ‘… greater awareness that retirement can mean a new beginning rather than a sad ending’.18 The emerging dominant paradigm toward the growing numbers of older people in

130


______________________________________________________________ society is the concept and practice of individual and communal ‘quality of life’ concerns and applications. The quality of life paradigm is focussed on self-perception and the sociological concept of ‘reflexivity’, where one’s identity is reworked to help with well-being and social behaviour, ‘…particularly at critical transition points such as …moving into retirement and old age’.19 The literature on human development discusses how engagement in education is seen to assist in adding to the quality of life for retirees. It is suggested that participation in education promotes health by increasing participants' self-esteem, self-efficacy, problem-solving skills, aspirations, future orientation, interpersonal trust, social competency, antidiscriminatory attitudes, and sense of belonging..20 The motivational desire to be involved in learning at a university could be attributed to life needs that older people want to have satisfied. Expressive needs involve participation in an activity for enjoyment or socialisation that may be met not only in the context of a university course, but in the social realm outside formal class activities. Contributive needs are those, which are altruistic in nature and designed to assist others such as classmates. Transcendence needs that involve gaining a deeper understanding of the self and a meaning of a life that is nearing its completion covered through the process or content of a university course. 21 For senior adults who have their health and mobility, participating in learning within the context of a university offers a locus for intellectual and social interaction that the literature notes as important for a good quality of life. 4.

Post-modern Universities and the Senior Adult Learners Senior Adult Learners studying in formal academic courses at university do not fit into a stereotypical mould about being old. Senior Adult Learners undertaking, attending or completing university courses are generally positively portrayed in the media, yet there are negative stereotypical inferences in that these senior adult learners are portrayed as an exception to what a senior adult typically does in retirement. Drawn to formal academic classes at a university out of a desire for self-transcendence that makes sense and meaning of the here and now and the immanent here ever after, a senior adult learner will bring a different quality to their learning than if they were just pursuing academic qualifications. The learning activity may be above the sensory world of acquiring data to a transcendent world of meaning and intelligibility. The human subjectivity embedded in a senior’s historical and social experiences of their learning is not only concerned with the consumption of content, but also with a desire to reflect, question, probe, research and rework to find a deeper meaning of self both in the act of discovering and in the discoveries made by engagement in learning. Whether conscious of these outcomes or not, more and more senior adults are

James H. Cook

131

______________________________________________________________ choosing to spend some part of their later years engaged in education at university.22One thing that universities and seniors have in common is that they have to face change and reassess their role and meaning in a world that no longer has former assumptions and certainties. The increasing number of senior adults desiring a university education to meet their learning needs coupled with a growing commercialisation of universities as a business sets up a situation that calls for change and understanding. The paradigm of lifelong learning holds that education is no longer linear and that students can be of any age, studying at anytime in their lifespan, now as ‘clients’ not just as students only. This is contiguous with the shift in the understanding of ‘social facts’ about human aging that may now be understood less as chronologically and milestone driven, and be more a reflection of comprehending the human lifespan in terms of a quality of life paradigm.23 Locating senior adult learners in the context of lifelong learning establishes a perspective that reframes learners involved in Higher Education into a broader context of the human lifespan, and within the concept of ‘quality of life’ during the later years of human existence. Lifelong learning is simply defined as, learning that is pursued throughout life in a variety of places and sectors for various reasons such as learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and with others, learning to be or any combination of these.24 Conceptualisations of lifelong learning as being primarily concerned with work and training only marginalize and almost invalidate the idea that learning can be pursued as a means of pleasure without having any particular ultimate vocational goal.25 In fact, senior adult learners are characterised more by self-development, recreation or the pursuit of their own interests, rather than credentialism or scholarly accreditation.26 The increasing numbers of senior adult learners undertaking postgraduate studies across all categories reflects findings that the amount of formal education completed by an individual acts as a predictor for the pursuit of further education as the more learning experiences you have, the more learning you want to do.27 Situating a person’s participation in learning in their senior years within the concept of lifelong learning can also be seen to be consistent with the cumulative unfolding project that is human life. Instead of seeing learning as a successive string of disconnected discrete events, learning is considered as a cumulative chain that links and builds into the present moment and looks forward to the future. Undertaking education for its own sake by older adults reflects research about the need for ‘self-actualisation’ in later life and the concomitant desire for intergenerational interaction and transfer of knowledge and experience.28 The gathering of and passing on of wisdom in older age as being intrinsic to later life education calls for a qualitative analysis of, and understanding of its implications in the delivery of education at university. As healthy and intelligent baby boomers move their

132


______________________________________________________________ demographic bubble evermore forward and choose to undertake learning at university, consideration of them and their needs and wants can no longer be ignored, especially in a market of competing institutions of higher learning. 5.

Revitalising the Raison d'être of University Given that post-modern universities are being recast as enterprises with doors open to a myriad of ‘customers’, it makes sense to reevaluate its ‘client-base’ if for no other than the crass and pragmatic reason of profitability. Where can a senior adult who wishes to enjoy the serendipity of both the content and the process of learning at a university and who values knowledge for its intrinsic worth possibly more than its extrinsic application fit within an organisation focused on outputs? Perhaps closer scrutiny of how a university understands its role may offer some insight into this question. How do universities perceive themselves? An indication of a university’s corporate identity could be seen in their Mission statements. The question that can be asked in the light of the commercialisation of universities that are under the influence of market forces is that to what extent are universities living up to their Mission statements? The Mission statements and the growing demand for responding to community demands flag the need for an ongoing examination and renewal of university practices. In the quest for comprehensiveness, the revitalisation of the idea of a university cannot ignore the increasing number of Senior Adult Learners choosing university to meet their later life learning needs. The changing nature of universities calls for the development of an evidence-based approach to inform and encourage positive attitudes and responses to senior adult learners. The rapid ‘massification’29 of Higher Education has occurred with little or no strategic planning or vision that addresses qualitative issues that may affect senior adult learners.30 Oblique references to Senior Adult Learners are generally tied to the ‘matureaged’ student model whose profile is linked with education for vocational qualifications. Tornstum states that: Without an attempt to break free from the traditional, sometimes mythical gerontological presumptions, it might quite possibly be that we carry out research work and care that, in certain cases, are incompatible with the theoretical paradigm that defines reality for aging individuals in the real world. Perhaps we force upon some elderly people a paradigm that they, themselves, no longer inhabit.31 Older people at University tend to study primarily for the intrinsic value of the knowledge, and secondly for the social dimension that accompanied involvement in education.32 Moody33 and Weaver34 point out that the

James H. Cook

133

______________________________________________________________ prevalence of institutional ageism amongst academics, is an inhibitor to senior adult learners. Structural phenomena such as credentialism and colonisation or appropriation by interest groups, discourage potential adult learners and fails to fully meet broader needs of the individual and the community.35How well are post-modern universities recruiting, looking after, encouraging and promoting the presence of senior adult learners within their ivory towers? Revealing the extent of barriers to learning for senior adult learners at university in regards to situational barriers (those related to one’s life situation at a given time), dispositional barriers (attitudes to self as learner), and to institutional barriers (practices and procedures of the university) will assist in both the remediation and prevention of restrictions in the present and into the future.36 In short, listening to the voices of a hitherto poorly represented group in university life will help to discover or further illuminate the experiences and needs of senior adult learners. In the domain of transition in life phases such as retirement and older age living, small group qualitative research into the meanings and experiences of Senior Adult Learners at university will help to reveal and to inform the university and the wider community features that restrict, enhance or encourage fruitful learning for this cohort, as well as assist in research-based policy making efforts.37 In line with the call to reassess ‘for whose benefit is a university’, a Gerontagogical approach is favoured.38The use of educational intervention for the elderly, the hallmark of educational gerontology, while admirable and useful is problematic in that it links education to aging rather than to older people who are in an educational context. In the Gerontagogical approach, the interest is placed on the study by senior adult learners and of the educational practice for senior adult learners, and not as part of the aging processes. A Gerontagogical approach is appropriate as it is about people who have met the tertiary entrance requirements to study in formal academic university courses, and accordingly locates them as individual students within the student population rather than merely as an old person at university. 6.

Discussion . With the growing presence of students sixty years and older at Universities and the projected increase in ‘leading edge’ baby boomers(19461955) desiring educational opportunities at a University, it is important for not only equity and justice reasons, but also for pragmatic application, to develop and have an understanding and appreciation of their wants and needs.39 Discovering what these older students think about their University experience will help inform stakeholders in Higher Education about appropriate policies and practices for this growing cohort. Accountability of the university as a public resource in respect of use and funding practices that scrutinize and underpin university activities and funding, means that the

134


______________________________________________________________ Senior Adult Learner sector of the university, a generation who funded academics and the institutions, cannot be ignored, overlooked or have decisions about their education made in a vacuum. A student responsive curriculum that is based on sound educational principles and an understanding of the changing social context of a university will help in the effective addressing of student needs and concerns.40Universities should not become like a qualification drive-thru of devalued credentialism, but rather an institution of flexible authority and integrity. ‘Students are active subjects in their educational experiences, as well as objects in relationship between institutions and government or commerce entities’.41 Adopting a ‘clientcentred’ approach that seeks to discover, understand and act upon the needs and wants of the ‘end-user’ of the educational ‘product’ not only makes commercial sense, but also is a sound philosophical and ethical approach to meeting the objectives of the university as presented in the corporate ‘Mission statement’. Consulting with senior students about their university experience is not about handing over control to an interest group. It is about fine tuning those areas of university education that attract them and lessening those areas that inhibit them. The managerial model of universities is one that may have to be lived with, so by discovering through qualitative research about the experiences, wants, and needs of Senior Adult Learners at university, a deeper picture will emerge about them and inform the development and actioning of appropriate and efficacious policies within the enterprise. Findings from such research may assist in the development of an ecological approach to strategies, services and programs that enhance the quality of provision and delivery of educational services to Senior Adult Learners, as it will be grounded in qualitative evidence and not based on ontological assumption or frequency of responses to arbitrary questioning. The process of developing a new narrative about Senior Adult Learners at university may in itself be an important process as universities confront what their raison d'être may be. Adjustment of university policies and practices does not mean the ‘ghettoisation’ of Senior Adult learners who are shepherded and corralled into protective enclaves. Rather, it is an acknowledgement of their presence, a remediation of inhibitors to a full participation in university life, and an invitation to participate fully within the university community. Marketing and promoting educational opportunities to senior adult learners based on viewing them only as consumers would be flawed, because it not only lacks vision and leadership, but it may also have an opposite effect of deterring the older learner from engaging in with that university. This idea is considered by Manheimer who notes that: Those educational organisations that can generate an image of creative or productive aging either by being associated

James H. Cook

135

______________________________________________________________ with institutions primarily serving younger generations such as Colleges or universities … will attract seniors who seek continued learning but who shun identification with being old, infirm or needy. Opportunity to learn together with younger people through formal courses and informal exchange will be attractive to a subset of these older learners who prefer intergenerational and age-integrated experience.42 In the United States of America, the commercial world is acknowledging the importance of engaging senior adults in education as there are growing instances where developers and Universities are collaborating in having retirement villages built on or nearby campuses to promote educational interchange where ‘…for those who can afford higher quality and service, they specialize in emphasizing active living, and other wellness programs to promote vitality into the residents’ later years.’43 The idea of university students as clients puts pressure on academics and administrators to provide a service to them. ‘Student centeredness means educators making informed decisions in relation to students’ developmental needs and placing the best interests of students at the heart of planning’.44 University staff may need to understand their professional responsibilities and to keep up to date with ‘best practice’ ways of delivering this service. Staff may also need to acknowledge the diversity of the student population by taking a ‘pastoral care’ approach to dealing with issues that affect their learning, not just as a safety net or an add-on, but as connected to key learning outcomes. 45 7.

Conclusion Many countries throughout the world are experiencing a significant demographic shift toward an aging society new and positive understandings about aging and being old are changing the way society and older people see themselves. At the later stage of human development, individuals are turning to considerations in their life and interests in learning that are not linked to vocational or material needs. Participation in education is one way of dealing with and understanding this new way of being. Numerous personal benefits are a hallmark of engagement in education by older people. Theories about senior adult learners point to the need for closer examination of their learning needs, with a view to improving content and delivery for effective and suitable educational programs to meet those needs University is one location where senior adult learners can have their educational needs met. There are indications that 21st century universities are less than fully in tune with the implications of increasing numbers of senior adult learners engaging in a university education. In order to attract and sustain senior adult learners at

136


______________________________________________________________ university, and in order to help them to engage in meaningful educational activities, a re-examination of the raison d’être of a university may help the university to thrive and develop through the presence and involvement of older learners within their community. Educational opportunities for mature-age people will become ever more important…. This has implications for Education and Training systems traditionally geared towards young people entering the workplace for the first time.46 Encouragement of engagement in university education by senior adult learners is expedient as the ‘…higher education system has a future if it develops along adult continuing education lines, attracting adults from a wide social spectrum’.47 Succinctly, the question ‘cui bono’, for whose benefit, does a university exist may be asked. Taking the approach that a publicly funded institution is for the benefit of all the community, then consideration must surely be given to the growing number of Senior Adult Learners who are choosing a university as a site for their educational needs.

Notes 1

J H Newman, The Idea of a University. Longmans Green and Co, New York, 1947. 2 K Jaspers, K Deutsch, H. Reiche, H.Vanderschmidt, The Idea of a University, Beacon Press, Boston, 1959 3 A Flexner, Universities: American, English, German, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1930. 4 C Kerr, The Uses of the University, Harper and Rowe, New York, 1982. 5 P Coaldrake & L Stedman, On the brink: Australia’s universities confronting their future, University of Queensland Press, St.Lucia, QLD, 1998, p.27. 6 R Scott, ‘The reform of higher education in Australia’ in C Teather (ed) Higher Education in a post-binary era, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London,1999, pp.23-47. 7 T Tapper, & B Slater, Oxford Cambridge and the changing idea of the University: The Challenge To Donnish Domination, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1992 8 A Furlong & E Cartmel, Young people and social change: Individualization and risk in late modernity. Open University Press, Buckingham, U.K, 1997. 9 A Assiter, Enlightened women: Modernist feminism in a post modern age, Routledge, New York, 1996. 10 Department of Education Science and Training (DEST),Our Universities backing Australia’s future: Higher education reforms at a glance. Policy

James H. Cook

137

______________________________________________________________ paper (Released on 13 May 2003 as part of the 2003/04 Budget). Retrieved June 5, 2005, from DEST Web site: http://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/at_a_glance/default.htm 11 M Wade, ‘Growing fears over booming aged numbers’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2004, October 10 p.8. 12 J Cook, ‘Coming to terms with aging: What do we say?’ Proceedings of the 4th national conference for emerging researchers in aging,University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, QLD, 2005. 13 J Gubrium & J Holstein,(eds.),Aging and everyday life. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, U.K., 2000. 14 B Bytheway, Ageism, Open University Press, Buckingham,1995 15 Council of the Aging [COTA], Eliminating ageism and age discrimination, Council of the Aging Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, 1997, p.18. 16 A Blaikie, Aging and popular culture. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, 1999 17 S Kaufman,’The ageless self’, in J Gubrium & J Holstein, (eds), Aging and everyday life, pp.103-111, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, Mass, 2000, p.109. 18 R Atchley, Social forces and aging, (9th ed.), Wadsworth Press, Belmont CA, 2000. 19 D Levinson, A conception of adult development. American Psychologist, 41(1), 1986, pp.3-13. 20 A Williamson, ‘Gender issues in older adults' participation in learning: Viewpoints and experiences of learners in the University of the Third Age (U3A)’, Educational Gerontology, 26(6), 49-66, 2000, p.58. 21 T Schuller, A Brassett-Grundy, A Green, C Hammond, & J Preston, Learning, continuity and change in adult life. Wider benefits of learning research report. The centre for research on the wider benefits of learning, University of London, United Kingdom, London, 2002.p.28. 22 C Hammond, ‘Learning To Be Healthy’, The Wider Benefits of Learning Paper, 2002.Retrieved September 18, 2004 from Centre for research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, Institute of Education/Birkbeck College Web site: http//www.learningbenefits.net/Docs/report1.htm 23 E Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, The Free Press, New York, 1938. 24 J Delors, ‘Learning: The treasure within’, Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO, Geneva, 1996. 25 A Withnall, ‘Exploring influences on later life learning’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 25(1), 2006, pp.29-49. 26 J Erikson, The life cycle completed: A review. W.W. Norton, New York, 1997.

138


______________________________________________________________ 27

C Mehotra, ‘In defense of offering educational programs for older adults’, Educational Gerontology, 29, 2003, pp.645-655. 28 B Miller, ‘The quest for lifelong learning’, American Demographics, 19(3), 1997, pp.22-36. 29 R Ranzjin & C Grbich; ‘Qualitative aspects of productive aging’,Australasian Journal on Aging, 20(2), 2001, pp.62-66. 30 H Schuetze & M Slowey,’Participation and exclusion: A comparative analysis of non-traditional students and lifelong learners in higher education’, Higher Education, 44, 2002, pp.309–327. 31 L Tornstam, Gerotransendence : a developmental theory of positive aging, Spriner Publishing Company,NY,2005, p.30. 32 R Swindell, ‘U3A (The University of the Third Age) in Australia: A model for successful aging’, Aging and Society, 13(Part 2), 1993, pp.245 – 266 33 H Moody, Aging: Concepts and controversies. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1998. 34 J Weaver, ‘Gerontology education: A new paradigm for the 21st century’, Educational Gerontology, 25, 1999, pp. 470-490. 35 Author, Adult Learning Australia [ALA]. (2000). Developing a collective voice for adult and community education in Queensland. Brisbane, QLD, 2000. 36 K Cross, Adults as Learners, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1981. 37 M Crouch & H McKenzie, ‘The logic of small samples in interview-based qualitative research’, Social Science information 2006; 45; 483. Retrieved May 7 2009 from http://ssi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/483 38 A Lemieux, & M Martinez, ‘Gerontagogy beyond words: a reality’, Educational Gerontology, 26, 2000, pp. 475-498. 39 C Mehotra op cit 40 R James, ‘Student’s changing expectations of higher education and the consequences of mismatches with the reality’, in Organisation for Economic Co- Operation and Development Responding to student expectations,OECD, Paris, 2002,pp.71-84. 41 J Byron, ‘What should students be entitled to expect from universities?’ in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Responding to student expectations, OECD, Paris, 2002, p.45. 42 R Manheimer, Older adult education in the United States: Trends and predictions North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, University of North Carolina at Asheville, p.5. Retrieved October 18, 2006, from: http://www.unca.edu/ncccr/Reports/Older_Adult_Education_in_the_US.doc 43 J Nabberfield,’New ERA UW Retirement centre heralds new strategy’,

James H. Cook

139

______________________________________________________________ Puget Sound Business Journal, 18(14), 1.1997. Retrieved June 5, 2004 from: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index 44 R James, op cit, p.81. 45 R Dunkin,’Higher education,students, society:Multi-lateral relationships’in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:Responding tostudentexpectations,OECD, Paris,pp.19-36. 46 P Coaldrake & L Stedman, op cit, p.33. 47 J Barr, ‘Universities after post-modernism’,International Journal of Lifelong Education,21(4),2002, p.331.

Bibliography Assiter, A., Enlightened women: Modernist feminism in a post modern age, Routledge, NewYork, 1996. Atchley, R., Social forces and aging, (9th ed.), Wadsworth Press, Belmont CA, 2000. Australian Government, Department of Education Science and Training {DEST}. (2004).You Can Too: Adult Learning in Australia Consultations. Retrieved May 11, 2004, from http://www.dest.gov.au/ucan2/questions_ list.htm Author, Adult Learning Australia [ALA]. (2000). Developing a collective voice for adult and community education in Queensland. Brisbane, QLD, 2000. Barr, J., ‘Universities after postmodernism’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 21(4), 2002. Berk, L., Development through lifespan. Pearson Education, Boston, 2004. Blaikie, A., Aging and popular culture. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, 1999 Byron, J., ‘What should students be entitled to expect from universities?’ in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Responding to student expectations, OECD, Paris, 2002. Bytheway, B., Ageism, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1995

140


______________________________________________________________ Coaldrake, P., & Stedman, L, On the brink: Australia’s universities confronting their future,: University of Queensland Press, St.Lucia, QLD, 1998, p.27. Cook, J., ‘Coming to terms with aging: What do we say?’, Proceedings of the 4th national conference for emerging researchers in aging.: University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, QLD, 2005. Cross, K., Adults as Learners, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1981. Crouch M., & McKenzie, H., ‘The logic of small samples in interview-based qualitative research’, Social Science information 2006; 45; 483. Retrieved May 7 2009 from http://ssi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/483 Council of the Aging [COTA], Eliminating ageism and age discrimination, Council of the Aging Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, 1997, p.18. Delors, J., ‘Learning: The treasure within’, Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO, Geneva, 1996. Department of Education Science and Training (DEST), Our Universities backing Australia’s future: Higher education reforms at a glance. Policy Paper (Released on 13 May 2003 as part of the 2003/04 Budget). Retrieved June 5, 2005, from DEST Web sitehttp://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov .au /at_a_glance/default.htm Department of Education, Science and Training [DEST]. (2003, 21,September 2005). Our universities backing Australia's Future. Retrieved May 5, 2006, from: http://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/ Dunkin, R., ’Higher education, students, society: Multi-lateral relationships’, in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development: Responding to student expectations, OECD, Paris,pp.19-3. Durkheim, E., The Rules of Sociological Method, The Free Press, New York, 1938. Erikson, J., The life cycle completed: A review. W.W. Norton, New York, 1997.

James H. Cook

141

______________________________________________________________ Flexner, A., Universities: American, English, German, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1930. Furlong, A., & Cartmel, E., Young people and social change: Individualization and risk in late modernity. Open University Press, Buckingham, U.K, 1997. Gubrium, J., & Holstein, J., (eds.),Aging and everyday life. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, U.K., 2000. Hammond, C., ‘Learning To Be Healthy’, The Wider Benefits of Learning Paper, 2002.Retrieved September 18, 2004 from Centre for research on the Wider Benefits of Learning, Institute of Education/Birkbeck College Web site: http//www.learningbenefits.net/Docs/report1.htm James, R., ‘Student’s changing expectations of higher education and the consequences of mismatches with the reality’, in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Responding to student expectations,OECD, Paris, 2002,pp.71-84. Jaspers, K., Deutsch, K., Reiche, H., Vanderschmidt, H., The Idea of a University, Beacon Press, Boston, 1959. Kerr, C., The Uses of the University, Harper and Rowe, New York, 1982. Kim, A., & Merriam, S., ‘Motivations for learning among older adults in a learning in retirement institute’, Educational Gerontology, 30, 2004, pp. 441455. Levinson, D., A conception of adult development. American Psychologist, 41(1), 1986, pp.3-13. Lemieux, A., & Martinez, M., ’Gerontagogy beyond words: a reality’. Educational Gerontology, 26.2000, pp.475-498. Manheimer, R., Older adult education in the United States: Trends and predictions North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Retrieved October 18, 2006, from: http://www.unca.edu/ncccr/Reports/Older_Adult_Education_in_the_US.doc Maslow, A., Motivation and personality (2nd ed.), Harper and Row, New York, 1990.

142


______________________________________________________________ Mehotra, S., ’in defense of offering educational programs for older adults’, Educational Gerontology, 29, 2003, pp.645-655. Mezirow,J., ‘A critical theory of adult learning and education’, Adult Education, 32(1), 1981, pp.3-24. Moody, H., Aging: Concepts and controversies. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks,CA,1998. Nabberfield, J., ‘New ERA UW Retirement centre heralds new strategy’, Puget Sound Business Journal, 18(14), 1.1997. Retrieved June 5, 2004 from: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index Newman, J., H., The Idea of a University. Longmans Green and Co, New York, 1947. Ranzjin, R., & Grbich, A.; ‘Qualitative aspects of productive aging’, Australasian Journal on Aging, 20(2), 2001, pp.62-66. Schuetze, H., & Slowey, M., ’Participation and exclusion: A comparative analysis of non-traditional students and lifelong learners in higher education’, Higher Education, 44, 2002, pp.309–327. Schuller, T., Brassett-Grundy, A. Green, A., Hammond, C., & Preston, J., Learning, continuity and change in adult life. Wider benefits of learning research report. The centre for research on the wider benefits of learning, University of London, United Kingdom, London, 2002 Scott, R., ‘The reform of higher education in Australia’ in C Teather (ed) Higher Education in a post-binary era, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London,1999, pp.23-47. Swindell, R., ‘U3A (The University of the Third Age) in Australia: A model for successful aging’, Aging and Society, 13(Part 2), 1993, pp.245 – 266 Tapper, T., & Slater, B., Oxford Cambridge and the changing idea of the University: The Challenge to Donnish Domination. Open University Press, Buckingham, 1992 Tornstam, T>< Gerotransendence: a developmental theory of positive aging, Spriner Publishing Company, NY, 2005, p.30.

James H. Cook

143

______________________________________________________________ M Wade, ‘Growing fears over booming aged numbers’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2004, October 10 p.8. Weaver, J., ‘Gerontology education: A new paradigm for the 21st century’, Educational Gerontology, 25, 1999, pp. 470-490. Williamson, A., ‘Gender issues in older adults' participation in learning: Viewpoints and experiences of learners in the University of the Third Age (U3A)’, Educational Gerontology, 26(6), 49-66, 2000. Withnall, A., ‘Exploring influences on later life learning’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 25(1), 2006, pp.29-49. James H. Cook is a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, Brisbane campus, in the School of Arts and Sciences. He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland and is researching later life learning with a focus on students at university 60 years of age and older.

Storied Lives: An Exploration of Life Course Narrative Identities and the Factors Linked to Happiness in Later Life Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan Abstract This paper is based on research, which explored the connection between personal life stories and the construction of happiness in later life. Informed by symbolic interactionist theory and grounded in an understanding of the ‘self as social’, this research employed a hermeneutic approach to the study of storied lives. Biographical Narrative Interview Method (BNIM) was employed in the study design. This study involved the collection and analysis of biographical narratives of men and women aged over seventy and living within a socially disadvantaged community in Dublin, Ireland. Analysis of the storied lives of older people provided insight into the connection between integrative life narratives and eudaimonic happiness in later life. The interviews were interpreted within the context of the growing body of literature pertaining to positive psychological well-being and happiness. This paper presents the findings from the pilot phase of the study. Analysis of qualitative interviews with one pilot participant is presented. Integrative life narratives are found to play an important role in the construction of eudaimonic happiness. In particular the growth narrative is shown to be significant for the construction of life meaning and purpose. Key Words: Eudaimonic Happiness, Biography, Narrative, Integrative Narrative, Selfhood, Narrative Identity, Biographical Narrative Interview Method, The Social Self, Meaning. ***** 1.

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the connection between biographical narrative and the construction of eudaimonic happiness in later life. Eudaimonic happiness can be understood to be the pursuit of meaning and purpose for life. An outline of the theoretical context for this research, focusing on aspects of hermeneutic analysis, will be followed by an examination of the role of narrative and selfhood in the construction of eudaimonic happiness. An overview of the research design employed for this study and some illustrative examples obtained from the pilot phase of the research will be presented in this paper. In order to illustrate the connection between life narratives and eudaimonic happiness, the biographical stories obtained from pilot interviews with one participant will be examined.

146

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ 2.

Theoretical Context There are a number of key theoretical concepts pertaining to the social and personal construction of selfhood, and the relationship between narrative biography and happiness. The symbolic interactionist movement, which evolved from the work of American pragmatist philosophy, suggested that the self is empirically grounded in experience while simultaneously being a social construction.1 This ‘social self’ is constructed through the meaning assigning discourses of the society and culture in which people are embedded. Individuals respond to the objects and to the events or experiences in their lives on the basis of the meanings that they have constructed for them. This idea of the ‘social self’ formed an important element of postmodern and post-structuralist theory, which sought to examine the role of the ‘social self’ in the representation and the production of knowledge.2 As a result of the work of theorists such as Derrida and Foucault attention shifted from an enlightenment emphasis on a fixed truth to an examination of how a particular reality or truth becomes constituted and what effects this has in relation to power, knowledge and identity. The post-modern concept of multiple contingent identities and truths took precedence over notions of a single self or truth. This highlighted the importance of situation, context and interpretation in identity construction. As a result of the conceptualisation of multiple possible selves, which are constructed according to the demands of particular social or contingent situations, self could be perceived as a performance.3 Goffman, Butler and Baudrillard argued that if multiple selves are determined by the location of the individual within meaning assigning discourse, then self is not only socially experienced it is also circumstantially realised. These postmodern and poststructuralist theorists offered resistance to the fixedness of prevailing essentialist assumptions of the body and self. By interrogating the ways in which multiple and fluid identities are performed and regulated within dominant social discourses, individual subjective experience was examined in order to better understand the operation of flux in personal identity. However, the extreme relativism of this postmodern position has been criticised for presenting a separate threat to identity, which ultimately leads to the denial of self in favour of unending possibilities and multiple representations.4 Simon Biggs was critical of the extremes of identity flux particularly in relation to ageing.5 In drawing on feminist theory Biggs argued against an over emphasis on the external or surface elements of the self which would deny the personal or internal appraisals of identity. Biggs developed a concept of the masquerade by applying feminist theory to the study of ageing. This concept allowed for an understanding of ageing identity which combined the performative elements of a ‘social self’ with personal

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 147 ______________________________________________________________ constructs of self, accessible through autobiography and narrative. Importantly, Biggs understood both these elements of identity to be in flux and subject to the operation of human agency in the form of constant reappraisal and interpretation. 3.

Narrative, Hermeneutics and the Construction of Self According to Biggs, narrative is located at the centre of selfconstruction whereby there is concern for the spontaneity of performance within particular contexts as well as acknowledgement of the personal resources available for biographical interpretation.6 Hermeneutic philosophy argued that there is no meaning prior to interpretation, the meaning of life depends on stories which act as interpretations of events.7 In other words, life and story cannot be distinguished from each other because the significance of events and experiences in life have no inherent meaning until they have been articulated in story. ‘The meaning of life cannot be determined outside of the stories told about it’8. Herein lies the key to hermeneutic understanding and what has become known as the hermeneutic circle. Story consists of its constituent parts, in other words the stuff of life (experience, events, objects) however these parts in themselves have no meaning without story. Narrative identity is formed through the process of this dialogue – the unity of a person’s life as it is experienced and articulated in stories. The significance of narrative lies not in whether biographical coherence or ‘truth’ is obtained but rather the method by which individuals give coherence to their lives. What are the events that people choose to relate? What are the underlying ideologies that form the context of their narration? The point here is to accept the post-modern emphasis on continual identity construction as a dialogic process between the social and the self but also to allow for human experiential agency within this process. For the purposes of this research narrative biography is understood as a social construct which is performed in a particular context but which also draws from personal resources and is subject to individual appraisal and interpretation. 4.

Integrative Narratives and Eudaimonic Happiness The proceeding discussion of the theoretical context for this research lays the foundation for a meaningful exploration of eudaimonic happiness and the relationship between narrative and happiness in later life. The pursuit of happiness and the drive to understand its form and benefits have preoccupied the theory and practice of humanities and philosophy for centuries. Traditional conceptions of hedonism and eudaimonia, as devised and elaborated on by Aristotle, have held centre stage in ongoing debates and conceptualisations of happiness. According to Bauer, McAdams and Pals hedonic understandings of happiness have tended historically to be the focus

148

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ of much research on well-being.9 Eudaimonia, or the pursuit of meaning and purpose for life with the cultivation of personal skills or strengths, provided the focus for the work of Bauer et al. These authors depicted ‘the good life’ as a combination of hedonic forms of pleasure as well as strong ego development which is necessary for achieving life integration and developing meaning. According to Bauer et al. the exploration of narrative identity holds out the promise of greater understanding of how people internalise life stories in order to integrate interpretations of their past with an imagined future as well as a present.10 This integration, represented through life narrative, is crucial to the construction of eudaimonic happiness. The connection between well-being and integrative forms of life narrative was also discussed in the work of Wong and Watt and their development of a taxonomy of reminiscence in later life.11 Wong and Watt, sought to explore the effects of different types of reminiscence on psychological well-being among older people. In particular, they sought to identify the types of reminiscence which can be linked to successful ageing. In doing so they concluded that the process of life review in itself is not conducive to well-being, but rather it is the output of reminiscence which is important, in particular, the achievement of integrity. Wong and Watt undertook content analysis on reminiscence data yielded by past research in order to develop a taxonomy of six types of reminiscence: Integrative, instrumental, transmissive, escapist, narrative and obsessive.12 Wong and Watt concluded that their data provided significant evidence to support the hypothesis that there is a strong tie between integrative reminiscence and successful ageing.13 This paper presents ongoing research which is critically examining biographical narratives in order to gain insight into the strategies by which individuals negotiate the experience of ageing as well as the possibilities for happiness in later life. 5.

Research Method A convenience sample of approximately fifteen men and fifteen women was sourced using the ‘snowballing’ technique. The sample participants were aged over seventy and living within a particular, socially disadvantaged, community in Dublin, Ireland. This paper represents the initial findings of the pilot phase of the research concentrating on the narratives obtained from one pilot participant in particular. 6.

Research Design The model of research design employed for this study was adopted from the work of Tom Wengraf on biographical narrative interview method (BNIM).14 The research design incorporated multiple interview methods allowing for two depth interviews, consisting of three sub-sessions. The first

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 149 ______________________________________________________________ interview, which incorporated the sub-sessions one and two, elicited an uninterrupted life narrative and was used to address issues relating to the interpretation of life events, changes and disruptions. The second interview (third sub-session) generated structured data directed by the agenda of the research and theory questions. The objective of the biographical narrative interview method was to provide the opportunity for the participants to recount a relatively coherent life story or long narration, as well as smaller, recalled narratives. The research design also included a structured selfcomplete questionnaire which incorporated psychological measures of life satisfaction and happiness, including Diener et al.’s Satisfaction with Life Scale.15 7.

Results and Discussion Pseudonyms have been used to protect the confidentiality guaranteed to the study participants. The participant, named here as ‘Jack’, was 82 years of age at the time of the interviews. ‘Jack’ left school at 14 years of age, and started working as a messenger boy in Dublin city centre before progressing through different jobs to his primary occupation as a lorry driver. He retired at aged 60. He now lives with his wife in a suburb of Dublin, an area characterised by social disadvantage. He has lived here for 52 years, moving out from the inner city tenements to his current house in his early married years. ‘Jack’ scored highly in the life review questionnaire on measures of life satisfaction and happiness; he scored a very high 33 out of a possible 35 on Diener et al.’s Life Satisfaction Scale.16 In the following extract from the semi-structured pilot interview with ‘Jack’ he looked back over his whole life and acknowledged the good and the bad times, reflecting on his childhood as well as his early married life up to now. This extract demonstrates the integrative process described by Bauer et al.; ‘Jack’ provided an evaluation of his life as a whole and concluded that he has ‘done alright’.17 And eh, do you like to reminisce on your life or to look back? Ah yeah I like to think back on the things that happened... the way things... I like to think back and eh some of them weren't great, you know childhood was pretty... There wasn't great times and then there wasn't bad times you know and em marriage life was very good like eh, we done alright like, we weren't wealthy by any means but we just made it... I know it was tough on Helen there in Mountjoy square and that, and then we got here then we weren't too bad. No I have to say we done ok... So you enjoy going back in your memories?

150

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ I don't really go back to... I don't... Don't be thinking of the past, yeah I don't really think of it that much, yeah, I just, I just think the way things are now. Note the final remarks by ‘Jack’ where he said that he does not tend to think that much about the past but he focuses on his present. This is illustrative of the process of integrating an understanding of the past with the present, an important feature of the internalising of life stories and histories. In the next extract ‘Jack’ emphasised the importance of the present for people in later life. In this extract he argued that it is not a good idea to try to imagine or think about the future but to focus on the present: When you think of the future what comes to your mind? Oh, well the future, well you see at this age, I don't think it's a good idea to think of the future, it's the present, you're just living for the present, take every day... You know I don't think of the future. You know what I mean cause em… See well, we've made up our mind that we're going to stay here, so the future is here then... So there's nothing... Just hope for good weather and that's it... This emphasis on the present by ‘Jack’ and particularly his suggestion that for older people the present should be prioritised over both the past and the future provided a fascinating perspective on the concept of integrative life narratives. The suggestion by ‘Jack’ that later life may provide the space to live in the present is a finding of this pilot phase which merits further consideration. In a phase of life where there is more past than future, perhaps the concentration on the present provides a means of avoiding the certainty of what the future holds as well as accepting and integrating the past with the present. During the interviews, ‘Jack’ revealed that his father died when he was in his early teenage years. He was the eldest of six children and this was a time in which there was very little if anything provided by the Irish state in terms of welfare or social support to families in this situation. In the following extract he spoke about his mother’s alcoholism and remembered incidents of neglect in their home. So like... I would have been 13, 13 to 14, around that time when he died, I remember, he died in the Union, what they called... Up in St. James's it was called the Union then, it wasn't St. James's then... It was for the poorer people, he died then, he was only 37 yeah and eh... That left you know it was a hard life for me mother and that like you know...

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 151 ______________________________________________________________ Yeah she eh... Yeah she got at one stage, she got a bit fond of the drink and... Well only the weekend and that... She'd come in late on a Saturday and... She'd be always giving out... 'Ah I was told not to be minding me family, to look after myself' all that type of thing so when I'd come in... Everyone worked on a Saturday then, if you had a job, you worked on a Saturday, and I'd come in on the Saturday, say around half one or something, after been driving the lorries, delivering, and when I'd come in they... The rest of them would all be just sitting there saying 'me mother's not in, there's no dinner or anything' so I wouldn't give me wages to me mother until Saturday or after it, you see, because of these things, so I'd say, 'well you go up and get two pound of steak, sirloin steak' and 'you get two stone of potatoes' and 'you get peas' or you know, whatever and I'd get them all... And I'd cook a dinner, you know, the best fry, the best steak and all so when my mother'd come in, I'd give it over, minus whatever I was after spending... 'And why did you get sirloin steak?' 'Well that's the best thing to get, that's the only thing I could think of'… And there would be murder over that, oh she'd go mad, banging doors and all, and it was terrible, terrible. She apologised then, later, when she got older, and all, but I suppose she was going through a bad time […] but I suppose she went through a bad time, she was only a young woman you see and she had a bad... Yeah it's sad, but she didn't have to put us through it as well like... So that's the way, so you had to get over all that... This narrative extract provides a further example of the integrative reminiscence described by Wong and Watt.18 What is significant about this extract is the attempt to understand the behaviour of his mother; to place her actions in the context of her own difficult life. He recognised that she was at fault to have hurt him but there is forgiveness in his interpretation of this difficult past. Bauer et al. as well as Wong and Watt emphasised the importance of integration and the development of meaning in life review.19 Bauer et al. argued that life narratives assist in the development of meaning and they focused on the growth story as a personal narrative which illustrates development. The authors claimed that growth narratives are closely correlated with eudaimonic forms of happiness and well-being as they strive to assimilate and make sense of the varied experiences of life. This function of growth life stories is particularly evident in narratives which are dealing with difficult or traumatic life events.

152

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ In the following extract ‘Jack’ recalled an incident in his childhood where he was abandoned by his parents on a beach. He was left in charge of six younger siblings while his parents spent the day in a nearby pub. He began his story by discussing his grandparents, who he lived with for a time during his childhood, he then presented a memory of his own parents. It is clear from the extract that ‘Jack’ remains quite affected by this memory. They were a nice couple and they eh... I used to love going with them, they'd go to Bray and eh Howth and we'd go in to a... At that time you had kind of cottages and where you'd go in and you'd get a pot of tea and lovely scones... They always done things like that... Although now they took a drink but they wouldn't take a drink and leave ye... I remember my mother and father would have taken a drink but they'd leave you outside. But they wouldn't do things like that, you know, they had a different... I was very unhappy... There was some unhappy... I always... One time, and getting back to my mother and father, one time, and I'll never forget it, it was a very unhappy, to me it was anyway... There was one time, we were supposed to be going out for the day to the seaside and […] you come off Merrion Road... Well just there there's a little patch of sand, little small tiny beach, no bigger than the back there... A little... And I was the eldest of six and brought there with the six children and I was left there with the six children with a bottle of water and some bread and they went down to the pub... And there all day and I never forgot it... It was terrible... Like that pub... I often... Going by on the bus I just look and see the spot... You know... And I felt that me mother... Me grandmother and grandfather rescued me from that, like, type of thing What is particularly poignant and important about this narrative is the contrasting experience ‘Jack’ had with his grandparents. ‘Jack’ felt that he had been rescued by his grandparents and he talked about their formative and positive influence amid what was an unhappy childhood. Later in the interview ‘Jack’ provided a fascinating interpretation of happiness in the context of his unhappy childhood. He argued that in order to really appreciate good times it may be necessary to have experienced bad or ‘rough’ times: I anyway... I was very happy... yeah like eh... Like I think like that, you see I think that the roughness in childhood left ye then like with eh... If you got it anyway good at all it

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 153 ______________________________________________________________ was great... You know what I mean? And it was the best thing, to me now anyway, it's the best thing that can happen to a child, is to be reared kind of rough em you know... Although I lived with my grandmother for a good while but there was still that other thing there so that when things got good for me I appreciated it, I knew I was after doing well when I got Helen... In this extract the acceptance of upsetting or difficult life events was shown to be an important feature of ‘Jack’s’ current happiness. This is illustrative of the growth stories that are celebrated by Bauer et al. and indicate an ability to integrate all aspects of the past within the life story and to achieve positive outcomes.20 Bauer et al. acknowledged that difficult events or circumstances can potentially damage or threaten well-being. The interpretation of events and the enduring meaning that is assigned to these events, through life narrative and growth stories, is crucial in the protection or fostering of global eudaimonic well-being. 8.

Conclusion There is clearly a connection between biographical narrative and the construction of eudaimonic happiness in later life. In particular, integrative narrative, which operates to assign meaning to the different events in one’s life, appears to be emerging as a salient form of biographical discourse. The process by which the past is interpreted through story and integrated into the present has been shown to be crucial to the formation of life meaning and ultimately to the achievement of eudaimonic happiness. In conclusion, the final word will be left with ‘Jack’ as he provides us with his wisdom and a key to the achievement of happiness: You see I always thought... I don't know whether it was me grandfather that used this, contentment is the main thing you know, to be contented that's everything isn't it? Yeah, and what do you mean by contented? Eh just to strive for contentment just to accept... Accept things, sometimes things are not too good they don't seem to be too good and then say it could be worse, you know, things can always be worse, no matter how bad things are they can always be worse and you'll always see somebody really worse off than yourself... I always think of the old Chinese proverb 'I cried because I'd no boots, and then I saw a man with no feet'... And to me that means an awful lot, doesn't it? It sums everything up, doesn't it?

154

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1 H Blumer, ‘Symbolic Interactionism’, in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Edition), C Calhoun, J Gerteis, J Moody, S Pfaff, and V. Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp. 67-78. 2 J Derrida, ‘Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences’ in Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, D Lodge (ed), Longman, U.K., 1988. M Foucault, ‘Truth and Power’, in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Edition), C Calhoun, J Gerteis, J Moody, S Pfaff, and V. Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp. 201-08. M Foucault, ‘Method’ (From the History of Sexuality Vol. 1) in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (2nd Edition), J Storey (ed), Prentice Hall, Hertforshire, U.K., 1998, pp. 165-72. 3 J Baudrillard, Simulacres and Simulation, (trans. Sheila Faria Glaser). University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1994. E Goffman, 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life', in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Edition), C Calhoun, J Gerteis, J Moody, S Pfaff, and V Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp. 52-66. J Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, New York, 1990. 4 S Biggs, 'Age, Gender, Narratives and Masquerades', Journal of Aging Studies, vol.18, 2004, pp. 45-58. The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology, S. Biggs, A Lowenstein and J Hendricks (eds), Baywood Publishing Company, Amityville, New York, 2003. S Greene, The Psychological Development of Girls and Women: Rethinking Change in Time, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London, 2003. 5 S Biggs, 'Age, Gender, Narratives and Masquerades', Journal of Aging Studies, vol.18, 2004, pp. 45-58. 6 Ibid. 7 J Bruner, 'The Narrative Construction of Reality', Critical Inquiry, vol. 18(1), 1991, pp. 1-21. J Martin and J Sugarman, 'Interpreting Human Kinds: Beginnings of a Hermeneutic Psychology', Theory and Psychology, vol. 11(2), 2001, pp. 193-207. R L Ochberg, ‘Life Stories and Storied Lives’, in Exploring Identity and Gender: The Narrative Study of Lives (Vol. 2), A Lieblich and R Josselson (eds), Sage, London, 1994. G A M Widdershoven, 'The Story of Life: Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Relationship between Narrative and Life History', in The Narrative Study of Lives (Vol. 1), R Josselson and A Lieblich (eds), Sage, London, 1993, pp. 1-21. G Rosenthal, 'Biographical Research', in Qualitative Research Practice, C Seale, G Gobo, J F Gubrium and D Silverman (eds), Sage Publications Ltd., London, 2004, pp.48-64.

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 155 ______________________________________________________________ 8

G A M Widdershoven, 'The Story of Life: Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Relationship between Narrative and Life History', in The Narrative Study of Lives (Vol. 1), R Josselson and A Lieblich (eds), Sage, London, 1993, p. 2. 9 J J Bauer, D P McAdams and J L Pals, 'Narrative Identity and Eudaimonic Well-Being'. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 9(1), 2008, pp. 81-104. 10 Ibid. 11 P T P Wong and L.M. Watt, 'What Types of Reminiscence are Associated with Successful Aging?'. Psychology and Aging, vol. 6(2), 1991, pp. 272-79. 12 Ibid. 13 Wong and Watt also found further evidence to support a connection between instrumental reminiscence and psychological well-being. 14 T Wengraf, Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods, Sage Publication Ltd., London, 2001. 15 E Diener et al. 'The Satisfaction with Life Scale'. Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 49(1), 1985, p.71. 16 Ibid. 17 J J Bauer, D P McAdams and J L Pals, 'Narrative Identity and Eudaimonic Well-Being'. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 9(1), 2008, pp. 81-104. 18 P T P Wong and L.M. Watt, 'What Types of Reminiscence are Associated with Successful Aging?' Psychology and Aging, vol. vol. 6(2), 1991, pp. 27279. 19 J J Bauer, D P McAdams and J L Pals, 'Narrative Identity and Eudaimonic Well-Being'. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 9(1), 2008, pp. 81-104. P T P Wong and L M Watt, 'What Types of Reminiscence are Associated with Successful Aging?'. Psychology and Aging, vol. 6(2), 1991, pp. 272-79. 20 J J Bauer, D P McAdams and J L Pals, 'Narrative Identity and Eudaimonic Well-Being'. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 9(1), 2008, pp. 81-104.

Bibliography Arber, S., Price, D., Davidson, K., and Perren, K., ‘Re-Examining Gender and Marital Status: Material Well-Being and Social Involvement’ in Gender and Ageing: Changing Roles and Relationships. S. Arber, K. Davidson, and J. Ginn (eds), Open University Press, Berkshire, England, 2003, pp. 148-167. Baltes, P. B. and Baltes, M. M., Successful Aging: Perspectives from the Behavioural Sciences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1990. Baudrillard, J., Simulacres and Simulation, (trans. Sheila Faria Glaser), University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1994.

156

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., and Pals, J. L., 'Narrative Identity and Eudaimonic Well-Being'. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 9(1), 2008, pp. 81-104. Bertaux, D., and Kohli, M., ‘The Life Story Approach: A Continental View’. Annual Review of Sociology , vol. 10, 1984, pp. 215-237. Biggs, S., ‘Choosing Not to be Old? Masks, Bodies and Identity Management in Later Life’. Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 1997, pp.553-570. –––, The Mature Imagination: Dynamics of Identity in Midlife and Beyond. Open University Press, Buckingham, U.K., 1999. –––, ‘Age, Gender, Narratives and Masquerades’. Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 18, 2004, pp. 45-58. –––, Lowenstein, A., & Hendricks, J., ‘Introduction: The Need for Theory in Gerontology’ in The Need For Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. S. Biggs, A. Lowenstein, & J. Hendricks (eds), Baywood Publishing Company, Amityville, New York, 2003, pp. 1-12. Blumer, H., ‘Symbolic Interactionism’, in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Ed). C. Calhoun, J. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff, & V. Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp.67-78. Bruner, J., 'The Narrative Construction of Reality'. Critical Inquiry, vol. 18(1), 1991, pp.1-21. Butler, J., Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, New York, 1990. Byrne, A., ‘Researching One An-other’, in (Re)searching Women: Feminist Research Methodologies in the Social Sciences in Ireland. A. Byrne, & R. Lentin (eds), Institute of Public Relations, Dublin, 2000. Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1922. Cooley, C. H., Social Organisation: A Study of the Large Mind. Schocken Books, New York, 1967. Csikszentmihalyi, M., Flow. Harper Collins, New York, 1990.

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 157 ______________________________________________________________ Derrida, J., 'Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences', in Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader. D. Lodge (ed), Longman, U.K., 1988. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. ‘The Satisfaction With Life Scale’. Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 49(1), 1985, p.71. Foucault, M., 'Truth and Power', in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Edition). C. Calhoun, J. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff, & V. Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp.201-08. Foucault, M., 'Method’ (From the History of Sexuality, vol. 1), in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (2nd Edition). John Storey (ed), Prentice Hall, Hertfordshire, U.K., 1998, pp.165-72. Goffman, E., 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life', in Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Edition). C. Calhoun, J. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff, & V. Indermohan (eds), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, U.K., 2007, pp. 52-66. Greene, S., The Psychological Development of Girls and Women: Rethinking Change in Time. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London, 2003. Helliwell, J. F. and Putnam, R. D., ‘The Social Context of Well-Being’ in The Science of Well-Being. F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis & B. Keverne (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, pp. 435-461. Kim-Prieto, C., Diener, E., Tamir, M., Scollon, C., and Diener, M., ‘Integrating the Diverse Definitions of Happiness: A Time-Sequential Framework of Subjective Well-Being’. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 6(3), 2005, pp. 261-300. Lyubomirsky, S. and Lepper, H. S., ‘A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation’. Social Indicators Research, vol. 46, 1999, pp. 137-155. Martin, J. and Sugarman, J., 'Interpreting Human Kinds: Beginnings of a Hermeneutic Psychology’. Theory and Psychology, vol. 11(2), 2001, pp.193207.

158

Storied Lives

______________________________________________________________ Mead, G. H., Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist. (W. C. Morris, Editor). The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1934. Murrell, S. A. & Norris, F. H., ‘Transitory Impact of Life-Event Stress on Psychological Symptoms in Older Adults’. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, vol. 28, 1987, pp.197-211. Ochberg, R. L., 'Life Stories and Storied Lives', in Exploring Identity and Gender: The Narrative Study of Lives (Vol. 2). A. Lieblich & R. Josselson (eds), Sage, London, 1994. Ramazanoglu, C. and Holland, J., Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices. Sage, London, 2002. Rosenthal, G., 'Biographical Research', in Qualitative Research Practice. C. Seale, G. Gobo, J. F. Gubrium and D. Silverman (eds), Sage Publications Ltd., London, 2004, pp.48-64. Ryff, C., ‘Possible Selves in Adulthood and Old Age: A Tale of Shifting Horizons’. Psychology and Aging , vol.6(2), 1991, pp. 286-295. Vaillant, G. E. and Western, R. J., ‘Healthy Aging among Inner-City Men’. International Psychogeriatrics, vol. 13(4), 2001, pp. 425-437. Veenhoven, R., ‘The Four Qualities of Life.’ Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 1(1), 2000, pp. 1-39. Wengraf, T., Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods. Sage Publication Ltd., London, 2001. Widdershoven, G. A. M., 'The Story of Life: Hermeneutic Perspectives on the Relationship between Narrative and Life History', in The Narrative Study of Lives (Vol. 1). R. Josselson and A. Lieblich (eds), Sage, London, 1993, pp.1-21. Wong, P. T. P and Watt, L. M., 'What Types of Reminiscence are Associated with Successful Aging?' Psychology and Aging, vol. 6(2), 1991, pp. 272-79. Deirdre O’Donnell, B.A., M.Phil. is a researcher in the gender equality research unit of the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies in Trinity College Dublin. Her primary research interests include ageing, gender and

Deirdre O’Donnell and Kathleen McTiernan 159 ______________________________________________________________ social class, perspectives on personhood, happiness and well-being, equality studies, biographical narrative and research methodologies. Kathleen McTiernan, M.S.S.A., M.Phil., M.A., PhD. lectures in psychology in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. Her primary research interests include happiness and ageing, psychology of women and perspectives on personhood, lifespan development and education.

Positive Life Models After Normative Retirement Age: Toward a Typology Construction Miwako Kidahashi Abstract A monolithic notion of a leisure-filled life as a retirement ideal is giving way to more diversified options. This paper discusses major factors that are considered to generate diversity in positive life models pursued after normative retirement age, and attempts to construct a typology of core models. Based on some key theories, including ones on productive aging, third age, and de-institutionalisation of the life course, along with analysis of empirical evidence from various sources, including market surveys and research studies, two crucial factors for diversity were identified: ‘work orientation’ and ‘perception of the life stage.’ Combinations of the two factors yielded a typology with five distinct positive life models: Second Career, Neo-Golden Years, Extension of Midlife Career, Traditional Golden Years, and Portfolio Life. While the validity of the typology has yet to be tested, it is expected to serve as a useful tool for wide-range of future research concerning this life stage. Key Words: Retirement, Positive Life Models, Typology, Work Orientation, Life Stage Perspectives. ***** 1.

Toward Diversity A rapid and dramatic increase in longevity over the past century, especially the additional decades of healthy and active period in later life, has changed the human experience significantly. While the extra years open up whole new possibilities for the aging individual, the ensuing drastic social changes require major adjustments both for society and the individual. Particularly, social dissonance caused by these changes, which Riley and Riley call a ‘structural lag,’1 presents a tremendous challenge for the baby boomer generation—an unprecedentedly larger, healthier, wealthier and more educated cohort—as its oldest members have reached normative retirement age. The structural lag they face is the imbalance between the mounting numbers of aging people and the meaningful role opportunities or places available in the social structure that can recognize and reward their capacities.2 As a result, aging baby boomers are left wondering how the added period of life should best be spent. Old age was once characterized as a period defined by a ‘roleless role,’ which is a residual period of life where the individual had no vital

162

Positive Life Models After Normative Retirement Age

______________________________________________________________ function in society.3 However, over the years Americans have successfully transformed their image of later years of life from a dull period of decline into the best time of one’s life—the reward years filled with leisure activities. Sun City, a retirement community developed by the Webb Company in Arizona state, contributed significantly to promoting this new notion, and the post-retirement years quickly became known as the ‘golden years,’ epitomized by happy seniors spending their days on a sunny golf course or by the poolside.4 Such an activity-oriented life style was justified and further promoted by proponents of activity theory, who maintain that good mental and physical health in later life result from increased activity.5,6 Thus, remaining active, as Ekerdt called ‘busy ethic,’ became a central value to pursue in later life, one that would make life worth living.7 However, the monolithic notion of an active, leisure-filled life as a retirement ideal seems to be giving way to more diversified options, from which people with different wants and needs can extract a sense of worthiness and meaning. On the one hand, the social and financial conditions that gave rise to the ‘golden years’ life model have changed significantly, while just being active may no longer be enough for many of older individuals, as Neurgarten points out: ‘[A] vigorous and educated young-old group can be expected to develop a variety of new needs with regard to the meaningful use of time.’ 8 The move toward diversity in positive life models for the period following normative retirement age should also be viewed in the light of a socio-cultural trend wherein the ‘agent’ takes an increasingly bigger role in defining one’s own life.9 Particularly the role of ‘agent’ is assumed to become more important in a rapidly changing society that often lacks welldefined norms.10 Moen and Spencer describe the centrality of the agent upon retirement decisions that ‘[t]hese decision processes of strategic selection and biographical pacing are more self-reflective precisely because the third age, and increasingly retirement itself, are incomplete institutions.’11 With the increasing role of the agent, as well as the changing social environment and the new attitudes emerging among those nearing retirement, an ‘enormous diversity of life styles among the young-old’ is expected in a postmodern society.12 Realising that the ‘golden years’ is not the only desirable life model they can aspire to, many people are now seeking alternative models to follow. The goal of this paper is to identify emerging positive life models in later life and attempt to construct a typology of the core models. The paper will first discuss two major factors that are considered to define the diversity in positive life models, and then introduce a typology of the life models defined by those two factors.

Miwako Kidahashi

163

______________________________________________________________ 2. Two Major Factors in Defining Diversity A. Work Orientation The difference in attitudes regarding work after normative retirement age is considered one of the major factors, which define the diversity in life models people, will pursue. Although retirement used to mean simply stopping work and work generally did not play a significant role after midlife, both ‘working after retirement’ and ‘continuing to work without retirement’ are becoming increasingly common.13,14,15 The strong work orientation found among older people can partly be attributed to the fact that retirement has become to be viewed as a ‘life option’ rather than a given condition,16,17 while the very definition and purpose of retirement as an institution is becoming more ambiguous.18,19 In reality, some are forced to retire and others simply cannot afford to retire.20,21 Particularly, the recent unprecedented financial instability leaves little choice for many but to keep working longer. However, it is important to realize that society as a whole is clearly moving toward a direction, which widens an individual’s options. In most developed countries, social policy actively supports the right of older workers to continue working through laws and various supportive initiatives such as the 1986 amendment to Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 in the U.S., and a new Law Concerning Stabilization of Employment of Old Persons in Japan.22 In addition, more flexible forms of work opportunities are becoming available, while new, creative ways of working such as ‘paid part-time volunteer work’ are emerging, both of which will further encourage people to continue to work.23 The concept of ‘productive aging’ is also considered to have played a crucial role in promoting an orientation toward work among aging adults.24 Rejecting the stereotypical image of old age as characterized by dependency or a roleless role, Butler and a number of others point out that older adults have the potential to be productive and that most of them are actually assuming productive roles in various aspects of their lives.25,26,27 All these discussions extol the benefits of being productive in later life and explicitly or implicitly encourage older people to remain productively engaged. Some question the legitimacy of viewing an older person’s role solely on the basis of their economic activities and potential,28 while others point out the pitfalls of ignoring both macro- and micro-level conditions that restrict people from being fully productive.29 Nevertheless, in a social climate where being productive tends to be considered unquestionably desirable, and successful aging and productive aging are perceived as almost synonymous, the emerging positive life models are expected to be productivity-oriented.

164


______________________________________________________________ B. Contrasting Perception of the Life Stage The extended life stage following normative retirement age is illdefined at best, and people view it in different ways. 30,31 How one perceives this period, and what kind of value/meaning one seeks from it, is therefore considered another crucial factor in formulating the diversity in positive life models. From the viewpoint of constructing desirable life models, there seem to be two basic contrasting perspectives: the first perspective views this period, often called the third age, as a distinct life stage that has unique roles, expectations, and meanings [(1) in Figure 1]; and the second perspective does not recognize this period as a distinct life stage. The latter perspective is further divided into two types depending on which direction the view extends: one which sees this period as an extension of the previous life stage and continues to embrace the values associated with midlife [(2)-a in Figure 1], and the other which recognizes the period as an extended traditional retirement with the value of the ‘golden years’ [(2)-b in Figure 1]. These contrasting perspectives can be best illustrated as below by further developing a chart obtained from the website of The Center for the Third Age Leadership.32 The top bar in Figure 1, which is not within the focus of the current discussion, simply refers to the life stages in the U.S. from 100 years ago, when life expectancy was shorter by about 30 years. Different Perspectives of Life Stages

1st age

2nd age

Last Stage

100 yrs ago

1st age

2nd age

3rd Age

Last Stage

(1) 3rd Age

1st age

Prolonged 2nd Age

Last Stage

(2) a Prolonged 2nd Age

1st age (2) b Prolonged Last Stage

2nd Age

Prolonged Last Stage

Miwako Kidahashi

165

______________________________________________________________ Scholars such as Laslett, Weiss and Bass, Moen and Spencer represent the first perspective, which views the life stage between traditional retirement and the last stage of life as a distinct period. According to Laslett, the ‘third age’ is a unique period to be spent for personal achievement and fulfilment.33 While Weiss and Bass recognize this life stage as a distinct period between retirement and old age,34 Moen and Spencer argue that ‘a new stage is now emerging in the twenty-first century life course, resulting from a confluence of demographic, technological, economic and ideological changes.’35 Echoing these theories, advocates such as Freedman, Dychtwald, and Handy hail this newly recognized life stage as a prime time with a unique mission and meaning, which is hard to find in any other stages.36,37,38 It is also notable that various services, products, programs, and websites/publications intended for ‘young seniors’ are all contributing greatly to reinforcing the concept of a third age as a distinct life stage. A number of research results demonstrate that many, in fact, regard this life stage as a ‘new start,’ one with its own set of goals or opportunities, which differ from those of midlife.39,40 While the idea and definition of a third age are being constructed, there is wide consensus among sociologists that chronological age is becoming a poor predictor of the timing of such major life events as marriage and the birth of children, which suggests that life course boundaries are getting increasingly ambiguous in general. Often referring to the concept of ‘de-institutionalization’ of the life course,41 this view is strongly supported by some of the cultural gerontologists, including Featherstone and Hepworth, Gilleard and Higgs and Blaikie.42,43,44 Summarizing these theories, Featherstone and Hepworth state, ‘[P]ostmodern change, it is argued, will lead to some blurring of what appeared previously to be relatively clearly marked stages and the experiences and characteristic behaviour which were associated with those stages.’45 From a macro viewpoint, on the other hand, Riley and Riley suggest that the structure of our society is shifting from an ‘age-differentiated model’ to an ‘age-integrated model,’ thus indicates waning demarcations between phases of life.46 No longer bound by social and biological reference points, as Featherstone and Hepworth argue, people tend to aspire to maintain ‘midlifestyles’ as long as possible in a strong youth-oriented culture.47 Thus the life period after retirement age is expected to be blurred and merged as a continuum with the previous stage of middle age. Along the same vein, Blaikie points out, ‘As the boundaries of adult life get increasingly hazy, as grandmothers start to dress as their daughters do and grandfathers jog with their sons, so the routemaps for retirement become less distinct.’48 Another perspective without a distinct notion of the ‘third age’ is one which views the added years in life as an extension of the traditional retirement period, rather than an extension of a midlife stage. While the

166


______________________________________________________________ popularity of the ‘golden years’ life model seems to be waning with the advent of the ‘productive aging’ ideology, it is expected to continue to prevail, because there is still a substantial number of people who recognize this period of life as a reward for decades of hard work, which is extended by the added healthy years. 3.

Construction of a Typology The typology introduced in this paper is ‘ideal’ in two ways: first, it is a typology of artificially simplified conceptual models, in the sense of which it is similar to Weber’s ‘ideal type.’ This is not a result of any specific empirical research, but it is based on theoretical constructs and high level analysis of empirical evidence from various sources including findings from market surveys, research studies, observations of social trends and phenomena, interviews and media reports. As such, the typology is meant to be used as a tool or framework for future research. Second, it is ‘ideal’ in the sense that it represents positive life models to which people can aspire, rather than their reality or realistic perspectives regarding retirement. The typology, in other words, addresses a value dimension of life models in order to conceptualise emerging positive and desirable images of a period between normative retirement age and the last stage of life. While much of the data and information used to construct the typology is drawn from the U.S., and to some extent from Japan, the typology is assumed to be widely applicable, since the aforementioned social conditions can be found in most developed counties. Cultural differences are expected to be expressed as differences in distribution patterns among the life models in the typology, variables which determine such patterns, or the typical activities associated with each model. In addition, given that the underlying concepts of the typology are closely related to that of retirement, it is based on an assumption that people spent a significant portion of their lives working at paying jobs. Therefore, the typology is applicable primarily to those with a working career. Based on the previous discussion, the typology is generated by two dimensions, namely, ‘work orientation’ which is defined by a degree, and ‘perception of the life stage’ which is defined by contrasting views of the life stage that falls between normative retirement age and the last stage of life. The horizontal axis in Figure 2 shows the degree of orientation toward work, the right end representing strong work orientation, while the left represents the absence of work orientation. Work orientation is defined as the significance of work in a person’s life in terms of identity and time/energy commitment. Although ‘work’ in this typology is essentially defined as formal paid labour, as opposed to informal unpaid labour, it is recognized that a simple dichotomy cannot properly represent all kinds of work.49 Particularly, given the significance of volunteer services in this life stage and

Miwako Kidahashi

167

______________________________________________________________ the fact that the boundary between paid and non-paid volunteer services is increasingly blurring, the ultimate judgment should be made based on whether the individual views the activity to be the same as a formal paid job, in terms of commitment, responsibility and identity. The vertical axis in Figure 2 (see Appendix) shows the two contrasting views of the life stage discussed earlier, with a set of ‘third-age life perception’ and ‘existing/traditional life perception’ as the second dimension. This defines different life models depending on to what extent one pursues new values unique to a third age as opposed to the tried and true values, topmost being a strong orientation toward new and unique values based on a perception of this period as a distinct life stage, while the bottom represents an orientation toward values tied to an extension of either a previous (midlife) or the last stage of life (traditional retirement). As shown below, the typology consists of five life models: one model for each of the four quadrants generated by the two axes, along with one in the centre, which is a blended model representing elements from each quadrant. Second Career ‘Second Career’ is a life model defined by a strong ‘work orientation’ and ‘third age life perception,’ with the key value being ‘new focus of work.’ As a number of surveys show, of the many people around retirement age who intend to keep working, some do not want simply to hold on to a midlife career for additional years but seek something new, often a ‘Second Career’ with different goals or priorities from those in their previous career. 50,51 People who embrace this life model are those who intend to realize a new value unique to this life stage through new careers, placing a higher priority on social contribution or self-realization, than on money or career advancement. Some may opt for what Freedman calls the ‘Encore Career’ in fields such as education, health care, or elderly care, while others may simply start new businesses to realize lifelong dreams.52 Neo-Golden Years Characterized by a strong ‘third age life perception’ and a low ‘work orientation’, the ‘Neo-Golden Years’ model represents a new version of the traditional golden years, with the key value being ‘self-fulfilment/selfdevelopment.’ This model is characterized by a clear desire to find unique meaning in this life stage, with a new focus of life after work. Instead of realizing a meaningful life through work in the conventional sense, those with this life model focus on new activities such as serious lifelong learning or highly disciplined art practice, which Caro, Bass and Chen call ‘alternative-preferences.’53 This life model differs from the traditional ‘golden year’ model in that the lifestyle typically centres on activities for

168


______________________________________________________________ conscious self-fulfilment or self-development, rather than simple leisure for fun or relaxation. Traditional Golden Years The ‘Traditional Golden Age’ model is defined by a weak orientation toward ‘work’ and a strong ‘existing/traditional life perception,’ with the key value being ‘relaxation.’ More specifically, relaxation realized by the absence of work itself is perceived as a core value. Being the stereotypical ‘ideal’ retirement lifestyle for decades, some embrace a life characterized by ‘busy’ leisure activities, while others may simply want to enjoy a stress-free time relaxing with family and friends, although they may opt to spend some of their time on light volunteer activities or enjoyable learning. Extension of Midlife Career The life model defined by a high ‘work orientation’ and a strong ‘existing/traditional life perception’ is ‘Extension of Midlife Career,’ with the key value being ‘prolonged midlife.’ As is assumed from the trend of the rising age of retirement mentioned earlier, some may just want to extend their middle-age lifestyle for as long as possible by continuing to work in the same or a related career far beyond traditional retirement age. In reality, these individuals may not be able to maintain the same status they had during their midlife careers and may be forced to choose the so-called ‘bridge job/bridge employment,’ but they will attempt to minimize the changes in lifestyle and the value found in work. Portfolio Life A life model characterized by moderate ‘work orientation’ and ‘third age life perception’ is a ‘Portfolio Life,’ a concept which was introduced by scholars and advocates including Corbett, Sadler, and Handy.54,55,56 The key value is a balanced life style with a limited commitment to work. Given a globally identified desire among many young seniors to lead a well-balanced life, another positive life model is the portfolio life which integrates multiple meaningful components, just as a financial portfolio does.57,58 While the actual components can vary, learning, volunteer service, and leisure are often considered major elements besides paid work. 4.

Application of the Typology The typology is designed to enable one to describe various positive life patterns in the real world but it is not meant to exhaust all the possible positive life models actually found in reality. As such one can identify and describe a variety of life patterns in reality by referring to multiple models in the typology with different emphasis.

Miwako Kidahashi

169

______________________________________________________________ In applying the typology empirically, one important aspect is its nature as a ‘continuum.’ Given that both ‘work orientation’ and ‘perception of the life stage’ is defined as a continuous spectrum, not a dichotomy, wideranging variations are expected to be found along the axes. For example, ‘Converted Midlife Career’ model, where expertise or a network acquired in one’s midlife career is applied to a new type of work such as consulting or training, can be found at the midpoint of ‘Midlife Career’ and ‘Second Career’ along the vertical axis. Secondly, the typology should also be viewed from a dynamic perspective in its application, since it is highly likely that people will want to move from one model to another before they reach the last stage of life. For example, they may prefer the ‘Extension of Midlife Career’ model until their mid-sixties and then shift to the ‘Neo Golden Years’ or the traditional ‘Golden Years’ model. Parry and Taylor’s study points out that ‘the majority had a strong sense that retirement was a logical end to their working life’ but ‘were happy to postpone retirement for a few years, or to wind down gradually by going part-time,’59 indicating that people may want to have multiple sub-stages with different life models before sliding into a ‘deep old age.’ In fact, a pilot study done in Japan showed fourteen out of twenty five respondents wanted to shift from one model to another, suggesting that a dynamic pattern is a norm rather than an exception, and any combination of sequences seems possible. Thirdly, given that the typology is a conceptual construct, it is assumed that no one person lives with any of the five life models in its pure form. Even one who embraces the ‘Second Career’ life model, for example, would still spend some time for leisure or lifelong learning. As such, in attempting to assign people to the models, it may be preferable to define each of the models in terms of the percentage of time allocated to different types of activities typically associated with each model. 5.

Conclusion While the ‘golden years’ model is losing its appeal as the sole retirement ideal, we still do not have a cultural consensus on the positive life models to pursue after normative retirement age. It is clear, however, that there will be significant diversity in the life models to which people will aspire. This paper attempted to construct a typology of positive life models based on two determining factors, ‘work orientation’ and ‘perception of the life stage’ that follows normative retirement age. The four quadrants of the typology represent distinct life models generated by crossing the two factors: (1) Second Career, (2) Neo-Golden Years, (3) Traditional Golden Years, (4) Extension of Midlife Career, as well as (5) Portfolio Life, a blended model. These are considered core models, and in an empirical application, variations can be defined in terms of continuum and dynamism.

170


______________________________________________________________ The typology is a conceptual construct based on the analysis of a variety of information, not a summary of any particular set of empirical data, and is primarily intended to be used as a tool or framework for future research. Some research plans with this typology are (1) finding out distribution patterns of individuals among the life models, and the correlation between each life model and a set of features of respondents’ profiles; (2) identifying the typology’s actual dynamic patterns; (3) identifying a possible gap between an ‘desirable’ and ‘real’ life models, as well as the reasons for the gap; and (4) conducting cross-cultural comparisons for each topic of (1) to (3). The results of these research projects, as well as other possible investigations based on the typology, should be valuable not only for understanding the changing reality of our society, but also for developing future policies and necessary services or products vis-à-vis a life stage after the traditional retirement age. Finally, it is important to note that the presentation of this typology does not imply nor assume that everyone can freely choose whichever life model he or she may embrace. On the contrary, there are a number of conditions and restrictions, such as socioeconomic status and health status, which would prevent people from realizing a life model they desire. However, while investigating such conditions and restrictions is not within the scope of this paper, the benefits of identifying the positive life models being constructed in our society should not be denied only because not everyone can enjoy a ‘positive’ life model.

Miwako Kidahashi

171

______________________________________________________________

Appendix

172


______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

M W Riley & J W Riley Jr., ‘Structural lag: past and future’. in Age and structural lag. M W Riley, R L Kahn and A Foner (eds), John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994, pp.15-36. 2 M W Riley & J W Riley Jr., ‘Age integration and the lives of older people’. The Gerontologist, vol. 34(1), 1994, pp. 110-115. 3 E W Burgess, ‘Aging in western culture’, in Aging in Western societies. E W Burgess (ed.), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960, pp. 3-28. 4 M Freedman, Prime time. Public Affairs, New York, 1999, pp. 32-74. 5 R J Havighurst and R Albrecht, Older people, Longmans, Green, New York, 1953. 6 J W Rowe & R L Kahn, Successful aging. Pantheon Random House, New York, 1998. 7 D J Ekerdt, ‘The busy ethic: moral continuity between work and retirement’. The Gerontologist, vol.26(3). 1986, pp. 239-244. 8 B L Neurgarten, The meanings of age: selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten edited and with a foreword by Dail A. Neugaraten. The University of Chicago Press, New York, 1996, p.42. 9 L Polivka and CF Longino Jr., ‘The emerging postmodern culture of aging and retirement security ‘. in Aging, globalization and inequality: the new critical gerontology. J Baars, D Dannefer, C Phillopeson and A Walker (eds), Baywood, Amityville, New York, 2006, pp. 183-204. 10 C Wrosch and A M Freund, ‘Self-regulation of normative and nonnormative developmental challenges’. Human Development, vol. 44, 2001, pp. 264-83. 11 P Moen and D Spencer, ‘Converging divergences in age, gender, health, and well-being: strategic selection in the third age ‘. in Handbook of aging and the social sciences. R H Binstock and L K George (eds), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2006, pp. 133. 12 B L Neurgarten, The meanings of age: selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten edited and with a foreword by Dail A. Neugaraten. The University of Chicago Press, New York, 1996, p.38. 13 G P T Mermin, R W Johnson and D P Murphy, ‘Why do boomers plan to work longer?’. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B 62B, 2007, pp. S286294. 14 Employee Benefit Research Institute, The 2008 retirement confidence survey, 2008, retrieved 2 December 2008 <www.ebr.ort/surveys/rcs/2008>. 15 National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The health & retirement study:

Miwako Kidahashi

173

______________________________________________________________ growing old in America, 2007, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInformation> 16 M Kohli and M Rein, ‘The changing balance of work and retirement’, in Time for retirement. M Kohli, M Rein, A Guillemard and H V Gunsteren (eds), , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, pp.1-35. 17 P Moen and J Altobelli, ‘Strategic selection as a retirement project: will Americans develop hybrid arrangements?’. in Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: the crown of life: dynamics of the early postretirement period J B James and P Wink (eds), vol. 26, Springer, New York, 2006, pp. 61-81. 18 R C Atchley, ‘Retirement as a social institution ‘. Annual Reviews of Sociology, vol. 8, 1982, pp. 263-287. 19 J H Schulz, ‘Productive aging: an economist’s view’, in Productive aging: Concepts and challenges. N Morrow-Howell, J Hinterlong and M Sherraden (eds.), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 2001, pp. 145-172. 20 G P T Mermin, R W Johnson and D P Murphy, ‘Why do boomers plan to work longer?’. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B 62B, 2007, pp. S286294. 21 C Fleck, ‘Retirement on hold’. AARP Bulletin, vol. 49, 2008, pp. 10-11. 22 J B Williamson and M Higo, ‘Older workers: lessons from Japan’. Worker Opportunities for Older Americans, Series 11, June 2007, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.bc.edu/crr>. 23 H Deutsch, ‘For love and a little money’. New York Times, 23 October 2007, pp. H1 and 4. 24 N Morrow-Howell, J Hinterlong and M Sherraden (eds), Productive aging: concepts and challenges. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland and London, 2001. 25 R N Butler, ‘Health, productivity, and aging: An overview ‘. in Productive aging: enhancing vitality in later lif. R N Butler and H P Gleason (eds), Springer, New York, 1985, pp. 123. 26 P O’Reilly and F G Caro, ‘Productive aging: an overview of the literature’. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, vol. 6, no.3, 1994, pp. 39-71. 27 S A Bass and F G Caro, ‘Productive aging: a conceptual framework’. in Productive aging: concepts and challenges. N Morrow-Howell, J Hinterlong and M Sherraden (eds), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland and London, 2001, pp. 37-78. 28 J H Schulz, ‘Productive aging: an economist’s view’, in Productive aging: Concepts and challenges. N Morrow-Howell, J Hinterlong and M Sherraden (eds), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 2001, pp. 145-172.

174


______________________________________________________________ 29

C L Estes, J L Mahakian and T A Weitz, ‘A political economy critique of ‘productive aging ‘’. in Social policy and aging: a critical perspective. C L Estes & Associates (eds), Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 2001, pp. 187199. 30 G A Hornstein and S Wapner, ‘Models of experiencing and adapting to retirement’. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol. 21, no.4, 1985, pp. 291-315. 31 HSBC, The future of retirement 2006, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.hsbc.com/ 1/2/retirement/future-of-retirement> 32 The Center for Third Age Leadership, retrieved 1 July 2008, <www.thirdagecenter.com/ whatis3rdage.htm> 33 P Laslett, A fresh map of life: the emergence of the third age. George Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1989. 34 R S Weiss and S A Bass, ‘Introduction’, in Challenges of the third age: meaning and purpose in later life. R S Weiss and S A Bass (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2002, pp. 3-12. 35 P Moen and D Spencer, ‘Converging divergences in age, gender, health, and well-being: strategic selection in the third age ‘. in Handbook of aging and the social sciences. R H Binstock and L K George (eds), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2006, p.128. 36 M Freedman, Encore. Public Affairs, New York, 2007. 37 K Dychtwald, Age power. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 1999. 38 C Handy, The age of unreason. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 1989. 39 MetLife Foundation & Civic Ventures, New face of work survey, 2005, retrieved 5 December 2008, <www.civicventures.org/publications/surveys/new_face_of_ work/new_face_of_work.pdf>. 40 Hakuhodo Inc. Elder Business Development Division, Dankai third wave. obundo, Tokyo, 2006. 41 T Held, ‘Institutionalisation and de-institutionalisation of the life course’. uman Development, vol. 29, 1986, 157-62. 42 M Featherstone and M Hepworth, ‘Aging and old age: Reflections on the post-modern life course’. in Becoming and being old: sociological approaches to later life. B Bytheway, T Keil, P Allatt and A Bryman (eds.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 1989, pp. 143-157. 43 C Gilleard and P Higgs, Cultures of aging: Self, citizen and the body. Prentice Hall, Harlow, England, 2000. 44 A Blaikie, Aging & popular culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999.

Miwako Kidahashi

175

______________________________________________________________ 45

M Featherstone and M Hepworth, ‘The mask of aging and the postmodern life course’. in The body: social process and cultural theory. M Featherstone, M Hepworth and B S Turner (eds), Sage, London, 1991, p.372. 46 M W Riley and J W Riley Jr., ‘Structural lag: past and future’. in Age and structural lag. M W Riley, R L Kahn and A Foner (eds), , John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994, pp.15-36. 47 M Featherstone and M Hepworth, ‘The midlife style of ‘George and Lynne’’. Theory, Culture, & Society, vol. 1(3), 1983, pp. 85-92. 48 A Blaikie, Aging & popular culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, p.73. 49 R F Taylor, ‘Extending conceptual boundaries: work, voluntary work and employment’. Work, Employment and Society, vol. 18 (1), 2004, pp. 29-49. 50 AARP, The state of 50+ America, 2007, retrieved 23 October 2008, 51 Merrill Lynch, The 2006 Merrill Lynch new retirement study: a perspective from individuals and employers, 2006, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.ml.com/media/66482.pdf> 52 M Freedman, Encore. Public Affairs, New York, 2007. 53 F G Caro, S A Bass and Y P Chen, ‘Introduction: achieving a productive aging society’ in Achieving a productive aging society. S A Bass, F G Caro and Y P Chen (eds), Auburn House, Westport, Connecticut, 1993, pp. 11-12. 54 D Corbett, Portfolio life. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, 2007. 55 W A Sadler, ‘Changing life options: uncovering the riches of the third age’. The LLI Review, vol.1, 2006, pp. 11-20. 56 C Handy, The age of unreason. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 1989. 57 HSBS, The future of retirement 2005, retrieved 23 October 23 2008, <www.hsbc.com/ 1/2/retirement/future-of-retirement> 58 Hakuhodo Inc. Elder Business Development Division, Dankai third wave,.Kobundo, Tokyo, 2006. 59 J Parry and R F Taylor, ‘Orientation, opportunity and autonomy: why people work after state pension age in three areas of England’. Aging & Society, vol. 27, 2007, p.592.

Bibliography AARP, The state of 50+ America, 2007, retrieved 23 October 2008, . Atchley, R. C., ‘Retirement as a social institution ‘. Annual Reviews of Sociology, vol. 8, 1982, pp. 263-287.

176


______________________________________________________________ Bass, S. A. and F. G. Caro, ‘Productive aging: a conceptual framework’, in N. Morrow-Howell, J. Hinterlong and M. Sherraden (eds.), Productive aging: concepts and challenges. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland and London, 2001, pp. 37-78. Blaikie, A., Aging & popular culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Burgess, E. W., ‘Aging in western culture’. in E. W. Burgess (ed.), Aging in Western societies. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960, pp. 3-28. Butler, R. N., ‘Health, productivity, and aging: An overview ‘. in R. N. Butler and H. P. Gleason (eds), Productive aging: enhancing vitality in later life. Springer, New York, 1985, pp. 123. Caro, F. G., S. A. Bass and Y. P. Chen, ‘Introduction: achieving a productive aging society’. in S. A. Bass, F. G. Caro and Y. P. Chen (eds), Achieving a productive aging society. Auburn House, Westport, Connecticut, 1993, pp. 11-12. Corbett, D., Portfolio life. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, 2007. Deutsch, H., ‘For love and a little money’. New York Times, 23 October 2007, pp. H1 & 4. Dychtwald, K., Age power. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 1999. Ekerdt, D. J., ‘The busy ethic: moral continuity between work and retirement’. The Gerontologist, vol. 26(3), 1986, pp. 239-244. Employee Benefit Research Institute, The 2008 retirement confidence survey, 2008, retrieved 2 December 2008, <www.ebr.ort/surveys/rcs/2008>. Estes, C. L., Mahakian, J. L. and Weitz, T.A., ‘A political economy critique of ‘productive aging ‘’. in C. L. Estes (ed), Social policy and aging: a critical perspective. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 2001, pp. 187-199. Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M., ‘The midlife style of ‘George and Lynne.’ ‘. Theory, Culture, & Society, vol. 1(3), 1983, pp. 85-92.

Miwako Kidahashi

177

______________________________________________________________ Featherstone, M. And Hepworth, M.,‘Aging and old age: Reflections on the post-modern life course’. in B. Bytheway, T. Keil, P. Allatt and A. Bryman (eds), Becoming and being old: sociological approaches to later life. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 1989, pp. 143-157. Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M., ‘The mask of aging and the postmodern life course’, in M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth and B. S. Turner (eds), The body: social process and cultural theory Sage, London, 1991, p.372. Fleck, C., ‘Retirement on hold’. AARP Bulletin, vol. 49, 2008, pp. 10-11. Freedman, M., ‘Prime time’, Public Affairs, New York, 1999, pp. 32-74. Freedman, M., ‘Encore’, Public Affairs, New York, 2007. Gilleard, C. and P. Higgs, Cultures of aging: Self, citizen and the body,.Prentice Hall, Harlow, England, 2000. Hakuhodo Inc. Elder Business Development Division, Dankai third wave,. Kobundo, Tokyo, 2006. Handy, C., The age of unreason, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 1989. Havighurst, R. J. and Albrecht, R., Older people. Longmans, Green, New York, 1953. Held, T., ‘Institutionalisation and de-institutionalisation of the life course’. Human Development, vol. 29, 1986, 157-62. Hornstein, G. A. and Wapner, S., ‘Models of experiencing and adapting to retirement’. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol. 21(4), 1985, pp. 291-315. HSBS, The future of retirement 2005, retrieved 23 October 23 2008, <www.hsbc.com/ 1/2/retirement/future-of-retirement>. HSBC, The future of retirement 2006, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.hsbc.com/ 1/2/retirement/future-of-retirement>.

178


______________________________________________________________ Kohli, M. and Rein, M., ‘The changing balance of work and retirement’, in M. Kohli, M. Rein, A. Guillemard and H. V. Gunsteren (eds), Time for retirement. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, pp.1-35. Laslett, P., A fresh map of life: the emergence of the third age. George Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1989. Mermin, G. P. T., R. W. Johnson and D. P. Murphy, ‘Why do boomers plan to work longer?’. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B 62B, 2007, pp. S286-294. The 2006 Merrill Lynch new retirement study: a perspective from individuals and employers, 2006, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.ml.com/media/66482.pdf>. MetLife Foundation & Civic Ventures, New face of work survey 2005. retrieved 5 December 2008, <www.civicventures.org/publications/surveys/new_face_of_ work/new_face_of_work.pdf>. Moen, P. and Altobelli, J., ‘Strategic selection as a retirement project: will Americans develop hybrid arrangements?’. in J. B. James and P. Wink (eds), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics: the crown of life: dynamics of the early postretirement period, vol. 26, Springer, New York, 2006, pp. 6181. Moen, P. and Spencer, D., ‘Converging divergences in age, gender, health, and well-being: strategic selection in the third age ‘. in R. H. Binstock and L. K. George (eds), Handbook of aging and the social sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 20066, pp. 133. Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J. and Sherraden, M. (eds), Productive aging: concepts and challenges. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland and London, 2001. National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The health & retirement study: growing old in America 2007. retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInformation>.

Miwako Kidahashi

179

______________________________________________________________ Neugarten, B. L., The meanings of age: selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten edited and with a foreword by Dail A. Neugaraten. The University of Chicago Press, New York, 1996, p.42. O’Reilly, P. and Caro, F. G., ‘Productive aging: an overview of the literature’. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, vol. 6(3), 1994, pp. 39-71. Parry, J. and Taylor, R. F., ‘Orientation, opportunity and autonomy: why people work after state pension age in three areas of England’. Aging & Society, vol. 27, p.592. Polivka, L. and Longino Jr., C. F., ‘The emerging postmodern culture of aging and retirement security ‘. in J. Baars, D. Dannefer, C. Phillopeson and A. Walker (eds), Aging, globalization and inequality: the new critical gerontology. Baywood, Amityville, New York, 2006, pp. 183-204. Riley, M. W. And Riley Jr., J. W., ‘Structural lag: past and future’. in M. W. Riley, R. L. Kahn and A. Foner (eds), Age and structural lag. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994, pp.15-36. Riley, M. W. and Riley Jr., J. W., ‘Age integration and the lives of older people’. The Gerontologist, vol. 34(1), 1994, pp. 110-115. Rowe, J. W. and Kahn, R. L., Successful aging. Pantheon Random House, New York, 1998. Sadler, W. A., ‘Changing life options: uncovering the riches of the third age’. The LLI Review, vol.1, 2006, pp. 11-20. Schulz, J. H., ‘Productive aging: an economist’s view’. in N. MorrowHowell, J. Hinterlong and M. Sherraden (eds), Productive aging: Concepts and challenges. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 2001, pp. 145-172. Taylor, R. F., ‘Extending conceptual boundaries: work, voluntary work and employment’ Work, Employment and Society, vol. 18(1), 2004, pp. 29-49. The Center for Third Age Leadership, retrieved 1 July 2008, <www.thirdagecenter.com/ whatis3rdage.htm>.

180


______________________________________________________________ Weiss, R. S. and Bass, S. A.,‘Introduction’. in R. S. Weiss and S. A. Bass (eds), Challenges of the third age: meaning and purpose in later life. Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 2002, pp. 3-12. Williamson, J. B. and Higo, M., ‘Older workers: lessons from Japan’. Worker Opportunities for Older Americans, Series 11, June 2007, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, retrieved 23 October 2008, <www.bc.edu/crr>. Wrosch, C. and Freund, A. M., ‘Self-regulation of normative and nonnormative developmental challenges’. Human Development, vol. 44, 2001, pp. 264-83. Miwako Kidahashi, Ph.D., visiting scholar at Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University (until June 2009).

Intimacy among the Socially Dead: Examining Intimacy among Institutionalised Elders with Mid to Late Stage Dementia Johanna M. Wigg Abstract This paper explores intimate relations between elders living with dementia in long-term care settings. By intimate relations, I am referring to holding hands, cuddling, touch, as well as loving engagement lasting months or years. With elderly populations expected to double over the next twenty years, the number of elders living with dementia and needing the services of long-term care will also rise. The paper’s theoretical argument contrasts views of dementing illness as a social death sentence with observational data suggesting evidence of rich, intimate relations between elders living with mid to late stage dementia in long-term care settings. The data suggests demented residents experience a simultaneous social death and life. While family and friends may distance as the disease progresses, peers living with similar cognitive challenges may engage in intimacy within the long-term care environment. The data challenges the loss of personhood, related to social death. Shorter time frames, lack of past recollection and limited use of language are unique traits of the intimacy examined in this paper. Data collection occurred over seven months of observation at a large-scale nursing institution and ten years of participant observation at a small, homelike facility. Key Words: Dementia, Intimacy, Social Death, Personhood, Long-term Care. ***** 1.

Introduction According to the National Institute of Aging in America, ‘as many as 2.4 million to 4.5 million Americans have [Alzheimer’s Disease].’1 With estimates for the American elderly population expected to double over the next twenty years, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease increasing with age, the numbers of elders living with progressive, degenerative neurological diseases will also increase.2 One possible effect of progressive neurological diseases is developing dementia. Dementia is a syndrome embodying multiple cognitive deficits, including memory problems and one or more cognitive challenges, such as aphasia or apraxia.3 Because of the challenges associated with dementing illnesses, including physical, psychological and

182

Intimacy among the Socially Dead

______________________________________________________________ emotional strains, institutionalization is not uncommon in the mid to late stages of the disease.4 Since the numbers of elders with dementing illnesses are likely to increase, so too will the numbers of institutionalized elders.5 What social reality exists for these institutionalized elders? 2. Literature Review A. Social Death Literature about dementia suggests that individuals with dementia, specifically middle to late stage dementia, experience a social death.6 The term social death identifies an experience of social isolation and distancing by those considered no longer socially engaged. Glaser and Strauss’ work describes this experience of ‘nonperson’ treatment of comatose patients.7 Sudnow’s research explores patient treatment in American hospitals. He pays attention to the ‘point at which socially relevant attributes of the patient begin permanently to cease to be operative as conditions for treating him, and when he is essentially regarded as already dead.’8 Kastenbaum defines social death according to the lack of social exchange on both ends of the relation.9 It is ‘a situation in which there is absence of those behaviors which we would expect to be directed towards a living person and the presence of behaviors we would expect when dealing with a deceased or non-existent person.’10 An insightful commentary on social death comes from Mulkay, who argues that it is possible to be both socially dead to some and socially alive to others.11 The simultaneous experience of social death and life resonates with my research findings, revealing regularity of simultaneous social death and life among the demented elderly. Families often feel that their loved one no longer knows who they are; therefore, they may choose to stop visiting. In other situations, demented individuals slowly lose friendships because of their inability to continue to engage in suitable cognitive functioning in activities, such as going out to eat. Preserving conversation and acting socially proper in social settings is often necessary to preserve these friendships. In contrast to these engagements of discomfort and loss for both parties, my research suggests social intimacy between demented peers is often more engaged and sustainable. Sweeting and Gilhooly describe three groups of people who likely experience social death: those in the final stages of a lengthy terminal illness, those who are old and those who experience a loss of essential ‘personhood.’12 Their argument suggests that individuals living with dementia fall into all three categories and therefore are likely to experience an extreme social death. In settings where demented individuals are living together, the potential for social death may be challenged. In my research, I observe peers who are living with cognitive loss as less likely to ostracize others like themselves.

Johanna M. Wigg

183

______________________________________________________________ Defining ‘personhood’ is challenging and open to different interpretations. Some definitions concentrate on an individual’s capacity to engage in relationships.13 Other definitions concentrate on the individual’s capacity to engage in and enjoy life.14 Kitwood’s work from the 1990s seeks to expand personhood by placing emphasis on the need for a social setting to support the individuals remaining abilities, thus fostering the continued presence of ‘personhood.’15 Therefore, personhood relies on the presence of social engagement, but may well depend on a supportive environment to exist. Kitwood’s idea of the ‘malignant social psychology’ present for elders living with dementia intimately relates to social death.16This topic is complex and deserves further exploration and research, which I cannot perform within the limits of this paper. B. Intimacy Research on sexuality among the elderly is limited, and some research argues sex and desire are appropriate for the young, not the old.17 The literature on dementia and intimacy is even sparser and includes several general areas. Some literature focuses on the effect dementia has on sexual behavior, both for the ill individual and their loved one.18 Other research focuses on sexual behavior considered problematic within institutional settings.19 Behavioral and pharmacological treatment of sexually inappropriate behavior in individuals with dementia comprises a part of the literature.20 Yet, research suggests a limited percentage of the demented population engages in sexually inappropriate behavior, 1.8% to 7%.21Other research explores the effect sexuality and sexual expression of the demented has on the institutional functioning of residential care.22 In an attempt to help define intimacy among the demented, I turn to Moss and Schewebel’s articulation of five major relational components. These ingredients include: commitment (feelings of closeness, cohesion, and positive regard), affective intimacy (a deep sense of caring, compassion, and positive regard), cognitive intimacy (thinking about and an awareness of another), physical intimacy (sharing physical encounters ranging from proximity to sexuality), and mutuality (a process of exchange).23 Because of the size limits of this essay, I will briefly apply these components to my findings on intimacy to explore the authenticity of the social exchange. 3.

Settings and Method The objective of the study was to compare data from two different dementia care facilities, specifically examining intimacy between residents.24 Pine Tree Place existed in a Northeastern town of the United States. The observational unit, one of three in the facility, consisted of roughly thirty residents. The population was Caucasian and included a sex ratio of one male to three females. While the age, socio-economic status and diagnosis of each

184


______________________________________________________________ resident was confidential, most of the population was geriatric and living with diseases resulting in dementing disorders. The degree of dementia varied, but the unit provided care from mid to late stage dementia. The design of the unit incorporated a continuous walking loop around the perimeter of the living and dining space. Because of the potential for wandering behaviors, the unit was locked. The center of the unit housed the kitchen. The living spaces included two dining areas with tables set family style. The living space incorporated an open area, flanked by two smaller TV rooms. Staff could see throughout the area because of half walls on the living and dining room areas. There was no room, outside bedrooms, offering privacy. The bedrooms were doubles and shared a bath between two rooms. The second research site, Oceanside Vista, existed in a rural part of the Northeastern United States, ten miles from a town with a population of about twenty thousand. This facility was much smaller, with a maximum capacity of eight residents. The population was Caucasian, with ages ranging from sixty-three to ninety-five, and a male/female ratio ranging from 1:2 to 1:1. The design of the facility included bedrooms on the perimeter and a dining and living space in the central part of the house. One dining area looked out onto the ocean. The outdoors was accessible through a front door leading onto a deck. Oceanside Vista preserved walking areas which led to the ocean and up a wooded lane. The facility did not use locks, but instead incorporated motion detectors for security of the residents.25 Because of the traditional home design, intimate spaces existed. Residents could spend time on the porch or in the front hall without constant surveillance. Half walls did not exist. Over seven months, I produced the Pine Tree Place observational data, resulting in field notes representing nearly four hundred hours of daytime observation. I integrated Atlas.ti in the line by line coding of the data, specific to themes of intimate engagement. The data collected at Oceanside Vista represented ten years of participant observation. My data collection included informal and formal observations. I intermittently produced field notes, including situations suggesting rich data, which I recorded during or following incidents of intimacy between residents. In addition, I analyzed video data of intimacy among residents at Oceanside Vista. Oceanside Vista collected the data with consent from the residents’ Power of Attorneys. I entered the video data and field notes into Atlas.ti for coding, memo generation, and analysis, specific to intimacy. 4.

Findings Residents in each setting engaged in intimacy with one another, disclosing a ‘continuum of communication’26 among residents. Some individuals were able to use language and suggest meaning, as well as

Johanna M. Wigg

185

______________________________________________________________ interpret meaning. One touching engagement involved two elderly, demented women. They were friends for many years and lived on different units within the facility. On occasion, staff aided the more ambulatory resident to visit her debilitated friend. After a visit, the staff suggested the ambulatory woman should be getting back to her unit for dinner. The woman teetered over to her friend and gave her a kiss. She looked her friend, hunched over in a wheelchair, right in the eye and said, ‘I love you.’ Her friend smiled and replied, ‘Oh Dear, I love you too!’ Both women held one another’s hands for some time. This intimate exchange represented two individuals, living with mid to late stage dementia, who were able to use language and understand language. While the exchange may not have been complex, the use of language represents one end of the continuum of communication. At another level of the continuum of communication, observed intimacy included holding hands. For many residents who were unable to use language as skillfully as the previous example, touch and holding hands represented a form of intimacy. Rather than speaking to another, residents would position themselves to take another person’s hand. I witnessed many instances of residents walking or wheeling up to another resident and smiling and taking the person’s hand to hold. Holding hands and touch acted as a means of greeting the other person and sharing an intimate moment. Individuals who may have been able to use language also held hands with individuals when walking or conversing. Intimacy viewed at Pine Tree Place ranged from verbal exchanges expressing love between friends to more progressed individuals relying on touch and hand-holding to engage in intimate exchange. Data collected at the second site offered similar examples of intimacy between residents. Because of the extended period of data collection (ten years) and my role as participant observer, the depth of data is greater and more longitudinal. Within this setting, examples of heavily debilitated individuals engaging in shard intimacy occurred regularly. Perhaps because the environment was smaller, relationships thrived. A significant example of intimacy at Oceanside Vista included a love affair between a man and a woman, both living with middle stage dementia. They were ambulatory and physically healthy, but neither used complex language. Neither individual understood their full reality because of memory problems. Early in their engagement, the couple flirted with each other across the table, smiling and giggling at each other. As the relationship developed, each individual consciously sought out the other to spend time with. As they developed their feelings for one another, the couple’s desire to be sexually intimate also developed. To my knowledge, sexual intercourse never occurred, however, they often entered one of their bedrooms to undress to their underclothes and cuddle in bed.

186


______________________________________________________________ The relationship likely appeared normal to the couple, but was much more alarming to staff and family. Staff expressed concern for the woman’s safety, although never witnessing any aggressive behavior. The families tolerated the relationship, but drew the line when the couple wanted to share a bed at nighttime. It was not uncommon to find the two individuals sleeping together before lights out. Staff was required to wake the gentleman and coax him into his own room until the morning. On many occasions, the couple resisted the staff’s attempts to separate them for the night. As in any intimate relationship, one could identify early flirtation, a lusty buildup, and then the slow normalization of the relationship and finally the decline. The decline occurred when the woman entered a hospital for appendicitis and was absent for one week. Her partner never engaged with her as intimately again. As the two individuals became more compromised in their abilities, the relationship also waned. Until the death of the man, a flirtation and recognition of each other continued, with smiles across the meal table. It is possible, that because of the dementia, the individuals believed their partner was someone from their past. Other examples of individuals developing relationships with residents whom they referred to as their husband or wife were common. At times, these individuals carried on as another identity. In other circumstances, the falsely identified husband of wife would not play along and these mistaken identities caused discontent for both parties. Another example of intimacy at Oceanside Vista involved a gentleman who was living with an early onset case of probable Alzheimer’s disease. He was in his late sixties and had retired just a few years before showing signs of memory issues. When this man moved into Oceanside Vista, he had a strong social network of family and friends. Many friends from his previous employment visited him, took him out for meals and called him on the phone. He had limited interactions with peers at Oceanside Vista. He isolated in his apartment and joined the residents for meals only. As the disease progressed, his engagements with friends lessened. Outings for meals trailed off and some friends would just visit him at the facility for conversation. Eventually, over three years, because of his disease progression, his friends and family nearly stopped visiting. People no longer called, because of his challenge communicating with language. While a social death occurred in his life, his engagement with his peers increased. He began to spend more time socializing with his peers. He listened to music with a woman who also enjoyed singing along. This woman was about the same age as the gentleman and living with similar cognitive deficits. She used language more effectively, but lived with significant cognitive confusion. The two enjoyed one another’s company. They engaged in a ‘show and tell’ with each other, which amounted to each person showing

Johanna M. Wigg

187

______________________________________________________________ the other an important personal item, such as a picture, book or music. They would tell each other about the item and the other would listen and then show their item. Their ‘show and tell’ was an intimate exchange in that they concentrated on each other and found a way to express an interest and listen to the other’s interest. It was not unusual for the couple to hold hands when sitting together. In addition, the woman would join the man in his sitting room for conversation, music or television. 5.

Discussion The continuum of intimate communication, from romantic love affairs to holding hands, touch and facial expression existed in both settings. These findings challenge the theoretical frameworks of social death and personhood. The intimate interactions suggest a different reality than social death. In accordance with Mulkay’s definition of simultaneous social death and life, the research settings displayed examples of family members expressing grief and stress over their inability to connect with their loved one. At the same time, the resident carried on an intimate relation with another demented peer. The woman involved in the love affair offered an interesting example. While engaged with her boyfriend, family often commented on how difficult it was to engage with her. The social distancing by family and friends, resulting from the effects of the illness, such as loss of the use of language, occurred alongside the intimate relationship fostered by peers living with dementia. To display the significance of these relationships between demented elders, it is worth discussing the reactions of family members. In the love affair, the woman’s children competed for her attention during visits. She was far more interested in spending time with her boyfriend, but staff would redirect the gentleman into another activity in order for the children to spend time alone with their mother. In another example, one of the woman’s sons became protective and jealous. At a holiday party, the happy couple was dancing when the son arrived. The son walked to his mother to join her on the dance floor, and each man sized up the other, while the woman smiled and danced. The use of verbal language was nonexistent, but the body language was powerful. The son took his mother’s hand to dance and the boyfriend began to take the other hand and walk away from the son with his girlfriend. The relationships and intimacy shared between residents also challenge Sweeting and Gilhooly’s third grouping of individuals who suffer the loss of an essential ‘personhood.’ Personhood among these individuals is complex and embodies Quinn’s requirement for the capacity for relationships. While the residents’ cognitive capacities were compromised in both settings, their ability to engage in intimacy was possible.

188


______________________________________________________________ Whether engaged in a love affair, or just holding hands, both settings provided examples of intimacy. Moss and Schewebel’s five major ingredients exist in the examples presented. The romantic love affair displayed feelings of closeness, compassion, awareness of the other, physical connection and exchange. The early onset case also shared these elements of intimacy. Among the debilitated individuals who held hands and were present with one another, aspects of intimacy presented. Hand-holding encompasses all the relational parts, including cohesion, compassion, an awareness of the other, proximity, and exchange. Several unique characteristics of the relationships are worth identifying. In many of the more progressed cases, the individuals would engage in short engagements, due perhaps to the neurological challenges to communication. Also, when the residents interacted with one another, there was no expectation of past recollection. The residents would pick up with their exchange and end it without any articulated past context or future expectation. While an outsider may view this as lacking depth, for the individuals engaged, it seemed satisfying. Living in the present may be a result of the weakening of the neurology, yet it does not deny intimacy among a cohort living with similar issues. Related to a lack of past recollection, the use of names was absent. Most viewed interactions occurred without any name identification. Individuals, such as the couple who shared a love affair, never used names to communicate. Some individuals used endearing terms such as sweetheart and honey. The final unique aspect of the interpersonal relationships was the limited use of verbal language. In nearly every intimate relation observed at either facility, verbal language was not a central component. Some individuals used language to express meaning, like the two old friends who spoke their love to each other. However, the couple who shared a love affair rarely spoke to each other beyond a few words. Their relationship required limited verbal language. The gentleman with early onset Alzheimer’s disease used language incompetently. He said incorrect words, or he spoke incoherent sentences. His woman friend would try to understand, then pick up and continue with her end of the conversation. Neither party seemed disturbed by the challenges of verbal language. Key to this exchange, and likely to the love affair, may be a shared stage of debilitation. For individuals at different stages of the disease, language barriers can be challenging. Intimacy among elders living with dementia deserves careful attention and exploration. Redefining how one perceives intimacy among a population living with progressive, neurological debilitation is necessary. The need for human closeness and support when physiological challenges are

Johanna M. Wigg

189

______________________________________________________________ immense should not seem strange. Yet, the view that elders living with dementia do not initiate or maintain an intimate relationship is not uncommon. The impact of environment on developing intimacy among the demented is a necessary area for continued research, both according to physical surroundings and the social psychology of care provided.

Notes 1

http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/AlzheimersInformation/GeneralInfo/#ho wmany. 2 Ibid. 3 V Emery and T Oxman, Dementia; Presentations, Differential Diagnosis, and Nosology. The John’s Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2003, p. xx. 4 L G Branch and AM Jette, ‘ A prospective study of long-term care institutionalization among the aged’. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 72, no. 12, 1982, pp. 1373-1379. 5 E B Ray, Communication and Disenfranchisement: Social Health Issues and Implications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 1996, p. 219. 6 H Sweeting and M Gilhooly, ‘Dementia and the Phenomenon of Social Death’. Sociology of Health and Illness, Vol. 19, no. 1, 1997, pp. 93-117. 7 B G Glaser and A L Strauss, Awareness of Dying. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1966. 8 D Sudnow, Passing On: The Social Organization of Dying. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967, p. 74. 9 R J Kastenbaum, ‘Psychological Death’, in Death and Dying. L Pearson (ed.), Case Western Reserve University Press, Cleveland, Ohio, 1969. 10 Kastenbaum, p. 15. 11 op. cit. 12 Sweeting and Gilhooly, pp. 95-99. 13 K P Quinn, ‘The Best Interests of Incompetent Patients: The Capacity for Interpersonal Relationships as a Standard for Decision-Making’. California Law Review, vol. 76, 1988, pp. 897-937. 14 N K Rhoden, ‘Litigating Life and Death’. Harvard Law Review, vol. 102, 1988, pp. 375-446. 15 T Kitwood, Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Open University Press, Philadelphia, 1997. 16 Ibid. 17 D Aizenberg, et al., ‘Attitudes Toward Sexuality Among Nursing Home Residents’. Sexuality and Disability, vol. 20, no. 3, 2002, p. 188. 18 M Kuppuswamy, et al., ‘Sexuality and Intimacy between Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and Their Partners: Caregivers Describe Their Experience’. Clinical Gerontologist, vol. 30, no. 3, 2007, pp. 75-85. And L

190


______________________________________________________________

Morris, ‘The Relationship Between Marital Intimacy, Perceived Strain and Depression In Spouse Caregivers of Dementia Sufferers’. British Journal of Medical Psychology, vol.61, 1988, pp. 231-236. 19 K Medeiros, et al., ‘Improper Sexual Behaviors in Elders with Dementia Living in Residential Care’. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, vol. 26, 2008, pp. 370-377. 20 V Dhikav, et al.,’ Grossly Disinhibited Sexual Behavior in Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type’. Archive of Sexual Behavior, vol. 36, 2007, pp. 133-134. And L Harris and M Wier, ‘Inappropriate Sexual Behavior in Dementia: A Review of the Treatment Literature’, Sexuality and Disability, vol. 16, no. 3, 1998, pp. 205-217. 21 K Medeiros, et al., ‘Improper Sexual Behaviors in Elders with Dementia Living in Residential Care’. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, vol. 26, 2008, pp. 370-377. And K Alagiakrishnan, et al., ‘Sexually Inappropriate Behavior in Demented Elderly People’. Postgraduate Medical Journal, vol. 81, 2005, pp. 463-466. 22 N Tabak and R Shemesh-Kigli, ‘Sexuality and Alzheimer’s Disease: Can the Two Go Together?’. Nursing Forum, vol. 41, no. 4, 2006, pp. 158-166. C Archibald, ‘Sexuality and Dementia: The Role Dementia Plays When Sexual Expression Becomes a Component of Residential Care Work’. Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2003, pp. 137-148. –––, ‘Sexuality and Dementia in Residential Care- Whose Responsibility?’. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, vol. 17, no. 3, 2002, pp. 301-309. 23 B F Moss and A I Schwebel, ‘ Defining Intimacy in Romantic Relationships’. Family Relations, vol. 42, no. 1, 1993, pp. 31-37. 24 This paper further develops research I conducted for a dissertation on ‘The Culture of Dementia.’ The research focused on the interpersonal engagements between residents living with mid to late stage dementing illnesses. 25 See Wigg (forthcoming), 2010. 26 Wigg, 2007, p.114.

Bibliography Aizenberg, D., et al., ‘Attitudes Toward Sexuality Among Nursing Home Residents’. Sexuality and Disability, vol. 20, no. 3, 2002, pp. 185-189. Alagiakrishnan, K. et al., ‘Sexually Inappropriate Behavior in Demented Elderly People’. Postgraduate Medical Journal, vol. 81, 2005, pp. 463-466.

Johanna M. Wigg

191

______________________________________________________________

Archibald, C., ‘Sexuality and Dementia: The Role Dementia Plays When Sexual Expression Becomes a Component of Residential Care Work’. Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2003, pp. 137-148. ______

, ‘Sexuality and Dementia in Residential Care- Whose Responsibility?’. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, vol. 17, no.3, 2002, pp. 301-309. Dhikav, V. et al., ‘Grossly Disinhibited Sexual Behavior in Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type’. Archive of Sexual Behavior, vol. 36, 2007. pp. 133-134. Glaser, B. G. and Strauss, A. L., Awareness of Dying. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1966. Harris, L. and Wier, M., ‘Inappropriate Sexual Behavior in Dementia: A Review of the Treatment Literature’. Sexuality and Disability, vol. 16, no. 3, 1998, pp. 205-217. Kastenbaum, R. J., ‘Psychological Death’, in Death andDying. Pearson, L. (ed.), Case Western Reserve University Press, Cleveland, Ohio, 1969. Kitwood, T., Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Open University Press Philadelphia, 1997. Kuppuswamy, M. et al., ‘Sexuality and Intimacy Between Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and Their Partners: Caregivers Describe Their Experience’. Clinical Gerontologist, vol. 30, no. 3, 2007, pp. 75-81. Medeiros, K. et al., ‘Improper Sexual Behaviors in Elders with Dementia Living in Residential Care’. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, vol. 26, 2008, pp. 370-377. Morris, L., ‘The Relationship Between Marital Intimacy, Perceived Strain and Depression in Spouse Caregivers of Dementia Sufferers’. British Journal of Medical Psychology, vol. 61, 1988, pp.231-236. Moss, B. F. and Schewebel, A. I., ‘Defining Intimacy in Romantic Relationships’. Family Relations, vol. 42, no. 1, 1993, pp.31-37. Mulkay, M., ‘Social Death in Britain’, in The Sociology of Death. Clark, D. (ed.), Blackwell, Cornwall, England, 1993, pp. 31-50.

192


______________________________________________________________

Quinn, K. P., ‘The Best Interests of Incompetent Patients: The Capacity for Interpersonal Relationships as a Standard for Decision-Making’. California Law Review, vol. 76, 1988, pp. 897-937. Ray, E., Communication and Disenfranchisement: Social Health Issues andImplications. Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 1996. Reingold, D. and Burros, N., ‘Sexuality in the Nursing Home’. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, vol. 43, no. 2, 2004, pp. 175-186. Rhoden, N. K., ‘Litigating Life and Death’. Harvard Law Review, vol. 102,1988, pp. 375-446. Sudnow, D., Passing On: The Social Organization of Dying. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967. Sweeting, H. and Gilhooly, M., ‘Dementia and the Phenomenon of Social Death’. Sociology of Health and Illness, vol. 19, no. 1, 1997, pp. 93-117. ______, ‘Doctor, Am I Dead? A Review of Social Death in Modern Societies’. Omega, vol. 24, 1992, pp. 251-69. Tabak, N. and Shemesh-Kigli, R., ‘Sexuality and Alzheimer’s Disease: Canthe Two Go Together?’, Nursing Forum, vol. 41, no. 4, 2006, pp. 158166. Wigg, J., ‘A Culture of Dementia: Examining Interpersonal Relationships Between Elders with Dementia’. Dissertation, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. ______, (forthcoming) ‘Liberating the Wanderers: Redefining Wandering by Using Technology to Unlock the Doors for Those Living with Dementia’. In Joyce, K and M. Loe (eds.) Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness through an Aging, Science, and Technology Lens, Blackwell, England, 2010. Johanna M. Wigg is a sociologist and independent scholar. While she engages in public sociology as a direct care provider for elders living with dementia, she also teaches and lectures. Her current research concentrates on social implications and ramifications of progressive neurological diseases for Western elder populations.

Practical Wisdom and Overall Life Satisfaction In Aging Sheila Mason Abstract In this paper I present and discuss the findings of several intensive qualitative life review studies based on extensive interviews and tests administered to several groups of elderly people. In the first of these studies we found a correlation between what we have called ‘emergent values’, the occurrence of value terms in the subjects’ reflections on many aspects of their lives, with higher overall life satisfaction. Several other psychological studies report similar findings and tend to view wisdom in aging as a sophisticated ability to satisfy diverse and complex needs. And, while there are various ways to interpret the findings, one plausible way is to relate it to other studies in the field of positive psychology such as those reported by George Vaillant, Mikhail Csikszentmilhalyi and Jonathan Haidt, and then to compare the findings of these studies with the neo-Aristotelian virtue theory, of Rosalind Hursthouse, Martha Nussbaum, and Nancy Sherman, in which good moral judgment depends upon the cultivation of emotional sensitivity to morally salient features of situations. A further philosophical comparison can be made with the phenomenological analysis of the epiphanic experiences of forms of value that transcend the focus on need satisfaction. I shall show the subtle ways in which philosophical studies go beyond the empirical focus on the satisfaction of needs as the ultimate goal of human endeavour, Philosophical reflections are couched in various sorts of evocative language that cannot easily be reduced to empirical or propositional language with well-defined truth-values and decision-procedures. The philosophical studies provide, in contrast, a larger context within which to understand the breadth, depth and variety of human experience when it is not confined to empirical categories. Key Words: Happiness, wisdom, ethics, life satisfaction, ‘spirituality’, transcendence, phenomenology. ***** 1.

Introduction Is aging the time of our lives that is particularly conducive to the acquisition of wisdom? If so, what are the characteristics of wise people, and who is to say what these characteristics are? Is wisdom to be equated with personal happiness and the satisfaction of needs, or should we shift the paradigm and focus on the moral or ‘spiritual’ experiences that people report? In this paper I shall compare the findings of a series of studies in the field of Positive Psychology with certain philosophical reflections emanating from

194

Practical Wisdom and Overall Life Satisfaction in Aging

______________________________________________________________ the perspective of virtue theory and from a phenomenological perspective. Insights found in several psychological studies show that having a rich array of values, having the capacity to integrate cognition and emotion, being open to possibilities and being tolerant of uncertainty are qualities that lead to satisfying experiences of aging. There has been a ‘moral-emotional correction’ in the field of psychology that now finds moral emotions such as elevation and awe to be essential to functioning well. Yet what I have found in reflecting on these different approaches to the study of wisdom is that there is a need to find a way to express the experience that many people have of a quality of attention to, and appreciation of the world, that transcends the psychological focus on the satisfaction of needs and the search for happiness; what might be called a moral-emotional-spiritual correction’ is underlining okay? that takes the subject to another level entirely and represents an important paradigm shift in our understanding of wisdom. 2. Life Review Study: Emergent Values and Measures of Life Satisfaction I begin with the findings of an intensive qualitative life review study at Concordia University based on extensive interviews of 117 elderly retired middle class people, with a mean age of 74.1 The study examined the relation between expressed values found in the participants’ life histories and reflections and the quality of their experience of aging as measured by the quality of emotional life, constancy of identity, sense of choice in life and their own views about whether they were happier or sadder than they had been in the past. Participants completed a detailed life history review in which they described themselves on major life dimensions such as education, occupation, finances, marital status, relationships, health, and level of present functioning. Within these dimensions participants were asked to discuss their history, their satisfactions, regrets, lessons learned, and possible alternative paths they might have taken as well as personal qualities they had. In detailed analyses of the interview transcripts and the findings of several questionnaires, we found that people varied in the number of values they expressed. We defined values as principles or qualities that were deemed important or desirable to put into practice. To our surprise the main finding was that the total number of values predicted a better experience of aging. Additional contributors to the quality of aging were indicated by high scores on the capacity to tolerate uncertainty and the respondents’ interest in engaging in difficult reflections on complex issues rather than avoiding complexity through simplification or other avoidance strategies. We concluded that a positive experience of aging is associated both with having a wide range of values and with various cognitive and emotional capacities. It seems that in dealing with the ever changing complexity of

Sheila Mason

195

______________________________________________________________ people and life-situations, having a wide range of values enables people to better adapt to the ongoing changes of aging, with loss of work and family roles and the loss of close friends, all occurring within the larger context of changing social and world contexts. 3. Further Interpretations of the Relation Between Values and Life Satisfaction. Another study at Concordia University, by Tracy Lyster2 was built on the findings of the Berlin Wisdom Project of Paul Baltes, who defined wisdom as ‘expertise in the meaning and conduct of life’.3 Baltes identified five criteria of wisdom that combine cognitive and affective understanding: i. rich factual knowledge, ii. rich procedural knowledge in dealing with lifeproblems, such as decision-making strategies, conflict-management skills, and the creation of alternative back-up plans, iii. ‘life-span contextualism’, the awareness of the salience of different values at different points in life, iv. ‘value relativism’, the understanding that the common good is composed of different, often conflicting, perspectives and, finally, v. the recognition and management of uncertainty. As we shall see later on these values are precursors to a fuller understanding of wisdom as it is articulated in virtue theory and phenomenological philosophy. Lyster made use of the nominator method to see whether people who had been nominated as wise by their peers, in this case a sample of 76 people, with a mean age of 72, did in fact display these components of wisdom. She found that, the development of wisdom consists of a process that encourages both a broadening and deepening of one’s understanding of life and of human nature. Openness, by virtue of preventing premature closure (i.e., closed mindedness) broadens one’s perspective and encourages development throughout life in multiple areas including cognitive, emotional, and perhaps spiritual domains.4 In addition to good scores on these five criteria of wisdom, other factors emerged: wise people showed a strong ability to integrate cognition and emotion in ways that indicate exceptional understanding of people and the capacity for empathy. They also showed greater involvement with people and interest in contributing to their wellbeing, and it was found that people with higher wisdom scores had a higher degree of satisfaction with their lives. 5 The complexity of the concept of wisdom was further demonstrated in a third study at Concordia University, the Concordia Longitudinal Retirement Study, of Andrew Burr,6 a three-year study of 133 retirees based on Schwartz’ value theory, a widely used model that consists in ten universal values extracted from extensive revues of the literature on values. 7 The ten values that Schwartz found repeatedly emphasized in most cultures are: benevolence, universalism (concern for the well being of all), self-direction,

196


______________________________________________________________ stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power, security, tradition and conformity. These values are thought of as responses to three types of need, biological needs, needs for coordinated social interaction and needs for group survival. In the Concordia study the aim was to determine which of Schwartz’ ten values would be correlated with higher levels of emotional well-being as determined by a questionnaire that assessed the number of positive and negative emotions that people had experienced in the weeks prior to each yearly review of their experience of retirement. The results of the study indicate that in addition to factors such as gender, health and financial status, there was a significant correlation between certain values and the experience of positive emotion among the retirees who were subjects of this study. Openness to change, flexibility and creativity in thought, and the capacity for independent thinking augured well in comparison to values such as concern for status, power and the admiration of others.8 As in the studies cited above certain values are found to be useful tools, or means, to the achievement of a more positive experience of aging. One benefit of these studies is the development of an empirical method for measuring wisdom that makes possible statistically significant correlations with other dimensions of human experience such as wellbeing and the positive experience of aging that are also measured empirically. But the point I wish to develop in this paper is that the reliance on empirical method prevents such studies from accessing and explicating meanings that emerge only when we transcend our desire to fulfil our needs and to achieve personal happiness. 4. Flow Theory and the Role of Values and Life Satisfaction in Aging. It is interesting to compare these findings with earlier extensive studies by Csikszentmihalyi who developed the Experience Sampling Method9 to measure the quality of experience, and who found, with the use of this method, that the highest quality of experience is characterized by what he called the state of ‘flow’.10 Csikszentmihalyi coined the term ‘flow’ to describe the quality of consciousness that individuals experience when they are engaged in activities that challenge their skills to a level that takes them ‘beyond boredom and anxiety’. The activities which produce this state of flow are called ‘autotelic’ activities which are engaged in for their own sake primarily, with the emphasis on the specific challenges to specific skills, rather than on extrinsic rewards of the activity such as money, fame, or other aims such as to please others, and so on. When people are in a state of flow they ‘concentrate on a limited stimulus field, forget personal problems, lose their sense of time and of themselves, feel competent and in control, and have a sense of harmony and union with their surroundings’.11

Sheila Mason

197

______________________________________________________________ Flow theory is useful for identifying strategies to improve the quality of experience, and Csikszentmihalyi has claimed that any situation can be turned into a flow situation by identifying some of the many skills that can be used and challenged in it. In order to transform boring or anxiety producing situations into occasions to experience flow it is necessary either to restructure the situation itself, introducing activities or equipment that can be used at increasingly difficult levels, chess boards, computers, and so on, or to restructure one’s interpretation of the situation so as to find creative ways to challenge skills. The paradigm case of such a frame shift is found in Csikszentmihalyi’s description of a prisoner of war in solitary confinement who imagined that he was walking to America by counting out the paces in his cell and calculating how many steps it would take to walk from Europe, across the ocean, to freedom in America.12 When the war ended he was halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. This restructuring of experience is a powerful tool for coping with anxiety as well as boredom. And there are as many ways to do this as there are situations. Flow theory provides remarkably clear answers to questions such as ‘how ought we to live?’, ‘what should we do?’ and ‘how can we alter our attitudes and behavior so as to achieve more satisfaction in life?’ The emphasis in all these studies is on how to satisfy our needs and how to achieve a positive experience of aging. These studies show that positive emotions and a positive experience of aging can be achieved with the cultivation of cognitive and emotional skills. In this respect they contribute to the view of the importance of emotions for a positive experience of aging. Emotions are no longer construed as passive responses or, worse, irrational incursions into the life of reason, but rather, as active structures of experience that deserve attention and cultivation. 5.

The ‘Moral-Emotional Correction’ So far, however, little has been shown about the moral dimension of wisdom. The positive experience of aging in these studies is associated with certain skills and aptitudes whose value is primarily prudential: it is in one’s interest to cultivate values of openness and creativity vis à vis uncertainty, and to manage one’s emotions by reframing situations. It is for this reason that Jonathan Haidt’s comprehensive study of the moral emotions is of interest in filling out the picture of wisdom.13 Haidt has argued that one of the positive emotions that clearly qualifies, as a moral emotion is the emotion of elevation.14 Elevation is an important moral emotion, as we shall see further on, insofar as it elicits a desire to become a better person and ‘seems to open one’s heart not only to the person who triggered the feeling but to other people as well.’ ‘Many people report being deeply moved simply by hearing stories about acts of kindness and charity.15 The idea that emotion forms the basis of the moral response represents an important shift in psychology which

198


______________________________________________________________ has been dominated for many years by an overemphasis on the cognitive models of Piaget and Kohlberg and an overemphasis on the role of needs in human motivation. Gradually the ‘moral-emotional correction’ took place in psychology with the work of Jerome Kagan who had found, in his work on children, that emotional states form the basis for moral judgment.16 Haidt’s contribution to our understanding of the ‘moral-emotional correction’ is the view that happiness cannot be achieved without moral emotions which he characterizes as ‘quick gut feeling, or affectively laden intuitions’. Philosophers writing in the tradition of Aristotelian virtue theory such as Martha Nussbaum17, Rosalind Hursthouse18, Nancy Sherman19 and others, also maintain that ‘emotions do a tremendous amount of work in the creation and daily functioning of morality.20 But they offer a more sophisticated account of emotion, namely that emotions are ‘intentional states’ that are constituted by beliefs, and not quick gut feelings, twinges or mere physical responses. To say that something is an ‘intentional’ state means that it is a form of consciousness that is focused on something that can be apprehended as other than itself; a form of awareness. Emotions are thus both cognitive and affective and not mere irrational accompaniments of rational processes. Emotions are distinguishable and identifiable by the beliefs that constitute them. To be angry is to believe that some unwarranted harm has been done. To experience fear is to anticipate some harm to oneself or to what one values, and so on. Change the beliefs and you change the emotion. Philosophers writing in the area of virtue theory, a moral theory based in part on Aristotle’s theory of practical wisdom, hold that wisdom consists in the capacity to cultivate emotional sensitivity to the most important, or noble, values. The moral psychology implicit in virtue theory goes beyond empirical psychology focused on the satisfaction of needs to a focus on ‘intrinsic values’, that is aspects of the world that are experienced as having value independently of our own needs, wants and aspirations. 6.

The Moral-Emotional-‘Spiritual’ Correction We have seen, so far, that psychological studies focused on the positive experience of aging need to be complemented with accounts of the importance of the moral emotions since we know that excellent human lives are not entirely focused on the satisfaction of needs, and we are coming to understand that moral life is not merely a matter of applying abstract rational principles to situations. Moral emotions such as ‘elevation’ enable us to grasp, and be moved by, moral values as they are expressed in the actions of people we admire and as we come to enact them in our own lives. From the moral point of view something is good, not because we desire it, rather we desire it because it is good. The shift away from need and desire to cognitiveemotional appreciation of what has value apart from our needs is the key

Sheila Mason

199

______________________________________________________________ difference between moral theory and psychological studies aimed as finding out what people need and what fulfils their desires. The moral question is whether something is worth desiring. The moral frame of mind enables us to select the ends worth pursuing and the desires worth cultivating: from a moral point of view we shape our needs and wants in the light of our understanding of ‘higher’ values. But we can go one step further in our discussion of the moral emotions and add what I call a ‘moral-emotional-’spiritual’ correction’ to our understanding of the possibilities of living well. The psychologist George Vaillant, noted for his extensive studies of Alcoholism, has argued in his recent book, Spiritual Evolution,21 for the importance and scientific credibility of having faith in some ‘higher dimension’ as a source of genuine insight which can be neurologically, distinguished from mere madness.22 One of the bases for this ambitious claim is that we can clearly distinguish people who experience ‘genuine spiritual’ insights from those who are delusional, on the basis of the kinds of lives they lead. When supposedly ‘spiritual insights’ ‘show persistent positive after effects’ such as continued experiences of the emotions of awe, love and joy, this can be construed as a sign of something that is not pathological, but something that we should take seriously and pay closer attention to. 23 In making this claim Vaillant cites the work of Andrew Newburg who studied the brains of advanced Tibetan meditators. Newburg claims that: The altered states of consciousness described by mystics and saints are not the involuntary results of the delusional fanatic or the chemical misfiring of a neurologically damaged brain. Instead, the psychic alterations of the Buddhist meditator are brought about when the meditator voluntarily focuses his attention on a sacred image or mantra or on the mood of loving-kindness; thereby the meditator liberates his limbic brain from the constraining effects of attention to external reality by the ‘orientation association area.’24 The worry about the ‘irrationality’ of the emotions, and worse, the delusional ‘madness’ of those with a sense of the transcendent should be put to rest by these, and numerous other studies, in psychology, neurology and ethical theory, even if it means being willing to entertain the possibility that there are dimensions of the world, independent of our making, that legitimately call forth a sense of awe and appreciation quite apart from anything related to the fulfilment of human needs. I recommend metaphysical agnosticism, or, in psychological terms, openness to experience and tolerance of uncertainty. One need not be absolutely certain about the grounding of

200


______________________________________________________________ these sources of meaning to be able to appreciate them. And while this is a ‘new’ view in relation to modern developments in psychology and philosophy, it is an ‘old’ view in relation to pre-modern thought. [Nearly all the older philosophical traditions and religious traditions] argue, in one way or another that wellbeing happens at two levels. The first might be called ‘lower flourishing’, borrowing an expression from the philosopher Charles Taylor (2007). Lower flourishing is thriving in the everyday. It is having friends, a happy family, fulfilling employment, pleasurable leisure. … Working on these separate parts with the aim of building a steady portfolio of satisfactions, is what contemporary happiness movements encourage us to do. … These things are all good. But lower flourishing used to be only half the story. The second level is what Taylor calls ‘higher flourishing’. It is concerned with the larger perspective on life…. It provides a sense of intrinsic meaning or overall direction or deeper purpose…. It is not just a concern with the piecemeal constituents of a good life, but a love of the good itself and a search for that good in life.25 The theme of attentiveness to higher or deeper meaning, what I have called the ‘emotional-moral-spiritual’ correction’ has been developed in a very interesting way by the philosopher David Cooper in two books, A Philosophy of Gardens and The Measure of Things.26 Cooper provides an insightful account of what it is for something to have meaning in the ‘deeper’, or ‘spiritual’ sense that takes us beyond the conception of wisdom as happiness or the mere fulfilment of needs. Cooper claims that ‘to explain the meaning of any item is always to relate it to what is either larger than, or outside, itself - to what is, in one or other of these respects, ‘beyond itself’ in relation to some appropriate context.27 The significance of a musical phrase is given by showing ‘how it contributes to the effect of the whole piece’.28 Now the notion of an appropriate reference to a larger context is a normative notion. It takes experience and judgment to know which context supplies the meaning of something. We can begin to see that there might be larger dimensions of meaning that are overlooked when people focus solely on the satisfaction of needs. In A Philosophy of Gardens Cooper claims that in addition to the ordinary meanings that people attach to gardens, the expressive, or instrumental or associative meanings, there is also the meaning of The Garden, something not reducible to these more prosaic meanings. To explain this unusual idea Cooper relies on the notion of ‘epiphanic meaning’. This

Sheila Mason

201

______________________________________________________________ kind of meaning arises from a ‘sense of attunement to’ something that has a life of its own whose preciousness elicits a feeling of awe, or respect that takes us beyond the concern with satisfying our needs and desires. It is this sense of forgetting one’s own needs that leads people to talk of the experience of freedom or liberation as well as surprise in the presence of such experiences. The experience that moves many people when engaged in gardening, is, according to Cooper, the experience of coming into contact with something that responds to one’s ministrations but which has a life force of its own that is experienced as precious. Yet a universe viewed empirically as a bundle of neutral, or meaningless events will not ‘body forth’ anything exempt emptiness. To be open to the experience of epiphany is to be open to the notion that something ‘spiritual’ or ‘intrinsically valuable’ shows itself.29 Since we are on fragile epistemological ground here, it is important to note that Cooper sees the job of the phenomenologist, not as mounting metaphysical arguments about the nature of the universe, so much as interpreting experience and of providing concepts with which to elucidate a certain kind of experience.30 These concepts take us beyond the usual list of motivations related to the satisfaction of physical and psychological needs. In this vein, Charles Taylor has argued that in order to sustain the motivation to pursue the very high ideals of our society for the eradication of injustice and poverty, and the tremendous demands on us of the weak, the sick and the young, we must have such ‘contact’ with these ‘epiphanic’ meanings, otherwise we fall back, inevitably, on concern with our needs and satisfactions, and thereby fail to go the distance called for by such ideals.31 Cooper’s careful explication of the epiphanic experience of ‘The Garden’ depends on no grand metaphysical claims, but confines itself to what many human beings experience with great frequency in countless areas of experience. The clue to wisdom in aging, if clue there be, is to be found in the idea that it is not only the satisfaction of individual biological, emotional and social needs that we have to consider to get a sense of wisdom, but an openness to a dimension of life that is not focused on self at all, but on something entirely other, having life, vitality and meaning of its own. With appropriate attention to otherness, in all its infinite manifestations and variations, we return to the smaller world of our biological and social needs without the claustrophobia attendant on the usual concerns with whether or not we are happy or satisfied with life. That question assumes diminished importance.32 A more thorough account of this sense of the ‘spiritual’ or the ‘transcendental’ can be found in Cooper’s The Measure of Things33where he makes use of Heidegger’s notion that there are important and valuable experiences which take us beyond ordinary scientific and rational knowledge; experiences which cannot be expressed in propositional language. What is beyond our ordinary Western notion of knowledge is not describable because

202


______________________________________________________________ it relies on a different kind of awareness: an emotional sensitivity that calls forth responses of awe, respect and appreciation. The point of Cooper’s work is to remind us that we can cultivate this kind of openness to meaning by accepting a sense of the mysteriousness of experience that cannot be encompassed in descriptive language. In Wittgenstein’s terms there are things that can be shown, but cannot be said.34 With a certain quality of attention one can ‘call into awareness’, or perhaps even call into being, what is present but not yet perceptible. There is a moving account of this process of surrender into meaning in Heather Menzies’ account of her journey into the experience her mother had of descending into the multiple cognitive deficits of Alzheimer’s disease.35 Menzies found herself mourning while succumbing to the process of being with her mother, during her dramatic and terrible cognitive and physical decline, in the intimate sharing of simple experiences, having tea, caring for her physical needs, sitting quietly side by side for hours, without relying on language except in its simplest form. As she relinquished the desire to communicate in full grammatical sentences she gained a sense of the personhood of her mother and maintained emotional contact throughout her mother’s decline until her last breath. The description of this process provides a valuable example of a form of attention that can emerge only when we forget about our own needs and desires and focus on something that has a life and meaning of its own, fraught with mystery, irreducible to rational, clearly defined categories.36 7.

Conclusion I have presented Cooper’s phenomenological interpretation of the meaning of ‘The Garden’ to illustrate what I have called ‘the emotionalmoral-’spiritual’ correction’, in the studies of aging. We have seen in the psychological studies cited above that those who are more flexible and open to experience, and who display a large range of values, seem to have a more positive experience of aging. However the satisfaction of need, while clearly a part of wisdom, does not count as the most important part. To understand the potential we have for wisdom we have to allow ourselves to be open to larger possibilities of meaning that can be explicated without metaphysics by staying within the domain of phenomenology. The merits of this kind of explication of experience are best assessed by those whose experience ‘resonates’ with the explication, providing they have not been too daunted by ‘scientism’ in psychology and philosophy. The skeptical foundation of much social science and much modern philosophy has created a serious barrier to investigations of the meaning of certain moral emotions such as awe, elevation and appreciation.

Sheila Mason

203

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

D Pushkar, P Basevitz, M Conway, S Mason and J Chaikelson, ‘Emergent values and the experience of aging’. Journal of Adult Development, vol. 10, 2003,pp. 249-259. 2 T Lyster, A Nomination Approach to the Study of Wisdom in Old Age. Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University, 1996. 3 P Baltes, The Berlin Aging Study: Aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. 4 Lyster, op.cit., p.177. 5 Lyster, op. cit., p. iii. 6 A Burr, J B Santo, and D Pushkar, ‘Affective well-being in retirement: The influence of values, money, and health across three years’. Manuscript submitted for publication, 2009. 7 S H Schwartz, ‘Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries’. In M Zanna (ed), Advances in experimental social psychology. New York, Academic Press 1992, pp.1-65. 8 D Pushkar, S Mason, S Etezadi and A Burr, ‘What Philosophers Say Compared with what psychologists find in discerning values: how wise people interpret values’. in Psychology of Human Values, F Columbus (ed.), Nova Publishers, 2009. 9 M Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper, New York, 1990. 10 M Csikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1975. 11 Ibid. p.182. 12 M Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper and Row, New York, 1990. 13 J Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Perseus, New York, 2006. 14 J Haidt, ‘The moral emotions’, in R J Davidson, K R Scherer and H H Goldsmith, (eds), Handbook of Affective Sciences. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003, pp. 852-870. 15 Ibid. p.16. 16 R Kagan, 1976, cited in Haidt, p. 18. 17 M Nussbaum, Love's Knowledge. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990. 18 R Hursthouse, Virtue Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. 19 N Sherman, Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997. 20 Haidt, ‘The moral emotions’, op.cit. p.19.

204


______________________________________________________________ 21

G Vaillant. Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith. Broadway Books, New York, 2008. 22 Ibid. p. 172. 23 Ibid. p. 173. 24 Ibid. 25 Vernon, op.cit. pp. 6-7. 26 D Cooper, A Philosophy of Gardens. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008, and, D Cooper, The Measure of Things: Humanism, Humility, and Mystery. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002. 27 D Cooper, op.cit. p. 110. 28 Ibid. pp. 110-111. 29 Ibid. p. 142. 30 Ibid. 31 C Taylor, op.cit. p. 516. 32 I Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970, p.84. 32 op.cit. 33 D Cooper, The Measure of Things: Humanism, Humility, and Mystery. Clarendon, Oxford, 2002. 34 L Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1961, § 4.1212. 35 H Menzies, Enter Mourning: A Memoir on Death, Dementia,& Coming Home. Key Porter Books, Toronto, 2009. 36 For a richly interesting discussion of the loss of ‘enchantment, awe, wonder, and, ultimately, enjoyment and interesy’ resulting from an exclusive focus on rationality to the exclusion of all that reveals itself through intimation and mystery, see R Slegers, ‘Reflections on a Broken World: Gabriel Marcel and William James on Despair, Hope, and Desire’, in Hope: Probing the Boundaries, R Green and J Horrigan (eds), Papers Presented at the Second Global Conference on Hope, Interdisciplinary Press. September 2006, Mansfield College, Oxford

Bibliography Baltes, P., The Berlin Aging Study:Aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Burr, A., Santo, J. B. and Pushkar, D., ‘Affective well-being in retirement: The influence of values, money, and health across three years’. Unpublished Manuscript, 2009.

Sheila Mason

205

______________________________________________________________ Cooper, D., A Philosophy of Gardens. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008. –––, The Measure of Things: Humanism, Humility, and Mystery. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002. Csikszentimihalyi, M., Beyond Boredom & Anxiety. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1975. –––, Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper, New York, 1990. Haidt, J., ‘The moral Emotions’, in Handbook of Affective Sciences, R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer and H. H. Goldsmith, (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003. –––,The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Perseus, New York, 2006. Hursthouse, R., Virtue Ethics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. Kagan, J., Birth to Maturity, A Study in Psychological Development. Wiley, New York, 1962. Lyster, T., A Nomination Approach to the Study of Wisdom in Old Age. Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 1996. Murdoch, I., The Sovereignty of Good. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970. Nussbaum, M., Love's Knowledg. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990. Pushkar, D., Mason, S., Etezadi, S., Burr, A., ‘What Philosophers Say Compared with what Psychologists Find in Discerning Values: How Wise People Interpret Values’, in Psychology of Human Values, F. Columbus (ed), Nova Publishers, New York, 2009. Schwartz, S. H., ‘Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries’, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. M. Zasnna, (ed), , Academic Press, New York, 1992, pp. 1-65.

206


______________________________________________________________ Sherman, N., Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997. Taylor, C., Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identiy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., 1989. Vaillant, G., Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith. Broadway Books, New York, 2008. Vernon, M., Wellbeing. Acumen, Stocksfield, 2008. Wittgenstein, L., Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1961. Sheila Mason, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She teaches and publishes in the field of ethics: feminist ethics, environmental ethics and ethical theory.

PART IV PRACTICES AND ETHICS

Being Heard: Community Participation Across the Life-Course Peter Whitecross Abstract Many of the significant and powerful institutions in society have recognized the political benefits and public expectations to build some form of community participation into their governance and marketing strategies. These participatory structures range from the genuine to the tokenistic. The resources and imagination invested in efforts to create ‘third places’ where people can speak out and speak together varies widely from project to project. This paper reflects on the experience with two very different projects designed to amplify community voices in relation to health service design. Key Words: Community Participation, Recognition, Participatory Action Research. ***** 1.

Institutions Trying to Listen Many of the significant social institutions that influence our lives now have policies in place which claim to recognize the value and benefits that arise from building some form of community participation into their governance, decision making and marketing processes. These participatory structures range from being comprehensive and genuine, to processes, which are superficial and tokenistic. In most societies the trend in terms of such efforts and commitments to involve the community is towards greater degrees of involvement. Gaventa and others speak of a movement to deepen democracy1. Public expectations about having a greater say are increasingly widespread. Sometimes these claims are justified in terms of consumer rights; sometimes the argument is based on human rights. The resources, effort and imagination invested in attempts to create spaces and processes where people can speak out and speak together vary widely from project to project, and from agency to agency. It is also the case that some age groups find it easier to be heard by decision makers than others. This is an important dimension to the process since the degree of recognition extended to different age groups in society by state and other formal institutions has an impact on an individual’s experience of that life stage. There are a number of reasons why some groups experience more problems than others when it comes to being heard by institutions and organisations. This applies to different age groups.

210

Being Heard

______________________________________________________________ 2.

The Two Projects This paper reflects on some of the lessons learned from two quite different but imaginative participatory projects involving a health service. One worked with older women and the other with high school students. Both sought to influence and change the way that health services are conceived, designed and delivered. Over the last few years many policy ‘summits’ have been held in Australia at national, state and local levels. These public forums have attempted to address a range of issues. The Youth Health Summit was as an attempt to identify the health issues of concern for young people in the northern Sydney area. The summit took place in April 2008. Eighty-nine high school students attended. The summit utilised technologies such as electronic keypads for immediate feedback and employed other youth culture tropes such as theatre sports to engage participants and reduce the distinction between the health service, its staff and the participants. There was a conscious attempt to apply anthropological insights about the nature of youth culture. The research part of Kicking Up Autumn Leaves took place in 2005, with the report launch taking place mid-2006. Representatives of the Older Women’s Network (OWN) Wellness Groups approached the health promotion service with a request for us to assist them with the evaluation of their wellness project. They were most emphatic that this evaluation be conducted in a manner that was congruent with their wellness philosophy. The evaluation was designed to both broaden and deepen our understanding of wellness in older women and conducted in a way that enabled substantial and meaningful participation in the research process by the older women involved. How the story harvesting was done was as important as what we discovered.2 The Wellness programme has been running for some years. It had been successful in securing start up funding in the early nineties under the National Women’s Health programme. The programme embodies a commitment to self-help and community development. On the surface, many of the activities appear similar to activities that might be included in a lifestyle programme, but because of the underlying philosophy and group process the overall programme is quite different. One thing common to both these projects is that they were optional for the agency involved. The workers and the services didn’t have to undertake them. They were initiated by workers committed in different ways to the cause of community participation. So issues of reluctance, passive and overt hostility, sabotage, tokenism which often create problems for community participation projects were not a widespread feature of the relationship between the agency and its community constituents. Despite this things did not always go smoothly.

Peter Whitecross

211

______________________________________________________________ Both projects attempted, in very different ways to turn the tables on the professionals; to subvert the normal power relationship between community members and so called experts. Community expertise was as far as possible given a similar value as professional expertise. The strategies for achieving this can appear superficial, using artwork, music, décor and location. On the other hand, the underlying motivations behind such attempts at creating such comfortable participatory spaces are based on an appreciation of the other participants. In the case of Kicking Up Autumn Leaves, the professional and community experts negotiated an agreement to have similar entitlements to analyse, edit and veto the output of the process. 3.

Interpersonal Dynamics The interactions between the agents of formal institutions and members of the community are neither simple nor symmetrical. At one level there appears to be a dynamic where institutional actors and agents influence the life experience of community members with their imperfect efforts to listen. This charged mixture of hope and disappointment has long lasting consequences. At the same time, community groups and individuals as they interact with public services across their life course influence the strategies selected by institutions and agencies. The ways in which people are expected, allowed and encouraged to participate in the governance of public agencies influences individual and group identity formation.3 What are professionals recognizing when they designate a group as being ‘hard to reach’? There is a research and practice literature about the difficulties in engaging the hard to reach populations of our society. Less frequently, is the problem framed in terms of the deficiencies of our outreach strategies? This default tendency to locate the problem in the marginal population is part of a long tradition of victim blaming. Hard to reach age groups are often those whose values least resemble those of the institutions that are trying to reach them. Sometimes this just boils down to being different from those who work for the institution. Those who appear to deliberately reject the codes of the institutions tend to be more harshly judged. Perhaps because their performative displays are felt by the agents of the institution as a rejection of the value choices they have made in choosing to work for that particular organisation. Even in the health system where there is a clinical appreciation of ‘hard to reach’ conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism and Asberger’s syndrome, such tolerance doesn’t always spill over into daily practices in communicating with people who are socially or culturally hard to reach. The central requirement of bureaucracies for documentation, usually in a preconceived form, leads to a privileging of the literate client and client group. Fluency in the dominant language or jargon of the institution is

212

Being Heard

______________________________________________________________ appreciated by workers as long as they don’t end up feeling threatened by the fluency of community members whose expertise is not supposed to intrude on, or exceed the institutional literacy of the professional expert. More broadly there is a social literacy or performative capacity of knowing the ‘rules of the game’. Those who have difficulty with any or many of these literacies become the ‘hard to reach’. These expectations about institutional literacy make it harder for young people who do not have extensive experience with the major institutions of society. It is not a social skill that is taught in schools, and in the case of health, if you live a healthy life you will not accumulate sufficient fluency in the health system’s norms and mores. It falls to the disabled and aged to develop a more astute level of literacy about the health system because of their more frequent interactions with it. The OWN has formulated a critique of the health system, which is both incisive and humorous. This is one of the dimensions where the two projects diverged significantly. The older women had a lifetime of experience of the conventional health system. This experience had inspired them to create a different pathway to wellness. Initially they were quite suspicious of us as agents of the public health system and took some convincing that we could deliver something different from what they had experienced from other health professionals and academics in the past. Some way into the project, they told us that they routinely caucused outside the meetings with us to make sure that we did not deviate from the contract that we had struck with them. As some point the trust between us was sufficient that the caucus meetings ceased. Opportunities to participate in the governance of institutions that provide goods and services are not equitably distributed in the community. Opportunities to contribute views and opinions do not simply increase with age, though as noted earlier the older health consumer can have an advantage of greater experience. On the other hand, in the Kicking Up Autumn Leaves project we often encountered stories where one of the dysfunctional elements was a default deference that a proportion of our older women felt towards doctors, having been born before World War Two. The degree to which conventional institutions are prepared to accommodate greater participation is potentially a major driver for change in how different age groups relate to each other. Participants often draw comparisons between how other groups are serviced and themselves. These comparisons most frequently highlight a perception that relatively speaking they are being neglected. There are many such entry points of disappointment in the relationships that people have with ostensibly caring institutions; points in the care process where the community feels let down, disappointed and betrayed by the institution.

Peter Whitecross

213

______________________________________________________________ Where groups that are organised around age make an effort and commitment to organise and design their interactions with formal institutions such as universities and health services then they are better able to move the agency and its workers to their way of seeing things. In the case of OWN and their Wellness program we are talking about an effective and well-developed program of many years standing. This gave the participants a legitimacy and confidence that was not available to the young people at the Youth Health Summit. This in part was offset by the enthusiasm and energy of the high school students, coupled with their familiarity and confidence with the technology we used. 4.

The Place of Storytelling In very different ways both projects provided a safe and stimulating place for the telling of stories and truths that are not usually expressed. Creating and holding spaces where marginalized stories can be told, heard and honoured is a central skill.4 In creating such a space we need to start by acknowledging that the hegemony of the institutional, bureaucratic, scientific, instrumental discourse over local story telling modalities is pervasive, but not all-pervasive. Thus we start by designing the space and creating rituals that subvert this hegemony in a way that is deliberate but not intrusive. We create celebrations, liminal moments and relationships where the dominant rules and roles of knowledge creation are reversed or radically reworked. Indicators of successful story telling spaces and processes manifest in some quite obvious ways. Did the participants stay awake? Did they get carried away by the process with the result that they were willing to put more into the process than they had originally agreed to? Was there laughter and tears? Did the media chosen suit the group? Were poetry and pictures used? Was there space for spontaneity and improvisation? In many ways the sort of events we are talking about are the antitheses of bureaucratic information gathering praxis. The treasuring of stories harvested is a key feature in the process and one where a previously user-friendly process can flip into a sterile academic, bureaucratic process. Saying at the end of the story harvesting that we will take their material away and write it up and send it back for comment is quite a fraught moment. Being given someone’s story to carry and nurture is not a casual transaction. There is a lot of implicit trust. In the Kicking Up Autumn Leaves project, involving the crew of older women in the analysis was very important and it emerged as the process unfolded rather than being part of the original research design. Once stories, themes and conclusions had been clarified and agreed upon by the group, the write-up was conducted by one person. The honouring of stories as a rounded wholistic way of theorising life narratives struggles against the efficiency of linear, instrumental

214

Being Heard

______________________________________________________________ theorising. Such instrumental reasoning has been foundational in creating the major service bureaucracies we find in modern societies. Policy formation, particularly in an environment of severe resource constraint, does not lend itself readily to the messy and discursive stories which people want to tell us. In the Kicking Up Autumn Leaves project we attempted to accommodate such instrumental reasoning on the basis that it might have tactical advantages in communicating with funding bodies. We attempted to use the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire to give us quantifiable comparisons to indicate the impact of the programme. However due to the short duration of the evaluation period, all we could legitimately compare were the different participant groups. How we listen to what people have to say to each other is fundamentally important. A crucial feature of this process that does not often get considered is gratitude. Without the input of community experts the whole participatory project is going nowhere. Usually institutions gather community expertise at no cost, or at most, a minimal cost. Acknowledgement of this contribution, when it occurs, comes in a range of forms. From an instrumental perspective workers in many institutions recognise the practical benefit to the organisation. The more we know about what people think about our services, the easier it becomes to design services which are effective. From an appreciative perspective we can acknowledge the intrinsic humanity and spirit of the speakers. Increasingly there are policies which stipulate that community participation will be part of the governance process of the organisation and in such contexts the acknowledgement can be motivated by cynical instrumental considerations as the presence of a community expert enables managers to ‘tick the box’ of being open to community participation. As health workers our focus was biased but this was always explicit, and this may have influenced the stories that emerged which tended to be about people navigating the emotional geographies of the health system. Our participants, old and young, were mindful of the painful irony that there was clear evidence that the health system is partial in the care it extends to the communities it claims to serve. Another theme in the stories was about what health and wellness means for them in a daily sense; that is when they are not engaging with the health system as a client. They told us stories about what they do to maintain their health and wellness and they were quite aware of how this did not correspond with what the conventional health system would encourage or recommend. 5.

Imagination In reaching out to the hard to reach, or those we take for granted, we need use our imagination and approach the exercise as true voyage of discovery rather than a confirmation of some hypothesis or preconception

Peter Whitecross

215

______________________________________________________________ that we hold. Different institutions have different thresholds of tolerance when it comes to accommodating and funding, imagination and creativity. This spills over into discussions of what is possible and to what extent the community might get a reasonable hearing. The outcomes of these discussions tend to be recorded in terms of reference or project objectives. Meaningful involvement in problem solving and service design is often a process that is fudged and contested. The degree to which involvement is meaningful also changes with time and the past experiences of participants and stakeholders. There appear to be different assumptions about whether some age groups require more imaginative approaches to story harvesting than others. Creativity in the young is more widely expected and so more highly privileged than in older groups. Both projects show that imaginative approaches can be rewarded regardless of the age of the participants. How imagination manifests in practice will differ significantly, and this is entirely appropriate. 6.

Conclusions Groups are marginalized for many reasons and age does not always feature as a significant dimension. In terms of groups wishing to have a say in the health system, there is an asymmetry of power which is age related. This could in part be motivated by the self interest of influential workers in the health system, many of whom are baby boomers who are quite emphatic that they expect the health system to listen to them in a way that was not the case for their parents. Partly as a result of this, we can find instances where the commitment to community participation goes beyond the superficial. On the other hand there are many similarities between the projects. The use of story telling in the vernacular of the age group is one common feature. Both groups were responsive to sensitively applied imagination on the part of workers. Both age groups enthusiastically seized the opportunity to participate, and seemed to grasp the significance of the event. There will always be a struggle amongst stories for supremacy, and the playing field is seldom level. To translate the issue into health language, whose diagnosis prevails is not a marginal question. The public health system in contemporary societies is set up in such a way that favours the stories of conventional medicine. Defenders of this status quo would point out that this is the only safe position from which to prosecute the discourse. Other voices would contend that such a perspective prevails at the price of excluding large and significant parts of their health experience.

216

Being Heard

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

J Gaventa, Triumph, Deficit or Contestation? Deepening the ‘Deepening Democracy’ Debate. IDS, Brighton, 2006, pp. 14-20. 2 J Pinn, et al, Kicking Up Autumn Leaves, A Report on the Women Owning Wellness Evaluation Project - Summary. Northern Sydney Central Coast Health Service, Sydney, 2007. available online at http://www.nscchealth.nsw .gov.au/services/healthprom/reports/, accessed 23/7/2009, p.1. 3 S Kemmis, ‘Critical Theory and Participatory Action Research’, in The Sage Handbook of Action Research, Participative Inquiry and Practice, second edition. P Reason and H Bradbury (eds), Sage, London, 2009, pp. 122-123. 4 J Pinn, ‘Restor(y)ing a sense of place, self and community’, in Changing Places – re-imagining Australia. J Cameron (ed), Longueville Books, Double Bay, 2003, p. 39.

Bibliography Gaventa, J., Triumph, Deficit or Contestation? Deepening the ‘Deepening Democracy’ Debate. Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, 2006. Gaventa, J.; Cornwall, A.; ‘Power and Knowledge’, in The Sage Handbook of Action Research, Participative Inquiry and Practice, second edition. P. Reason and H. Bradbury (eds), Sage, London, 2009, pp. 172-189. Kemmis, S., ‘Critical Theory and Participatory Action Research’, in The Sage Handbook of Action Research, Participative Inquiry and Practice, second edition. P. Reason and H. Bradbury (eds), Sage, London, 2009, pp. 121-138. Pinn, J., ‘Restor(y)ing a sense of place, self and community’, in Changing Places – re-imagining Australia. J. Cameron (ed), Longueville Books, Double Bay, 2003, pp 38-47. Pinn, J.; Hill, S., Whitecross, P.; Lloyd, B., Pearce; C., Kicking Up Autumn Leaves, A Report on the Women Owning Wellness Evaluation Project. Northern Sydney Central Coast Health Service, Sydney, 2007. available online at http://www.nscchealth.nsw.gov.au/services/healthprom /reports/ Accessed 23/7/2009.

Peter Whitecross

217

______________________________________________________________ Ware, J. E., SF36 Health Survey Manual and Interpretation Guide. The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, Boston, 1993. Zandee, D. P.; Cooperrider, D. L., ‘Appreciable Worlds, Inspired Inquiry’ in The Sage Handbook of Action Research, Participative Inquiry and Practice, second edition. P. Reason and H. Bradbury (eds), Sage, London, 2009, pp. 190-197. Zurn, C. F., ‘Identity or Status? Struggles over ‘Recognition’ in Fraser, Honneth and Taylor’. Constellations, vol. 10, no. 4, 2003, pp. 519-537. Peter Whitecross is the Manager, Community Participation and Partnerships, Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service, Australia and a Research Fellow in the Department of Human Geography, Macquarie University, Australia.

Making Sense of Aging: Multidisciplinary Course Modules Provide Guide to Creating Age-Friendly Communities Judie C. Davies and Verena H. Menec Abstract The ideal age-friendly community makes sense of aging by connecting all generations throughout the life course, providing a physical and social environment appropriate for all ages and abilities by promoting and being infused with reciprocal and inclusive language, structures, and services. Under the principles of active aging and the life course perspective, multidisciplinary course modules were developed to create a body of knowledge in support of the next generation of researchers. Assisting communities in becoming ‘age-friendly’ may be one of the best ways to optimize health, foster a sense of security, and ensure older adults continued participation in society-all aspects of what the World Health Organization has labelled ‘active aging’. Course materials are multidisciplinary in approach and consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of an agefriendly community. Age-friendly is defined in terms of eight domains: outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing, respect and social inclusion; social participation; communication and information; civic participation and employment opportunities; and community support and health services. The interdisciplinary modules are designed at a theoretical level (community development), empirical level (case studies), and practical level (field study) to supplement current course programs and act as the basis for graduate and undergraduate programs offered for course credit. Key Words: Age-friendly communities, Active aging, Life course perspective, Interdisciplinary course modules, Community development. ***** My ideal age-friendly community should connect all generations and provide a physical and social environment appropriate for all ages and abilities by promoting and being infused with reciprocal and inclusive language, structures and services.1 There is much discussion world wide about the impact of an aging population on cities as well as rural and remote communities. It is argued that older adults have unique talents in the area of community development and citizenship.2 The importance of health, participation and security is also recognized as important for well-being in the active aging framework.

220

Making Sense of Aging

______________________________________________________________ Why, then, explore active aging from a life course perspective? What would a policy framework in support of active aging look like? The first course module attempts to address these questions and lays the foundation for the remaining modules. Information in this module is taken from the document Active Aging: A Policy Framework developed by the WHO’s Aging and Life Course Program as a contribution to the Second United Nations World Assembly on Aging held in April 2002.3 The Policy Framework is the basis on which the Global Age-Friendly Cities initiative project was developed with the intent to inform discussion and the formulation of action plans that promote healthy and active aging.4 According to the World Health Organization ‘active aging is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age.’5 It applies to both individuals and population groups. Heikkinen suggests that aging is an integral, natural part of life, and the way we grow old and experience this process, depends on what sorts of things we have encountered in the course of our lifetime.6 Aging, then, is considered a highly complex, dynamic and variable phenomenon. There are important differences in the life course of men and women, and they become increasingly pronounced with age. For example, women may have lower degrees of independence and more restrictions on life choices with the result of poorer health. On the other hand, men are at a disadvantage, too, as higher mortality rates are experienced throughout life, including older age.7 Phillipson claims that important questions have been raised in social gerontology with respect to belonging and identity with the impact of globalization.8 An age-friendly city approach seeks to focus the belonging and identity in the context of being included in community life. The second module introduces the Guide for Age-Friendly Cities (WHO). The purpose of the Guide is to help cities see themselves from the perspective of older people, in order to identify where and how they can become more agefriendly. The Guide for Remote and Rural Communities initiative (AFRRC) is introduced as well. This Guide, a Canadian project, is designed to illustrate what is meant by age-friendly and to provide communities with a starting point to identify common barriers and assets in their communities and foster dialogue and action that support the development of age-friendly communities. The module features the checklist of essential age-friendly cities features based on the results of the WHO Global Age-Friendly Cities project consultation with 33 cities in 22 countries. The checklist is a tool for a city’s self-assessment and a map for charting progress. The checklist is intended to be used by individuals and groups interested in making their city more age-friendly. For the checklist to be effective, older people must be involved as full partners. In assessing a city’s strengths and deficiencies, older people will describe how the checklist of features matches their own

Judie C. Davies and Verena H. Menec

221

______________________________________________________________ experience of the city’s positive characteristics and barriers. They should play a role in suggesting changes and in implementing and monitoring improvements. The module also supports the need to be more inclusive of all ages to reduce the likelihood of discrimination. And, it supports social policy reform to recognize the diversity of older populations. The organizational framework for the modules is based on the World Health Organization eight domains of age-friendly communities: outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing; respect and social inclusion; social participation; civic participation and employment opportunities; communication and information; and community support and health services. 1.

Outdoor Spaces and Buildings A lot of the doors are extremely heavy, very heavy. I’ve had two falls. I broke my wrist walking on an uneven sidewalk, and then I fell and hurt my shoulder badly.9

The outdoor environment provides older people with many opportunities to enhance their physical well-being and quality of life. There is a consensus in the research literature that outdoor environments have benefits for older people. Sugiyama and Ward Thompson suggest the benefits of outdoor environments consist of physiological benefits, concerned with the maintenance and enhancement of physical health and functioning, and psychological benefits that include stress reduction, satisfaction with life, and sense of well-being.10 But, how should we design outdoor spaces and buildings in cities, towns, and neighbourhoods to enhance age-friendliness? A supportive environment including age-friendly outdoor spaces and building designs was created in the development of McKenzie Towne-A Towne within the city of Calgary Alberta, and considered a planned pedestrian friendly community. McKenzie Towne was founded on ‘New Urbanist’ principles of community. New Urbanist principles support the design of McKenzie Towne with its neo-traditional community old style neighbourhood feel and classic homes featuring welcoming front porches, as well as a town square featuring a Victorian bandstand. McKenzie Towne boasts a feeling of genuine neighbourliness.11 In this module on outdoor spaces and buildings the focus is on design that puts people first. Students will have an opportunity to advance their understanding of environmental influence on active aging and quality of life with an understanding of principles of ‘inclusive design’ and ‘smart growth’. Students will also gain an understanding of important issues and opportunities when it comes to planning for age-friendly outdoor spaces and buildings through community development. Content in this module will include what older people

222


______________________________________________________________ themselves have to say about the topic as well as best practice and case studies. 2.

Transportation Now that I’m getting older, and I am old, I should say, I know that one day they’re going to say, ‘Well, no more licence for you.’ That’s going to happen to all of us.12

Access to transportation provides older people with many opportunities to enhance their physical well-being and quality of life. But how do communities address the safety and mobility needs of an aging population? We know, for example, that age-related declines in visual acuity, coordination, flexibility, and reaction times all combine to reduce older people’s ability to operate a motor vehicle.13 This can present a problem in environments specifically designed for automobile mobility. For older adults who have driven all their lives, the transition from driving to finding alternative available transportation can be extremely difficult. In fact, few drivers plan for the day when they are unable to drive. In response to this concern, a transit-training program for older drives piloted by Stepaniuk, Tuooko, McGee, Garrett, and Benner found that training may be an effective way of assisting older adults with the transition.14 In this module on transportation the focus is on safety and mobility utilizing a social ecological model for reconnecting road safety with agefriendly communities that value quality of life, improving neighbourhood planning and community cohesion. Dumbaugh claims through adoption of a universal approach to community design it is possible to address the needs of an aging population in a manner that is inclusive, integrated and beneficial to persons with a full spectrum of abilities.15 One suggestion by May et al., is to develop a ‘Slow City’ movement-an ecological and humanistic response favouring local, traditional cultures, a relaxed pace of life and conviviality. In general, Slow Cities are concerned with environmental protection and social equality.16Alternative forms of transportation that are elder friendly and affordable are considered, such as scooters and smart cars. 3.

Housing Everything that’s being built here and in other communities is condos for very comfortably-off people.17

The ability to remain independent and healthy for as long as possible are the primary goals of older adults. There is increased interest in helping older adults to remain independent in their homes. A supportive environment and helping older adults to age in place are also important goals of age-


223

______________________________________________________________ friendly communities. In this module the focus is housing that puts people first.18 Students have the opportunity to gain an advanced understanding of housing options for older adults as well as health and aging in place. A key focus is on person-environment interaction based on the social ecological model of aging. The ecological model developed by Lawton links the aging individual with her or his environment. This model of adaptation and aging includes the macro-environment (the community where people live) and the micro-environment (the housing where people spend most of their time). This model is based on the premise that adaptation involves the interaction of individual competence and environmental press or demands.19 Students will gain an understanding of the importance of person-environment interaction in relation to the life course perspective in planning for age-friendly housing. Students will have the opportunity to hear what older people themselves have to say about the topic as well as learn from case studies and best practice. 4.

Respect and Social Inclusion They (seniors) need to feel that they’re still a vital part of the community.’20

In age-friendly communities older people are respected and visible in the media and community activities for their past and present contributions and presented positively. Old age was found to be under-represented in prime-time television series with messages about the aging process construed as negative.21 Cornwell, Laumann and Schumm found frequency of neighbourly socializing, religious services attendance, and volunteering to be positively related to the feeling of social inclusion.22. A sense of community was found to be related to participation in community improvement activities for older residents in small towns and rural communities.23 In this module on respect and social inclusion we are focusing on social connectedness of older adults with their communities. One way to build respect and social connectedness is through intergenerational activities. Bringing young and old together promotes mutual care, transmits cultural values, and enriches the lives of everyone involved.24 We will take a look at technologies that aim to transform the aging experience. Through all of this students will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of how to plan for age-friendly respect and social inclusion. We take a look at what older people themselves say about the topic. As well, there is an emphasis on ageism, what it means and how pervasive it is.

224


______________________________________________________________ 5.

Social Participation I have to say that I moved here when we retired and it was very hard to break into any friendly circles until I went out and got involved.’25

Social participation is a central topic in research on aging due in part to life course transitions that occur at this stage such as retirement and the transition to widowhood.26 Promoting social participation of the older population is seen as a promising strategy for ‘healthy aging’27 as it emphasizes social networking experiences 28 and access to social support even for older adults with physical disabilities and chronic illness and thus helps promote quality of life.29 In this module we focus on social participation in leisure, social, cultural and spiritual activities in the community, as well as with family, that allows older people to continue to exercise their competence, to enjoy respect and self esteem, and to maintain or establish supportive and caring relationships. We also consider the capacity for older people to participate in formal and informal social life as the WHO suggest social participation depends not only on the offer of activities, but also on having adequate access to transportation and facilities and on getting information about activities. 5.

Civic Participation and Employment Opportunities This town would collapse without the volunteers.30

The term civic engagement or participation has been used in reference to a wide variety of activities, including voting, being involved in political campaigns, participating in paid and voluntary community work, staying up to date on news and public affairs, and helping one’s neighbour suggest Martinson and Minkler. 31 Research suggests both paid and unpaid volunteer work after retirement have been linked to longevity, health, and psychological well-being.32 Volunteering has long been recognized as an important activity in later life, and it represents the cornerstone of civic engagement.33 However, associating the act of volunteering, in itself, with civic engagement may no longer be appropriate for retired older people, but instead be considered a separate ‘retirement role’.34 As well, elevating civic engagement as an ideal for aging may further marginalize those people, who for a number of reasons, are not civically engaged and thus do not reflect this ideal warns Martinson.35 In response, a number of authors suggest to advocate for an environment that enables older people to live with dignity and to create their own meaning for later life. The point here is that the creation of an environment honouring and enabling diverse civic engagement opportunities must be broadened to


225

______________________________________________________________ respect those older adults who do not volunteer but look to seek minopimatisiwin (the good life).36 In this module we look at the opportunities for civic participation and employment for older adults in age-friendly communities. As well, we comment on older adults for whom civic participation is inaccessible And, finally, we discuss the changing nature of work, the impact on the health and culture of an aging society, and the meaning of retirement from the life course perspective.

6.

Communication and Information The gossip mill is still the fastest way to get anything around.37 Now I’m sending e-mails and it’s very nice.38

The ability to use information and communication technology is now assumed by most commentators to be a prerequisite to living in the ‘information age.’39 However, for many older adults the digital divide is difficult to bridge as products like computers and mobile phones are frustrating, alienating, difficult to see and forever changing features. 40 Focus group participants from the WHO Age-friendly Cities study on communication and information strongly agree that staying connected with events and people and getting timely information, practical information to manage life and meet personal needs is critical for active aging.41 The biggest universal barrier to communicating with older adults is the visual and auditory presentation of information. Product labels and instructions, especially on medications, are hard to decipher. Auditory information is spoken too quickly and commercials on radio and television make older people loose their train of thought.42 What, then, are alternative ways of reshaping communication and information so that older adults become interested in using programs and services? Who will support the design of such products for age-friendly community consumption? The answers to these questions will be explored in this module on communication and information. 7.

Community Support and Health Services My only comment would be when someone gets to the point when they can’t take care of themselves they’re shipped out of the community. They’ve gown up here. You remove them for all their friends and possibly relatives.43

Ultimately the design of our communities-both physically and socially-and our approach to retirement must be reconstructed to support the distinctive needs of an aging population. 44 Bookman suggest we must

226


______________________________________________________________ transform our communities with the notion of ‘aging in place’ where elders remain in their own homes and communities.45 A look at a community coming together to meet the needs of older adults such as with ‘neighbors helping neighbors programs’ 46 fits with the ideals of the age-friendly communities initiative of the World Health Organization. In this module we will review community-based services such as home health care, in-home care and outreach services, that help older adults and persons with physical disabilities live independently and remain in their homes for as long as possible. 8.

Advanced Age-Friendly Community Practice The purpose of this last module is for students in an aging graduate program in gerontology to learn and use advanced theories, approaches, and skills in community practice in age-friendly community development. The module uses a community-based service-learning approach designed to help students develop an analytical and empirical approach to communities. It builds on the ‘person in environment’ perspective and focuses on the life course perspective, an emerging interdisciplinary perspective that has the ability to help community development workers to bridge the micro and macro worlds.47 The module is designed to be used as an advanced two semester course that includes the first 10 modules and a service learning project that requires additional outside class time to complete. Students will periodically meet at a classroom in the community or be actively engaged in an agefriendly community activity at the partner site during class periods and/or outside class time. Assignments include a course project that involves advocacy, networking and community collaboration skills with an advisory committee working towards making their community more age-friendly. The course project includes community mapping, community asset/needs assessment and writing a funding proposal for a specific age-friendly feature related to one of the eight domains identified by the World Health Organization. Acknowledgements This research was funded through the CURA Alliance, Community University Research Alliance, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.


227

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

A Mueller, ‘A Personal View of Age-Friendly Communities’, Assignment #1Field/Focus of Practice: Aging SWRK 4200 A01, University of Manitoba, September 29, 2008, p. 1. 2 R Ranzijn, ‘The Potential of Older Adults to Enhance Community Quality of Life: Links Between Positive Psychology and Productive Aging’, Aging International, vol. 27, Spring 2002, p. 30. 3 World Health Organization, ‘Active Aging: A Policy Framework’, WHO 2002, viewed on 29 April, http://whqlibdoc.whoint/nq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8pdf 4 World Health Organization, ‘Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide, WHO 2007, viewed on 29 April 2009, http://www.who.int/aging/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_E nglish.pdf 5 World Health Organization, ‘Aging and Life Course’, WHO 2009, viewed on 29 April 2009, http://www.who.int/aging/active_aging/en/index.html. 6 RL Heikkinen, ‘Growing Older: Staying Well, Aging and Physical Activity in Everyday Life, Geneva: World Health Organization, 1998, p. 1. 7 C Stein & I Moritz, ‘A Life Course Perspective on Maintaining Independence in Older Age’, Aging and Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1999, p. 15. 8 C Phillipson, ‘The Elected and the Excluded: Sociological Perspectives on the Experience of Place and Community in old Age, Aging & Society, vol. 27, 2007, p. 321. 9 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, ‘Age-Friendly Rural and Remote Communities: A Guide (AFRRCI), Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Seniors, Public Health Agency of Canada, 2007, p. 11. 10 T Sugiyama & C Ward Thompson, ‘Outdoor Environments, Activity and the Well-Being of Older People: Conceptualising Environmental Support’, Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, p. 1944. 11 McKenzie Towne Community Info Site, Updated On 4/29/2009, viewed on 29 April 2009, http://www.calgaryarea.com/se/mckenziearea/mckenzietowne/mckenzietown e.htm 12 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFFRCI, p. 14. 13 E Dumbaugh, ‘Designing Communities to Enhance the Safety and Mobility of Older Adults: A Universal Approach’, Journal of Planning Literature, vol. 23, August 2008, p. 17.

228


______________________________________________________________ 14

J Stepaniuk, H Tuuoko, P McGee, DD Garrett, & EL Benner, ‘ Impact of Transit Training and Free Bus Pass on Public Transportation use by Older Drivers, Preventive Medicine, vol. 47, 2008, p. 335. 15 E Dumbaugh, 2008, op. cit. p. 31. 16 M May, PJ Tranter, & JR Warn, ‘Towards a Holistic Framework for Road Safety in Australia, Journal of Transport Geography, vol. 16, 2008, p. 395. 17 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFFRCI, p. 19. 18 K Black, ‘Health and Aging-In-Place: Implications for Community Practice’, Journal of Community Practice, vol. 16, Issue 1, 2008, p. 79. 19 BD McPherson, & A Wister, ‘The Lived Environment: Community Housing Alternatives in Later Life, in, Aging as a Social Process: Canadian Perspective, 2008, (Lawton, 1980, cited on p. 230). 20 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 19. 21 EM Kessler, K Rakoczy, & UM Staudinger, ‘Their Portrayal of Older Adults in Prime Time Television Series: The Match with Gerontological Evidence’, Aging & Society, vol. 24, 2004, p. 531. 22 B Cornwell, LP Schumm, & EO Laumann, ‘The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile’, American Sociological Review, vol. 73, April 2008, p. 185. 23 AQ Liu, & T Besser, ‘Social Capital and Participation in Community Improvement Activities by Elderly Residents in Small Towns and Rural Communities’, Rural Sociology, vol. 68, Spring 2003, p. 343. 24 C Dobson, ‘Community Building Activities/Part 2-11, The Citizen’s Handbook, British Columbia, viewed on 11 April, 2009, http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/2_11_intergenerational.html 25 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 21. 26 A Bukov, I Maas, & T Lambert, ‘Social Participation in Very Old Age: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Findings from BASE’, Journal of Gerontology, vol.57B, (6) 2002, p.510. 27 N Sirven, T Debrand, ‘Promoting Social Participation for Healthy Aging: A Counterfactual Analysis from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). IRDES Working Paper No 7, January 2008, p. 1. 28 B Cornell, ‘Network Bridging Potential in Later Life: Life-course Experiences and Social Network Position. Journal of Aging and Health, vol. 21, February 2009, p. 129. 29 GMJ Mars, GIJ Kempen, I Mesters, IM Prott, & JTM van Eijk, ‘ Characteristics of Social Participation by Older Adults with Chronic Physical Illness’, Disability and rehabilitation, vol. issue 17 2008, p. 1298. 30 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 24. 31 M Martinson, & M Minkler, ‘Civic Engagement and Older Adults: A Critical Perspective’, The Gerontologist, vol. 46, issue 3 2006, p. 319.


229

______________________________________________________________ 32

P Moen, ‘Midcourse: Navigating Retirement and a New Life Stage’, in Handbook of the Life Course, J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (eds), Springer, USA, 2004, p. 283. 33 PA Rozario, ‘Volunteering Among Current Cohorts of Older Adults and Baby Boomers’, Civic Engagement in Later Life, Winter 2006-07, p 31. 34 B Kaskie, S Imhof, J Cavanaugh, & K Culp, ‘Civic Engagement as a Retirement Role for Aging Americans’, The Gerontologist, vol. 48, no. 3 2008, p. 36 MA Hart, ‘Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin: An Aboriginal Approach to Helping, means seeing the good life in the Cree language, Fernwood Publishing, Halifax, 2002. 35 M Martinson, Opportunities or Obligations? Civic Engagement and Older Adults, Civic Engagement in Later Life, Winter 2006-07, p. 59. 36 Seeking P 37 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 27, 28. 38 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 30 39 N Selwyn, ‘The Information Aged: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults’ Use of Information and Communication Technology’, Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 18, 2004, p. 369. 40 ACB Mediros, C Crilly, PJ Clarkson, ‘The influence of Aging on the Experience of Information and Communication Technology’, Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2008, p. 25. 41 WHO, ‘Age-friendly Cities: A Guide’, 2007, viewed on 12 January, 2009, http://www.who.int/aging/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_E nglish.pdf 42 Ibid 43 Quote of Senior from Focus Group, op. cit. AFRRCI, p. 33. 44 A Bookman, ‘Innovative Models of Aging in Place: Transforming our Communities for an Aging Population’, Community Work and Family, vol. 11, November 2008, p. 419. 45 Ibid 46 R Trickey, NKelley-Gillespie, & OW Farley, ‘A Look at a Community Coming Together to Meet the Needs of Older Adults: An Evaluation of the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Program’, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, vol. 50(3/4), 2008, p. 81. 47 ED Hutchison, ‘The Life Course Perspective: A Promising Approach for Bridging the Micro and Macro Worlds for Social Workers’, Families in Society, vol. 86, (1) 2005, p. 143.

230


______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Black, K., ‘Health and Aging-in-Place: Implications for Community Practice’. Journal of Community Practice, vol.16, (1) 2008, pp. 79-95. Bookman, A., ‘Innovative Models of Aging in Place: Transforming our Communities for an Aging Population’. Community, Work & Family, vol. 4, November 2008, pp. 419-438. Cornell, B., Laumann, E. O., & Schumm, L. P., ‘The Social Connectedness of Older Adults: A National Profile’. American Sociological Review, vol. 73, April 2008, pp. 185-203. Cornell, B., ‘Network Bridging Potential in Late Life’. Journal of Aging and Health, vol. 21, February 2009, pp. 129-154. Dobson, C., ‘Community Building Activities/Part 2-11, The Citizen’s Handbook, viewed on 11 March 2009, http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/2_11_intergenerational.html Dumbaugh, E., ‘Designing Communities to Enhance the Safety and Mobility of Older Adults: A Universal Approach’. Journal of Planning Literature, vol. 23, August 2008, pp. 17-36. Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Seniors, ‘AgeFriendly Rural and Remote Communities: A Guide’. Canada. September 2007, viewed on 23 April 2009, http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/seniorsaines/pubs/age_friendly_rural/pdf/AFRRC_en.pdf Gilmer, T., Ojeda, V. D., Folsom, D., Fuented, D., Briado, V., Garcia P., & Jeste, D.V. ‘Costs of Community-Based Public Mental Health Services for Older Adults: Variations Related to Age and Diagnosis’. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol.21, 2006, pp. 1121-1126. Hart, M. A., ‘Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin: An Aboriginal Approach to Helping’. Fernwood Publishing, Halifax, 2002. Hartman-Stein, P. E., & Potkanowicz, E. S., ‘Behavioral Determinants of Healthy Aging: Good News for Baby Boomer Generation’. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, vol. 8, issue 2, 2003, pp. 127-146.


231

______________________________________________________________ Heikkinen, R. L., ‘Growing Older: Staying Well’. Aging and Physical Activity in Everyday life, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1998, pp. 1Hutchison, E. D., ‘The Life Course Perspective: A Promising Approach to Bridging the Micro and Macro Worlds for Social Workers. Families in Society, vol. 86, (1) 2005, pp. 143-152. Kaskie, B., Imhof, S., Cavanaugh, J., & Culp, K., ‘Civic Engagement as a Retirement Role for Aging Americans’. The Gerontologist, vol. 48, (3) 2008, pp. 368-377 Kessler, E. M., Rakoczy, K., & Staudinger, U. M., ‘The Portrayal of Older People in Prime Time Television Series: The Match with Gerontological Evidence’. Aging & Society, vol. 24, 2004, pp. 531-552. Liu, A.Q., & Besser, T., ‘Social Capital and Participation in Community Improvement Activities by Elderly Residents in Small Towns and Rural Communities’. Rural Sociology, vol.68 (3) 2003, pp. 343-365. Mars, G. M. J., Kempen, G. I. J. M., Mesters, I., Proot, I. M., & Van Eijk, Th. M., ‘Characteristics of Social Participation as Defined by older Adults with a Chronic Physical Illness’. Disability & Rehabilitation, vol. 30, issue 17 2008, pp. 1298-1308. Martinson, M., ‘Opportunities or Obligations? Civic Engagement and Older Adults’. Civic Engagement in Later Life, Winter 2006-07, pp. 59-65. Martinson, M., & Minkler, M., ‘Civic Engagement and Older Adults: A Critical Perspective’. The Gerontologist, vol.46, (3) 2006, pp. 318-324. May, M., Tranter, P. J., Warn, J. R., ‘Towards a Holistic Framework for Road Safety in Australia’. Journal of Transport Geography, vol. 16, 2008, pp. 395-405. Mederios, A. B. C., Crilly, N., & Clarkson P. J., ‘The Influence of Aging on the Experience of Information and Communication Technology’. Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2008, p. 25-26. McPherson, B. D., & Wister, A., ‘The Lived Environment: Community and Housing Alternatives in Later Life’. Aging as a Social Process: Canadian Perspective, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, pp.225-254.

232


______________________________________________________________ Moen, P., ‘Midcourse: Navigating Retirement and a New Life Stage’. In, Handbook of the Life Course, J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (eds), Springer, USA 2004, pp. 269-291. Phillipson, C., ‘The Elected and the Excluded: Sociological Perspectives on the Experience of Place and Community in Old Age’. Aging & Society, vol. 27, 2007, pp. 321-342. Ranzijn, R., ‘The Potential of Older Adults to Enhance Community Quality of Life; Links Between Positive Psychology and Productive Aging’. Aging International, vol. 27, Spring 2002, pp. 30-55. Rozario, P. A., ‘Volunteering Among Current Cohorts of Older Adults and Baby Boomers’. Civic Engagement in Later Life, Winter 2006-07, pp. 31-36. Selwyn, N., ‘The Information Aged: A Qualitative Study of Older Adults’ Use of Information and Communication Technology’. Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 18, 2004, pp. 369-384. Sirven, N., & Debrand, T., ‘Promoting Social Participation for Healthy Aging: A Counterfactural Analysis from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)’. IRDES, January 2008, pp. 1-19. Stein, C., & Moritz, I., ‘A Life Course Perspective on Maintaining Independence in Older Age’. Health and Aging, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1999, pp. 1-20. Stepaniuk, J. A., Tuokko, H., McGee, P., Garrett, D. D., & Benner, E. L., ‘Impact of Transit Training and Free Bus Pass on Public Transportation use by Older Drivers’. Preventive Medicine, vol. 47, 2008, pp. 335-337. Sugiyama, T., & Ward Thompson, C., ‘Outdoor Environments, Activity and the Well-Being of Older People: Conceptualizing Environmental Support’. Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, 2007, pp. 1943-1960. Trickey, R., Kelley-Gillespie, N., & Farley, O. W., ‘A Look at a Community Coming Together to Meet the Needs of Older Adults: An Evaluation of the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Program’. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, vol. 50, ¾ 2008, pp. 81-98.


233

______________________________________________________________ World Health Organization, ‘Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide. 2007, iewed on 30 April, 2009, http://www.who.int/aging/publications/ Global _age_ friendly_cities_Guide_English.pdf World Health Organization, ‘Active Aging: A Policy Framework’. 2002, viewed on 30 April, 2009, http://whqlibdoc.whoint/nq/2002/WHO_NMH_ NPH_02.8pdf Judie C. Davies, PhD, is a Research Associate with the Centre on Aging and sessional instructor for the Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba, Canada. Verena H. Menec, PhD, is Professor, Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology and the Director of the Centre on Aging, University of Manitoba, Canada.

Get Me To A Nunnery: A Reflection on Aging in Two Different Cultural Contexts, the Nursing Home and the Religious Convent Christina Maria Olohan Abstract When considering the experience of aging it is not long before the themes of home, belonging and identity emerge in the discussion. Based on collected narratives this article looks at a group of older religious sisters in Ireland and explores how their particular personal and cultural contexts influences how they perceive and experience moving away from a convent where some of them have lived for 70 years. Their communal migration contrasts with that of lay people moving to the nursing home, which is usually experienced alone and unaccompanied. The article draws on a qualitative research project conducted in Ireland and Australia which critically reviews the increasing marginalisation of older people in a postmodern society. The data demonstrate that the experience of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’ in the two types of institutions differ markedly from each other. In terms of communal living, the convent inhabitants comprise of a cohesive group that enjoy long-term relationship and continuity of life and purpose. In contrast the aged-care institution is a contracted environment where identity and relationship are at best an individual concern but are generally seen as subordinate to a biomedical model of care. Key Words: Older age, aging, nursing home, home, identity, belonging, narrative, community, ritual. ***** 1.

Introduction This article draws on personal histories collected through narrative inquiry and reflexive methodologies to explore two distinct experiences of leaving home in older age; that of residents in nursing homes and of religious sisters in an Irish convent community. Using qualitative methods I examine this experience through bringing personal stories into community and into dialogue, choosing to privilege the voices and knowledge of older people themselves over dominant professional and medical voices which often claim power over them. In this paper the voices of the participants are widely used. During the process of address (the interview) I asked fundamental questions of the research participants about the nature of home: where it is, how they construct it in older age, and how they view their present place of

236

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ living in relation to their personal understanding of home. The process started with the gentle inquiry, ‘Tell me about your home’ and from here, the place of the question, I was taken to the ‘there’ of home – sometimes a material place, often a metaphorical place, a remembered place, a far away place, and for many, a place that no longer exists. I reflected on the question, ‘If my home is far away or no longer exists, where then am I living?’ I reflected on this because this is sometimes the experience of people who live in what we call (paradoxically, I often think) nursing ‘homes’. I reflected on this too because, as a migrant, I have lived far from home and I have felt the tug of the home-place. I knew intimately the unfixedness and yet the certainty of the place called home: the place that is not here where I dwell. As sometimes occurs in qualitative research the horizon of the researcher intersects with the horizon of the participant1 and this was the case with the nursing home group who were often lonely and isolated and living away from family and friends. I came to perceive them as exiles from home. Unlike the nursing home residents the religious sisters were able to take their family with them when in older age they were obliged to leave the familiar place they called home. These connections and these differences drew me to a closer examination of the experience of homeleaving in older age. 2.

Living in the Cloisters I interviewed five sisters from a religious order and explored with them the themes of place, home and belonging in relation to their particular circumstances. The women I interviewed were the older sisters from the community and the longest residents of the convent house which they had joined between the years 1933 and 1951 at an average age of about 18 years old. While they had been some time away from the house on alternative postings (in Ireland and the USA) they spent most of their lives here. All worked as teachers in the local primary and secondary (high) schools. Their convent had become depopulated mainly due to sisters passing away and a lack of new vocations amongst young women in modern Ireland. The old convent house, therefore, was to be sold and a new smaller house to be built nearby. I became interested in the story their going from the old convent. I wanted to mark it in some way both for them and for myself. I was interested to look at their responses to this move from home to a new place (not yet home) within the materiality of the life and relationships they live. I wanted to look at how they adapt and cope and I was interested in how their situation might be the same and different from that of lay people who find themselves experiencing a similar loss, being obliged to move from a loved home-place in older age. In talking with one of the sisters, Grace2, about the impending move she equates it with another ‘little death’ stating, ‘I always think that all the

Christina Maria Olohan

237

______________________________________________________________ little partings along the way are little deaths’. She refers specifically to the deaths of her parents and friends. From her rational mind she states, ‘Sure look it, we have to leave everything sometime. That’s what I feel. I mean when we die we have to leave it’. And from her faith identity, ‘We have not here a lasting city’. Therefore, she concludes, ‘it is best to try and accept it. Try and accept what…is being given to us’. Here Grace articulates her faith perspective and also a sense of sacrifice which typifies the perspective of female religious -‘a particular form of surrender …heroic and public’.3 This aroused my interest with regard to levels of agency and passivity and choice in respect of moving home in older age for both the lay and religious I spoke to. I will even say that I was concerned that this move was being imposed from an anonymous provincial leadership who, Grace assured me, ‘will take care of the business end of things, and that’s good for us’. I understood from Grace too that nobody (apart from architects) had been to talk to them about the move, that is, to process the personal or emotional human impact of such a move late in life. This is something that I have been concerned with in relation to older people, grounded as I am in my own subjectivity: my training as a counsellor, and my ways of relating and learning. I wondered how the sisters were dealing with the experience. 3.

Attachment to Place It was clear from talking to the sisters that they had a strong attachment to place, ‘You would be very attached to where you have been for 70 years, as I have been here for 70 years now, you know’(Grace). This building is part of yourself. I feel sad about leaving it having been in it for all those years... I might like to finish my life here, you have a longing for your old places and happy memories (Elisabeth).4 Asked if there is anything she would miss, Bernadette5 simply stated, ‘Yes. We’ll have very small rooms compared to what we have here’. Space seemed to be an issue for others too. Grace was also concerned there would be less room to move around in, and Elizabeth mentioned losing some sense of space and privacy. Grace is very fond of the small chapel, admitting, ‘I’d hate to lose it… I really love that little chapel, do you know’, quickly adding, ‘but you can’t bring it with you’. I noted a certain lack of concern about what was to be left behind reflected in Brigid’s6 statement, ‘The only thing I’ll bring is my bed. Not another thing’. Tuan writes, ‘When people deliberately change their environment and feel they are in control of their destiny, they have little cause for nostalgia’7 and similarly,

238

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ when a person feels that he himself is directing the change and in control of affairs of importance to him, then nostalgia has no place in his life: action rather than mementos of the past will support his identity.8 This positioning seems to me to ring true but, of course, for the sisters the ‘sentimental longing for times past’ – as nostalgia is defined by Chambers dictionary – was perhaps not yet an issue. They had not yet left their home behind but were in the transition stage of anticipation and reflection. They are grounded in a sense of continuity within community and a deeply felt acceptance of the life they entered and have lived for so many years, and this is operating to sustain them in a time of change. It seemed clear to me that the sisters were much less on their own in their experience of moving than the lay people I had interviewed. The latter were usually taken to the nursing home by family and left behind when their relatives returned home. In the face of their impending loss of home I could see the sisters were having conversations of hope. I witnessed a strong sense of agency and optimism amongst them and a forward-looking appreciation of the particular matters of importance to themselves, such as the familial bond that exists between them; the strong sense of belonging to an inclusive faith community; the companionship; the shared experiences and understanding that they enjoy, and the sense that they are moving forward together along the same trajectory. In terms of processing a loss, their focus was on finding personal and practical meaning in the experience, an orientation that is associated with positive adjustment to a changed situation – finding the benefit (‘silverlining’) in situations of loss.9 Writing about female religious McKenna found, They claimed ‘ownership’ of their vocation and they claimed the decision to enter as their own. In doing so, they laid claim to a subjectivity often denied in assumptions of passivity in relation to why women of their era entered religious life.10 Similarly, the women I spoke to were clearly living a life chosen by themselves for themselves. They saw the privations they experiences as training in the life that they had taken on and saw acceptance of the life as the appropriate response to God’s ‘calling’, as illustrated in the following accounts: My poor father brought me. He was a very soft man but any nun he’d meet the tears would flow down his face.


239

______________________________________________________________ Someone would bring him around the convent And according as he’d meet the nuns like they’d stop to talk to him and he’d be crying the tears were rolling down his face. I never got home until my father was dying. (Brigid) 11

As an 18-year-old Bernadette had arrived at the convent the night before with her aunt, had been interviewed at 9 o’clock that night and accepted as a suitable ‘candidate’ by the parish priest. She goes on: Then the next morning I came down in the postulant’s frock. My Aunty made two beautiful serge frocks that was her gift to me. She bought seven yards of material, black of course, and made beautiful ones! They were gorgeous! So I had one for everyday and one for Sunday. But then the Sunday one was taken from me. Oh yes. You had to you know. You had to give up a lot as well, you know. But that’s only the way of training. It was training. It was nobody’s fault. it just…you know, training. (Bernadette)12 McKenna explains: As women were not born nuns, they had to ‘become’ them. The transformation from postulant to nun involved a rejection of the secular world and their secular self. Moving into the convent, wearing a habit, and replacing one’s baptismal name with one given or chosen were all metaphorical symbols by which the secular self was put to death and the women were ‘reborn’ in religious life.13 There is an acceptance, a hope and a determination evident in the words of the sisters that is translated into a proactive stance in relation to the move to the new house. It is not simply that the sisters are being moved over to the new house: they will take control of the premises, ‘The same work will continue. Our life is settled as it is… I don’t look at it as much of a change. Just take over and take things as they come and go’ (Elisabeth).14 4.

Ritual I see the religious sisters as people with few or perhaps no regrets. They will make the changes when the time comes and indeed there was mention from Grace, when I met her informally while interviewing the others, about ‘a prayerful departure ceremony… including a liturgy’ that might be held to celebrate and mark the move. This idea finds direct echo in

240

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ writing by Williams on navigating transitions: ‘When we are deprived of meaningful ritual we languish with a chronic sense of emptiness’.15 Williams further writes: Rituals and ceremony are ways of using symbolic acts to make a connection or to break a connection. They provide ways of taking connections from the unconscious and impressing them vividly on the conscious mind. The enactment of a ritual, in turn sends a powerful message back to the unconscious, causing changes to take place at the deep levels where attitudes and values originate. They cut through words and substitute direct feeling experience. They involve bodies. Aesthetics, memories, senses and feelings. They transform theoretical ideas into social experience. This is why rituals often involve a physical act: what registers physically, also registers at the deep level of a person’s narrative.16 A departure ceremony will be the sisters’ appropriate contextualised response to the changes that they will be navigating. I ask Grace if the planning of the ceremony has commenced and she characteristically tells me there is no need to worry about that yet, all in good time: ‘there’s no point is there? In a way you only have the present moment’. The departure ceremony will be a personal, communal liturgical and spiritual process to ‘break and make connection’. While the leaving will bring pain just as it has for many who have moved away from home, unlike those who moved into nursing homes, this group of women will enjoy two advantages. First, as mentioned above, they will design and partake in a therapeutic ritual of transition before they move. Second, this group of women is a community of individuals who will remain a community when they move. And this makes a big difference, as Brigid reminds us: If I was sent there by myself off in an isolated place I’d feel it very much…Once you have the people that you live with …if they weren’t to come with you and you were left to go off by yourself, ah sure, that would be a different story. But we’re all going in there together.17 5.

Exile from Home Many of us at different times in our lives have to travel alone, whether it is a journey of return after long absence or the various placemovements that occur through the life span. I think particularly of those lay


241

______________________________________________________________ people who have moved into aged care alone, leaving behind houses and gardens, friends and neighbours: all the materiality and connections of a lifetime. All of those with whom I spoke experienced a reluctant and tearful leaving and none had either formally or informally engaged in a ritual of transition. For each of them the move to aged care was precipitated by illness or injury, by the death of a loved one or by infirmity – that is, coinciding with situations of crisis and distress. For many the circumstances meant there was limited or no choice about the move and little if any advance planning. Such circumstances are not uncommon in relation to aged-care admissions and are found to adversely affect adjustment to the placement.18 It is a situation which can leave one homeless, psychologically stuck in the transitional or ‘liminal space’19 and vulnerable to loneliness, isolation and insecurity: a condition which I propose is akin to ‘exile’.20 In addition, during visits to various aged-care facilities, I noted that the manifestations of emotional/psychological issues such as grief, loss and loneliness were being described by staff as ‘problem behaviours’ and pathologised as ‘emotional dependence’. This kind of attribution marked out the features of grief as symptoms. In facilities I visited, behaviours such as weeping and wanting to talk to staff, and expressions of emotions such as sadness and loneliness, were seen as being demanding of staff time – and were either given minimal attention by busy non-professional and mostly well-meaning care staff, or ignored. Sometimes they were treated (as symptoms) with anti-depressant medication.21 None of the facilities I visited provided professional counselling or psychological support to residents either on arrival or during their stay. In fact, studies that have shown that inadequate staffing levels result in a poorer quality of care in long-term care facilities confirm that ‘the vast majority of nursing homes do not have sufficient staff.22 For those aged care residents living outside ‘a story of belonging’ it will be important for them to become engaged in a process of integration: a to facilitate transition from their old life to a new place and way of living. In terms of transition and ‘rites of passage’ therapeutic rituals involve a separation phase, a liminal phase and an integration phase: In the separation phase, persons symbolically detach themselves from an earlier fixed point. During the liminal period, they enter a ‘betwixt and between’ realm that has few of the attributes of the past state, or of the state to come. In the third phase, when the rite of passage is consummated, the ritual subject is stable once more.23 In a stable community such as the religious sisters enjoy, their ‘shared story’24 and mutual understanding (horizon) provide them with

242

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ reciprocal support in their individual processing of this time of change. As Murphy writes: The memories of groups of peoples is the afterlife of their past action, as collective action. That memory lives on as the interpretative framework through which the group will act on the social world.25 As a model of the way memory operates, Murphy is suggesting that it is not something of the past but of the present. For the sisters their communal frame of reference and structures, their memories and stories will support them to facilitate an appropriate liturgical ceremony, to aid their transition and to support the flow of their tears. For the lay people who moved to nursing homes, this mutuality is not present in their lives. Each one is a lone individual leaving behind a long-term home and moving to a new and strange place of living. Their loss of home is usually compounded with other losses such as of family, of function, of independence and autonomy, of privacy and choice. Most of what they had that signified home falls away and they find themselves subject to institutional imperatives where even mealtimes and bedtimes are pre-determined. To paraphrase Parry and Doan26, they are to some extent ‘outside of a story’, and there is not much comfort for them there. ‘Well I might be days and I wouldn’t see anyone’. (Margaret)27 ‘As far as I’m concerned now I’m on my own’. (Stephen)28 ‘I’ve got nobody’. (Lorna)29 Yet memory does support them too. Margaret, living in one of fifty identical units in an aged care facility depends on her memories. Regarding her deceased husband she states, ‘Our life together is more or less what I’m living on…the memory of it’. She remembers their life and the house that he built, the garden full of trees and flowers and birds and the family she raised there. But the house is locked up now. Margaret explains, ‘My son locked up and I never looked back…if I’d looked back I think I would have started to cry’. Because she felt she couldn’t manage bringing wood in for the Winter and other tasks she didn’t want to burden her sons with looking after her: ‘I didn’t want to be a nuisance’. Her family agree that the move is ‘for the best’. Margaret’s past experience, memories and inner strength help her to manage this new isolated lifestyle, ‘I grew up in the country where you more or less had to depend a lot on yourself. And I think that has helped me to cope’.


243

______________________________________________________________ Stephen, at 97 a retired farmer, came to the nursing home to accompany his wife who was infirm. A husband for 70 years, he stayed on when she died 12 months ago. The path home was blocked by his own increasing frailty and the inability or (unwillingness) of family members to provide appropriate supports. He spends much of the day alone. Sympathising with the staff, he ‘spares them’ all he can because he sees how busy they are. Stephen adapts to a situation where there are not enough staff even to spend some time talking. He sits on his veranda most of the day looking out over the garden, waiting for the day his Lord call him to join his wife. This he admits ‘makes it a lot lonely’. This is a place where he is on his own and he chooses to be elsewhere if only in his mind, There’s no place like home. We loved home…I’m still out there [i.e. at home on the farm] but I’m in here…my mind’s out there. Joan30, confined to a wheelchair, a book always in her hand, has fond recollections of her marital home where she raised her family and where she can no longer live due to physical frailty. Joan reads to occupy her mind but eagerly stuffs the book down the side of the chair at any opportunity for a chat. However she is mostly left alone as staff are too busy to chat. Many of her fellow residents suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and are unable to partake in conversation and others are not of her acquaintance. Visitors are infrequent. There is no ambiguity in her words when she describes her unplanned and sudden admission into the nursing home as an experience of having been ‘thrown into a collection of strangers’. There is little doubt that these nursing home residents are living in their memories of times past: ‘back there’ – in a time of connection, and that this is preferable to living ‘here’- a time of separation. They seem unable to adopt the same forward looking sense of agency evident in the religious sisters’ transition and there are no support structures in place to assist them to do so. 6.

Conclusion Two different cultural contexts which carry the designation ‘home’ have been identified: the convent and the aged-care facility. The ways that these environments impact on the people who lived there and on the aging identity have been discussed and life in the two types of institutions are seen to differ markedly from each other. In terms of community living, the convent inhabitants comprise of a cohesive group that enjoyed long-term relationship and continuity. The contrast with the aged-care environment is strongly made in the words of aged-care resident Joan when she describes the nursing home as a place where ‘strangers [are] lumped in together’. This

244

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ comparison offers lessons in the importance of planned transition to aged care, where this becomes necessary, and the use of ritual to aid transition. It speaks of the isolation and loneliness of current models of aged care institutions and the inadequate levels of staffing and staff training to deal with residents’ human and emotional needs. It calls for creative responses from community, social and political resources to the long term care needs of older people.

Notes 1

A J Walters,‘A hermeneutic study of the experiences of relatives of critically ill patients’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 22, 1995, p. 1000. 2 Grace is a pseudonym for a religious sister interviewed about her life in the convent. 3 Y McKenna, ‘Entering Religious Life, Claiming Subjectivity: Irish Nuns, 1930s-1960s’, Women’s History Review, 15(2), April, 2006 p.199. 4 Elisabeth is a pseudonym for a religious sister interviewed about her life in the convent. 5 Bernadette is a pseudonym for a religious sister interviewed about her life in the convent. 6 Brigid is a pseudonym for a religious sister interviewed about her life in the convent. 7 Y Tuan, Space and Place, University of Minnesota press: Minneapolis, London, 1977, p. 197. 8 ibid., p.188 9 R. A. Neimeyer, ‘Continuing Bonds and Reconstructing Meaning: Mitigating Complications in Bereavement’, Death Studies, 30(8), 2006a, pp. 715-738. 10 Y McKenna, op. cit., p. 206 11 Brigid, op. cit. 12 Bernadette, op. cit. 13 Y McKenna, ‘A Gendered Revolution: Vatican II and Irish Women Religious’, Irish Feminist Review, 1(1) Summer, 2005, pp. 75-93. 14 Elisabeth, op. cit.. 15 A Williams, ‘Designing Therapeutic Rituals’, Psychotherapy in Australia 1(4), August, 1995, p.17 . 16 ibid, p.14 17 Brigid, op. cit. 18 D T F Lee, J Woo, & A E Mackenzie, 2001, ‘A review of older people’s experiences with residential placement’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2001, 37(10) pp.19-27.


245

______________________________________________________________ 19

V Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure, Aldine de Gruyter: New York, 1969. 20 C M Olohan, unpublished PhD thesis ‘Writing Home: The Lived Experience of Constructing Home in Older Age’, University of New England, 2008. 21 R Nay, Nursing home resident’ perceptions of relocation, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 4, 1995, pp. 319-325. 22 B Kash N Castle G Naufal, C Hawes, ‘Effect of Staff Turnover on Staffing: A Closer Look at Registered nurses, Licensed Vocational Nurses, and Certified Nursing Assistants’, The Gerontologist, Oct. 46(5),2006, p. 609 23 Willliams, op. cit., p. 45. 24 A Parry & R E Doan, Story Re-Visions: Narrative Therapy in the Postmodern World, The Guil, 1994, p. 45. 25 J Murphy, ‘Memories and Histories’, In This is My Story: Perspectives on the Use of Oral Sources Centre for Australian Studies , eds S. Schreiner & D. Bell, Deakin University,1990, p.86. 26 A Parry & R E Doan, 1994, op. cit. 27 Margaret is a pseudonym for one of the lay participants in the research 28 Stephen is a pseudonym for one of the lay participants in the research 29 Lorna is a pseudonym for one of the lay participants in the research

Bibliography Kash, B., Castle, N., Naufal, G., Hawes, C. 2006, ‘Effect of Staff Turnover on Staffing: A Closer Look at Registered nurses, Licensed Vocational Nurses, and Certified Nursing Assistants’, The Gerontologist, Oct. 46(5), pp. 609-619. Lee, D.T.F., Woo, J. & Mackenzie, A.E. 2001, ‘A review of older people’s experiences with residential placement’, Journal of Advanced Nursing,, 37(10, pp.19-27. McKenna, Y. 2005 , ‘A Gendered Revolution: Vatican II and Irish Women Religious’, Irish Feminist Review, 1(1) Summer, pp. 75-93. McKenna, Y. 2006, ‘Entering Religious Life, Claiming Subjectivity: Irish Nuns, 1930s-1960s’, Women’s History Review, 15(2), April, pp. 189-211 Murphy, J. 1990, ‘Memories and Histories’, In This is My Story: Perspectives on the Use of Oral Sources Centre for Australian Studies, S. Schreiner & D. Bell (eds), Deakin University, pp.79-86.

246

Get Me to a Nunnery

______________________________________________________________ Nay, R. 1995, Nursing home resident’ perceptions of relocation, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 4, pp. 319-325. Neimeyer, R.A. 2006a, ‘Continuing Bonds and Reconstructing Meaning: Mitigating Complications in Bereavement’, Death Studies, 30(8), pp. 715738). Olohan, C M., unpublished PhD thesis Writing Home: The Lived Experience of Constructing Home in Older Age, PhD Thesis, University of New England, 2008.). Parry, A, & Doan, R.E., Story Re-Visions: Narrative Therapy in the Postmodern World, 1994, The Guilford Press. Sikorska-Simmons, E. 2006, ‘Linking Resident Satisfaction to Staff Perceptions of the Work Environment in Assisted Living: A Multilevel Analysis’, The Gerontologist, Oct. 46(5), pp. 590-598. Tuan, Yi-Fu, Space and Place. University of Minnesota Press, 1977, Minneapolis, London. Turner, V., The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure, Aldine de Gruyter: New York, 1969. Walters, A. J. 1995, ‘A hermeneutic study of the experiences of relatives of critically ill patients’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 22, pp. 998-1005). Williams, A. 1995, ‘Designing Therapeutic Rituals’, Psychotherapy in Australia 1(4), August, pp.13-18. Christina Maria Olohan began her working life as a teacher in rural Ireland and has continued to be involved in education, in one form or another, ever since. Moving to Australia in 1988 opened many opportunities for her and it was there she worked as a school counsellor, rehabilitation counsellor, employment consultant and university lecturer in counselling. In 2008 she completed a PhD thesis that examined aspects of the lived experience of older age. She now works and teaches in Ireland and continues her research with and support of older people.


247

______________________________________________________________ employment consultant and university lecturer in counselling. In 2008 she completed a PhD thesis that examined aspects of the lived experience of older age. She now works and teaches in Ireland and continues her research with and support of older people.

A Time to Keep Silent and a Time to Speak: Past and Present in Group for the Elderly Judith Fadlon Abstract Many of the very old find themselves spending time in institutionalized settings such as old age homes, or day centers, where they are somewhat distanced from society, rather than integrated into it. Their time is usually structured, and activities organized and directed by the staff often render the aged participants into passive objects rather than active subjects. This magnifies the experience of disempowerment and removal from the mainstream of social activity. This paper provides insight into the process and themes of a dynamic process group which was conducted at a day center for the elderly. The group discussed is unique in the sense that activity was unstructured, and participants were encouraged to take responsibility for the themes discussed. In the space provided by the group an interesting interplay between past and present, nostalgia and the here-and-now emerged both from a thematic and developmental point of view. The primary finding was that reminiscing about the past did not serve as an end in itself, but rather as a bridge to dealing with challenges and issues situated in the present. From the point of view of group process and development, reminiscing was more common at the out-start as a means of creating group cohesion and status within the group. Later on, as the group progressed, discussion of the past was drawn on as an escape from intimacy, or conflict that arose in the group. This paper shows that when elders are allowed to take control of their time and activities, nostalgia for the past did not serve as an end in itself, but rather as a means for dealing with the present and finding a voice in it. Key Words: Eldery, Anthropological Research, Structured Activities ***** 1.

Introduction Setting an agenda for discussion – telling people what they can and cannot talk about is tantamount to silencing them. This paper offers a critique of the structured nostalgia/reminiscence groups, which have become a popular and acceptable pastime for the aged at day care centres or homes. Basically in these groups, old people are prompted to talk about the past. This critique stems from two different perspectives: group therapy theory and anthropology. From the perspective of group therapy it is my contention that these groups stand in contradiction to the basic tenets of that discipline – namely

250

A Time to Keep Silent and a Time to Speak

______________________________________________________________ providing a safe, but unstructured space in which participants can explore dilemmas and problems in the here and now and realize that experiences can be shared.1 Nostalgia groups by definition situate participants in the past and allow no room for development or progress. From an anthropological perspective, I claim that these groups reflect and reify the marginal position of the aged in society, removing them from the present context and fixing them in the past.2 From both these perspectives, nostalgia groups do not empower the elderly, but rather perpetuate their marginal position in society. 2.

Anthropologist and Group Leader As an anthropologist and group facilitator, the data and thinking behind this paper come from a multidisciplinary professional involvement. The tools common to both these trades – anthropology and group leadership are silence, observation and reflexivity. Basically shut up, watch closely and be aware of how you might be influencing the field. In the immortal sentence taught in Anthropological Research Methods 101, Doc, group leader in William Whyte’s Street Corner Society, tries to teach Whyte the basics of street corner etiquette, ‘If you watch closely enough there will come a time when you know the answers without having to ask the questions’.3 A dual process therefore is constantly at work in both anthropology and group leadership: on one hand denial of self, and on the other heightened self-awareness. Bracketing is not an option. The ability to blend in and be unobtrusive, on one hand, but unequivocally and totally present, on the other. Shutting up and letting things unfold are relatively simple – reflexivity is a more complex matter demanding, among other, self disclosure, I will at once say that this paper comes from a liminal space of betwixt and between – a space where no rules govern and the taken for granted of our life as we have lived it is no longer valid. 3.

Reflexivity While writing this paper, my focus was extended from the act of silencing to the state of silence. The personal prompted the theoretical as I watched my father die and, conversely, watched a close friend fall in love – both uncharted territories, liminal spaces. Death has its rituals, its forms, its mutely uttered formulae. Being in love has its roles, expectations and indeed, entitlement. Both are absolute states well defined by rituals and norms. But the process of getting there, is what we have to make up as we go along, interpret, wonder, invent, and reinvent. From dying to death, from falling in love to being loved or loving, from being on the brink, to falling over the edge. Roles and rituals yet un-established, have to be crystallized and formed. In the last months of my father’s life I spent many hours with him. He was bedridden and I expected so many words – summaries, regrets, lessons for the future. Instead there was silence. Silence that contained

Judith Fadlon

251

______________________________________________________________ companionship, reassurance, touch. At times, short telegraphic texts on the mobile phone ‘G-d bless you’, ‘signing out’, and that awful process of role reversal that many a child goes through when becoming parent to his progenitor. Nothing can prepare one for the enormity of that reversal in roles. Falling in love is a liminal space, too. One has, as yet, no status, no entitlement and must deal with uncertainty and interpretation. The silences between e-mails, phone calls, or mobile phone texting, the double-spaced silences between the lines when ‘new message’ pops up on the screen. The punctuation of anticipation, inference, and ever more interpretation. All this made me realize that old age is such a process, too, where roles and rules have to be constantly reinvented in face of the perpetual process of loss old people have to deal with. Loss of status, loss of relationships, friends, spouses, siblings, and changes in physical and mental capacities. How does one navigate the uncharted territory of growing old? How does one negotiate the liminal space where roles are constantly changing? How does one achieve the space and silence necessary to do so? 4.

From Personal to Theoretical The personal led to the theoretical as I started to ponder on the importance of silence as opposed to speech. Is silence less valuable than speech? The title of this paper, indeed biblical wisdom, suggest otherwise, a time to speak out – a time to remain silent. Silence has so many sounds and nuances while searching for the exact words, sometimes not actually needing to say them when they have been found. Silence is reflecting, sharing, participating. Silence is productive if one is brave enough to confront and embrace it, to learn from it. But it needs to be provided for. Why then do we deny our elders the privilege of this particular type of silence? Why are activities for the elder structured and pre-defined? Why are our elders denied the space and silence necessary to work through the process of aging, for example, within the framework of an open, unstructured group in which feelings, thoughts, experiences, and fears can be shared, compared and normalized. Indeed Yalom4 describes the group experience as a place that creates symbolic space in which participants encounter the shared aspects of human experience thereby sharing and ultimately lightening the burden of human existential loneliness and alienation. He states that, ‘After hearing other members disclose concerns similar to their own, clients describe this as a welcome to the human race experience’.5 5.

Structured Activities for the Old From an anthropological point of view a possible explanation can be found in the broader socio-cultural imperative for productivity. As the aged are viewed as an unproductive sector of society,6 getting them to participate in a group with a measurable output – in this case recorded memories of ‘how

252


______________________________________________________________ things were’ re-situates them within societal norms. Theories of successful aging such as ‘activity theory’ draw intellectual authority from the same (perhaps mistaken) premise that links activity and productivity with wellbeing.7 This is interesting when compared to groups for individuals who are not old, where the very possibility of having unproductive space is sanctified in order to serve as a receptacle for the group’s symbolic output. Scholars such as Bender8 and Bornat9 describe reminiscence groups as an answer to inactivity. Bender writes, ‘We just couldn’t bear to see the residents sitting in the lounge day after day’ and describes a nostalgia group run in an old age home as an activity that was designed ‘to avoid the grimness of inactive old people sitting in chairs in a row with their backs against the wall’.10 Whitaker11 describes one such group where, during ‘reminiscence sessions’, staff were ready with prompts when conversation died down such as ‘what about travel?’, ‘how did you get around and where did you go?’ Indeed, silence was to be avoided. Nostalgia groups, have, in fact, become so popular that ‘nostalgia kits’ now exist in order to prompt and trigger discussion. It is further interesting to note that offering elders a meaningful way to spend their time by banishing them into the past by means of a ‘nostalgia/reminiscence’ group suggests a paradoxical involvement in society through redundancy, representing what is no longer relevant. The nostalgia group, therefore, does not integrate elders into society but legitimizes their marginalization. 6.

Illustration I would like to illustrate how the past and silence figured in a dynamic group for elders that I conducted for two years in a day care center. The group was called ‘What you can see from here, you cannot see from there’ and participants were told that the purpose was to discuss issues that were important to them. 9 men and 3 women participated in the group. We met once a week for an hour and a half for 2 years. All were over 80. The oldest was 91. Creating Space for Being One of the most important tasks of the group leader is to encourage the group to achieve its own unique voice. In order to achieve this end it is important not to introduce an agenda or theme in to the group but provide a safe space – a setting – and wait. For a facilitator, waiting for the group to find its voice and start working can be nerve-racking, and the temptation to introduce specific themes or lead the group in a certain direction is great, as it creates an illusion of goals attained, of a task being performed. Time after time, for months on end the opening sentence of one of my group participants

Judith Fadlon

253

______________________________________________________________ was ‘and what have you brought us today?’, to which I invariably responded ‘and what have you brought me today?’ The Function of the Past in Group Process At the first meeting – discussing what we were going to do in the group – Isaac said ‘The present is difficult – the future – well we don’t want to think too far forward as you know what lies there (and he pointed to the ceiling) – so let’s talk about are past adventures’. Isaac had been very active in the Israeli Secret Service and held the group’s attention often with recounts of his past adventures. Talking of the past was for him a strategy for establishing a position of leadership within the group. He was manipulating the past for status in the present. This strategy was readily adopted by other group members who traded stories of their participation in wars, the nation building process, and immigration to the state as a claim to status in the group. This strategy was employed both by men and women. Violet, for example, told how she had literally walked to Israel from Hungary during the Second World War holding her two year old son in her arms. We therefore see three different uses of the past functioning not as an end, as in nostalgia groups, but as a means to: a) b) c)

escape the present and future; establish status; and create camaraderie and cohesion through a shared past.

This was only the beginning. As the group progressed and trust grew, cohesion was achieved and personal histories were shared. For example, Leo tearfully recounted his very difficult relationship with his eldest daughter, now deceased, whom he had been forced to put into a foster family following the death of his first wife. He also spoke of his struggle to take care of his second wife who was stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. These stories drew much sympathy and identification from the group and similar stories were shared. Mark, who had previously spent days on end in a corner, weaving wall hangings, told of his difficulties taking care of his wife, also stricken with Alzheimer’s disease and the daily effort he put into cooking special food for her, or coaxing her into the shower. In this manner the symbolic space provided by the group was effectively used in order to perform life review, receive validation for decisions taken in the past, and also to share present tribulations. Bridging between past and present was now occurring as the group began to work.

254


______________________________________________________________ Saying the Unspeakable As time went by and group cohesion grew even more, participants would use the group in order to address present pressing issues without needing to revert to the past, even though this temptation was ever present. At one meeting, when Isaac returned to the group after having been hospitalized for three weeks, he suggested we talk of ‘fears experienced in the past in general’. I asked him whether the subject that he was proposing had anything to do with his recent hospitalization. ‘No, I didn’t feel any fear he said. Fear – I’ve been there. Fear is being told you have cancer. That is awful. Age is not a reason for fear’. Mark agreed with him saying: ‘True - just one thing is important – to die at home. Not in hospital’. Isaac and Leo agreed with this. Jonathan said he wanted to donate his body to science and Isaac said that that meant that he wouldn’t have a grave. Nuri expressed a fatalistic perspective. ‘There’s nothing you can do about it. From the day you’re born your time is measured. Your day of death is set. It’s fate. There’s nothing you can do about it’. Leo disagreed with the religious aspects of fate suggested by Nuri and said that he was not afraid to die. ‘Many times I have been prepared to be taken. We are old - that’s part of old age’. The group then went on to discuss younger people who had died, and also the way one lived. Nuri contended that one should smoke and drink and have a great time as long as possible. Jonathan said that he would like to die in his sleep like a young doctor of 34 whose sudden death was reported in the newspaper. Indeed, Leo, the oldest member of the group, served as a source of comfort for them all. He was 91 years old and functioning well. Perhaps there is still time after all. It is interesting, though, that the group always added years to Leon, making him 95. This probably served as a source of hope for their own longevity and quality of life. The above example illustrates beautifully what can happen when a group works well and performs its task. The subject specifically avoided at the first meeting – the future – because of what it held - was tackled openly some time later, allowing participants to address their fears and concerns and concerning the great taboo subject - death. Additional Themes In the two years that the group met, many subjects were discussed. Politics and current affairs were very popular and often led into more personal topics. For example, when a prominent cabinet minister was indicted for sexually harassing a young female aide, a lively discussion developed on sexual relationships between elder men and younger women. Other subjects that occupied the group were sex, sensuality, partnership, longing for their younger bodies, money, inheritances, arguments

Judith Fadlon

255

______________________________________________________________ among children, financial problems, and being remembered. Many of the subjects were indeed tackled in a way similar to the issue of death and dying that I illustrated. Sex, for example, was first touched on through telling dirty jokes, but, then, after time and space and quiet had been provided, a discussion developed concerning their sexual relationships in the past and present. Signing Off Often a session would be rounded up with a group poem. A member would suggest a title that usually reflected a theme discussed that day and then each participant would offer a line. I will end with one such poem, which reflects, in my opinion, the essence of a working, cohesive, process group – exploration, comfort, reciprocity, and support. This poem is also physical, even sensual, in a way, and represents the pulse of a working group. The elders were very much alive. When We Held Hands When we held hands I felt a current running through from hand to hand From Mark to me through our two friends I felt his heart beat. It was nice to listen to the song And hold a friend’s hand. I felt your hear beat too I felt complete silence As if nothing else existed. But it was only a distraction There was quiet for me There was a very strong current Something I don’t know exactly what… 7.

Conclusion I have briefly illustrated the opportunities for development inherent in an open, unstructured group. The wealth of subjects that the group addressed indicates that limiting the discussion and objectives of a group to nostalgia and reminiscence is tantamount to silencing the voice of the aged. Denying them the silence in which they can continue to grow, develop, and find ways to cope with the many challenges of ageing and old age, is denying them a voice in the present. Winter might unfortunately not become spring again, but it does have many phases.

256


______________________________________________________________

Notes 1 M S Corey and G Corey, Groups: Process and Practice, Brooks Cole Press, California, 2002 2 S Biggs, Understanding Aging: Images Attitudes and Professional Practice, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1993. 3 W F Whyte, Street Corner Society, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1964, pp. 279-309. 4 I Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, 5th edition, Basic Books Press, New York, 2005 5 ibid ., p. 6. 6 B Turner, ‘Aging and Identity: Some Reflections on the Somatization of the Self’, in Images of Aging, M Featherstone and M Hepworth (eds), Routledge Press, London, 1995, pp. 245-262. 7 R J Havighurst and R Glasser, ‘An Exploratory Study of Reminiscence’. Journal of Gerontology, vol 27, 1972, pp. 235-253. 8 M Bender, ‘An Interesting Confusion: What Can We Do With Reminiscence Groupwork?’ in Reminiscence Reviewed, J Bornat (ed), Open University Press, Buckingham, 1994, pp. 32-45. 9 Bornat, Reminiscence Reviewed, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1994. 10 Bender, op. cit., p.39. 11 D Whittaker, Using Groups to Help People, 2nd edition, BrunnerRoutledge Press, London, 2001

Bibliography Bender, M., ‘An Interesting Confusion: What Can We Do With Reminiscence Groupwork?’ in Reminiscence Reviewed, J. Bornat (ed), Open University Press, Buckingham, 1994, pp. 32-45. Biggs, S., Understanding Ageing: Images, Attitudes and Professional Practice. Open University Press, Buckingham, 1993. Bornat, J., Reminiscence Reviewed. Open University Press, Buckingham, 1994. Corey, M. S. and Corey, G., Groups:Process and Practice. Brooks Cole Press, California, 2002. Havighurst, R. J., and Glasser, R., ‘An Exploratory Study of Reminiscence’. Journal of Gerontology, vol. 27, 1972, pp. 235-253.

Judith Fadlon

257

______________________________________________________________ Turner, B., ‘Aging and Identity:Some Reflections on the Somatization of the Self’, in Images of Ageing, M. Featherstone and M. Hepworth (eds), Routledge Press, London, 1995, pp. 245-262. Whittaker, D., Using Groups to Help People, 2nd editon. Brunner – Routledge Press, London, 2001. Whyte, W. F., Street Corner Society. Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1964, pp. 279-309. Yalom, I., The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. 5th edition, Basic Books Press, New York, 2005. Judith Fadlon is an Associate Professor at Lesley University, Cambridge Massachusetts.

Sartorial Identity of Professional Woman Over Age 60 Claire Lacoste Kapstein Abstract Sartorial identity is an important component of our daily lives. Through clothing and adornment women establish their sense of protection, self, as well as their identity in society and throughout the life-cycle. The recent and global phenomenon of increased longevity, life expectancy, medical improvements along with the increasing visibility of Baby Boomers’ assertiveness and the rise of working older women have given the female population new empowerments and challenges. Using a multi-disciplinary approach to study the ageing population allows us to include the importance of sartorial needs, which was once ignored. This study topic originated from years of inquiry into why older women’s status and apparel needs were not being served despite growing societal acceptance and improved sociopolitical policies. I explore the meanings of the lived experiences of modern professional women over age 60 as it relates to their sartorial behavior. The strategies these women elaborate on achieving their sartorial goals varies, and includes: visibility within the group (ageing working women), assimilation to that group while maintaining differentiation. Notions of temporality arise as these women express both the need to keep some connection with their past through the use or wear of certain items, fabric or colours as well as being able to project themselves into the future by trying new outfits, following new trends and testing new colours and materials. The voices of these mature women contradict assumptions and pre-conceived ideas about ageing, ageing roles in the work environment, and apparel needs in older age. These participants were found to have similar attitudes to those usually found in younger cohorts. Chronological age and past ageist connotations are becoming non-entities. This study uncovers gaps in current knowledge about the sartorial needs and desires of ageing women and its resulting effect on self-identity and wellbeing. Key Words: Aging, Women, Working, Retirement, Sartorial Needs, Gerontology, Psycho-social behaviour, Demographics ***** 1.

Introduction Sartorial identity is an important component of our daily lives and aging process. Sartorial from the latin ‘sartor’ meaning ‘tailor’ is useful in that it incorporates the various aspects of clothing/dress/fashion as salient notions within many fields of study such as sociology, anthropology, and in

260

Sartorial Identity of Professional Woman Over Age 60

______________________________________________________________ the U.S specifically the field of clothing and textile research. Through clothing and adornment women establish their sense of protection, self, as well as their identity and status in society and throughout the life cycle. This study topic originated from years of inquiry into why older women’s status and apparel needs were not being served despite growing societal acceptance and improved socio-political policies. The purpose of my research is to introduce the need to address the sartorial needs of the aging population within a multidisciplinary venue. I focused particularly on older working women age 60 and over. Higher life expectancy and increased longevity are redefining the way individuals think and act during their life cycles and also how societies and others are viewing these changes. This last decade has shown an unprecedented transformation in which women and men alike are experiencing the aging process in a very different manner than that of their parents and older peers. For the first time in human history human beings have the opportunity to live longer and in better health than ever before. As the aging population increases globally and the economy adds further strains to society the aging population will be forced to work longer and the age of retirement will likely become an idea of the past. Unlike younger populations the morphological and biological changes that older populations experience does require attention for their sartorial needs for both aesthetic and physical reasons. Women live longer than men and because economic security after 60 stems from attainment of economic independence gained throughout the productive life course many women have found that they need to continue working until much later in life to supplement their incomes and to maintain or create a social outlet. Additionally, gender inequalities and societal barriers continue to affect the socio-economic wellbeing of older women in many industrialized countries. Non-traditional types of employment and alternative work arrangements for older women will require women to dress and appear professional. Forty years from now a third of the population from developed nations will be over 601. The demographic projections for the United States2 suggest that twenty-five years from now one in every five persons will be age 65 or older. The main reason for this demographic aberration is the population spurt of the baby boom generation entering their elderly years. The majority will be women and millions of them will stay in the workforce or re-enter the workforce either by personal choice or by economic necessity in order to maintain a certain quality of life and lifestyle 3. Historically, societies were built with youth in mind but today older persons must be an integral part of the production system and societal construction. As social roles identify us throughout life so does our sartorial appearance. Certainly, this upcoming multigenerational integration will have an affect on how people dress throughout their lives. At present, we are standing at a corner,

Claire Lacoste Kapstein

261

______________________________________________________________ entering the new millennium and the 21st century with a broken image of what social roles and dress signify in our daily lives and how we address those changes as older apparel product consumers. Certainly, the apparel market and fashion industry have not yet responded to the apparel needs of this vibrant aging population. Moreover, the increase in published works addressing sartorial identity show the importance of this topic as a necessary element in the study of social and medical sciences. The world of fashion and dress is becoming a subject, object, and analysis of modern societies as much as it is an individual endeavour toward personal identification, expression, and adornment at a later age in life. A cultural shift is happening with regard to older women and their sartorial construction. Because sartorial behaviours have changed so rapidly in recent decades, particularly the 1980’s and 1990’s, we tend to forget that women who are in their sixties and seventies today have fashioned contemporary history. As observers of the evolution of dress, we do not have to wait for the high visibility of the baby boomer generation to explain changes. These women over age 60 from the wrongly named ‘silent generation’ have already made incredible strides toward continuing female empowerment. The objective of this paper is to offer a snapshot of the current sartorial experiences of urban professional women over age 60. 2.

Definitions and Methods Sartorial appearance relies upon non-verbal communication, based on the body’s language and/or on the fashion language4 and appearance as any social interaction is subjected to specific social norms and practices. However, since apparel is an explicit form of social interaction, women do modify their self-concept and self-presentation according to interactions with social groups 5. For this qualitative study it was beneficial to gain answers to questions such as: ‘What do you feel about fashion, age-related changes, and the demands of work and appearance?’ ‘What are your grooming and dressing habits?’ and ‘How do you manage your wardrobe?’ Because experience is the basis for the lived discourse of each woman, social context and external parameters shaped each lived experience. As van Manen6 posits: ‘Phenomenology aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the nature of meaning of our everyday experiences.’ Ten real estate brokers age 60 to 72 who live and work full time in Manhattan, NY told their stories through in-depth interviews and visit to the participant’s closets or dressing space. Professional appearance and images are paramount to successful communication and negotiation. In the highly competitive real estate business in New York City and even in times of economic direness, the dress code is still prevalent in many firms. One has to ‘present’ well and assert ‘selling’ abilities with the right sartorial appearance.

262


______________________________________________________________ A multi-dimensional approach is necessary to view all the various elements that shape the everyday experiences of these women including: social and cultural judgments placed on the older population; age-related physical and psychological changes that may affect aging; and the changes in taste for apparel styles, colours, and fabrications. Individually, each woman went through a series of evaluation and sartorial decisions in order to refine or complete a personalized look. These requirements did not seem to stigmatize these women to the contrary, each woman gained more of her true identity through clothes rather than loosing her ‘self’ trying to be someone else using dress as a tool. A strong sense that transpired at the inception of the interview process was that the ten women of the study were all eager to collaborate and tell their sartorial stories. Relying on the sartorial identification and construction of the ten women as individuals and interpreting the significance of their lived experiences as a group helped to explicate their perspectives as older women working and living in Manhattan. 3.

Agelessness Defining the aging process remains a complex issue. First, none of the women in the group wanted to discuss chronological age. The use of chronological labelling with numbers had no relevance for them. The increasing female longevity and female productivity have brought new societal and individual assessments and responses toward age-range definitions and aging processes. This is why scholars, fashion marketers and merchandisers, gerontologists, and even public health specialists must reevaluate age markers by incorporating actual societal and individual trends of experienced aging. The outlook on age-related transformations and health consequences did not surface in individual discussions. None of the participants showed interest in commenting about their personal reaction to body changes or physiological problems. Consequently, these women exemplify the new positive attitude toward aging and being over 60, which contradicts past stereotypes of being ‘old’, ‘retired’, and ‘unattractive.’ 4.

The Concept of Modernity In this study of the lived sartorial experiences, a valid concept emerged from the women’s narratives, which is that of modernity. Since the concept of modernity holds many subjective notions there can be no single definition. My conceptual definition of modernity describes the women’s contemporary values, behaviours, attitudes, and distances itself from traditional cultural standards of women and their age. My explication of modernity applied to these women’s sartorial identification is an experiential notion relating to societal changes that occurred within the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The emphasis for interpretation


263

______________________________________________________________ lies with the elaboration of the sartorial construct as it is experienced in the everyday lives of the participants. It involves individual freedom of choice, autonomy, and singularity of women over age 60. This study was comprehensive only in reference to the nature of its participants, that of white women of similar background and educational upbringing and that of a healthy group of females within a same cohort, it did not include issues of ethnicity, class, or social status. These women are the actors of their stories and the art directors of their images. They remain in control of who they are, where and when they buy apparel, and what they wear. Their apparel management serves as a shaper and identifier of their personality. Although these women were part of a privileged class being educated and living comfortable lives, they showed throughout the interviews that they were worldly, politically astute, and socially and culturally aware. In listening to each participant I sensed a great deal of tolerance, adaptability, and resilience. All participants worked throughout their adult and/or motherhood lives and they continued to enjoy working in a conscious decision. Most of them started in the real estate business because it gave them control of their schedule and they could start in the business without any financial backing. The essential commonalities of work experience that linked these women together were their goals to be successful as real estate brokers in a highly competitive environment. If all the participants were highly opinionated this could be due to the typical New Yorker attitude. To the question ‘what is involved in your work experience and physical activities?’ A sixty-four year old participant enthusiastically said: ‘Well, first I love it...I love the part of it. I love working. Mainly, because I have to get dressed every day and so that’s part of my thrill of going to work.’ All the participants were positive about their work although being a real estate broker requires physical stamina, total dedication to the clients, and seven days a week involvement. 5.

Modern Attitude with Aging Bodies Generally, these women projected a positive self-image and a profound knowledge of their body ‘by now’ as they liked to interject. To my inquiries about particular feelings and experiences in relation to how some garments are no longer adapted to their morphology or to the aging process, participants had pragmatic responses and did not seem deeply affected by it even though some women told about their conceit toward the negative aspects of aging physically and what they felt and did to conceal those physical and visible changes. One participant reflected: I have altered my dressing. I almost never have my arms exposed...that’s a personal conceit, it has to do with age, I don’t like the way my arms look, so I almost always have

264


______________________________________________________________ long sleeves. And the turtleneck is not because of the wrinkled neck, it’s just because I have a long neck, and it works well with my suits, my face…but I almost never wear a sleeveless and I never wear short sleeves even in the summertime…as I say, there are personal conceits, another woman of my age might not think about it. Within the conceptual area of modernity a ‘fashioning of the self’ relates to this group of women to be a comprehensive configuration that makes up the totality of behaviours, attitudes, perceptions, and opinions that transpire throughout their work and life experiences. The concept of appearance implies that apparel and the act of dressing in general, mirrors the cultural milieu in which it is experienced, thus reflecting identity, social and work interaction, and cultural and fashion changes. A strong sense that transpired from the collaborative interviews was the importance connected to the notion of sartorial identity for everyday life. It involved the dress requirements for the real estate job, but also the pleasure of associating the apparel construct with the body-self. Collectively, all participants experienced similar types of physical moves, postures, and gestures. The strain of walking a lot combined with many hours of sitting positions did not seem to cause any physical consequences except for greater fragility of feet and the need to ‘keep up’ physical stamina. One participant expressed objectively what others experienced after years of walking and wearing high heels: I think it’s part of what‘s happening to us, to the feet, they get wider, less cushioning, swelling, maybe…as your body goes through changes and also your circulation…I don’t wear real high heels any more. The perception of the body is a subjective dimension, which reflects intimately all the societal transformations that operate at the cultural level and that in turn impact each individual. Stereotypes provided by the media on staying youthful and sexy do not seem to have an impact on these women in any narcissistic or negative way. It simply makes them aware that staying in shape makes them healthier. Post-modern normalization of the body in our Western societies presenting itself to be the unique answer to be oneself, slim, young looking, and active - is not part of these women’s discourse. The development of the body image for these women has been acquired progressively during their lifetime. And it is this passage of time and life experience that gives these women indispensable knowledge about themselves and their bodies. The pattern of the grooming regimen shows how this generation of working


265

______________________________________________________________ women is changing all previous assumptions about power of engagement and positive activity involvement. In sum, these women over age 60 act as if nothing is or has changed in their daily lifestyle. These women do not compromise comfort and ease of dressing for appearance. As a participant mentioned, ‘I am not going to make myself be uncomfortable…I am not just going to be in tight things that I can’t breathe in all day. It won’t happen’. Only a few years ago issues of ageism applied to a wide range of ‘older persons.’ Today, blatant age discrimination tends to have shifted on the old-old population where mobility and frailty is seen first, which is where the typical human response is usually directed. Regarding aging issues, in effect, these women are rejecting past assumptions with regard to women their age, and that of an adherence to an aging cohort’s sameness. They project as having the appearance of strong bodies and self-identity. They are reinventing women's status at an older age, re-defining what femininity means at an older age, and re-organizing the economic and political status of older working women. The fundamental core to the concept of modernity applied to these persons’ s actions and experiences is that it aligns itself with another perception: that of agelessness and living fully with no parameters of aging, age demarcations, or aging process labelling. Regarding exercise and health practices, the participants are positive about keeping in shape. They tend to paralleled themselves to the typical crowd of younger real estate professional women in their thirties and their forties who exercise religiously in gyms spread all over the city. Exercise and active living boost these women’s self-esteem as well as stamina. Besides walking all the time for work most of them practice a physical activity, dance, and the sport of apparel browsing, shopping, and buying in the city. If the concept of modernity is reflected in various ways of dressing with a sense of cultural and physical freedom in wearing pants, comfortable shoes, lightweight outerwear, black and dark coloured base attire, and jeans, yet, another sense of truly being modern lies in the need to be nonconforming and to be unique. In the same manner, the search for vintage clothes or second hand ‘finds’ echoes a desire for an independence of spirit in wearing one-of-a-kind apparel piece that no one else wears. The participants are self-conscious and very savvy about their shopping habits. They do not buy or own large quantities of clothes and if they have emotional attachment to some of their apparel pieces, they liked to give away those no-longer-worn items to other women. After all, these business women grew up in the fifties and sixties. Women typically were exposed to fewer quantities of garments and fabric types. They kept garments for longer periods of time. Fabric content, care habits, and basic sewing skills were part of ‘must-know’ awareness. These women commonly have a genuine sense of what is important to know and feel as apparel users. The final insight that defines these participants as modern self-

266


______________________________________________________________ fashioned women suggested the notion of the passage of time; the subconscious expression of lost youth. The question of ‘Which is the garment that you would dream of wearing and that you never wore?’ revealed fantasies from the past and of being feminine, desirable, and attractive beings. The ballroom dancer and the oldest real estate broker of the group resumed had this quick answer: It would probably be a white silk charmeuse, one-piece, body revealing little ease at the hem, long dress with...not a strapless, with a kind of wide straps and a soft crushed neckline over the, over the bust line, you know, a real Marilyn Monroe...You know a kind of [laughter]...with dazzling earrings and chunks of rhinestones bracelets and high heeled white silk satin shoes, which I could not wear of course [laugh] my feet couldn’t take it. The fashioning of the self these professional women over age 60 have elaborated is realized through time and experiences that are based on sensory, cognitive, emotional, and social acquisitions. Strategies that each woman uses toward achieving her sartorial goals vary. From the individual psychological benefits of sartorial pursuit to the need for affirmation and coherence in everyday life, these personal strategies can be resumed in four separate finalities. The finalities include: visibility within the group, belonging to the real estate brokerage community; assimilation to that group, but with apparent differentiation in the need for individuality and uniqueness. Additionally, notions of temporality arise within the group as a whole, and individually. These women express both the need to keep some connection with their past through the use or wear of certain items, fabric or colours as well as being able to project themselves into the future by trying new outfits, following new trends and testing new colours and materials. Through their voices, I determined that these women plan, purchase, use and dispose of their apparel with as much vivacity as women who are twenty or thirty years younger. These ten women in their sixties and seventies accept natural age-related body changes and changing physical appearance. Moreover, if any age-related problems occur they do not affect the women’s self-image and work-related activities. Interestingly, this study unveiled the idea that these women are not consumed with the ageism that was prevalent in the society a few years ago. Participants prefer not to have their identity connected to their chronological age but choose rather to be considered part of the mainstream working female population. In the process, they disprove the perception of older women as being invisible and powerless. These women seem to implement a personal holistic perspective on how to approach their lives. On a daily basis, they live in the metaphysical


267

______________________________________________________________ moment, by choosing and dressing for the particular circumstances and duties of the day. They use beautification elements of personalization - hairstyle, manicure, jewellery, neckwear, footwear, and bags – as a final touch for their feelings of the ‘instant’. With a view of the future, they invest time and energy in planning, shopping for, and purchasing high quality career apparel, footwear and accessories, following their own past habits and patterns of impulse. As consumers of apparel products, most participants are disappointed in the lack of stylish, original suits and jackets, appropriate for their age group. They are frustrated with the myriad of apparel choices for the younger female customer and the minimal choices for themselves. Despite these complaints and because these women are highly knowledgeable of fashion trends and quality factors, such as garment construction and fiber type, they manage to purchase apparel that fits and is comfortable for their career demands and lifestyles. The voices of these mature women contradict assumptions and pre-conceived ideas about aging, gender roles in the work environment, and apparel needs after age 60. 6.

Conclusion This interpretive study uncovers gaps in current knowledge about the sartorial needs and desires of this age group - within the growing phenomenon of older professional women participating in the global economy - and the deeper meaning of appearing and dressing everyday for work and its resulting effect on self-identity and wellbeing. In better understanding older women’s experiential perspectives toward their sartorial needs including appearance, status, and apparel management, scholars of various fields will better understand this population segment. While it is a highly focused study I feel strongly that further research should be broadened to other socio-economic, ethnic, and geographically diverse older female populations. At present I am working on a study that determines the morphological and physical barriers older women encounter when shopping for apparel. The study focuses on women in assisted living and of a lower economic background. Thus far, similarly to the women in Manhattan all respondents demand and enjoy maintaining the sartorial identity they have had throughout their life cycle. Financially however they find that choices are limited and companies do not think of the physical changes older women go through when creating clothes for the masses. The outcome of this study will be of particular significance to the wider ageing female population. A final observation that surfaced in my life a few weeks ago relates to my mother’s death. With a life span of almost nine decades and who in her last month of her life used ‘unconsciously, and consciously’ user-friendly, fashionable, colourful, soft-to-the touch garments to boost her moral, revitalizing her dwindling social life; she essentially ‘held onto herself’ while her short term memory losses became more frequent. This observation

268


______________________________________________________________ reflects the core of my research: The Intertwining of sartorial needs with the aging process. This observation further concretized the importance of this research that women in particular whether from individual or social construct, vanity, upbringing or otherwise depend on sartorial identity to define themselves throughout the vicissitudes of life and until their last breath.

Notes 1

The biggest bill in history, The Economist, June 13th 2009. U.S. Bureau of the Census. The older population in the United States, 2005 http://www.uscensus.org. 3 Report of the second world assembly on ageing. United Nations, NY. A/CONF.197/9, pp. 2-38-39. 2002, http://www.un.org/ageing/ 4 Roach, M. & Eicher, J. (1965). Dress, adornment and the social order. New York: John Wiley 5 Kaiser, S. (1991). Gender relations, clothing, and appearance: Discovering a common ground with feminist thought. In S. Kaiser & M. Damhorst, (Eds.). Critical linkages in textiles and clothing subject matter: Theory, Method and practice. ITAA Special Publication #4 (pp. 210-222) Monument, CO: International Textile and Apparel Association. 6 Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press, 1990. 2

Bibliography Barthes, R., The Fashion System. (M. Ward & R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill 1983. Green, P., ‘The real estate ‘Queen’ in her hive’, New York Times, p.6. 2005. Kaiser, S. ‘Gender relations, clothing, and appearance: Discovering a common ground with feminist thought’, In S. Kaiser & M. Damhorst, (Eds.). Critical linkages in textiles and clothing subject matter: Theory, Method and practice, International Textile and Apparel Association 1991. Kaiser, S. The social psychology of clothing: Symbolic appearances in context, New York: Fairchild Publications 1997. Kaiser, S., Wingate, S., Freeman, C., & Chandler, J., ‘Acceptance of physical disability and attitudes toward personal appearance’, Rehabilitation Psychology, 32(1), 51-58, 1987.


269

______________________________________________________________ Kapstein, C. Evolving aging interactions in women over 65: Consequences for establishing new apparel design criteria. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2004. Roach, M. & Eicher, J., Dress, adornment and the social order. New York: John Wiley 1965. United Nations. Report of the second world assembly on ageing. United Nations, NY. A/CONF.197/9, pp. 2-38-39, 2002 U.S. Bureau of the Census, ‘The older population in the United States’, http://www.uscensus.org, 2005. van Manen, M., Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press 1990. Jinhee Nam, Reagan Hamlin, Hae Jin Gam, Ji Hye Kang, Jiyoung Kim, Pimpawan Kumphai, Cathy Starr, Lynne Richards. The fashion-conscious behaviours of mature female consumers, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 102-108, 2007. Claire Lacoste Kapstein is Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island, Departments of Textile, Merchandising and Design and Gerontology, USA.

Learning Through Consumption: Placing Aging Through the Lifecourse Juliana Mansvelt Abstract This paper draws on ethnographic consumption research with young elders, to consider the ways ageing is negotiated through generational influences. Insights from in-depth interviews with twelve participants in Manawatu, New Zealand demonstrate how shopping, purchasing and disposal occurs in the context of familial, household, peer and generational relationships. The research reveals how the ways in which processes of distancing and identification with parental choices in consumption practices extend beyond ones childhood years. Consumption ‘at home’ does not just involve acquiring, using and disposing of objects but is bound in complex social relationships through which ageing identities may be constructed, contested and negotiated. Three themes emerged from participants’ narratives – autonomy, intergenerationality, and absent presence. These themes highlight the importance of consumption practices and experiences in shaping socialities and subjectivities in later life. The results demonstrate the insights to be gained from elders’ narratives through making visible the tactics, embodied practices and emotions which both support and confront discourses which discipline and contain ageing subjects. Studying mundane and everyday consumption practices makes visible the moral work done to shape ‘citizen consumers’, ‘family’ and ‘age’, providing an opportunity to reflect on how these categories have gained theoretical and practical significance/power across and in particular spaces. Key Words: geographies of ageing, consumption, autononmy, intergenerality, absent presence ***** 1.

Introduction Despite the recognition that geographies and consumption are shaped differentially through the lifecourse it seems that age as an analytic and research construct for largely disappears through ‘the middle years’ with the focus of geographical consumption research on other dimensions of identity, embodiment and relationality. Studies of children and youth have examined how their actions as consumers have connected them to wider politicising projects connected with individuation, risk, anxiety, vulnerability, and to identity formation via belonging, exclusion, difference and distinction1,2,3. There has been minimal

272

Learning through Consumption

______________________________________________________________ research on the relationships between older adults and consumption or on generational identities embedded in consumption and the meanings attributed to commodities4. Given the diversity, experiences and backgrounds of growing numbers of older people it would seem ‘connecting the relationships between identity, place, aging, and consumption is a highly relevant avenue for continuing research.’5 To engage with growing up as a ‘continual rather than a literal process’6 involves accepting how experiences, desires, aspirations and material needs will differ across the lifecourse and how lifecourses themselves differ (ibid). In addition, ‘All activities from leisure to healthcare, including ironically, death and dying have become personal, consumerist, and ‘lifelong’ experiences’7 yet the tendency to regard shoppers’ orientations to commercial culture as naively complicit or knowingly trangressive is unhelpful8. Consequently it is important to move beyond understandings of how spaces and subjectivities of ‘the ageing’ are disciplined and represented through consumption to examine the embodied practices and emotions that may simultaneously confront and co-constitute such interpretations9. Since 1984 New Zealand has undergone considerable shifts in stateeconomy relations, including a restructured and less extensive state apparatus, de-regulation of the economy and a liberalisation of trade, and numerous shifts in social policy directed toward reduced income support, social services and health policy. While there has been a stepping back from extremes of privatisation neo-liberal ideologies continue construct to good ‘citizens’ as individuals who embrace self care, self responsibility and the competency to make the right choices10. The rhetoric of the successful, independent senior citizen who is able to age in a controlled way, managing vulnerable bodies through consumption is also prevalent in media representations11, 12 and individuals are urged to save for their retirement in a context in which future levels of State pension will be reduced. Thus discourses of the elderly as consuming subjects tend to be morally inflected and relatively limited – often revolving around consumption of medical and welfare services and commodities, or around conceptions of ‘active retirees’ engaged in conspicuous consumption as a lifestyle choice13. This paper seeks to understand older consumers not as constructs, but as rounded and sentient human beings who make meaning through complex relationships, practices and spaces of consumption that may be both mundane and extraordinary14. It presents a preliminary analysis of research currently being undertaken with a group of twelve participants ranging in age from 55-69 dwelling in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. 2.

Method Participants’ names have been selected from those who have volunteered to be interviewed in the second iteration of the Health, Work and

Juliana Mansvelt

273

______________________________________________________________ Retirement Survey (led by Dr Fiona Alpass and Associate Professor Christine Stephens 2008, School of Psychology, Massey University). .Participants were drawn from those who were categorised as being in the lower and upper ends of the Living Standards index contained in the survey and provided a mix of gender, family and work situations. Interviews examined the consumption of groceries, clothing and household items - commodities chosen for differing necessity, durability, positional status and shopping practice but questions were also concerned with the broader social and spatial relations surrounding consumption: with when, why, how, and who commodities were bought for, and with the spaces and temporalities of both first and second hand shopping. The overall aim of the series of interviews and supplementary techniques was to build a complex picture the participants’ shopping and consuming practices, places and experiences as both ‘talked and practiced’15 and to situate these in lifecourse changes. The research involves three in-depth interviews with each participant. These were transcribed in full and the content coded to produce a series of themes arising from the texts as a whole. In addition as tales of events and experiences, interview texts were also subject to narrative analysis an approach designed to focus on how and why individuals tell stories and the performative effects of this16. 3.

Results Maintaining Autonomy and Control For these ‘young elders’ both in the hardship and high living standard categories, consumption remained an area of relative autonomy and control. While consumption practices changed over time (shopping modes, spaces, relative amounts spent of purchase and saving), orientations toward consuming (buying on impulse, enjoying or disliking forms of shopping, buying according to need, treating oneself) appeared to alter less over the lifespan. For those experiencing hardship, control often-centred around mechanisms of acquisition including utilising networks of social relationships, gifting, barter and second hand purchase and around economising. For these participants consumption was presented as a source of resilience, a mean of positively adapting to economic constraint and a mechanism for coping with difficult lifecourse changes as in Dana’s case. Dana’s was severely income restricted and throughout her interviews sought to construct herself not as a dependent ‘victim’ but as independent, empowered actor. After telling a complex story about the barter processes she had engaged in to acquire her boy’s uniform she states: You know, so they all worry about them (beneficiaries) being down there and living in the bloody ghetto and

274


______________________________________________________________ they’re all depressed. Get off your arse and do something or go, I know I used it to my advantage (getting the uniform) but again it was like being resourceful!’ Dana’s references to ‘them’ (other health and welfare beneficiaries in neighbourhood) throughout the interview also intersected with notions of race and class and provided a way of differentiating her self from the ‘others’ whom she saw as dependent, idle, non-contributing citizens. For those who expressed complete freedom in their ability to purchase notions of control tended to be framed around productivity, choice the extraction of ‘value’ and a lack of waste. A number or narratives also hinted at the resistance of materialistic and self-serving identifications, perhaps rejecting the moral underpinnings of connections between wealth and conspicuous consumption of excess, waste and non-utility: I’m not extravagant, but by the same token I’ve been saying I am (had previously told me she was quite comfortable and didn’t have to worry about what she spent). Because I get so cold for instance, last year, being small and I’ve no bum I went off to Farmers (family orientated department store) and bought little boys track pants you know, and I must have had them a couple of years, they lasted a couple of years…and this year I thought ‘No bother it!’ I’ve got to replace them, but I went down to Swazi, and they are expensive…They are, yes…. But….{pause} Good quality? But I was so much warmer! (Lorna) Lorna’s recovery of her spending was justified by the utility of the trousers, their warmth a suitable justification for her lack of economy and ‘extravagance’. Inter-generationality and Relationships The concept of inter-generationality suggests that individual’s and group’s sense of themselves is partly framed on the basis of generational sameness or difference, indicating that social interaction and generational relations can be significant in creating meaningful spaces and identifications.17 The research revealed that processes of distancing and identification with parental choices in consumption practices extended beyond ones childhood years. Consumption also provided a means of maintaining relationships of care with family and friends, particularly in the case of adult children and grandchildren who lived distant from home.

Juliana Mansvelt

275

______________________________________________________________ For some participants, ‘shopping with’ adult children and grandchildren was an enjoyable way to spend time ‘as’ a family. For many others buying commodities was about ‘shopping for’ a means of ‘selfless’ provisioning maintained through the years as Daniel’s excerpt illustrates: Not very often (don’t go out shopping) but in the last two weeks we’ve been and purchased three house lots of white ware and furniture for the three new houses. Noel Lemming (appliance store) in the last two months have sold us three washing machines, two dryers, two fridge freezers, a microwave, two vacuums, one, no two king size beds …! so that’s…! (we laugh about their profits for the month) so as I say that is in the last month, as I say my wife and I don’t go shopping that often for ourselves, but we do assist the children. (Daniel) Shopping for adult children was about shaping ‘family’; a means of caring at a distance across both physical and generational divides. For Stephen helping his ‘kids’ maintained a parental ethic of care, shaping family via an alternative form of affection: Yeah. Well I think that, I think that’s important (to lookout for and buy stuff for the kids) even although we don’t live particularly close to our kids, I kind of like to, I was just thinking this morning, we’re not a particularly close family but I kind of like to try to encourage that cause I’m, bit of thing, see my mother died quite young. (Stephen) Consumption also provided for a means of intergenerational transfer of knowledge (children to parents and visa versa), values and the moralities. Crystal talked with pride about the ways in which her children were taught to consume, how treats were earned and how now as adults they appreciated this: Our kids were always very very thrifty, they had to earn their money, they weren’t given anything and both of them, our son especially he could save money out of nothing, anything, and he was so cunning at doing that. And they both now can see the benefit of that, one’s got a second house, he has paid off the first one…. Nor did consuming practices only involve intergenerational transfers from older to younger generations. For those participants in the hardship category, children’s assistance was often forthcoming. Phillipa explains how the loss of

276


______________________________________________________________ her husband (who took care of the bills) left her feeling overwhelmed, noting how her son helped her regain control of her consumption: We used to go to Chaineys all the time and they were good to us. But then after my husband died and I said we got a $800 bill and I said well ‘how the hell am I going to get that down??’ and that is when my son came to the fore, my biggest one he has no children….so they were good and they made me cry even more after I went through all his stuff, I found this $800 bill……..and then he (the son) came down to WINZ (Work and Income support) it was embarrassing when you had never had to do that before…..(story continues) Managing Absent Presence The ‘presence’ of absent things and people can also be important in decisions to purchase and in what new commodities should and can be accommodated. When appliances fail, clothes wear out, and food runs out, the dis-order of everyday life initiates new consumption. Yet rather than being a consequence of wasteful ‘hedonistic consumerism’18 wasting, throwing, discarding, and giving, like practices of acquisition are infused with moral meanings and imaginings. As mentioned previously participants, particularly those at the higher end of the living standard index, were keen to dissociate themselves from materialism and excess, often reconciling narratives of spending with recourse to need. Acts of divestment or dispossession are consequently also critical to understanding ageing and consumption relations, with the capacities of material things to engage humans and to effect change in consumption practice and identifications significant.19 The presence or absence of things and people can continue to have affect through memory long after initial referent gone20, 21. A number of participants sought to negotiate their absent presence, through curbing their purchase, through giving items as gifts and through dispossession of goods (either as ‘waste’ or transfers to family and friends). Some considered they ‘had everything we need’ noting that to continue to collect possessions at this time in one’s life was pointless, though pleasure was still derived from purchasing for others. Notions of absent presence appear to be important in Lorna’s decision ‘that the time had come’ to gift objects as part of her material legacy. But no, one year I was there (my daughter’s) and I said I think the time has come we don’t have any more presents, I think it’s time I gave you some things from the house that

Juliana Mansvelt

277

______________________________________________________________ you like and they thought that was a good idea. And I said to my daughter well, ‘What would you like?’, I said – see that picture of a little girl - if you just cast your eye to the right, and she said that’s what I want. I said well you can’t have it!! (laughs) you’ll have to wait a while?! Not because I ‘m… but I’m not taking it off the wall and having a great big mark there. Lorna had mentioned previously how it was time to start divesting her house of objects, but in gifting but not dispossessing the painting she still saw herself as a guardian rather than the owner of the item. The trace left behind on the wall – would not be filled by a new commodity (her having no ‘need’ for such provision), but nor would it’s divestment now mean it was ‘valued’ appropriately (she when on to say how the picture was much better ‘stored’ as her daughter did not have a permanent abode). Lorna talked about how she had collected things her daughter might not want, but that one day after her departure their economic and symbolic ‘value’ might be realised. Commodities influence our experience of space and the value placed on different physical configurations, so things purchased for and occupying households are therefore implicated in the structure and reproduction of practice22. The material nature of the commodity, new or old, second hand, bought or sold mattered to the symbolic possibilities of care which could be exhibited. The absent presence of parents, grandparents and friends in the symbolic expression of the commodity can be intimately bound in its material form. For Dana, a very low income restricted her capacity to gift ‘first-hand’ commodities. Not likely to be received well by her daughter, second hand commodities were purchased in secret and an intermediary enrolled to reconstructed the second hand commodity as given rather than purchased: Like the kids, it’s funny my daughter is 34, lives in Australia, she brought her children up on hand knitting. Now I would go to a second hand shop, you know during the day and I’d buy all this hand knitting and I’d go round to another friend, Cheryl....... But I used to just get all this baby stuff and I’d go round to Cheryl’s and wash it cause she’d always have nice Cuddly stuff and things like, wash it all up and I’d put it all into a nice box and then Cheryl would ring up my daughter and say oh Donna you know my sister’s just given me all this stuff, do you want it?. And Donna’d go down there, get this stuff and then she’d say, ‘Oh my God look what Cheryl just gave me and it was all….’., I’d just bought it at the Salvation Army and washed up and made look like…, thought it was lovely.

278


______________________________________________________________ But if I’d taken it home from the second hand shop it was like ‘oh my God don’t do that, don’t be doing that’. You know. For Dana then, her absent presence in the commodities, and their unknowing acceptance by her daughter Donna was sufficient for her as an expression of her care. 4.

Conclusion Consumption ‘at home’ does not just involve acquisition, but includes the use, re-use at disposal of objects, practices that are bound in complex social relationships through which ageing and other dimensions of identity are constructed, contested and negotiated. The three themes discussed here: control, intergenerationality and absent presence together demonstrate how consuming plays a significant part in constructing notions of care, reciprocity and legacy across the lifespan. As the participants discussed their purchases they alluded to their cultural and social affordances - their possibilities for work, for use and ritual, display, disposal, for pleasure and pain but also to their performative capacities as objects of value, meaning and morality and identity work. Rudman23 argues that it is important to investigate how older people shape their ways of being and acting in spaces, ways that may both reproduce and challenge neo-liberal projects. In constructing themselves as autonomous, sovereign and knowledgeable consumers, elders at both ends of the living standards index appeared to accept discourses of neo-liberal citizenship and rationality, with the wealthier simultaneously resisting negative discourses of consumption as materialism and/or waste. The analysis of interviews suggests commodities as objects of consumer culture can tell us much about how spaces and lives within and outside the home are organised according to the place of things. Life changes bring shifting patterns and practices of consumption that may result in differing material contexts and restructured social relationships. The vulnerability of ageing bodies may be expressed through consumption practices and rituals but participants more often provided narrative accounts which expressed a desire to negotiate one’s absent presence, reflecting how an absence of the self (through distance or ultimately death) might remain a presence in the lives of loved ones. In endeavouring to move beyond binary constructions of consumers and ‘the aged’ I hope the experiences and narratives of the elders interviewed begin to make visible a multitude of ways of being and doing and becoming in ones later years.

Juliana Mansvelt

279

______________________________________________________________ The author wishes to acknowledge Dr Fiona Alpass and Associate Professor Christine Stephens for their assistance with this project and for enabling access to participants from the Health, Work and Retirement Study (http://hwr.massey.ac.nz). Thanks also to the Massey University Research Fund, for providing financial assistance for this study.

Notes 1

R Croghan, C Griffin, J Hunter, and A. Phoenix, 'Style failure: consumption, identity and social exclusion'. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, 2006, pp. 463-78. 2 L R De Castro, 'What is new in the 'south'? Consumer culture and the vicissitudes of poor youth's identity construction in urban Brazil'. Young, vol. 14, no. 3, 2006, pp. 179-201. 3 M E Thomas, 'Girls, consumption space and the contradictions of hanging out in the city'. Social and Cultural Geography, vol. 6, no. 4, 2005, pp. 587605. 4 I R Jones, M Hyde, C R Victor, R D Wiggins, C Gilliard, and P Higgs, Ageing in a Consumer Society: From passive to active consumption in Britain. The Polity Press, Bristol, 2008. 5 G J Andrews, M Cutchin, K McCracken, D R, Phillips, and J Wiles, 'Geographical gerontology: the constitution of a discipline'. Social Science & Medicine, vol. 65, 2007, pp. 151-68. 6 J Horton and P Kraftl, 'Not just growing up, but going on: materials, spacings, bodies, situations'. Children’s Geographies, vol. 4, no. 3, 2006, pp. 259-76. 7 S Katz, and B Marshall, 'New sex for old: lifestyle, consumerism, and the ethics of aging well'. Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 2003, pp. 3-16. 8 E Cameron,, 'Exhibit and point of sale: negotiating commerce and culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery'. Social & Cultural Geography, vol. 8, no. 4, 2007, pp. 551-73. 9 P Cloke, J May, and S Johnsen, 'Performativity and affect in the homeless city'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 26, no. 2, 2008, pp. 241 – 63 10 R McDonald, N Mead, S Cheraghi-Sohi, P Bower, D Whalley, and M Roland, 'Governing the ethical consumer: identity, choice and the primary care medical encounter'. Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 29, no. 3, 2007, pp. 450-56. 11 A Blaikie, Ageing and Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999.

280


______________________________________________________________ 12

D Hodgetts, K Chamberlain, and G Bassett, 'Between television and the audience: negotiating representations of ageing'. Health, vol. 7, no. 4, 2003, pp. 417-38. 13 I R Jones, P Higgs, and D J Ekerdt, 'Preface: Consumption and Generational Change: The rise of consumer lifestyles', in Consumption and Generational Change, Jones, I.R., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D.J. (eds), Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, 2009, pp. 1-20. 14 I Cook, J Evans, H Griffiths, R Morris, and S Wrathmell, ''It's more than just what it is': defetishising commodities, expanding fields, mobilising change...'. Geoforum, vol. 38, 2007, pp. 1113-26. 15 N Gregson, L Crewe and K Brooks, 'Shopping, space, and practice'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 20, 2002, pp. 597-617. 16 J L Wiles, and M W Rosenberg, 'Narrative analysis as a strategy for understanding interview talk in geographic research'. Area, vol. 37, no. 1, 2005, pp. 89-99. 17 P Hopkins, and R Pain, 'Geographies of age: thinking relationally'. Area, vol. 39, no. 3, 2007, pp. 287-94. 18 A Migone, 'Hedonistic consumerism: patterns of consumption in contemporary capitalism'. Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 39, no. 2, 2007, pp. 173-200. 19 N Gregson, A Metcalfe, and L Crewe, 'Identity, mobility, and the throwaway society'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 25, 2007b, pp. 682-700. 20 J Hockey, B Penhale, and D Sibley, 'Environments of memory: home space, later life and grief', in Emotional Geographies, Bondi, L., Davidson, J. and Smith, M. (eds), Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, 2005, pp. 135-45. 21 S Legg, 'Reviewing geographies of memory/forgetting'. Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, 2007, pp. 456-66. 22 D L Rudman, 'Shaping the active, autonomous and responsible modern retiree: an analysis of discursive technologies and their links with neo-liberal political rationality'. Ageing and Society, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 181-201.

Juliana Mansvelt

281

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Andrews, G.J., Cutchin, M., McCracken, K., Phillips, D.R. and Wiles, J., 'Geographical gerontology: the constitution of a discipline'. Social Science & Medicine, vol. 65, 2007, pp. 151-68. Blaikie, A., Ageing and Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Cameron, E., 'Exhibit and point of sale: negotiating commerce and culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery'. Social & Cultural Geography, vol. 8, no. 4, 2007, pp. 551-73. Cloke, P., May, J. and Johnsen, S., 'Performativity and affect in the homeless city'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 26, no. 2, 2008, pp. 241 – 63 Cook, I., Evans, J., Griffiths, H., Morris, R. and Wrathmell, S., ''It's more than just what it is': defetishising commodities, expanding fields, mobilising change...'. Geoforum, vol. 38, 2007, pp. 1113-26. Croghan, R., Griffin, C., Hunter, J. and Phoenix, A., 'Style failure: consumption, identity and social exclusion'. Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, 2006, pp. 463-78. Dant, T., 'Consumption caught in the 'cash nexus''. Sociology, vol. 34, no. 655-670, 2000. De Castro, L.R., 'What is new in the 'south'? Consumer culture and the vicissitudes of poor youth's identity construction in urban Brazil'. Young, vol. 14, no. 3, 2006, pp. 179-201. Ekerdt, D.J., 'Dispossession: the tenacity of things', in Consumption and Generational Change, Jones, I.R., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D.J. (eds), Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, 2009, pp. 63-78. Gregory, D.G., 'Imaginative geographies', in The Dictionary of Human Geography, Johnston, R.J., Gregory, D., Pratt, G. and Watts, M. (eds), Blackwell, Oxford, 2000, pp. 372-73.

282


______________________________________________________________

Gregson, N., Living with Things. Ridding, Accommodation, Dwelling. Sean Kingston Publishing, Wantage, 2007. Gregson, N., Crewe, L. and Brooks, K., 'Shopping, space, and practice'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 20, 2002, pp. 597-617. Gregson, N., Metcalfe, A. and Crewe, L., 'Identity, mobility, and the throwaway society'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 25, 2007b, pp. 682-700. Hand, M., Shove, E. and Southerton, D., 'Home extensions in the United Kingdom: space, time, and practice'. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 25, 2007, pp. 668-81. Hitchings, R., 'Approaching life in the London garden centre: acquiring entities and providing products'. Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, 2007, pp. 242-59. Hockey, J., Penhale, B. and Sibley, D., 'Environments of memory: home space, later life and grief', in Emotional Geographies, Bondi, L., Davidson, J. and Smith, M. (eds), Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, 2005, pp. 135-45. Hodgetts, D., Chamberlain, K. and Bassett, G., 'Between television and the audience: negotiating representations of ageing'. Health, vol. 7, no. 4, 2003, pp. 417-38. Hopkins, P. and Pain, R., 'Geographies of age: thinking relationally'. Area, vol. 39, no. 3, 2007, pp. 287-94. Horton, J. and Kraftl, P., 'Not just growing up, but going on: materials, spacings, bodies, situations'. Children’s Geographies, vol. 4, no. 3, 2006, pp. 259-76. Jones, I.R., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D.J., 'Preface: Consumption and Generational Change: The rise of consumer lifestyles', in Consumption and Generational Change, Jones, I.R., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D.J. (eds), Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, 2009, pp. 1-20. Jones, I.R., Hyde, M., Victor, C.R., Wiggins, R.D., Gilliard, C. and Higgs, P., Ageing in a Consumer Society: From passive to active consumption in Britain. The Polity Press, Bristol, 2008.

Juliana Mansvelt

283

______________________________________________________________

Katz, S. and Marshall, B., 'New sex for old: lifestyle, consumerism, and the ethics of aging well'. Journal of Aging Studies, vol. 17, 2003, pp. 3-16. Legg, S., 'Reviewing geographies of memory/forgetting'. Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, 2007, pp. 456-66. McDonald, R., Mead, N., Cheraghi-Sohi, S., Bower, P., Whalley, D. and Roland, M., 'Governing the ethical consumer: identity, choice and the primary care medical encounter'. Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 29, no. 3, 2007, pp. 450-56. Migone, A., 'Hedonistic consumerism: patterns of consumption in contemporary capitalism'. Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 39, no. 2, 2007, pp. 173-200. Rudman, D.L., 'Shaping the active, autonomous and responsible modern retiree: an analysis of discursive technologies and their links with neo-liberal political rationality'. Ageing and Society, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 181-201. Schor, J.B., 'In defense of consumer critique: revisiting the consumption debates of the twentieth century'. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 611, 2007, pp. 16-30. Thomas, M.E., 'Girls, consumption space and the contradictions of hanging out in the city'. Social and Cultural Geography, vol. 6, no. 4, 2005, pp. 587605. Wiles, J.L. and Rosenberg, M.W., 'Narrative analysis as a strategy for understanding interview talk in geographic research'. Area, vol. 37, no. 1, 2005, pp. 89-99. Juliana Mansvelt, PhD., is a professor at the School of People, Environment and Place, Massey University, New Zealand.

Middle Aged Immigrants in Israel Pnina Dolberg & Julia Mirsky Abstract This research explores the experience of middle-aged immigrants at a junction of two transitional positions: immigration and middle-age. In Israel, middle-aged immigrants comprise 19.2% of immigrants who came in the last 20 years, and are being defined as a ‘population at risk’. The research applies the qualitative inquiry method, uses in-depth interviews and phenomenological-interpretation. The respondents are 40 immigrants with tertiary education, who immigrated to Israel in the last twenty years from the former USSR, the USA, Argentina and France, when they were 45-65 years old. Preliminary results show that in spite of the middle aged immigrants' high education and work experience, many of them work in manual jobs. As members of ‘the sandwich generation’, they combine their busy schedules with taking care of their grandchildren and their elderly parents. The majority of the interviewees have difficulties to speak the local language, which makes them very vulnerable and depended on their children. Hence, the children turn into ‘cultural brokers’ for their families, and in some cases there is a decrease of status of parents in the family, or even role reversal. The interviewees report intense feelings of loss of status within the society and downward mobility. Their low status jobs and low incomes, combined with poor communication abilities are connected for some to the feeling of becoming ‘old’. Even so, the interviewees expressed a deep need to be needed. Many paradoxes typify their experience: one is a decline in many aspects of quality of life alongside with a general improvement in quality of life; other paradoxes concern the issues of work and retirement. The interviewees use some compensation tactics in order to deal with their losses. The results indicate that middle aged immigrants feel they must accept the changes and losses and try appreciating the positive aspects of their situation. Key Words: Middle age, Immigrants, ‘the sandwich generation’, family processes in migration, downward mobility, work, retirement, life span development, in-depth interviews. *****

286

Middle Aged Immigrants in Israel

______________________________________________________________ 1.

Background Very few studies focused on middle aged immigrants. This is not surprising, as the midlife years were seen in the past as ‘the last uncharted territory of the life course’ (Brim, 1992, p. 171). Yet, in the last few years there was a significant development of research into midlife, which makes it possible to study middle-aged immigrants. Israel, as an immigration country, is a suitable field for this kind of study; middle aged immigrants (aged 45-65) comprise 19.2% percent of the immigrants who came to Israel in the last 20 years (CBS, 2007). Unlike many other immigration countries, Israel does not have an age-selective policy: Jewish immigrants of all ages are accepted automatically as citizens of the country. But the question whether immigrants of all ages are accepted into the Israeli society remains open. Midlife period is characterized by some psychological challenges, like letting go of children, retirement, grandparenthood, caring for elder parents and coping with declining physical health. However, middle-aged immigrants face these challenges differently than their local peers, due to the cultural gap that they may experience with their offsprings, financial difficulties and limited social support (Akhtar and Choi, 2004). The loss of social support systems that existed before immigration (Sluzki, 1998; Mirsky et al., 2002) may make these and other challenges much harder to deal with. A good example is the case of ‘the sandwich generation’ (Zal, 1992), when middle aged individuals, especially women, need to take care of their children and grandchildren and at the same time of their aged parents, the double burden may cause high levels of stress and exhaustion (Thomas, 1997; Spillman & Pezzin, 2000). For the immigrants it is even harder, since unlike the locals, they lack the financial means to hire help and lack the social support they had had in their homeland (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1997). Another example is grandparenthood: being a grandparent should be one of life's most satisfying and enjoyable experiences, but for immigrants it might be painful because of the cultural gap with their grandchildren, who sometimes don't even speak their language (Akhtar & Choi, 2004). Literature defines middle-aged immigrants in Israel as a ‘population at risk’ (Haviv et al., 1998) due to a number of problems that this group experiences. One of the major problems is their acculturation and integration into the new society: as the immigrants’ age raises, the rate of those who feel a part of the Israeli society and culture declines (Ben-Raphael, Olstein & Geist, 1998). Another major problem is low-status employments of those immigrants. Many have left in their homelands their jobs, often high status careers where they reached the peak of their professional activity, but have very little chances of regaining their employment and professional status following immigration. This may be the results of differences in professional contents between the two countries, or as is often the case, of double discrimination against them as a middle-aged and as immigrants (Moss and

Pnina Dolberg & Julia Mirsky

287

______________________________________________________________ Arrowsmith, 2003; Tajer, 2006). Findings indicate that middle aged immigrants in Israel suffer unemployment and underemployment despite their readiness to do any sort of work and to take low paid jobs (Sikron, 1998). The long term implication of this situation is that these immigrants are not earning retirement pension benefits to sustain them in their old age (Haviv et al. 1998). 2.

Research Aim and Methodology This research explores the experience of the middle-aged immigrants in Israel. The study applies the qualitative inquiry method, uses phenomenological-interpretational perspective and in-depth interviews. The respondents are 40 immigrants with tertiary education, who immigrated to Israel in the last twenty years from the former Soviet Union, the USA, Argentina and France. The immigration age of the respondents is 45-65 years and the immigration time is the last twenty years (though the majority of them immigrated in the last ten years). The respondents are being sampled through the adapted sampling method. 3.

Preliminary Results about the Immigrants' Experience The interviewees in the current study immigrated to Israel because of different sets of circumstances; many of them did it after a trigger-event such as a social change or a natural or economic disaster, or after their children have migrated to Israel. For many Israel was not the first choice and some of the interviewees said they would have liked to return to their homelands, but they are staying because their children are staying. The majority of the interviewees immigrated to Israel with their families or followed their children, but not insignificant proportion of them (about a quarter) immigrated alone, leaving their families behind. Like others, they also left their homelands after a trigger-event, hoping for a fresh start in Israel. The majority of the interviewees are still a part of the work force, and they work very hard; in spite of their high education and experience, many of them work in manual jobs, many hours a day. They are busy and tired, and are a group that is hard to reach for interviewing. After work, or between their shifts, they – men and women – help their children by taking care of their young grandchildren. As members of ‘the sandwich generation’, they successfully combine their busy schedules with taking care of their elderly parents, who often share live with them. They don't complain; they see their multiple duties as a stage in life and describe their children and especially their grandchildren as ‘the sunshine of their lives’. Although the interviewees are proud of their children's' integration and accomplishments in the new society, they feel that they have sacrificed much in order to make it happen.

288


______________________________________________________________ One possible outcome of the immigrants' children fast integration in the new country, in comparison to their parents, is in some cases a decreased status of middle aged parents in the family, or even role reversal. Language difficulties are a common experience: the majority of the interviewees have difficulties to speak the local language, as do a substantial proportion of middle aged immigrants in Israel (Leshem & Lissak, 2001). Their communication difficulties make them very vulnerable; sometimes dependent on their children for simple errands. Hence, the children turn to ‘cultural brokers’ for their families, a role that may cause them emotional and functional burdens, lead to parental dependence upon them and to a partial or full loss of the parental authority (Slutzki, 1979; Landau, 1982; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Jones & Tricket, 2005). When the ‘cultural brokers’ leave home there might be a relief in the emotional burdens for all involved, but at the same time immigrant parents still may have many difficulties and need their children's help (Akhter & Choi, 2004). The painful feeling of the decreased status within the family comes with a much stronger feeling of the loss of status within the society and downward mobility. Their low status jobs and low incomes, combined with poor communication abilities are connected for some of the interviewees to the feeling of becoming ‘old’. Those immigrants feel that their professional and personal knowledge became irrelevant in the new society. That being the case, for many, immigration is associated with the loss of their youth. It can be seen that middle-aged immigrants deal with an additional loss, beside the losses that are usually experienced by immigrants at other ages: they do not experience a gradual development in the new society; they come as middleaged and leap unexpectedly into the ‘aged’ or the ‘old’ status, as they are trying to understand simultaneously the meaning of being ‘aged’ and the works of the new culture. But do they feel ‘old’ right after their immigration? Although the present is not a follow up study, the time that elapsed since immigration sheds some light on this question. Interestingly, the ‘fresh’ middle aged immigrants, who were interviewed about a year after their immigration, reported feeling very energetic, powerful and optimistic about their future, and eager to integrate into the new society and culture. They felt ‘young’ and reported feeling much younger than they have felt before they had left their home countries. This finding fits the models of adjustment stages in migration (e.g. Slutzki, 1979; Mirsky & Kaushinsky, 1989) which suggests that the first two years after the migration is a time of positive euphoria and spiritual uplifting. In the present case feeling energetic and powerful was associated with to the feeling of ‘young’. According to the models, after the first two years comes a stage of recognizing the reality, which sometimes brings about a crisis. This stage does not come to an end in an anticipated point in time; dealing with the crisis includes many ups and downs.


289

______________________________________________________________ Generally, as time goes by, there is a moderate improvement in the adaptation to the new society, culture and situation. Some of the interviewees expressed a feeling of not being needed in the new society. Since their main role in the public sphere is being manifested in their low-status jobs, those immigrants expressed a feeling of being ‘invisible people’, the workers who people usually ignore. It is not easy for them to admit that this is the kind of jobs that they make their living from. The gaze of people, especially of colleagues from the past, is the most difficult part of it. Therefore, on some level, they feel relieved in being ‘invisible’. Even so, the interviewees expressed in different ways a deep need to be needed – at work, in the family and the new society. They feel that they are still able to give and are designing situations where they are needed: take obligations to take care of their grandchildren or take extra responsibilities at work, sometimes without getting an extra payment. Many paradoxes typify the interviewees' experience; one, already mentioned is the role reversal in the immigrant family, where the parents depend on their children since the latter typically integrate faster into the new society. Another paradox is a decline in many aspects of their quality of life such as living arrangements (usually modest rented apartments) and of course their jobs - alongside with a general significant improvement in the quality of life, since Israel as a western country with a progressive welfare policy can enable many of them possibilities that they could not afford in their homelands. This is true especially for immigrants who have come from the former USSR and who are the majority of the immigrants in the last 20 years. Immigrants who have come from western countries feel this improvement less intensely, but they are also impressed with Israel's developed public health system and some of them reported significant improvement in their health due to medical treatment that they received in Israel, one that they could not afford in their homelands. Other paradoxes concern the issues of work and retirement; although most of the interviewees are still part of the workforce, many of them (or their spouses) are eligible for governmental social stipends of supplementary income. The few who did not work at the time of the interview were receiving social stipends of guaranteed minimal income. Thus, these people, who worked their entire lives, are getting social stipends while they are still in the working age, but will not be awarded pensions when they retire and will continue to receive governmental social stipends. This means that they will not be able to retire from work in the normative way and at a reasonable age. Another paradox is the nature of the jobs that are often hard manual jobs that while the majority of these people did not do such jobs even when they were younger and it was physically easier for them. In spite of all the difficulties, many of the interviewees are still optimist about their future jobs and did not lose their motivation to try

290


______________________________________________________________ reviving their careers. Some of the interviewees went into retraining programs or changed their specialization area in order to fit the Israeli job market, but only a few were professionally and economically successful. Even in such positive cases, it is the husbands only who are ‘successful’ while their wives are left behind and problems arise in spousal relationships and communication. Another interesting finding about the professionally successful middle aged immigrants is that the ‘successful’ men are all married, while the ‘successful’ women are all single (one is unmarried woman, two are divorcee and another one is a widow). This is not surprising, since the literature shows that the resources of immigrant married women are usually directed first and foremost towards their husbands' success (Remennick, 2006). Almost all interviewees said that they have learned to appreciate the simple things in life, which they see now as the most important things: spending time with their families, enjoying nice weather, nice scenery and good physical health. Many, although they are very busy, try to dedicate time to taking care of themselves. This might be viewed as a tactic that middle aged immigrants implement in order to compensate themselves for their multiple losses. Another compensation tactic is the ethnic withdrawal. As mentioned before, most of the interviewees have very limited command of the local Israeli language and manage in their everyday lives with their mothertongues; their personal surroundings consist of people who speak the same language, and in their jobs they usually do not need to use the local language. Even among the professionally-successful interviewees, the majority work in jobs that do not demand the use of the local language. When the interviewees were asked why they did not learn the local language, most of them said that it was too hard at their age. Similar claims are reported in literature on second language acquisition however; research findings do not support it (Chiswick & Miller, 2007). Possibly, this discourse is the basis for the discrimination of the middle-aged immigrants and even justifies it, but interviewees in the current study use it as another compensation tactic in the face of the rejection they experience by the Israeli society. Since they are not able to achieve a position that requires communication with local people, they compensate themselves within their ethnic community, where they feel less intensely their doubly low social position. In spite of all their losses, the middle-aged interviewees keep trying to see the positive aspects in their situation: their health, their families' health and their children' success. The results indicate that middle aged immigrants feel a necessity to accept the changes and losses, try looking on the positive aspects of their situation and to think of their future with optimism.


291

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Akhtar, S. & Choi, L.W. 'When Evening Falls: The Immigrant's Encounter with Middle and Old Age'. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 64(2), 2004, pp 183-191. Antonucci, T. & Akiyama, H. 'Concern with Others at Midlife: Care, Comfort or Compromise?' in Multiple Paths of Midlife Development. M.E Lachman & J. Boone James (eds.): Chicago, the University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp 147-169. Ben-Rafael, E.; Olstein, E. and Geist, E. Perspectives of Identity and Language in the Absorption of Immigrants from the FSU. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Institute for Research and Development in Education, Jerusalem, 1998. Brim, G. 'Ambition: How We Manage Success and Failure Throughout Our Lives'. New-York, Basic Books. 1992. Central Bureau of Statistics. 'Immigration to Israel – Selected Data 2005' (Hebrew). In: http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications/alia/t1.pdf Enter date: 10/8/07 Chiswick, B. R. & Miller, P. W. The Critical Period Hypothesis for Language Learning: What the 2000 US Census Says. IZA: Discussion Paper Series, Discussion Paper No. 2575, 2007. Haviv, J., Noam, G., Alenbogen, S., Lithwick, A., Naon, D., Nirel, N., Shtrusberg, N. & Beer, S. 'Risk Groups among the Immigrants', in A Portrait of the Immigration: the Absorption Processes of the Natives of Former USSR 1990-1995. M. Sikron & E. Leshem (eds.), Jerusalem, Magnes, 1998, pp 409-441 (Hebrew). Jones, C.J. & Trickett, E.J. 'Immigrant Adolescents Behaving as Culture Brokers: a Study of Families from the Former Soviet Union'. Journal of Social Psychology, vol 145 (4), 2005, pp. 405-427. Landau, J. 'Therapy with Families in Cultural Transition', in Ethnicity and Family Therapy. M. McGoldrick, J.K. Pearce & J. Giordano (eds.), NewYork: Guilford Press, 1982, pp 552-572.

292


______________________________________________________________ Leshem, E. & Lissak, M. 'The Cultural and Social Consolidation of the Russian Community in Israel', in From Russia to Israel: Identity and Culture in Transition. M. Lissak and E. Leshem (eds.), Kav Adom, Tel Aviv, 2001, pp 27-76 (Hebrew). Mirsky, J. & Kaushinsky, F., 'Migration and Growth: Separation Individuation Processes in Immigrant Students in Israel'. Adolescence, vol. 24(95), 1989, pp 725-740. Mirsky, J., Baron-Drayman Y. & Kedem, P., 'It is Not Good that the Immigrant Should be Alone: Social Support and Psychological Distress among Young Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union'. Society & Welfare, vol. 45(1), 2002, pp 83-97 (Hebrew). Moss, N. & Arrowsmith, J., A Review of what works for clients aged over 50. Department of work & Pensions. 2003 In: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/jad/index_2003.asp#top Enter Date: 18.2.07. Portes, A. & Rumbaut, R. G., Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. University of California Press, Berkeley & Los-Angeles, 2001. Remennick, L., Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict. Transaction - International Social Science Publisher, Rutgers, StateUniversity of New Jersey, 2006. ––––––, '‘My Life is One Big Nursing Home’: Russian Immigrant Women in Israel Speak about Double Caregiver Stress'. Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 24(6), 2001, pp 685-700. Sikron, M. 'The social Capital of the Immigrants and their Integration in the Job Market', in a Portrait of the Immigration: the Absorption Processes of the Natives of Former USSR 1990-1995. M. Sikron & E. Leshem (eds.), Magnes, Jerusalem, 1998, pp 127-181 (Hebrew). Slutzki, C. 'Migration and Family Conflict'. Family Processes, vol. 18, 1979, pp 390-379. ––––––, 'Migration and the Disruption of the Social Network' in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture and G ender in C linical Practice. M. McGoldrick (ed.), Guilford Press, New York, 1998.


293

______________________________________________________________ Spillman, B.C. & Pezzin, L. E., 'Potential and Active Family Caregivers: Changing Networks and the ‘Sandwich Generation’'. Milbank Quarterly, vol. 78(3), 2000, pp 347-374. Pnina Dolberg is a doctoral candidate in the department of Social Work, Ben Gurion University, Israel. She is currently carrying out a research on ‘Middle Aged Immigrants’. Her other research interests include life-span development, relationship between groups of immigrants and multi-cultural processes in the Israeli society. Julia Mirsky is an Associate Professor with the department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University. She is licensed as a clinical psychologist and a supervisor in psychotherapy. Her scientific work is focused on psychological aspects of migration and she teaches and supervises research students on this subject. Prof. Mirsky’s work has influenced practices in wide social and educational spheres of work with immigrants in Israel and she has published widely in international professional periodicals.

PART V GENERATIONS

Together for Tomorrow: Building Community Through Intergenerational Dialogue and Action James V. Gambone Abstract Over the last seventeen years, I have created and developed a civic engagement process that brings together all living generations in community, organizational, religious and corporate settings. These intentional, intergenerational gatherings and dialogue/conversations are organized to help break down generational isolation and separation, solve problems, or capitalize on opportunities across 5 generations. The Intergenerational Dialogue and Action Model™ has been the research subject of a successful Ph.D. dissertation, a Doctor of Divinity, and an MA comprehensive paper. Each of these independent examinations has shown the Intergenerational Dialogue & Action process to be an effective best practice. In addition, over 3,000 people across the United States of America have been trained to organize and implement this process. The range of issues for which the Dialogue has already been used includes: healing from natural disasters, homeland security, rural economic development, prevention of domestic and child abuse, school shootings, an ageing society, entitlements, generational knowledge transfer, mentoring, bridging racial and cultural divides, and immigration to name just a few dialogue topics. There are very few issues that are not enriched by a robust intergenerational conversation. This paper provides a clear understanding of the unique gifts and assets each of our living generations brings to any issue or opportunity. The reader will also learn compelling reasons for bringing all generations together to problem solve and build assets in a healthier and more equitable aging society. And finally, this paper will demonstrate the interdisciplinary foundations of the process, (from the perspective of sociology, history, education, community organizing, psychology and anthropology) describe how the process works, and provide practical examples of real Dialogue outcomes. Key Words: Generational, Intergenerational, Cohorts, Community, Healthy, Organizing, Communication, Aging, Global, Ageism. ***** 1.

Introduction/Background Eighteen years ago, I embarked upon an interesting and lifechanging journey. On the recommendation of a friend and fellow historian, (my BA and MA are both in history) I read a book called Generations: The history of America’s future from 1584 to 2069.1 As a student of history and

298

Together for Tomorrow

______________________________________________________________ historiography, I was impressed by the perspective they offered on U.S. history. They argued that four generational cohorts repeated themselves throughout U.S. history from 1584 to the present. If you wanted to find a cohort very much like your own, you could simply take the year of your birth and go back in history 100 years or so, and you would find a generation that had similar values and attitudes to your own generation. (A generation in their model covers approximately a 25-year time period.) They also argued you could predict the future by taking existing younger, generational cohorts (their core values, attitudes and leadership potential) and project the actions of these cohorts into the future. It was a more provocative and different look at U.S. history than I had ever seen. At the same time I was reading this book, I was trying to make sense out my own diverse, ‘multi-portfolio’ professional career. I was trained as a community organizer for the Peace Corps, have a doctorate degree in Sociology and Education, love teaching, was known as an award-winning film and television writer, producer and director, established as an independent investigative reporter, operating as a successful entrepreneur, and a sought-after public speaker. My struggle involved searching for unifying themes that might help me better understand my diverse professional work history. I’ll never forget the lunch I had with my friend Shirley in 1991, who was organizing a large violence prevention effort in St. Paul, Minnesota. When I told Shirley how excited I was after reading Strauss and Howe, she asked me a very poignant question, ‘Jim, how will this new generational understanding help reduce violence in Ramsey County?’ It was this direct question, and the resulting 18 years of trying to answer it, that brings me to this conference today. 2.

What is a Generational Perspective? Morris Massey was a successful corporate consultant in the U.S. in the 1970’s and 1980’s and an early mentor. He said, ‘You are now what you were then, when you were ten.’ If someone wanted to understand the current behaviours and attitudes of a 20-, 40-, or 80-year-old, Massey would say, go back and look at the political, social, economic and cultural influences that challenged them at a formative age. Like many developmental psychologists, Massey was saying that core values, developed when a person ‘comes of age,’ often remain powerful influencers throughout that person’s entire life span. For my parents, two significant events in their impressionable valueforming years—the Great Depression and World War II—fundamentally shaped their orientation toward the world, and contributed to my own early value formation. Strauss and Howe say,

James V. Gambone

299

______________________________________________________________ A generation is shaped by its age-determined participation in epochal events that occur during its childhood and, especially during the coming-of-age experiences separating youth from adulthood. This age location produces a set of collective behavioural traits and attitudes that later express itself through a generation’s life cycle trajectory.2 If Strauss and Howe are correct, and I generally believe they are, it means that each generational cohort brings unique assets, talents, and weaknesses to daily real life situations and cumulatively to the major historical challenges each generation faces in their lifetime. We know, from research and experience: how children are raised often affects how they parent; how we are taught affects how we teach; and the ‘how and when we come of age’ can shape our later exercise of leadership. Yael Danelli provides more than ample evidence to support the fact that there are documented worldwide case studies of multigenerational transmissions and legacies of trauma, abuse, caring, compassion, and respect.3 I have identified six generational cohorts in the United States based on Intergenerational Dialogues that I have personally organized and conducted over the last 18 years. These cohorts are: Civic or GI Generation (born 1931or before) This generation came out of an agricultural economy and accepted many American myths. They lived as young adults through the Depression. They were heroes in their hour of crisis, World War Two. After the war they worked to gain economic rights and they were very impressed with the technology they developed. Their lives coincide with an ‘American Century’ of general economic growth, technological progress beyond anyone’s expectations and military dominance. Adaptive or Mediating Generation (1932-1944) The majority of men and women of this generation came of age too late for World War ll. A very small number served in Korea, but most were born too early to feel the pressures and burdens of the Vietnam War. This generation created the corporate human resources system, expanded American myths, made dress and appearance an important value, changed work from the personal, to the organizational; and developed the concept of career and loyalty to your employer. Unlike their Civic counterparts, they view issues as much more complex. They dominate the helping professions and civil rights organizations.

300


______________________________________________________________ Baby Boom Generation: America’s largest generational cohort (1945-1963) Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) of all generations, the Boomers came to college in record numbers between the Kennedy and Reagan administrations. This was the first generation in American history raised in a culture of abundance and influenced by a plethora of media dominated by television. These were the babies of optimism and hubris. This generation sees weaknesses in American myths. They firmly believe in values and for the most part seem intensely self-immersed. Work is an important measure of who you are as a person. Their question of ‘Does my work have meaning?’ is a very different question when compared with the Civics or Adaptives, who saw their jobs and personal life as separate. Idealistic Boomers believe that process and participation can solve any problem and that service to social justice is a real measurement of citizenship. The sheer size (84 million) and economic power of this generation, will ensure their historical center-stage position for the next twenty years. Diversity or GenX Generation (1964-1981) These were the first babies that came of age in a society with rapidly increasing divorce rates, experimental education practices, ‘latchkey’ programs, an AIDS dating scene, birth control, kids with weapons, increasing numbers of young people committing suicide, more proficiency with technology than any other generation, and the most experience living in a multi-cultural, multi-racial society. They get along very well with the Civic generation but horribly with their Mediating and Boomer parents (who also happen to be their bosses in the workplace.) The most significant message this generation heard when it was coming of age was that they might become the first generation in American history to not do as well as their parents. Millennial Generation (1982-2002) This is the generation that is coming of age in a world of test tube babies, cloning, economic boom and speculative times, large scale political scandals, the most sophisticated media ever created, Internet connections with young people all over the world talking about how to protect the environment, fight child labour, and plant flowers and trees in blighted urban neighbourhoods. Polls suggest this generation is not particularly interested in political parties but very interested in working together with other generations on local issues. Many have labelled this generation as smarter, better behaved, and more civic-spirited than any of the living generations. They are the achievement generation! The Millennials are also the children of 9-11 and intensified worldwide terrorism. They are the generation that might provide the most significant leaders over the next twenty years.

James V. Gambone

301

______________________________________________________________ Digital Generation (2003-present) It is too early to tell what this generation might bring to the conversation. While sociologists and historians might argue about the specific birth years for a particular generational cohort, I have chosen my birth years based on nearly eighteen years of extensive field experience. I have also found the birth years used for organizing Intergenerational Dialogues to show the greatest similarities within a particular cohort and the greatest differences with other generations. 3. What is an Intergenerational Perspective and Why is it Important? The simplest definition of the word intergenerational is what happens when two or more generations collaborate to nurture and support one another. The first place we learn how to collaborate and support one another is within the traditional nuclear and extended family. Unfortunately, many dramatic changes have made the traditional family structure incapable of providing the robust model and learning grounds for experiencing the kind of generational connectedness it once offered. Post–industrial society now includes routine corporate employment mobility; divorce; college and post-secondary educational opportunities located often many miles from home; successful niche marketing to generational cohorts making them care only about themselves and their own perceived needs4, a denial of our own aging; and a growing market of agesegregated retirement communities—both in the U.S. and throughout the world. All of these factors, and others, have unconsciously conspired to create actual geographic, as well as social and emotional chasms between all the generations. Those of us paying attention have also noticed that, along with these generational ‘gaps,’ there is an increase in loneliness and depression among many older adults. According to the American Psychological Association in 2009, 20% of adults over age 65 experience symptoms of depression that cause them distress and make it hard for them to function. (They currently represent about 11% of the U.S. population.) This is in spite of the fact that the oldest two generations in the U.S. and elsewhere, have seen overall improvements in their economic status and geographic mobility. On the topic of generational isolation, I would recommend a very powerful book, Heat Wave by Eric Klinenberg. He painfully describes generational disconnectedness through a social autopsy of the 1995 Chicago heat wave. That July, 425 elders (mostly minority) were afraid to come out of their apartments to ask for help, and died painful deaths in the sweltering heat. Klinenberg5 also introduces us to very large rooms in city and county government buildings that serve as a depository for the possessions of thousands of older adults who die alone every day. No one ever claims their

302


______________________________________________________________ belongings. I wonder how many of you have such a room in your cities? Intentional intergenerational theorists and practitioners understand the power of this perspective to deal with fear and isolation in any generation. We often pull our supportive research and base intergenerational programs on prominent and accepted life-span human growth and development theories. However, there is not a unified and accepted theory for why we need to continually advocate for a wide range of intergenerational initiatives. I will boldly suggest a common unifying and foundational starting point: It is my firm belief that the human species, as well as all other species, rely, for their very survival, on successful intergenerational transfers of knowledge, values, skills, traditions, etc. These connections and interchanges between human generations are one of our principal species survival lynchpins. And when these transfers are seriously interrupted or threatened, our species is put ‘at risk’. Shouldn’t we be alarmed when the highest suicide rates in the U.S. occur in the age groups 14-19, and those 65 and older? And isn’t it interesting that the one common denominator among all of the children involved in recent deadly school shootings is that none of these children had one caring and loving adult in their lives with whom they could have shared the terrible pain they were experiencing before they committed these horrific acts. Generational isolation and separation should be seen like a canary having breathing problems in the mine. Perhaps some of you could share data from your own countries on generational isolation and separation. 4.

What is the Intergenerational Dialogue & Action Model? An Intergenerational Dialogue & Action model brings together between 50 and 75 or more individuals for five and a half hours. The group represents five of the six generational cohorts listed above, and reflects as much diversity as is contained in the community, church, synagogue, mosque, or company where the Dialogue is taking place. The Dialogue begins with a Circle of Generations to symbolize the unity of all the people present. The circle enables them to personally witness the incredible diversity in the group. (The largest age range in a Dialogue I have conducted was a nine-year-old and a 96-year-old.) My formal process starts with a facilitator retelling a real life story or scenario based on an important issue to the people who have been invited to attend the Dialogue. It values each generation’s perspectives on the issue by respectfully listening to representatives from all five generations answer open-ended questions from the facilitator about the real life scenario. Finally, all the generations are challenged to join in small groups to make intergenerational Recommendations and Action Plans for future action. The Intergenerational Dialogue needs to be about something important to people otherwise people wouldn’t attend. By definition, it needs

James V. Gambone

303

______________________________________________________________ to include all ages and generations. It should feel fair, honour differences and not be partisan to anyone. It aims to establish broad bases for agreement. It should enliven and give hope. It should recognize politics but not be politicised. It can build consensus, recognize diversity, and encourage constructive change. People should leave the Dialogue with a clear understanding that it is both their right and responsibility to take the intergenerational recommendations formed at the end of the Dialogue session and make them a reality in their community. 5. Implications of the Intentional Intergenerational Approach for Aging/Longevity Society It will be very dangerous to march into our future in isolated and separated generational groups. Most industrial democracies are aging societies and have major intergenerational social and political compacts like health care, Social Security, and long-term care, that will need substantial revisions simply based on demographics. The question is: will we redo these compacts on the basis of who has the most political power, or through a process involving all the generations affected? And perhaps even more important: who will represent the most vulnerable of all generations—those yet unborn—in these deliberations? You may have heard the saying, ‘If you don’t think age discrimination affects you, just wait awhile.’ What a gift it would be if a large intergenerational coalition, led by aging boomers, decided the most important legacy we could leave for future generations would be to end age discrimination in our own lifetimes. This is possible, but only if all generations are able to value the wisdom of age and experience, think more creatively about retirement and employment, make mutual sacrifices, and see real worth and value in one another. Only a truly intergenerational effort will make age discrimination disappear. One of the less discussed reasons that we don’t deal with really tough aging issues is that we are in a major state of denial about our own aging. One of the fastest growth areas in the surgical field is cosmetic plastic surgery. In 2000, over a half-million people in the U.S. had surgeries simply to make themselves look younger. That number is increasing. Add liposuctions, pharmaceutical and cosmetic creams, lotions and tonics, and you have a multi-billion-dollar industry dedicated to helping us deny our own aging. If older adults did nothing more than maturely accept their own aging as something positive and worthwhile, we could spawn dramatic changes across our entire society. Think about it. How can we expect younger generations, who naturally look to older people for their wisdom and experience, learn anything positive about aging when they see us artificially trying to mask our own age and look and act like them? Denial, isolation, and separation = generational conflict. The

304


______________________________________________________________ ‘politically correct’ position is that generational isolation and separation is largely a myth. Public policy ‘wonks’ tell us that 85 percent of all care given to older people comes from family members. These same analysts suggest that broad political and economic interests are often shared across generations. I certainly will not argue that generations are waging all-out war with each other—yet. But anyone who argues that cross-generational bonds are not currently being placed at great risk is simply not honestly confronting the social and economic reality faced by millions of people. Consider these examples: •

•

Historically, women have provided the care given to aging family members. As more women choose or are forced to enter the work force because of the economy, less care will be available from these traditional family sources. In many rural areas in the U.S., 60 to 70 percent of the citizens do not have children or grandchildren living in their communities. Talk to rural leaders and ask them about generational conflicts and school bond referenda, long-term care funding, property tax reform, and dividing scarce resources among the young and old. You will probably hear that they are afraid of our aging society, and most see aging only as a current and future economic and social burden.

There is one tremendous advantage attached to living and practicing intergenerational respect caring and cooperation in post-industrial democracies. We will find our ability to communicate and work with diverse populations much easier. I have conducted my Dialogues with every community of colour in the U.S. In these Dialogues, I have been the only white person present both during the organizing stage and the Dialogue itself. Minority groups within a country where another race or culture is dominant, often have survived very unpleasant histories through their intergenerational connections and support systems. The U.S. civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, was the guest speaker at an Intergenerational Dialogue on the history of civil rights in the U.S. that I organized in Virginia in the late 1990s. She privately told me about being mugged by a 17-year-old Black man in Detroit. She kept saying, ‘I’m Rosa Parks!’ And he replied, ‘I don’t care.’ Rosa said this was a wake up call for her and the Black community to heighten its awareness of the need for better intergenerational transfers.. An invitation to participate in an intergenerational event means asking people of colour to bring their racial or cultural strengths and assets forward with pride and deal with an issue that is very important to them. We are indeed paying a tremendous social, political, and economic cost for generational isolation, alienation, and separation. The price will get much

James V. Gambone

305

______________________________________________________________ heavier in the next twenty years unless we initiate widespread intergenerational interventions. In a diverse society, age can provide an exciting and motivating common ground. We all belong to a generation. This fact gives us a common starting point. We can ask ourselves what we share in common based on our generation’s historical, cultural, social, and economic experiences. And then, based on the principles of intergenerational respect, caring, and cooperation, we can begin to build a brighter future for all generations – together for tomorrow.

Notes 1

W Strauss and N Howe, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. Quill Press, New York, New York, 1991. 2 Ibid., p.32. 3 Y Danieli, International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Truama. Plenum Press, New York, New York, 1998, pp. 669-690. 4 J W Smith and A Clurman, Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report On Generational Marketing. Harper Business, New York, NewYork, 1997. 5 E Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 2003, pp. 41-49.

Bibliography Danieli, Y., International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Truama. Plenum Press, New York, New York, 1998. Gambone, J. ., Together For Tomorrow: Building Community Through Intergenerational Dialogue. Elder Eye Press, Crystal Bay, Minnesota, 1998 & 2005. Klinenberg, E., Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2003. Kuhn, M, No Stone Unturned: the Life and Times of Maggie Kuhn. Ballantine Books, New York, 1991. Newman, S. and Ward, C. R., Intergenerational Programs: Past, Present and Future. Taylor & Francis, Washington, D.C., 1997. Smith, J. W. and Clurman, A., Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report On Generational Marketing. Harper Business, New York, NewYork, 1997.

306


______________________________________________________________ Strauss, W. and Howe, N., Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. Quill Press, New York, New York, 1991. Waugh, T. R., Community Members’ Perspectives on the Role of the Intergenerational Dialogue Process Served in Changing Residents’ Attitudes and Strategies for Working Together: A Multiple Case Study in Two Rural Midwestern Communities. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln Nebraska, 2006. Personal hard bound copy. James V. Gambone currently teaches in the Capella University Graduate School of Public Leadership. He is also a senior partner in Points Of View Incorporated, an intergenerational consulting firm and a full service multimedia production company. His most recent book ReFirement has been critically acclaimed as a challenge to the current way in which we view retirement. He is currently producing a short film on an elder care facility set in the year 2030 called A Journey Home. Jim can be reached at [email protected].

Growing Up and Growing Old: Negotiating the Generational Shift in Midlife Bethany Morgan Abstract Midlife is a transitional phase in the life course that sees a shift in generational positioning that is the loss and increasing agedness of the generation above and changes in the lives of the generation below. Midlife is often partially characterised by the death of parents and other older relatives, children reaching adulthood and leaving the familial home and can also be signified by changes in seniority and respect in the workplace. This paper is based on a series of psycho-social interviews with 22 men and women aged between 39 and 58 years old. It explores the psychological effect the movement of the generations has on those in midlife, how people feel about becoming the next older generation and how this impacts upon their own sense of aging and own mortality awareness. It pays particular attention to how people in midlife negotiate relationships with their parents and how the emotional and practical changes that occur with their parents’ increased agedness and deaths are managed. It looks at how anxieties about aging are evoked and how psychological defences are triggered as a response to the upward shift of the generations. Key Words: Midlife, Aging, Death, Generational Shift, Parents, Separation, Attachment, Life Course. ***** 1.

Introduction Midlife is a transitional phase in the life course that sees a shift in generational positioning that is the loss and increasing agedness of the generation above and changes in the lives of the generation below. Midlife is often partially characterised by the death of parents and other older relatives, children reaching adulthood and leaving the familial home and can also be signified by changes in seniority and respect in the workplace. This paper is based on case studies of two men, Jeff and Adrian, whose interviews come from a series of psycho-social interviews with 22 men and women aged between 39 and 58 years old, which explore the ‘new external circumstances’1 faced with this movement of the generations and the effect this has on people in midlife. In addition it explores the new internal (or psychological) circumstances that also occur alongside them.

308

Growing Up and Growing Old

______________________________________________________________ 2.

Separation and Attachment in the Generational Shift Since infancy most loving parents will have offered protection, security, comfort and guidance. In the psyche of the defenceless infant, parents provide the ultimate security and they are dependent on them for their survival. The loss of parents has the potential to lead to the infants own demise, yet this fear of separation from someone on which they are so dependent is something which still needs to be faced. In these early stages of development, psychological separation must occur in order for the child to develop and lead an independent existence, becoming responsible for its own survival 2 . This process of separation and individuation is about gaining a separate existence from the mother; about separating oneself from the loved object and it shares some similarities to the mourning process. I argue this is something which is in part revisited when the middle aged child faces the ultimate separation from their parents through death. As a mature adult, even if they do not need the direct practical and emotional provisions from a parent, certain comfort can be derived from knowing that they are still there as a safety net or psychological backup. One interviewee named Anna (46) said when parents die ‘we lose our sense of being a child’. A middle aged friend of mine also cried ‘I am now an orphan’ after having lost both of her parents within 6 months of each other. Satisfactory relationships with parents help maintain a sense of childishness and youth in the middle aged child, whilst offering a sense of security and dependability. But how do people respond when this safety net is lost through the death of parents, or when the safety net becomes inadequate due to the changed nature of the relationship with parents as they have aged? It has been shown how people become more aware and anxious of their own aging process and mortality when parents showed signs of getting older or died. However I also found that some people felt the presence of their parents had hindered them from a full transition to adulthood. Midlife is a period in which they finally feel they have had a chance to be ‘grown up’ and once the parental generation has died, this was now the first opportunity to feel free from their parent’s constraints. Just as conflicts arise with parents in early infancy and again in adolescent years about becoming more autonomous, there seems to also be a process of separation and struggles for autonomy which occur in midlife: a struggle to be ‘grown up’ and free from parental influence, particularly amongst those in midlife who realize that time is passing by and that they are getting older, and a struggle to hold onto that sense of security and dependence which most loving parents offer whilst they are alive. The parental generation hold a significant position in the family tree and their loss can have profound implications for the midlife generation. But, what if parents live longer than anticipated? Do middle aged children resent not being able to take their place at the top of the family hierarchy? How

Bethany Morgan

309

______________________________________________________________ does the middle aged child feel when the parental relationship does not fulfil its usual function of protecting and providing and shifts to a new relationship where the child becomes their parent’s parent? How are feelings of separation, attachment and loss negotiated when there exists a struggle between the need to live a fulfilled life as a grown adult, and still also feeling oppressed, dependent or an obligation towards one’s parents? In some cases the burden of care of elderly parents can be quite significant during the midlife period. If that care has been prolonged or particularly difficult then there is often relief at their parent’s deaths due to the end of suffering for the parent but also due to the end of care duties. One interviewee 48 year old Jeff, for example, had a heavy care responsibility for his mother and he felt he needed his mother to die in order for him to start having a life of his own. Along with his sister they have cared for their mother their entire adult lives as she suffered from severe mental health problems and now has severe physical and mental disabilities. Neither he nor his sister has lived away from their mother and consequently Jeff has never formed a serious romantic relationship with anyone, never had children and never been able to achieve his main life ambitions. He talks about his ambiguous feelings about his mother’s death. On one hand he would like her to die, but then finds himself shifting to a fear of her dying. He says I suppose I want her to die really. I mean I will be sad. I will be sad in some ways and I think I’ve purposely distanced myself from the emotional bond sometimes. I think people are very flexible. I could easily find myself getting back into more of a sort of son/mother relationship and being terrified of her dying. It is as if Jeff cannot separate himself from his child-like role. Despite having lived with and been the carer for his mother all his life, his mother is still his mother and he is still her son. He has not moved on from his childhood role and although he has a deep desire to grow up and be independent, he also has a fear of separation. After all, he is looking after her out of a moral duty and if he truly wanted to be independent from her it is a move that he could have made a lot sooner in life. He is battling with a strong attachment to his mother and a need for separateness. Jeff himself is aware about the ambiguity of his feelings towards his mother. When I asked, ‘Was it ever an option to put her into institutional care?’ He replied, ‘It’s a very difficult option. It’s still an option. It’s almost an impossible option’. He talks about his concern that she will not be cared for in the way that he can and then goes on to say,

310


______________________________________________________________ It doesn’t seem an option that is a great pity in various ways because I feel trapped. I feel I can’t offer someone the sort of relationship that they might want and I haven’t been able to for 12 or 13 years but in the same way that’s been an excuse for me. But if I get involved with people, I can step back a bit. So it works both ways. He listed the excuses as to why he should not put his mother in care, but also recognises that by looking after his mother it provides him with a good excuse not to participate in grown up life, and enter into an intimate relationship with anyone. I suggest that for Jeff this is something that he perhaps has been struggling with for many years, a yearning for an independent life, but also a sense of duty and guilt about separating from his mother. Jeff also spoke very candidly about the fantasy of his mother dying and the excitement he felt when he thought she would die. One of the GPs diagnosed that my mother had bowel cancer from the blood tests and this was about a year back and I suddenly thought I had a thrill go through me, that this is an escape, an escape for me from all this being tied down not being able to go on holidays and things like that. But it’s an escape for mum from all the pain and all the other things that she has to go through. But of course the GP got it wrong so it was nothing of the kind [laughs] I suppose that’s a good test of my reaction to mum. I suggest that the passage into adulthood is something that both intrigues Jeff and is something to fantasise about but at the same time it also frightens him and he retreats into the security of being close to his mum through her care. He mentions, ‘Yes, even though physically I’m quite trapped in a way, there’s lots of things I can’t do. Then again that makes life less stressful in certain ways’. I suggest that Jeff is torn between a loyalty towards his mother and a realisation that his own life is passing him by. He is torn by his love for his mother and the resentment he has for her. He is also split by the security he feels with her and his need for autonomy and independence. He fluctuates between the different emotions, which I suggest are evident of being in the Kleinian paranoid schizoid position. Jeff has split feelings about his situation and relationship with his mother. Throughout the interview he fluctuates between the ‘good breast’ of the loving, security providing mother, and the ‘bad breast’ of the inadequate mother, who controls his life and holds him back. It is perhaps the guilt he feels about the psychological attack on the bad elements that ultimately keep him in a

Bethany Morgan

311

______________________________________________________________ reparative state of trying to make his mother better and his prolonged care role. In some cases though it is not just the care responsibilities that hold people back from achieving their full potential or becoming fully-fledged adults. For example, 43-year-old Adrian’s parents are both healthy, independent, only in their mid-sixties (which was relatively young compared to the rest of the sample) and they were not a burden to him in terms of care. However, in response to the question, ‘how do you feel your life would change when your parents die?’ He responded, I would expect a certain amount of relief actually, that I will not have an obligation of any sort to anyone then. They held expectations of me, that sounds a bit narrow, I have been struggling with the idea with my parent’s expectations, felt kind of oppressed by them for many, many years, it’s only recently that I have shaken that off. When they are gone, if they were to go tomorrow I would feel that, I would miss them, but I would feel that. For both Jeff and Adrian, their situations and feelings about their parents dying are reminiscent of the separation from parents which most people experience in young adulthood, when they first leave home. Jeff has not left home for a significant period of time before and Adrian feels that he has always been oppressed by his parent’s presence, even though he does not live with them. When asked ‘Do you worry about them getting older?’ he replied, ‘…I am worrying about it for the impact it will have on me rather than for them.’ Adrian’s attitude towards his parents future care needs seemed unjustifiably callous and he only commented on the impact and inconvenience that their aging and death would have upon his life. It is also interesting to note the importance for Adrian to ensure that he has as much time as possible, without his parent’s presence or burden so that he can achieve all that he wants to with his remaining time. He says, I think care com[ing] in would be the sort of solution I would prefer…It’s just how much I will be able to, it’s how much it will be a stretch for me for the things I want to do, given that my late onset mid life is all about enjoying what I can do with the time I have got left. I do worry about that a bit, I’m a bit selfish in that respect, I don’t suppose anyone else is different. Adrian’s anxieties about doing all that he wants to do with his life seem to outweigh his relationship with his parents. Jeff also believed that when his

312


______________________________________________________________ mother died it would also grant him more freedom than he currently has, in order to enjoy things that he feels he is missing out in his life. He says …what I’m hoping for when my mother dies, or when we can’t look after her any more, that will suddenly be a lot more freedom than I’ve had. Yes, I’m hoping that it will be a comfortable time where I can do a bit of travelling and do the things that I want and feel that when I’m going to work I don’t have to. I can just do that. The generational shift can be a liberating opportunity for some people in midlife. As I have shown the death of parents is often preceded by a period of dependency upon the middle aged child and in this role reversal they may find themselves in a position of becoming their parent’s parent. The relief from this responsibility may result in a sense of liberation and a chance to achieve all that could not whilst one’s parents were alive. Moreover, when coupled with increased mortality awareness in midlife which may arise from the realisation that parents are in their final stages of life and that the midlife cohort is soon to move up to become the older generation, it could be suggested that there is often urgency for parents to die, as there is urgency for the midlife individual’s life to become fulfilled before time runs out for them too. I suggest that this is true for Adrian who felt he would become more grown up when his parents died and he would be able to live his life as he wanted. Similarly Jeff spoke about how when his mother dies he would like to move out of the family home, travel to Africa, perhaps live with a lady pen-friend that he has, change career etc. He has a packed agenda for his future years but this is all on hold until his mother dies and he feels that his own time is running out. Melanie Klein recalled a case in which someone was faced with the impending death of a parent. She states that ‘the recent increase of hatred against his mother was a defence against his sorrow and despair about her approaching death’3. For those who feel the death of a loved one is imminent, this could be experienced as an impending loss that requires mourning before the bereavement itself occurs. According to Freud this mourning process requires a certain level of separation from the loved object and the process of mourning involves ‘withdrawing’ each attachment one has to the loved object.4 I suggest that when an individual is faced with the inevitable demise of their loved parent, they often need to detach themselves from their emotional involvement in order to protect themselves from the pain of losing them. I suggest that this could be one explanation as to why Adrian and Jeff seemed so callous in their need for detachment from their parents. This process of splitting may serve to protect them from the imminent pain of losing their loved object (parent) and by starting to psychologically break the

Bethany Morgan

313

______________________________________________________________ bonds which bind them, the loss of parents would be lessened. The unconscious detachment from parents could be a result of anxieties about their own aging process, fears and mourning for the parents which they fear losing, combined with their own insecurities that they had failed to be fully dependent from their parents and could not yet consider themselves fully ‘grown up.’ For both Adrian and Jeff, their parents do frustrate them. For Adrian they annoy him by asking the wrong questions and for Jeff, his mother is demanding of his care and attention. Ultimately though, they are both close to their parents even if this is something which they do not explicitly admit. If they did not have some kind of close bond why would their parents matter so much and why would they not, up until now, have made the break for independence and moved away? Both Jeff and Adrian need their parents. Jeff, in particular has never experienced life without his mother dependence on him. It could be also argued that they need their parents as they fill the generational buffer that protects them from considering their own aging and mortality. However, both Jeff and Adrian resent this dependency on their parents. They want to make the break, to become fully fledged adults and to ensure that their own lives are maximally fulfilled before they get to old or die themselves. Pritchard (1995) states ‘the loss of a parent evokes all the old fears and threats of the lost child’ 5 . Archer (1999) says to lose a parent in adulthood is ‘difficult to cope with because they make the individual’s personal world an unsafe and unpredictable place’ 6 . Just as a child first ventures from the security of its mother, so too must the middle aged child renegotiate the world around them alone after their deaths. Just as an infant they had to deal with the struggles of individuation, loss and separation from its parents, now the middle-aged child has to face the definitive loss of a parent and cope with a new set of challenges. Although aspects of this separation process from parents are reminiscent of earlier infantile experiences, it is now experienced in a qualitatively different way. Jaques (1965) suggested that one of the differences between earlier infantile experiences of loss and of those experienced in midlife is that midlife ‘calls for a re-working through of the infantile depression, but with mature insight into death and destructive impulse to be taken into account’ 7 . In midlife people have an understanding and awareness of the reality of death and mortality, which they do not have as a child. This awareness can create a fear that is experienced differently to the fears of an infant. Another difference is that when the young child or adolescent gains independence from their parents, they would always be there in the background and there was always the option to revert back to a child-like position in relation to them; now in midlife the child faces the ultimate and final loss of their parents. There is no

314


______________________________________________________________ option for the middle aged person to revert back to the child-like state, they themselves are becoming the older generation. 4.

Conclusion Midlife can be considered to be a critical transition point in many people’s lives and such transitions in the life course are often characterised by loss and readjustment. Practical and emotional changes need to be managed to cope with culminating losses and changes in this period of the life course. The individual must try to fit back into the world and their lives that have undergone significant transformations and where their roles and demands have changed. The impact of such changes can vary considerably depending on the individual personality structure, the experiences one had prior to the transitional period and the relationships with all of those affected by the changes. The death of parents is arguably the most common bereavement suffered in midlife; it is a bereavement which is often anticipated at some level, yet can also have a profound effect on the generations left behind. This paper has gone someway to explore the psychological and behavioural effect the death of parents has on the middle aged individual. It has considered how anxieties about separation and attachment are experienced, and although these are reminiscent of earlier infantile anxieties they are experienced in a new form in midlife. Splitting, denial and sublimation were some of the psychological defence techniques which were identified. It was shown that these psychological mechanisms were used to assuage anxieties about the fear of ultimate separation from parents and from the realisation that time is passing and that they have now become part of the older generation. Early infantile development is associated with the child’s realisation that it is not omnipotent and that it will have to detach itself from its mother in order to gain its own independence. In effect it is has to deal with a changing identity and a ‘loss’ of its mother. In a comparable sense the middle-aged child often has to face the definitive loss of a parent.

Notes 1

E Jaques, ‘Death and the Midlife Crisis’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 46, 1965, p. 506. 2 M Klein, ‘Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 21, 1940, pp. 125-53. 3 M Klein, ‘Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 21, 1940, p. 145. 4 S Freud, ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914-1916):

Bethany Morgan

315

______________________________________________________________ On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, Hogarth Press London, 1917, p. 244. 5 C Pritchard, Suicide- The Ultimate Rejection?, Open University Press Buckingham, 1995, p. 153. 6 J Archer, The Nature Of Grief, Routledge London, 1999, p. 213. 7 Jaques, op.cit., p. 505.

Bibliography Archer, J., The Nature Of Grief. Routledge, London, 1999. Freud, S., ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, Hogarth Press London, 1917, pp. 237-258. Jaques, E., ‘Death and the Midlife Crisis’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 46, 1965, pp- 502-514. Klein, M., ‘Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States’. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 21, 1940, pp. 125-153. Pritchard, C., Suicide- The Ultimate Rejection?. Open University Press Buckingham, 1995. Bethany Morgan is a PhD Student at the Department of Sociology, The University of Essex.

Constructing Generations in Contemporary China: A Mannheimian Approach Tam Chen Hee Abstract The Mannheimnian concept of generation provides both illumination and difficulty in explaining how common historical experiences during formative years could shape individuals who experienced them into a self-conscious and historically distinct group. Although rejected by sociologists of the life course as polysemous, the Mannheimnian concept nevertheless offers greater agency in understanding the distinctive behaviour and consciousness of members of a particular generation than the preferred concept of birth cohort by life course sociologists. The Mannheimnian concept allows us to account for social change between generations as well as lifelong stability of behaviour of particular generations. Importantly, as members of a generation define and interpret their historical situations against other generations, the state and the changing social landscape, the concept of generation is not reducible to reified historical time. Rather, a generation is formed by its members attributing social meanings and referents to particular historical time and place. By stressing agency, this revitalized concept shows how social actors construct and defend their generational identity against other claimants to their generational entitlements. To illustrate this, the Xiagang (layoff) generation in contemporary China is used. The Xiagang generation is a classification used in the popular and official discourses to describe state workers, from a number of birth cohorts, who were made redundant. These workers are said to have experienced common historical events that made them share a similar social fate. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that earlier cohorts in fact differ qualitatively from latter ones and have suffered greater political grievances. Nevertheless, the younger cohorts are determined to present themselves as part of the earlier cohorts to wrest more concessions from the state. The state in defining the younger cohorts as the Xiagang generation hopes to dilute the specific grievances of the older ones. Through these dynamics, the Xiagang generation is constructed. Key Words: Agency, Cohort, Generation, Xiagang. ***** 1.

Age-graded Chinese Society Age is a fundamental principle in organizing Chinese society. Chinese society is age-graded not only in the way the Chinese relate to one another in age terms but also in how they describe their individual historical

318

Constructing Generations in Contemporary China

______________________________________________________________ situations in generational terms. Importantly too, there are age-based entitlements and rewards and these have real consequences in determining the relative life-chances of the Chinese as a result of their age. Moreover, the often-turbulent role of the state aided in standardizing and regulating Chinese lives in an unintended age-graded way; dramatic changes in state policy resulted in stark age-based differences between older and younger Chinese. In this way, the Chinese case offers a classic example of distinct historical groups of individuals who experienced the making of their generation in the Mannheimian way. 2.

Mannheim’s Generation Mannheim postulates that the common historical experiences during the formative years of individuals could shape them into a self-conscious and historically distinct group. The value of Mannheim’s concept of generation is that it gives emphasis to individuals’ distinctive subjective experiences of their historical situations as opposed to positivistic imputation of reified social meanings bestowed upon them as particular birth-cohorts. As a result, Mannheim’s concept can provide an explanation in accounting for social change rather than being merely descriptive. However, Mannheim’s concept is not without its problems. Firstly, it is questionable to what extent should formative life events be assumed to determine subsequent events. Could they not be reversed by latter events? Moreover, how stable are individuals’ generational life views as a result of their formative life experiences? Secondly, different actors are involved in constructing and remaking of generational identities. As a result, it is insufficient to assume an independent making of a generational identity. Rather, generations are perceived and made in relative terms. Finally, the role of the modern state needs to be more explicitly examined in formation of generations. 3.

Generations in Post-1949 China The case of generations in post-1949 China illustrates both the Mannheimian principles of forming a generation and the inadequacies of those principles in characterizing a generation. According to Bonnin (2006), there are multiple meanings of generation in Chinese. These include understanding the concept in kinship term, historical term, social identity term and political/symbolic labels. Moreover, the understanding of the concept of generation in post-1949 China is influenced by political events/demarcation points, such as the Reform era and Cultural Revolution. It is also buttressed by age-graded entitlements such as seniority based pay and benefits and social fates of differing cohorts, not only in the command economy of Maoist China (for instance, in extending the age limit for university entrance examinations from 1977 to 1981) but also during the

Tam Chen Hee

319

______________________________________________________________ market transitional economy where different age-cohorts were treated differently by the reform process such as policies on internal retirement, layoffs and pensions. Indeed, the Chinese state actions had resulted in specific and recognizable moulds, historical situations and life trajectories of individuals by age. Thus, the understanding and operationalisation of generation have a real impact on the actual lives of Chinese individuals. Rosen (2000) listed five distinctive generations that marked post1949 China. The first generation were the founders of the People’s Republic such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. This was a generation that grew up in tumultuous times and experienced the collapse of the last imperial dynasty. They were also caught up with the tremendous experimentation of new ideas and ways of reconstructing and saving Chinese society such that it can stand up against foreign aggression and providing a new vision for the Chinese people. Many of the first generation’s members were familiar with many imported ideologies that could save their society such as Dewey’s empiricism, capitalism, science, democracy and Communism. Importantly, this generation is marked, according to Rosen, by their paramount belief that human volition can achieve revolutionary change. This is manifested by the heroic myth of the Long March survivors and one can add the ultimate victory of the smaller-sized and less equipped Communists over the US-backed Nationalists in taking over the whole of China. The problem with this definition is as Bonnin (2006) points out, Rosen takes uncritically the Chinese periodisation of dynastic establishment as the starting point of defining a generation. By doing so, he confuses the concept of generation in the Mannheimian sense with that of the Chinese political sense. Moreover, by so doing, the large variance of age-cohorts that could be found in the first generation in the way as defined by Rosen is conflated into a single morass. Age-cohort differences within this ‘generation’ are ignored. Yet, this subsumation creates difficulties. How does one comprehend the generational location of Hu Yaobang who although was a teenager survivor of the Long March was not customarily seen to be part of the first generation of Chinese leaders? Rosen identified the second generation as ‘Loyal Soldiers’ who were born in hard times before 1949 and came of age during the first 17 years of ‘New China’ just before the Cultural Revolution that started in 1966. The members of this second generation were characterized as ‘Loyal Soldiers’ as they were obedient followers of the first generation and they were highly collectivized and circumscribed by the new communist regime. We can only infer from this imprecise description that there is a huge and unclear age-span that is identified as the second generation. What does ‘come of age’ mean in the Chinese context at that time (start work, assume headship of the household or marry)? Many of this second

320


______________________________________________________________ generation whom I interviewed came of age as young as nine years old when they had to fend for themselves in turbulent times and eke out a living for themselves and their families. Although judging by the existing literature and my own study, their collective experiences were indeed highly uniform due to the propagandist and social engineering by the state, there is a need to be careful of presenting them as passive recipients of the state policies in New China. We need to ask how these members of the second generation resisted as well as abided by the new regime’s norms, for instance, in fighting against unfavourable class labels and the collectivization of family assets. Importantly, we need to ask from whose reference point is the second generation judged to be ‘Loyal Soldiers’. Clearly, this is a highly loaded description that may carry unrealistic and historicist interpretation of what mission a generation is expected to fulfil and how it may be judged from such a standard. The third generation that Rosen categorized was born in the late 1940s or early 1950s. This generation is the first generation that grew up entirely under the new regime. In many ways, this generation mirrors the ups and downs of the post-1949 history of the People’s Republic. Lee (1998) and Hung and Chiu (2003) note that members of this generation, especially those who are graduated from middle and high schools between 1966 and 1968 (the laosanjie or old three graduating classes) experienced a series of common historical events induced by the Chinese state and these series of events shaped not only the formative years of this generation but also had lifelong consequences on their lives. Looking back at their life trajectories from the present, many of the third generation lamented that at each critical stage of their lives, they were affected by unfavourable state policy and its outcome as summed up in the following popular Chinese doggerel about them. When we were growing up, there was the three-year natural disaster [the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward 19581961]; When we were studying in schools, there came the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976]; When we were about to work, we were sent to the rural areas [the rustication of urban youth which started in 1968 till 1977/78]; When we were at about the age to get married, they advocated ‘late marriage’ [the population control policy in 1974]; When it was about time to have children, there was the ‘one-child policy’ [1979/1980];

Tam Chen Hee

321

______________________________________________________________ When we returned to the cities, there were no jobs [19781981]; Now we are about to retire, and we are asked to xiagang [go off-post or be laid off which started from 1993 onwards]. As a result, the third generation formed a highly distinctive group in the Mannheimian sense. 4.

Problematising the Lost Generation For the purpose of this paper, we look at xiagang workers who have been identified in the literature as the ‘lost generation’, abandoned by Maoism and Dengism. While there is an extensive literature on xiagang workers as the lost generation (Hung and Chiu 2003; Lee 1998; Zhou and Hou 1999), in actual fact, xiagang involves more than the lost generation, defined variously as those who graduated from middle and high schools between 1966 and 1968 (the laosanjie or old three graduating classes). While the core of the lost generation definitively included the laosanjie, the boundaries are not clear. Xiagang itself is a state-created label and it offers certain entitlements to these specific workers and not to others. As a political classification, xiagang is a strategy by the Chinese state to cover various birth-cohorts of urbanites that were affected by the reform process. The Chinese state presents them as if they belong to the same generation. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that earlier cohorts in fact differ qualitatively from latter ones and have suffered greater political grievances. Nevertheless, the younger cohorts are determined to present themselves as part of the earlier cohorts to wrest more concessions from the state. At the same time, the state in defining the younger cohorts as the Xiagang generation hopes to dilute the specific grievances of the older ones. Through these dynamics, the Xiagang generation is constructed.

Bibliography Alwin, D. F., ‘The Political Impact of the Baby Boom: Are there Persistent Generational Differences in Political Beliefs and Behavior?’. Generations vol. 22, 1998, pp. 46-54. Alwin, D. F., ‘Generations X, Y and Z: Are they changing America?’. Contexts vol. 1, 2002, pp. 42-51. Becker, H.A., Dynamics of Cohort and Generations Research. Thesis, Amsterdam, 1992.

322


______________________________________________________________ Bonnin, M., ‘The ‘Lost Generation’: Its Definition and Its Role in Today’s Chinese Elite Politics’. Social Research vol. 73(1), 2006, pp. 245-274. Hung, E.P.W. and S.W.K. Chiu, ‘The Lost Generation: Life Course Dynamics and Xiagang in China’. Modern China vol. 29 (2), 2003, pp. 204236. Lee, C.K., ‘The Labor Politics of Market Socialism: Collective Inaction and Class Experiences Among State Workers in Guangzhou’. Modern China vol. 24(1), 1998, pp. 3-33. Mannheim, K., ‘The Problem of Generations’, in Essays in the Sociology of Knowledge . P. Kecskemeti (ed.), Routledge and Kegan Paul, Boston, 1952 [1927], pp.276-322. Pilcher, J., ‘Mannheim’s Sociology of Generations: An Undervalued Legacy’. The British Journal of Sociology vol. 45(3), 1994, pp. 481-495. Rosen, S., ‘Foreword’, in Mao’s Children in the New China. Y. Jiang and D. Ashley (eds), Routledge, Abingdon, 2000, pp.xii-xxviii. Ryder, N. B., ‘The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change’. American Sociological Review vol. 30, 1965, pp. 843-861. Zhou, X. and L. Hou, ‘Children of the Cultural Revolution: The State and the Lifecourse in the People’s Republic of China’. American Sociological Review vol. 64, 1999, pp.12-36. Chen Hee Tam is Assistant Professor with the Division of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests are social stratification and the life course.

Like Fathers, Like Sons: The Boran-Gadaa Experience Andrea Nicolas Abstract In contrast to individual life-course projections, North-east African age organization enables male individuals to pass as a group of age-mates through a defined sequence of age grades. The Gadaa organization of the Boran of Kenya and Ethiopia combines this type of age-staging with a generational mode of recruitment. A son gets introduced to a specific set correlated to that of his father and subsequently changes his status every eight years as a member of his cohort. The son’s set always remains at an equal distance from his father’s set that synchronically ‘moves’, always some distance ahead, through the same life cycle. Such a filial ‘bond’, embedded as it is in the group’s socio-political organisation, can have affective values but it can also become a ‘fetter’ on personal decisions. The moment a member of the family fails to stick to the rules of timing for legitimate procreation the whole generational chain is brought out of step. Demographic surveys suggest that large numbers of people no longer match the ideal correlation of age and generation set membership, nominally having fallen out of the system. In spite of this, Gadaa organisation is still very much present among the Boran and is far from ‘extinction’. This article deals with the question of how an institutionalized aging and procreation ‘charter’ can work as a coherent framework in the face of the erosive forces of fission and individual non-compliance. On a deeper theoretical level, the study raises the question of why at all a society introduces such a highly elaborated and normatively sanctioned way of ‘collective aging’ and generational streamlining? Is there a need ‘to be in step’ with others? Key Words: Aging, age grades, generation sets, cohorts, elders, governance, marriage, procreation, inter-generational links, Boran, Gadaa. ***** A principle question underlying the discussion about aging and the existence or non-existence of familial, generational, societal or other ‘cycles’ addresses the issue of past and present degrees of institutionalization and ‘chronologisation’ of individual life-paths and biographies. While some analysts emphasize the standardization of biographies and underline the existence of similarities, ‘deadlines’ or even ‘timetables’ for transitions along the life-course, others mainly examine processes of ‘heterogenisation’ and the ‘fragmentation’ of biographical life-courses.1 This question can, in fact, be equally well applied to Western societies as to any other society. In the

324

Like Fathers, Like Sons

______________________________________________________________ following article, an ethnographic case study of the Boran of North-east Africa will serve as a paradigmatic example to discuss some of the main issues connected to the ‘life-course’ or ‘cycle’ approach more generally.2 The Boran are cattle-herding nomads living in Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya. In their practice of an elaborated age and generation system, called Gadaa, individuals (ideally) pass as a group of age-mates through a defined sequence of grades.3 These cohorts are clearly differentiated and employ distinctive boundary markers, both physical, in the form of distinctive dress and hair-style, and in terms of the transitions undergone throughout the life-course, both of these taking the shape of individual and collective rituals. The age-staging is combined with a generational mode of recruitment in that a son gets introduced to a specific set correlated to the set of his father and subsequently changes his status every eight years as a member of his cohort. Intergenerational references are, thus, being clearly made. There are, furthermore, timetables: a calendar (based on moon-months and correlations with the stars) prescribes the timing of the change marked every eight years by means of ritual performance thereby simultaneously setting the individual sets or cohorts into a clearly identifiable historical frame. History is perceived to be structured, or ‘subdivided’, in terms of durations of generation sets. Sets are named after their leaders, who act as ‘historical personalities’ during their life-times and who, over time, merge (as ‘name-givers’ and heads of concrete organizational units) into the larger group’s collective memories and social structure. A strong tendency of the different versions of cohort and generation phenomena analytically distinguished above is the merging that can be observed within the very same framework of Gadaa age and generation organization. In the case of the Boran we are dealing not only with individual familial cycles, or generalized generation sets, but with a whole administrative or governmental system (as will be discussed in this paper) based on age-grading and a deep regard for the generational cycle. While the age-grading aspect in Gadaa is mainly present in the (ideal) age-mates’ cohort-bound climbing up of the ‘ladder’4 of seniority, the generational aspect comes in at the moment of initiation, when a male, along with all his brothers (who belong to the same set as he himself), gets introduced to the system in chronological accordance with the life-course timing and set membership of his own father. The son’s set then always remains at an equal distance to his father’s set, which synchronically ‘moves’, some distance ahead, through the same life cycle (and thus always remains senior in rank with regard to the son’s set). This type of filial ‘bond’, embedded in the group’s socio-political organisation, can have affective values but it can also become a ‘fetter’ on personal decisions and even cause individual life crises.5 For instance, a son who is born late to an elder may, by the time he finally reaches adult age, already be ‘too late’ for his own

Andrea Nicolas

325

______________________________________________________________ (generation set defined) time of marriage. Indeed, the moment a member of the family does not stick to the rules for the timing of legitimate procreation, which according to Boran rules is confined to the stage of ‘fatherhood’ (called raaba doorii), the whole generational chain is brought out of step. Demographic surveys suggest that large numbers of people no longer match the ideal correlation of age and generation set membership and should therefore, nominally at least, fall out of the system, thus becoming deprived of their participatory rights in social and political life.6 This has led some analysts to regard the system as ‘dysfunctional’ or as something ‘fading away’ over the course of time (even though the Boran themselves do not seem to be too bothered about the ‘[mal]functioning’ of their system). In ways mirroring the related discussions of scientists about European societies (where it is assumed that there once existed an age-structured and institutionalized social order, ‘swept away’ or at least profoundly transformed by the coming of modernity) for the Boran it was assumed that their age and generation system that had once functioned perfectly had over time come to be ‘out of step’.7 But the question of whether there ever was such an ideal state in history when the system existed in its ‘pure’ form and the institutional norm was still ‘in order’ seems valid for both the Western ‘historical modernist’ and the Boran-related statistical approaches. 1.

The Boran Gadaa Age-Grading System Let us first consider the ideal course of events: born as the first-born son of a raaba dorii (which is the first stage that permits a father to raise sons), a male, as a matter of principle, enters the cycle as a daballe. This is a stage of ritual ‘purity’ associated partly with somewhat female symbolic ascriptions such as the wearing of leather clothes embroidered with cowry shells. He will be nurtured by his mother, and play around the compound with relatives, siblings and friends. Later he will proceed to the next stage in the cycle, called gammee xixiqqoo (‘little gammee’), at the time that his father is in the gadaa grade (the politically most important stage of his life career). While his father ‘rules the country’ as a member of his age and generation set, the first-born boy gathers increasing experience as a herder until he enters the grade of gammee guguddoo (‘big gammee’), together with his age-mates, at about the time his father leaves the prestigious gadaa grade and becomes a yuuba elder. At this stage, the son is in an upwards-oriented period of his life cycle: ideally fierce and young, already capable of herding and of competing with his peers, he is, however, still regarded as immature and has to wait a further eight years before he becomes a kuusaa. The kuusaa stage represents the time when he and his age-mates will first be fully socially recognized as ‘players’ in the Gadaa system: they organize assemblies, live together and elect their own leader, who will be the future gadaa leader once their set reaches its political pre-eminence. All this,

326


______________________________________________________________ however, is spatially and socially separated from the age sets of their predecessors who at the same time as this is going on are ruling the country or preparing themselves for the take-over of power and who have their own separate age-set villages. Another eight years later, the man enters the raaba grade. The raaba live in a joint village under the leadership of the leader they elected during the previous kuusaa period. The raaba didiqqoo is the first grade in which males are allowed to marry. They are, however, still not permitted to raise children at this stage. The permission to raise sons is given only with entrance to the following stage of raaba doorii. After a further eight years the man finally reaches the stage of full political maturity (gadaa). Together with his age-mates, he lives in a joint ya’a settlement; his leader has now been officially invested as abbaa gadaa (‘father of the Gadaa’) and has been entrusted, together with a number of officers (called aduula and hayyuu), with the responsibility of ruling the country. This represents the peak of the social and political career of a man. After eight years of ruling, though, the gadaa must retire and becomes a yuuba elder. His father, at this time, undergoes a further transition in a ceremony known as gadaamojjii to become a fully retired jaarsa elder. The man himself, as a yuuba elder, still has some advisory functions and acts a mediator, ritual expert and peacemaker at this point. Although his set nominally continues passing through the stage ladder (so as to allow their successors to proceed in their life careers), the overall yuuba status basically remains the same over the next stages. By the time his son acts as gadaa, he will be considered a gadaamojjii. When his own son retires from gadaa and becomes a yuuba, he will finally have had to make room by taking the last step of becoming a fully retired, ‘really old’, jaarsa elder himself, just as his own father had before him. 2.

Fathers and Sons: Linked Lives and Generational Cycles Given that the time of entrance into the Gadaa cycle of a man is defined by the grade position of his father, the son’s cycle is always bound to the cycle of his own father. Each of the sets has, at its highest level, a ‘ruling elite’ that generally consists of the (preferably first-born) direct offspring of the rulers of the fathers’ set. The members of a given council responsible for ruling during a specific gadaa period thus, by definition, belong to a conjoint generation set. Forty years before, their own fathers had been living together in a communal village (ya‘a) and had organized public rituals and assemblies, thus jointly going through the waiting periods and finally the peak period of their political lives. Now, forty years later, their sons do the same by founding a joint ya’a village and jointly passing through the socially and politically relevant stages still to come.

Andrea Nicolas

327

______________________________________________________________ 3.

Early-Born, Right-Born and Late-Born Sons So far the ideal timing has been described. We have described the case for what Leus has called the ‘elite children’, the ones who are born at the correct time, during their father’s raaba doorii period, as dabballe, who are referred to as ‘sons of bulls’ and who are the heirs and future leaders of the country.8 But what if a man begets a son other than in his eight-year-long raaba doorii period? While the beginning of the procreative period is clearly marked by entrance into the ‘fatherhood’ grade (raaba dorii), its ending is not as clearly demarcated and elders may still beget children in later life. While those sons born ‘correctly’ during their father’s raaba dorii period, those entering the cycle as daballe, perfectly fit the ideal age scheme of staging, their younger brothers may be ‘late’ and ‘run behind’ their elder brothers in that they are constantly too young for the ceremonies they should pass according to their nominal grade-ascribed ‘age’. A point should be raised with regard to many other observers’ doubts as to whether a system like Gadaa could be maintained, or keep on working as a proper functioning cycle, given that so many people do not adhere to the rules of ‘rightful’ procreation, as can be deduced from the statistics.9 The point to be made is that perhaps the system does not really concern all a man’s sons to the same extent, rather being focused on the firstborn sons, the ‘real’ heirs, who stand at the ‘core’ of the Gadaa system. We would deal in this case with a kind of ‘focused attentiveness’ that concentrates on the most vital figures and tolerates partial differentiation or even non-compliance for the younger members. Applied to the case at hand, it would not be necessary for all male Boran to fit perfectly into the age and generation scheme as long as the first-born ones – who are the main heirs and political successors of their fathers – do fit into the ideal frame.10 4.

Generational Modes and Governmental Organisation In light of the above discussion it needs to be asked why such an elaborate way of organizing society is chosen and put into practice by the Boran since, as the previous passages have shown, the Gadaa system requires constant effort to be upheld: there are prescriptions and prohibitions to be declared on a normative level and diverse rituals, ceremonies and calendar calculations necessary in order to keep it ongoing. Consideration of demographic factors furthermore showed that in a ‘natural’ setting agestaging and intergenerational succession would not be in step. The question remains, then, of why so much effort is put in to make it be in step. As a matter of fact, the most efficient or convenient form of organization in a context such as the one described here for the Boran would be a system that combined the different factors or components of both biological and cultural age, generation and familial cycles. In a context like

328


______________________________________________________________ the North-east African one, where intergenerational relations between fathers and sons (and, by extension, between grandfathers and grandsons) are the most significant for the organization of family life and economy and where age differentiation plays an important role in most encounters in public life it seems completely natural to make the overall societal structure based on these principles, too. This, however, would only work if a certain degree of synchronization and institutionalization of the many diverse individual familial cycles and those of wider kinship groups could be ensured in some way or another. With the introduction of general marriage and procreation rules binding for all group members, with the sub-division of society into common ‘generation classes’, into clearly defined ‘cohorts’ or ‘sets’ and with the obligation for all members to stick to the rules of timing with regard to life transitions and the handover of power and responsibility on all levels, such synchronization can (ideally) be brought into existence. The Gadaa model comprises, by combining the mobilizing principles of kinship, age and generational succession, different modes of administrative, military, juridical and other tasks to generate a ‘state-like’ order. Marriage and the production of offspring, in such contexts, are political issues. The assumed private nature of family and ‘kinship problems’ and the assumed diametric opposition of these to ‘public policy matters’ such as war and peace-making therefore need to be qualified. Marriage, procreation and the identification of legitimate descendants and heirs can, indeed, be subject to far-reaching social and political decision-making. It would thus seem worth considering attributing the very notion of ‘governance’ a wider meaning. State-bureaucratic models are simply possible frameworks sometimes chosen to organize politics or ‘administrate’ people’s affairs on a wider societal level. Age and generation systems, such as Gadaa, may organize matters differently in terms of the detail but are not inherently distinct in all their goals and tasks. At the same time as they combine different factors of age and generation, all formalised age and generation class systems, as is often stressed, seem to have a weakness in common, what Dyson-Hudson calls a ‘degree of built-in malfunctioning’11 and Baxter and Almagor ‘a continuing dilemma’. This is the problem of the ‘reconciliation of age, generation, and the steady flow of time’ since ‘(p)hysical, mental, sexual and social ages do not necessarily correspond’.12 Counter-measures, or ‘secondary rules’, which lift the hardships or individual problems presented by this have to evolve in such a context and a certain freedom of interpretation or even manipulation of ideal rules is often found.13 The substance or the ‘core’ of the system, however, must be maintained. The Boran experience does confirm the ambiguous picture of people’s non-conformist behaviour on a larger scale. Nevertheless, it would be misleading to think of Gadaa and other types of age and generation

Andrea Nicolas

329

______________________________________________________________ organization as ‘failed’ or ‘dysfunctional’ systems. In fact, a social, administrative or governmental system realised in the form of its ideal blueprint and in full accord with the original intentions of policy-makers does not exist anywhere. Rulers and governors may face different options when dealing with people’s non-compliance to declared rules: they may attempt to regulate and correct them further or to enforce them through sanctions or they may decide to ignore ‘deviance’ as long as it does not threaten to make the foundations collapse. There can often be observed an active interplay between the enactment and maintenance of normative rules, on the one hand, and repeated actual behaviour on the other, this representing a tacit compliance and consideration of what is practicable under the present conditions and what is therefore to be tolerated. This is what we call the daily pragmatism of ‘government business’ and it appears to be particularly relevant in the Boran context.

Notes 1

R A Settersten, ‘Propositions and Controversies in Life-Course Scholarship’, in Invitation to the Life Course: Toward New Understandings of Later Life, R A Settersten (ed), Baywood Publishing Company, Amityville, New York 2003, pp. 15-45; R A Settersten, ‘Age Structuring and the Rhythm of the Life Course’, in Handbook of the Life Course, J T Mortimer and M J Shanahan (eds), Springer, New York 2006 (2004), pp. 8198; M Kohli, ‘Lebenslauf und Lebensalter als gesellschaftliche Konstruktionen: Elemente zu einem interkulturellen Vergleich’, in Im Lauf der Zeit. Ethnographische Studien zur gesellschaftlichen Konstruktion von Lebensaltern, G Elwert, M Kohli and H K Müller (eds), Saarbrücken and Fort Lauderdale 1990, pp. 11-32; B L Neugarten, J W Moore and J C Lowe, ‘Age norms, age constraints, and adult socialization’. American Journal of Sociology, vol. 70, 1965, 710-717; H Blatterer, Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford 2007. 2 The article is based on a review of the published literature on the Boran and my own field data gathered in a series of interviews with the Boran elders Borbor Bulee, Jarsoo Boruu, Jiloo Aagaa, and Kura Tuttoo. All interviews were conducted in summer 2008 by Ithiopiya Rooba and I at Dubluk, Gaayoo, Areeroo and Yabello, all situated in the Boran region of Southern Ethiopia. Research was funded as part of a cooperation project of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology of Halle (Germany) with the Christensen Fund of Palo Alto, Cal. (USA). 3 For more detailed descriptions of the Boran age and generation organisation, see E Haberland, Galla Süd-Äthiopiens, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1963; A Legesse, Gada: Three Approaches to the

330


______________________________________________________________

Study of African Society, New York 1973; P T W Baxter, ‘Boran Age-Sets and Generation-Sets: Gada, a Puzzle or a Maze?’ in Age, Generation and Time. Some Features of East African Age Organisations, P T W Baxter and U Almagor (eds), St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 151-182; T Leus, Aadaa Boraanaa. A Dictionary of Borana Culture, Shama Books, Addis Ababa, 2006. 4 P Spencer, ‘Opposing Streams and the Gerontocratic Ladder: Two Models of Age Organisation in East Africa’. Man, New Series, vol. 11, no. 2, June 1976, pp. 153-175. 5 Cf. G Schlee, ‘Altersklassen und Veränderungen der Lebenslaufalter bei den Rendille’, in Im Lauf der Zeit. Ethnographische Studien zur gesellschaftlichen Konstruktion von Lebensaltern, G Elwert, M Kohli and H K Müller (eds), Saarbrücken and Fort Lauderdale, 1990, 69-82. 6 Legesse, op. cit. 7 For related discussions, see A E Jensen, ‘Neuere Notizen über das GadaSystem’. Paideuma, vol. 2, 1941, pp. 84-94; Haberland, op. cit.; Legesse, op. cit.; C R Hallpike, ‘The Origins of the Borana Gada System’. Africa, vol. 46, no. 1, 1976, pp. 48-56; F H Stewart, Fundamentals of Age-Group Systems, Academic Press, New York, San Francisco and London, 1977. 8 Leus, op. cit. 9 See the above mentioned discussions in Legesse, op. cit. and Haberland, op. cit. 10 Cf. R Hazel, ‘Classes d’age et generations en Afrique orientale’ in Age, pouvoir et société en Afrique noire, M Abélès and Ch Collard (eds), Presses de l’Université de Montréal and Éditions Karthala, Montréal and Paris, 1985, 250; G Dahl, ‘Naming a Boraana’. KVHAA Konferenser, vol. 42, 1998, pp. 313-314. 11 N Dyson-Hudson, Karimojong Politics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966, p. 202. 12 P T W Baxter and U Almagor, ‘Observations About Generations’, in Sex and Age as Principles of Social Differentiation, J S La Fontaine (ed), London, New York and San Francisco 1978, 163. 13 ibid., p. 164-165.

Bibliography Bassi, M., ‘Power’s Ambiguity or the Political Significance of Gada’, in Being and Becoming Oromo. Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. P.T.W. Baxter, J. Hultin and A. Triulzi (eds), Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 1996, pp. 150-161.

Andrea Nicolas

331

______________________________________________________________

Baxter, P.T.W., ‘Boran Age-Sets and Generation-Sets: Gada, a Puzzle or a Maze?’, in Age, Generation and Time. Some Features of East African Age Organisations. P.T.W. Baxter and U. Almagor (eds), St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 151-182. –––, ‘Boran Age-Sets and Warfare’, in Warfare among East African Herders. K. Fukui and D. Turton (eds), Senri Ethnological Studies No.3, Osaka, 1979, pp. 69-95. Baxter, P.T.W. and Almagor, U., ‘Observations About Generations’, in Sex and Age as Principles of Social Differentiation. J.S. La Fontaine (ed), London, New York and San Francisco, 1978, pp. 159-181. Dahl, G., ‘Naming a Boraana’, in KVHAA Konferenser, vol. 42, Stockholm, 1998, pp. 311-336. Dyson-Hudson, N., Karimojong Politics. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966. Eisenstadt, S.N., ‘African Age Groups: A Comparative Study’. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 24, no. 2, April 1954, pp. 100-113. Elder, G.H. Jr., Johnson, M.K. and Crosnoe, R., ‘The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory’, in Handbook of the Life Course. J.T. Mortimer and M.J. Shanahan (eds), Springer, New York, 2006 (2004), pp. 319. Foner, A. and Kertzer, D., ‘Transitions over the Life Course: Lessons from Age-Set Societies’. American Journal of Sociology, vol. 83, no. 5, 1978, pp. 1081-1104. Fry, Ch.L., ‘Anthropological Theories of Age and Aging’, in Handbook of Theories of Aging. V.L. Bengtson and K.W. Schaie (eds), Springer Publishing Company, New York, 1999, pp. 271-286. Haberland, E., Galla Süd-Äthiopiens. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1963. Hallpike, C.R., ‘The Origins of the Borana Gada System’ (Review of ‘Gada: Three Approaches to the Study of African Society’ by Asmarom Legesse). Africa, vol. 46, no. 1, 1976, pp. 48-56.

332


______________________________________________________________

Hazel, R., ‘Classes d’age et generations en Afrique orientale’, in Age, pouvoir et société en Afrique noire. M. Abélès and Ch. Collard (eds), Presses de l’Université de Montréal and Éditions Karthala, Montréal and Paris, 1985, pp. 247-266. –––, ‘Segregating and timing generations: Social Organization in Cushitic East Africa and Beyond’. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, vol. 125, 2000, pp. 1-37. Helland, J., ’The Political Viability of Boorana Pastoralism. A Discussion of Some Features of the Political System of the Borana Pastoralists of Southern Ethiopia’, in Being and Becoming Oromo. Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. P.T.W. Baxter, J. Hultin and A. Triulzi (eds), Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 1996, pp. 132-149. Hultin, J., ‘Social Structure, Ideology and Expansion: The Case of the Oromo of Ethiopia’. Ethnos, Stockholm, vol. 1, no. 4, 1975, pp. 273-284. –––, ‘Political Structure and the Development of Inequality among the Macha Oromo’, in Pastoral Production and Society. Equipe écologie et anthropologie des societies pastorals (eds), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 283-293. Jensen, A.E., ‘Neuere Notizen über das Gada-System’. Paideuma, vol. 2, 1941, 84-94. Kertzer, D. and Fricke, T. (eds), Anthropological Demography: Toward a New Synthesis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997. Kertzer, D.I., ‘Generation and Age in Cross-Cultural Perspective’, in Aging from Birth to Death. Vol. II: Sociotemporal Perspectives. M. Riley, R.P. Abeles and M.S. Teitelbaum (eds), Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1982, pp. 27-50. –––, ‘Generation as a Sociological Problem’. Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 9, 1983, pp. 125-149. Legesse, A., Gada: Three Approaches to the Study of African Society. New York, 1973. Leus, T., Aadaa Boraanaa. A Dictionary of Borana Culture. Shama Books, Addis Ababa, 2006.

Andrea Nicolas

333

______________________________________________________________

Macmillan, R. and Eliason, S., ‘Characterizing the Life Course as Role Configurations and Pathways. A Latent Structure Approach’, in Handbook of the Life Course. J.T. Mortimer and M.J. Shanahan (eds), Springer, New York, 2006 (2004), pp. 529-554. Nicolas, A., ‘Governance, Ritual and Law: Tulama-Oromo Gadaa Assemblies’, in Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg July 20-25, 2003. S. Uhlig (ed), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2006, pp. 168-176. O’Rand, A.M. and Krecker, M.L., ‘Concepts of the Life Cycle: Their History, Meanings, and Uses in the Social Sciences’. Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 16, 1990, pp. 241-262. Roth, E.A., Culture, Biology, and Anthropological Demography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004. Ryder, N.B., ‘The cohort as a concept in the study of social change’. American Sociological Review, vol. 30, no. 6, 1965, pp. 843-861. Schlee, G., ‘Altersklassen und Veränderungen der Lebenslaufalter bei den Rendille’, in Im Lauf der Zeit. Ethnographische Studien zur gesellschaftlichen Konstruktion von Lebensaltern. G Elwert, M Kohli and H K Müller (eds), Saarbrücken and Fort Lauderdale, 1990, pp. 69-82. –––, ‘Gada Systems on the Meta-Ethnic Level: Gabbra/Boran/Garre Interactions in the Kenyan/Ethiopian Borderland’, in Conflict, Age & Power in North East Africa. Age Systems in Transition. E. Kurimoto and S. Simonse (eds), James Currey, E.A.E.P., Fountain Publishers and Ohio University Press, Oxford, Nairobi, Kampala and Athens, 1998, pp. 121-146. Settersten, R.A. Jr., ‘Propositions and Controversies in Life-Course Scholarship’, in Invitation to the Life Course: Toward New Understandings of Later Life. R.A. Settersten, Jr. (ed), Baywood Publishing Company, Amitiville, New York, 2003, pp. 15-45. –––, ‘Age Structuring and the Rhythm of the Life Course’, in Handbook of the Life Course. J.T. Mortimer and M.J. Shanahan (eds), Springer, New York, 2006 (2004), pp. 81-98.

334


______________________________________________________________

Spencer, P., ‘Opposing Streams and the Gerontocratic Ladder: Two Models of Age Organisation in East Africa’. Man, New Series, vol. 11, no. 2, June 1976, pp. 153-175. –––, ‘The riddled course: theories of age and its transformations’, in Anthropology and the Riddle of the Sphinx. Paradoxes of change in the life course. P. Spencer (ed), ASA Monographs 28, Routledge, London and New York, 1990, pp. 1-34. Spitzer, A.B., ‘The historical problem of generations’. The American Historical Review, vol. 78, no. 5, 1973, pp. 1353-1385. Stewart, F.H., Fundamentals of Age-Group Systems. Academic Press, New York, San Francisco and London, 1977. Andrea Nicolas teaches Social Anthropology at Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). As research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, she has carried out extensive field-research in North-east Africa (Ethiopia) over the last years. Her main interests cover the fields of age- and generation systems, ritual, conflict studies, mediation and the role of elders.

Fathers and Sons: Generation Gaps in the History of Imperial Russia Nataliya Rodigina and Tatiana Saburova Abstract The paper is dedicated to the problem of historical generations in Russian society and culture of the XIX century. I consider generations in the XIX century as some ‘imagined communities’ because people were connected by common cultural space, historical events and cultural representations. Separation and definition of generation could be a way of formation of cultural or political identity in Imperial Russia. The specific generation discourse created a new reality for perception of Past, comprehension of Present and building of Future. Russian intellectuals often translated their representations about key opposition ‘oldness – newness’ using the opposition of generations, for example ‘fathers – sons’. It’s extremely important to research the different meanings of concept ‘generation’ in the context of Russian culture. The main subjects are the generation of the ‘Age of Reason’ (which was connected with the rule of Catherine the Great), the generation of 1812 (Great Patriotic War) and the generation of 1860-s. Famous Russian historian V. Kluchevsky defined one case of the generation gap in the beginning of the XIX century, ‘Fathers were Russian who wished to become French and their sons were French who wished to become Russian’. Thus, generation of sons was perceived as a sign of formation of a new national identity, new system of values. Another case of the generation gap was the gap between ‘fathers and sons’ in the years of the ‘Great Reforms’ in the second half of the XIX century. The famous literary embodiment of this phenomenon was novel ‘Fathers and sons’ by I. Turgenev. ‘Young Russia’ became a symbol of revolutionary changes in Russian Empire. Key Words: Generation Gap, Imperial Russia, Identity, Imagined Community, Representations, Intellectuals, Reforms. ***** Searching for a universal unit of measurement of human history, the historians resorted to the idea of generations repeatedly. The desire to analyze the idea of generations with the modern theoretical tools is typical of the professional corporation of historians. However, most researchers assume a priori that the generation is a real community, whose representatives are united by the date of birth. We offer another version of the understanding of generation community: generation is a symbolic community of people who

336

Fathers and Sons

______________________________________________________________ are united by the date of birth, who are contemporaries of common historical events, creating their original communicative space. The history of generations in Russia is closely connected with the history of the intelligentsia (intellectuals) who have formed and translated the actual idea of generation and the characteristics that distinguish one generation from another, becoming its ‘heralds’. In the Russian society, the idea of generation gap formed and developed as a necessary condition for the development of self-consciousness of intellectuals, as a way to understand the changes occurring in Russia and implementation of idea of struggle between the olden time (relic of the past) and novelty in the Russian society and culture. The famous Russian philosopher G. Fedotov wrote using the popular generation rhetoric, ‘Every generation of intellectuals defined themselves in their own way, denied their ancestors and began a new era - for ten years -’1 Our main aim is to reveal the dynamics of the concept of ‘generation’ in Russia of the 20th century, the meanings that comprised the concept of ‘generation gap’, peculiarities of the generation discourse in Russia in the 19th century. According to P. Nora, the French Revolution founded the generation idea in history, not so much because it induced a particular generation (this generation would be seen only later, thanks to the historical flashbacks (retrospectively), but because it has opened, made possible, founded the universe of changes and that egalitarian world. Only in that atmosphere the ‘generation consciousness’ could have appeared.2 Historical consciousness as a reflection of the accelerated progress of history, social and cultural changes, is a prerequisite for the formation of the concept of generation. This concept has been used for the understanding (comprehension) of these changes. In this case, the formation of the generation concept can be considered as a manifestation of the modernization of society and culture. Its urgency is associated with the accelerated modernization processes, which inevitably leads to conflict between the old and new socio-cultural components. This conflict is embodied in the conflict of generations. Consequently, the concept of generation is becoming popular, (topical) especially in epochs of changes, becoming a way of understanding the processes and events. In Russia at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries, generation discourse began to emerge, reflecting the emergence of a new type of identity (generation identity). Due to cultural transformation at the turn of the centuries, the concept ‘generation’ contained not only concrete «age» meaning but also served as a specific socio-cultural code. First of all, it was the ‘young generation’ that embarked on active political, literary, public,

Nataliya Rodigina and Tatiana Saburova

337

______________________________________________________________ social activity in the reign of Emperor Alexander I. The ‘fathers – sons’ method of self-identification spread, as other methods and began to express national and cultural identity of Russian educated society. By the way, the ‘auto image’ of that generation, of the first quarter of the XIXth century, was reflected in the memoirs and then broadcasted in the second half of the XIXth century, defining the perception of that era and was repeated in historical compositions. V.O. Klyuchevsky (a famous Russian historian) noted a significant change in the generation that replaced Catherine’s free-minded people, Merry cosmopolitan sentimentality of the fathers now transformed in a patriotic grief of their children. The Fathers were Russians, who passionately wanted to become French; the sons were raised as French and passionately wanted to become Russians. That is the difference between fathers and children.3 It is important to note that the ‘young generation’ was not opposed to the ‘old generation’ in the generation discourse of the beginning of the 19th century. Not the generation gap but the connection of generations was emphasized. Perhaps it was the result of the ‘discovery’ of historical continuity, the great chain of times in the historical consciousness of society. Partially, those changes were due to the influence of historiography of that time. In such treatises the History of ‘New Russia’ started in the 18th century with the modernization of the country, reforms of Peter the Great who created a strong link between the 18th century and the 19th in the social consciousness. In addition, it was the time of social rise of the beginning of the 19th century, in the beginning of Alexander’s reign (‘perfect start of the Alexander’s days’), the interaction of the intellectuals and the power, patriotic enthusiasm caused by the Patriotic War of 1812. In such conditions, the concept of ‘generation connection’ was demanded, focusing only on the continuity of different age categories. According to P. Nora, ‘recognized public consensus coincides exactly in time with relaxation of tension between fathers and children in their struggle for autonomy of generations.’4 Russian intellectuals of the beginning of the 19th century identified themselves as a particular generation in relation to future generations rather then to previous ones, defining the objectives of their work in the present, being aware of the value of the future and the progressive course of history. Consequently, they constructed the generation identity as a stage in the progressive and determined history, and thus the idea of generation chain clearly suppressed the generation gap. In this case we can assume that the nature of historical representations, especially the historical consciousness determined the generation identity. Expansion of the idea of connection of

338

Fathers and Sons

______________________________________________________________ times determined the idea of connection of generations, the idea of commitment, duty and responsibility of the older generation to younger. In connection with the hopes for a constitution in Russia, especially after that Emperor Alexander granted Constitution to Poland in 1818, generation rhetoric can be explained by the importance of constitutional reforms in Russia, the necessity to prepare the ground for the future. The idea of freedom became one of the keys to the generation discourse at that time. P. Vyazemsky wrote in the letter to A. Turgenev, ‘it is necessary that our generation create the foundation for everything. However, if our children are born in the time of the old order, so - farewell! We were the students of fate; they will be pupils of habits.’5 The value of this present activity was justified by the benefit of future generations, let us leave a trace of our lives for our descendants, let us form an opinion that will warm up and wake up from a stupor in our hands! Now it is time for it: the children will thank us. We were sneaking through life but we must advance steadily.6 In the mid 1850-ies, beginning of the new reign, the preparation and carrying out modernization of reform once again updated the idea of generations in the minds of Russian intellectuals. Community cohesion of the early years of the reign of Alexander II, then the contemporaries nostalgically called it ‘spring of our young community,’ introduced the idea of generation continuity as a necessary condition for renewal of Russia. the first ideological versions of generation discourse were drawn during that period. The hopes of the joint participation of generations of fathers and children in the reforms of the Russian empire predetermined the liberal approach to the generation graduation of history; its essence was interpretation of history as a logical generation transition. It was definitely formulated by historian K.D. Kavelin, who wrote that each generation decides its historical task. He supposed that the mission of his generation was the destruction of serfdom, the purpose of following generations was ‘to grow and foster’ social institutions, which had been created by the era of reform. The disappointment in the tempos, scope and results of first liberal reforms predetermined socio-cultural and ideological split among the Russian intellectuals and between the power and educated society as well. In addition, the Emancipation reform intensified modernization changes in the public consciousness, including the emancipation from traditionalist culture with its customs, values and behavioral models of the ancestors. The young-minded Russian socio-political movements sought for symbolic dominance and adopted the generation idea as a tool of consolidation of their supporters.


339

______________________________________________________________ Democrats were the first to wage the struggle ‘for the young generation.’ Positivists N.G. Chernyshevskiy, N.V. Shelgunov, D.I. Pisarev, who firmly believed in Progress and development of mankind for the better, proclaimed the struggle of generations the main motive power of social progress. Return of the generation theory was caused by the requirements of political struggle. The Fathers were declared the conservative force, the future was consigned only for the new / young people whose ‘hopes haven’t been cut off by experience yet.’ The generation of fathers was labeled with negative connotations as ‘children of Nicholas’s hard times’, ‘responsible for Russian disgraceful defeat in the Crimean War’, ‘groundless idealists.’ The image of young people was described on the principle of binary oppositions as the generation of progressive, new, emancipated, realistic. The idea of generation struggle for democracy was not only a matter of theoretical reflection but also a practical implementation for social mobilization of young people. Proclamations became the first attempt of the Democrats to broadcast their ideas among the educated youth. Shelgunov wrote in one of them, symbolically named «To the Younger Generation» (September, 1861), The younger generation! We appeal to you because we believe that you are the people who are able to save Russia, you have real power, you are the leaders of the people ... We believe in our brand new energies, we believe that you are summoned to bring a new beginning in history, you can say a new word rather than repeat past achievements of Europe ...7 In 1862, the theme of the struggle of generations became acute for Russian public opinion. Journal ‘Russkiy Vestnik’ published the famous novel ‘Fathers and Sons’ by Ivan Turgenev. Literary critic A.M. Skabichesky wrote, Nobody thought about any antagonism between the older and younger generations until 1862. We differentiated between revolutionaries, adherents of piecemeal reforms, reactionaries and owners of serfs, only on political ground without any distinction of age. Turgenev’s novel highlighted the gap between fathers and children, the people of 1840s and 1860s.8 Regardless of Turgenev’s motives, his novel became the banner of the struggle between fathers and children, not only political and literary journals discussed this struggle but literary salons and families as well. The most radical solution for the problem of generations was proposed by eighteen

340

Fathers and Sons

______________________________________________________________ years old P. Tkachev when he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul’s Fortress, ‘to kill all people older than 25 years as the carriers of old world’s ideas.’9 That generation was future-oriented focused on transformation of the old world in accordance with new principles. A set of principles reflected the changing values of young people under the influence of modernization: the rationalization and secularization of consciousness, materialism and individualism, the destruction of patriarchal and monarchical illusions. In this regard, it is not occasional that not real people but literary characters became the models of the new people for the reading Russia of 1860s (Bazarov, heroes of N.G. Chernyshevsky). We can recognize some evident ideological groups in the framework of generation in the second half of the 19th century. In 1860s, the Democrats were involved in the construction and representation of self image of Sixties generation. Later, Russian populist intellectuals fulfilled this function. Thus, the concept of generation in the second half of the 19th century meant not only the age. It was, first of all, ideological identity, the model based on the attitude to the ideas of the previous epoch. Symbolically, the ‘self name’ of the younger generation was ‘new people’ but the suggestive nickname given to them by their ideological opponents was ‘nihilists.’ The image of the generation 1860s originally constructed on the principle of binary oppositions to the people of 1840s and then in opposition to new generations of intellectuals. What is worth mentioning is that the generation gap in this case was the way to create a positive identity, not perceived in a negative, passive mode. Thus, generation identity became increasingly important for Russian intellectuals during the 19th century. The generation discourse reflected the changes in perception of time, history and modernization processes in Russia, because they do not accidentally key generation rhetoric, identifying challenges for the present and the future, had the notions of ‘youth’ and ‘novelty’. The gap and the chain (connection) of generations as concepts coexisted in the same communicative space, as a means of expression of cultural or political identity. Actualization of one of them was largely determined by socio-cultural situation in the country. Russian intellectuals comprehended reality, defining their place in society and the ‘stream’ of history, created ‘generations’ and fought for them, reflecting the clash of different values and strategies of behavior. Generations, their continuity and the gap became significant socio-cultural projects in Imperial Russia of the 19th century, embodying the present, constructing the past and the future.


341

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

G Fedotov, ‘Tragedy of Intelligentsia’, in About Russia and Russian Philosophical Culture, Nauka, Moscow, 1990, p. 405. 2 P Nora, ‘Generation as ‘lieus de memoire’, in Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, vol. 2 (30), 1998, p. 51. 3 V Kluchevskyi, Course of Russian History, part 3, Moscow, 1993, p. 420. 4 Nora, op.cit., p. 66. 5 Ostafievsky Archive of Vyzemsky, part 1, St. Petersburg, 1899, p. 341. 6 Ibid., p. 377. 7 N Shelgunov, ‘To the Younger Generation’, in Narodnicheskaya economic literature, Moscow, 1958, p. 86. 8 A Skabichevsky, Literary memoirs, Moscow, 2001, pp. 288-289. 9 P Tkachev, Compositions, part 1, Moscow, 1975, p.8.

Bibliography Fedotov, G., ‘Tragedy of Intelligentsia’, in About Russia and Russian Philosophical Culture, Nauka, Moscow, 1990, p. 405. Kluchevskyi, V., Course of Russian History, part 3, Moscow, 1993, p. 420. Nora, op.cit., p. 669 Ostafievsky Archive of Vyzemsky, part 1, St. Petersburg, 1899, p. 341. Nora, P., ‘Generation as ‘lieus de memoire’, in Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, vol. 2 (30), 1998, p. 51. Shelgunov, N., ‘To the Younger Generation’, in Narodnicheskaya economic literature, Moscow, 1958, p. 86. Skabichevsky, A., Literary memoirs, Moscow, 2001, pp. 288-289. Tkachev, P., Compositions, part 1, Moscow, 1975, p.8. Nataliya Rodigina, Dr. Sc. (History), Professor, Department of Russian History, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Russia. Tatiana Saburova, Dr. Sc. (History), Professor, Department of Russian History, Omsk State Pedagogical University, Russia

PART VI CONTEMPLATING LIFE, DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

Wisdom and Old Age Giuliana Di Biase Abstract The link that connects old age and wisdom is probably very ancient, but it presents significant historical and cultural variations. In general terms, only if wisdom is thought as an end which requires time to be acquired, old age appears as the best moment to obtain it; of course, much depends on the conception and standard of life typical of a particular society, two aspects that affect the way in which ageing is valuated. The greek man depicted in Sophocles and Euripides’ tragedies doesn’t aspire to a long life which will inevitably be full of pain; on the contrary, Plato tells us that it takes a lot of time and a lot of training in good life to become a philosopher, that is one which loves Sophia, so governors in the platonic Republic will be necessarily old aged men. On the other side, Aristotle doesn’t consider old people as good examples of wisdom and excludes them from the government of the polis; moreover, Sophia is not, for Aristotle, the equivalent of Wisdom. At the very end of the republican Rome, Cicero celebrates old age as a state in which man is freed from the foolish mastery of instincts, and some years later Senecas writes to Lucilius that old age is the best moment to take care of oneself, leaving aside political activity. In both cases, the defence of old age is strongly linked to ideological-political underlying motivations that refer to a complex historical moment of transition. In Old Testament, respect is considered as an attitude strongly due to old people, and in New Testament old people frequently are good examples of wisdom, but here the concept of wisdom has a completely new meaning, which refers more to an inner, spiritual knowledge than to a practical one. Key Words: Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Christian ethic, Epicureism, Plato, Practical knowledge, Seneca, Sophia, Stoicism. ***** 1.

Wisdom and Old Age in Primitive Societies The topos that connects wisdom with old age has surely very ancient roots, but it needs to be investigated in order to clarify its deep sense and to avoid misunderstandings. Probably, this topos becomes completely structured only when and where a strong conception of life after death affirms itself: only in this case old age acquires a special value, because old man is seen as a sort of intermediary between two states of being and as the depositary of a special knowledge, which only one who is near to the treshold of life can have.

346

Wisdom and Old Age

______________________________________________________________ Simone de Beauvoir1 says that in some primitive societies old people were object of veneration because of their proximity to death, or greatly respected because of their vast practical knowledge. Of course, their conditions of life could vary significantly among different primitive societies, ranging from umiliation and expulsion to respect and veneration: the local standard of values definied the meaning of old age. If wisdom, as a system of practical knowledge, memories and experiences, was seen as something valuable, at least as a means useful to the individual and to the community, his value spread over the subjects to which it most probably belonged, that is old people; naturally, much depended on the economic conditions of society itself, that is on scarcity of food and primary goods: the more a group was poor and near to the threshold of survival, the more probable it was for old people to be treated badly, because of their improductivity. More generally, wisdom is a mental, not a physical resource, so its value in a primitive society depended on how much importance that culture attributed to qualities other than physical strenght, such as practical knowledge and experience, memory of traditions, facts and events, good judgment and so on; in a word, the way old people were treated depended on the level of cultural development reached by the society itself, but there were many variables which could interfere. One of these variables was surely richness (an old, rich man was more respected by his community than a poor one), but another very important one was parental affection: in many primitive societies, though very poor, young people attributed great respect to their old parents because of the loving care with which they had been growt .2 2.

Wisdom and Old Age in Ancient Greek Literature To connect firmly wisdom with old age we must think of the second as something that can be, at least, endowed with value; surely, in an epicheroic conception of life physical strenght is the ideal, and consequently old aged people have only a marginal role. When Homerus writes Iliad he is thinking nostalgically of a past age, and so he speaks of the old orator Nestor as a wise counselor, giving him the importance of a character that motivates the plot; on the other side, Odissey reflects a more modern sensibility, one in which old people have only a secondary role. Here Homerus insists on particulars of physical decadence typical of old age, showing the same pessimism and realism on human condition that we find in Hesiod. Some ancient Greek poets, as Mimnermus3, give us an execrable image of old age because it deprives man of the pleasures of love, but also in greek tragedies we find often a desolate vision of ageing: in Euripides’ Heracle, for example, the chorus gives a terrible description of old age, defining it ‘a burden» charged ‘on men’s head [...], heavier than Etna cliffs».4 Old age means here essentially loss of physical vigour, and it is said not to be desirable at all, neither by rich nor by poor people.5

Giuliana Di Biase

347

_______________________________________________________________ This pessimistic vision of old age is coherent, I think, with an extremely pessimistic vision of life, strictly connected with a circular conception of time: as a famous old greek proverb said, the best thing for human beings would be not to have been born at all, and the second would be to die young. This is the terrible truth that Silenus reveals to Midas in an episode that both Aristotle6 and Teopompus refer, though not exactly in the same way; actually, the proverb is more ancient, being attested by many sources since the sixth century b. C.. We find an echo of the proverb also in some Greek tragedies of the classic period, for example in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus: Not to be born, this is the best thing, and if one was born, early to go back there where one came from. When youth with its slight follies has gone, what pain lacks? Envy, fights, battles, quarrels, blood and finally, despised and hateful to everyone, comes old age.7 On this argument we can remember also a different tradition, attested for the first time in Herodotus’Histories. Here we meet the episode of the rich king of Lydia Cresus who asks Solon, the famous Athenian philosopher, who is the happiest man in the world; Cresus hopes that Solon, having seen his richness, will recognize that the king, that is to say he himself, is the one, but Solon answers that the happiest man he has ever known is a very common one that died in a honourable way fighting for his country, without surviving to his sons. To sum up, the image of old age we receive from different greek ancient sources is one in which it appears as a completely undesirable period of human life, irremediably full of pain and sorrow; if the best thing for a man is not to be born at all, it will be of course completely indifferent whether old age is wise or not; the best thing will be not to become old. Silenus tells Midas that it would be better for man to ignore what is best for him: this means that mathémata and pathémata are strictly connected, and that the more you know, the more you will suffer. Of course, we can deduce from this that necessarily old age will be the worst period in human life, because it is the one in which we know more clearly how miserable is the condition reserved to human beings. 3.

Plato Things seem to change when a strong belief in the immortality of soul appears; Pithagora taught that

348

Wisdom and Old Age

______________________________________________________________ it behoved men to honour their elders, thinking that which was precedent in point of time more honourable; just as in the world, the rising of the sun was more so than the setting; in life, the beginning more so than the end; and in animals, production more so than destruction.8 Pithagora depicted old age as the fourth season of life that is winter; each season (childness-spring, adolescence-summer, youth- autumn) was for Pithagora of twenty years, so old age went from sixty years up to eighty. This is of course a less pessimistic way of conceiving old age, which rejoins it to the natural course of events. A radically new conception of old age is in Plato’s works, especially in the Republic, where government of the ideal town is assigned to old, wise people. We find here the famous episode of the meeting between Socrate and the old Cefalus9, the father of Polemarcus. Cefalus is very happy to speak with Socrates because, as he explains, the more body pleasures decrease, the more desire (ephitumia) and pleasure of conversations increase. Socrates answers that he is very pleased to speak with very old people, because they have already gone the long way that maybe he too will have to go. So old people are for Socrates the depositaries of an important knowledge, concerning how difficult the travel to death can be and how it is possible to manage these difficulties. Cefalus’ answer is very interesting: he says that many old people he knows complain and regret pleasures of youth, wrongly spending their time in recollections that prevent them from recognizing that old age has its gains, that are peace and freedom descending from having been rescued from the foolish mastery of instincts. And Cefalus adds that from his point of view it is not because of the heaviness of old age that some people complain, but because of their bad character. Socrates answers that many wouldn’t agree on this point with Cefalus, and would attribute his ease to bear old age to his money, more than to his good character. Cefalus answers that richness can help in the feebleness typical of old age only if one is a moderate, good man, honest and just, one that wouldn’t use his money to damage others. Contrary to Plato, that thought only wise old men had to govern his Republic, Epicurus criticized old men’s activism: epicureism teaches that physical decadence typical of ageing can involve also the mind, so that, as Lucretius says, ‘claudicat ingenium’.10 Aristotle too rules out old people from government of the polis and assigns political power to rich middle aged soldjers, excluding also poor people because they are easy to be corrupted. Now, let me say a word about the important distinction that Aristotle traces between wisdom (phrónesis) and sophìa (which is knowledge of necessary things, not of things that can be otherwise). In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle gives an important definition of the wise man11: we call wise, he

Giuliana Di Biase

349

_______________________________________________________________ says, someone who knows how to deliberate well about things which are good and helpful for him, not in particular but in general, in order to conduct a good life. So, Aristotle’s definition of wisdom connects it to action: wisdom is a virtue, a practical disposition that is accompanied by a truthful reason able to discern human goods. A wise man will be virtuos that is moderate in everything he does; nonetheless, Aristotle doesn’t connect old age with wisdom and assigns to the first a bad vice, avarice, one that could not be cured because deeply rooted in human nature.12 Avarice is a kind of bad practical disposition that, for Aristotle, it’s easy to find wherever there is a feebleness of any sort, and old age is, of course, deeply characterized by feebleness. Moreover, Aristotle assigns to old age the lower kind of friendship that based on utility: old people would be incapable of disinterested friendly relations because of their need of assistence.13 Actually, old people didn’t have an easy life in Athens, also before Aristotle: during Pericles’ government, for example, public assistency helped orphans, disabled ex-servicemen, persons disabled at work and poor people, but not old people. Athens’ aestethic culture considered inacceptable the decadence typical of old age, and tended to remove it from collective memory; the situation was radically different in Sparta, were old men were those who had survived to many battles and were greatly honoured. An old virtuos man was considered wise and usually bestowed of public honours; he was called to exert judicial power in Gerousia, following Lycurgus laws. As supreme power in Sparta, Gerousia had very important tasks: it proposed laws, controlled the education of collectivity, judged crimes against family and state, and so on. Both Thucydides and Xenophon refer that old men were greatly respected in Sparta, and that it was considered a duty to give one’s place up to them in theatres or in assemblies. In the republican Rome old men, if rich, were very influential both in their families (where pater familias had an absolute power)14 and in politics (old senators had many privileges); only during the period of the Gracchi reforms this situation began to change and old senators’privileges diminished, together with the authority of pater familias. 4.

Stoicism Something very important seems to happen now, at the very end of the republican age: a new way of conceiving old age affirms itself with stoicism. The ciceronian Cato the elder, in De senectute, speaks of old age in a way that directly connects it to wisdom. In answering to Scipius and Lelius, Cato says:

350

Wisdom and Old Age

______________________________________________________________ The best arms in old age are knowledge and practice of virtue, that if cultivated in every age, after a long and intense life produce marvellous fruits, not only because they do not vanish at the very end of life- a very important thing- but also because awareness of a well spent life and memories of many good actions are very great satisfactions.15 In De senectute, Cicero recovers some expressions that belonged to the old Cefalus in the platonic Republic, but he also recalls some words of the chorus in Euripides’Heracles, just to deny what they affirm: senectus is not too heavy, althought plerisque senibus sic odiosa est ut onus se Aetna gravius dicant sustinere.16 Cato adds that it is as typical of young men to be temerarious, as it is of old men to be wise; better said, Old man doesn’t do the same things young men do, but more ones and better: great actions are not the product of strenght, speed or physical agility, but of intelligence, authority and good judgment, qualities of which usually old age not only is not deprived, but richer. 17 Cato examines accurately the four arguments that were traditionally used to denigrate old age, with the aim to confute them. First of all, old age was usually associated with the loss of memory (it is the epicureian argument): Cato answers that it is true only if this faculty has not been kept in exercise or if someone is by his very constitution of little ingenium. A great number of famous examples (Temistocles, Sophocles, but also Homerus, Hesiodus, Isocrates, Gorgias and the ancient philosophers Pithagora, Democritus, Plato, and so on) demonstrate for Cato that intellectual capacities can prolongue themselves along all life, if only old people ‘preserve interests and dynamism».18 Moreover, says Cato, old age is not by its very nature slack and inert, but can be very active if engaged in studying and meditating; so, referring to the topic that stresses the loss of phisical strenght in old age (the heroic conception argument), Cato answers that each age has enough virtues and strenghts to go on in the activities that suit it; loss of physical strenght would depend often on vices of youth, not on a feebleness typical of old age. Then, considering the argument that points on the absence of sensual pleasures in old age (the poets argument), Cato answers that not only it is a very good thing to be freed from them because the more they are intense and prolongued, the more the light of reason is switched off, but also that old age has its moderate pleasures. Finally, Cato tackles the question of the proximity between old age and death (it is the tragic argument), insisting on soul immortality and on the importance of a virile acceptance of death.

Giuliana Di Biase

351

_______________________________________________________________ The influence of a long tradition emerges clearly in Cicero’s work, a tradition which was probably already flourishing at Plato’s time and that gained more credit thereafter. But we must remember the underlying ideological reasons that inspired Cicero, a member of the conservative senatorial class: Cato incarnates the model of the old wise moderate man that guarantees the continuity of tradition and the sacrality of the state against the rashness of young self made men. So, Cicero’s intent was to write an apologia of an aristocratic senectus, instrumental to the defence of the senatorial class. The Ciceronian teaching about a wise senectus influences particularly Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius; here we find also the platonic theme of the pleasure that old people take from conversation, a theme that reappeared in Cicero’s De senectute. Seneca’ s writing to Lucilius is a sort of conversation: the philosopher is now a senex who doesn’t deny, especially at the very beninning of his letters, the physical deseases that accompany old age, but at the same time he depicts them with a little bit of self-irony; moreover, he affirms that senectus has strenghtened him against adversities.19 On the other side, Seneca is sometimes ambiguous: in one place,20 for example, he follows Epicurus criticizing old people’s activism, but in another place he theorizes an indipendent and propositive senectus, not based upon teachings and judgments of other philosophers but able to find by itself the way to truth.21 And while in some places Seneca celebrates old age as a flos animi22, in others he considers it as an adiaphoron23 that requires of everyone, because of its inescapability, to prepare oneself by meditation, otherwise it could crush him. In any case, when we approach the first two centuries of the roman empire, we have a clear evidence that something is changing in the way men conceive themselves, and consequently in their conception of old age; if we compare, for example, the role of the pater familias in the roman family during the Republic and during the Empire, we note that in this second period a completely new, intimate tie appears between a wife and her husband, a tie well attested, for example, in Pliny’s letters to his wife.24 And we have to make attention also to other, related important change: political engagement appears now more as a choice than as a duty directly connected to the belonging to the upper class: Seneca says to Lucilius that it’s better to retire early from political life, to have enough time for practicing philosophy. This change is probably strictly connected to the new political situation created by the empire, in which a burocracy of officials deprives the old aristocracy of political power. Old age becomes now for the roman senior a period of forced political inactivity, to which it is necessary to give a new sense; more generally, the roman man in this period of crisis has to reconsider entirely his role from the family up to the state25.

352

Wisdom and Old Age

______________________________________________________________ 5.

Wisdom of the Heart Stoicism is a sort of answer to this problem; its austere moral anticipates on some aspects the rigour of christian ethic, but of course there are many important differences; one of these concerns the conception of old age, because in christian ethics ageing acquires a new positive sense in virtue of a radically new, linear conception of time. Surely, the connection between wisdom and old age is well attested in the Old Testament (Leviticus, 19,32, The Book of Job 32,33; Psalmus 92, and so on), though we find here also places in which it is not so strong (see the Book of Wisdom 4,8-9, where it is said that ‘a venerable old age is not measured by the number of years... true longevity is a life without stain»), and also one place in which old age is associated to vice (cfr. the episode of Susan and the old Judges in the Book of Daniel). More generally, ageing is considered in Old Testament as a proof of divine benevolence (Genesis 11, 10-32) and as a privilege granted to the right man (ibi 12, 2-3), but also as a time in which man can more probably arrive to ‘wisdom of the heart», learning that his days are limited in number (Psalmus 90,12). In the New Testament, we meet frequently wise old people, for example the parents of John the Baptist (Luke 1), or the old Simeon and the old widow Hanna (ibi, 2), the phariseus Nicodemus (Joh. 3 and 19), the apostle Peter and so on. Old age appears now, as for the stoic Senecas, a favourable time, but the reasons are different: ageing is the moment in which men can better understand the deep, ultimate sense of life and the infinite mercy and benevolence of God. To sum up, the connection between wisdom and old age seems to be the product of different factors, among which maybe the most ancient are the importance of practical, magical-religious knowledges (and, of course, of their transmission) for the survival and identification of a community; Stoicism and Christian ethic will give a new sense to this connection, replacing the practical–social meaning of old age with a more individualistic one.

Notes 1

Simone de Beauvoir, La vieillesse, Gallimard, Paris,1970. On this topic S. de Beauvoir gives many examples, among which that of Aleutian people (the inhabitants of Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska): although their conditions of life are really precarious, a strong affection links together parents to their children, and old parents are object of great care by the children themselves. 3 A. Archibald, The Fragments of Mimnermus. Text and Commentary, Verlag, Stuttgart, 1993. 2

Giuliana Di Biase

353

_______________________________________________________________ 4

Euripides, Heracle, 637 ss. In the context of the tragedy, the criticism of old age pronunced by the chorus is functional to the exaltation of Heracles, the hero who has gained immortality winning Ade, the personification of Geras. 6 We have only fragments of the text (De anima) in which Aristotle refers to this episode; it is Plutarch that attests, in Consolation to Apollonius, 27, the presence of the episode in Aristotle. 7 Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, 1224-1237. 8 Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagora, in Vitae philosophorum, Book VIII, 19. 9 Plato, Republic, Book I, 328ss. 10 Titus Lucretius Caro, De rerum natura, Book 3, 453- 454. 11 Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI, Z, 4-5, 1140a-b. 12 Ibid, Book IV, Δ, 1, 1121b. 13 Ibid, Book VIII,Θ, 3, 1156a. 14 Of course, young people lived this situation of complete dependence with great anxiety and looked for spaces of evasion; this is why in Plauto’s comedies we find sometimes old men ridiculized. 15 Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Senectute, Book IV, 9. 16 Ibid, Book II, 4. 17 Ibid, Book VI, 17. 18 Ibid, Book VII, 23. 19 Lucius Anneus Seneca, Epistles, ep.104, 2-4. 20 Ibid, ep. 13, 17. 21 Ibid, ep. 30, 7 22 Ibid, ep. 26,2. 23 Ibid, ep. 58,32; see also Seneca, De vita beata, Book 2,1. 24 Pliny the Younger, Epistles, Book VI, letters 4 and 7, both addressed to his wife Calpurnia. 25 On this argument, see M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol.3, The care of the self, Vintage Book, New York, 1988. 5

Bibliography Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics. J.A. Kerr Thomson, H. Tredennick and J. Barnes (eds.), Penguin Books, London, 2004. Marcus T., Cato Maior De Senectute. J. G. F. Powell and K. Dower (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008.

354

Wisdom and Old Age

______________________________________________________________ Euripides, Herakles. C. Wolff and T. Sleigh (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 2001. Herodotus, The Histories. A. De Selincourt and J.M. Marincola (eds.), Barnes and Noble, New York, 2003. Diogenes Laertius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. C. D. Yonge (ed.), Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish, 2009. Titus Lucretius Caro, De Rerum Natura. H. De Quehen and L.Hutchinson (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 1996. Plato, Republic. E. Watson Sharffenberger and B. Jowett (eds.), Barnes and Nobles, 2007. Pliny the Younger, The Letters of Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. W. Melmoth and F. C. Tyndal Bosanquet (eds.), Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish, 2008. Seneca, Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium. Introduction and traslation by R. Campbell, Penguin Books, London, 1969. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus. E. Grennan and R. Kitzinger (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 2005. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War. W. Blanco and J.T. Roberts (eds.), Norton and Co., New York, 1998. Xenophon, Constitution of Lacedaemonians, in Scripta minora. E.C. Marchant and G.W. Bowersock (eds.), Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass, 1968, Book VII. Giuliana Di Biase, PhD., is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, University G. d’Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Last Works: The Late Life Creativity of Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse John-Raphael Staude Abstract In this essay I discuss the lives and creative works of Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann in their later years as an example of late life creativity. I treat Mann and Hesse as members of a generation born circa 1875 who went through midlife during the First World War and late life in World War Two and after. I also present some generalizations about later life creativity and its significance. Key Words: Age, Creativity, Death, Midlife, Glass Bead Game, Doctor Faustus. ***** ‘Creativity doesn’t protect us from life; it helps us engage more fully in it, and helps us develop the opportunities inherent in life’s challenges’, Gene Cohen1 1.

Hermann Hesse Hesse’s last novel was called The Bead Game. This work was as implicated in the historical changes of the nineteen thirties as Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus was to be of the nineteen forties. Hesse considered his new novel a contribution to a cultural and political critique, yet he was careful to retain its distance from contemporary fact. His alternative to the Nazi regime, which he had to accept while refusing to come to terms with it inwardly, was a utopian civilization he called Castalia. Using many of the themes and places of his childhood he invented his own alternative world to supplant a disintegrating culture The Glass Bead Game itself is the cleverest and most original invention of the book. Conceived four years earlier, while he was still at work on Narcissus and Goldmund, the virtue of the game is that it is plausible even though it can never really be described. The nearest analogy is chess, but figures and moves are given various complex meanings that ultimately amount to a lingua franca that encompasses all human knowledge. It therefore simulates the creative activity of the mind in the process of cognition itself, yet, being a game, it is objectified. In describing the game, Hesse brought up many antecedents and analogies: the Pythagorean 'music of the spheres'; scholastic systems of philosophy; eighteenth century concepts of universal language; and especially music itself. Indeed, in the hierarchy of

356

Last Works

______________________________________________________________ Castalia music is only one step below the Bead Game in the order of things and the Old Music Master one of his most touching figures. The protagonist Knecht, the province of Castalia that is his realm, and the Bead Game as a symbolic construct reflect each other. Each is subject to hierarchies, each is designed to bring together disparate elements, each must arrange them in a pattern that reflects the image of the human mind in an objective setting. Outside Castalia laid the world and a civilization with greater colour than Castalia could display, but dedicated to its own destruction. Castalia, like Hesse, resisted the incursion of history, the European disaster, by creating its utopian antithesis. A counterpart of 'life' is retained. The utopia, Castalia, as an 'island,' required the outside world as its opposite. And in a strange ending Knecht became a renegade who exiled himself from that utopian 'island' he himself had administered brilliantly, entered the actual world by becoming the tutor of his best friend's son, and died in an ice-cold mountain lake. The contradictions and uncertainties of Hesse's life were at least potentially resolved in his magnum opus. Contemplation, the secrets of the Chinese I Ching, and Western mathematics and music fashioned the perennial conflicts of his life into a unifying design. Hesse had formerly presented himself primarily as a man of feeling, yet in his old age he constructed a citadel of the intellect that contradicted this image. The serenity Hesse found in his old age, with the help of Bach and Lao Tse among others, was therefore more than merely a bulwark against the incursions of history; it was also an attempt to find a nonsensual and hence unifying formula for precisely those antitheses in his thinking, writing, and conduct for which he has been both lauded and condemned. The Glass Bead Game, published in 1943, was Hesse’s last novel. However he continued painting and writing poetry and many letters until his death on August 9, 1962 at age 85. Among his correspondents was Thomas Mann, who nominated him for the Nobel Prize for the Glass Bead Game and his other books. Hesse admired Mann very much and felt close to him although they were quite different as personalities. 2.

Thomas Mann A great turning point in Mann’s life came when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and he and his family went into exile in Switzerland to save their lives. One of the first people Mann contacted in Switzerland after he arrived was Hermann Hesse, who helped Mann and many others go through the difficult transition of exile. In Doctor Faustus, begun May 23,1943 at the darkest period of the war, when Mann was sixty-eight, he wrote the most directly political of his novels. ‘I was imposing upon myself to write nothing less than the novel of

John Staude

357

______________________________________________________________ my era, disguised as the story of an artist’s life, a terribly imperiled and sinful artist.’2 Mann had finished the Joseph novels and was searching around for a new subject, but he had doubts about his capacity for further work. ‘Do I still have the strength for new conceptions? Have I not used up my subject matter?’ He read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with his thoughts fixed on the Faust subject. ‘The whole thing has something forbidding about it; the difficulties seem insuperable, and it is possible that I shrink from the undertaking because I have always regarded it as my last.’3 He realized he was right about the lineage of the barely definable idea, whose long roots reach far down into my life—and right that in my life plan, which was always a plan of work, I had from the start kept the treatment of this idea for the end. To myself I had called this work…my ‘Parsifal’. Strange though it seem that a work of old age should be placed on the agenda in youth—it was so. It is likely that there is a connection between this and my conscious interest, expressed in many a critical essay, in the late works of artists—Parsifal itself, the second part of Faust, the last works of Ibsen, the prose of Adalbert Stifter and Theodor Fontane in the latter years of their lives. The question was whether the hour had come for this task so long ago though so dimly sighted. Clearly, I felt certain instinctive scruples, reinforced by the premonition that there was something uncanny about this subject and that it would cost heart’s blood, a great deal of it to whip it into shape…how everything in it would have to be carried to extremes. This whole thing could be comprised in the cry ‘Let me try something else first!’ The something else which had the merit of putting off the other project for a good long time was to pick up and complete the fragmentary novel I had set aside before the First World War, The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man.4 He received a proposal from Bermann Fisher, his publisher, that he write a book on ‘Germany its past and its future.’ Mann felt he would meet this demand differently from the way asked. He reflected that: the central idea of the Faust book was the flight from the difficulties of the cultural crisis into the pact with the devil, the craving of a proud mind, threatened by sterility, for an

358

Last Works

______________________________________________________________ unblocking of inhibitions at any cost, and the parallel between pernicious euphoria ending in collapse with the nationalistic frenzy of Fascism.5 Mann decided not to write it as a novel but as a biography. Assuredly, recollection of the sham autobiography of Felix Krull influenced me here. Besides this strategy was a bitter necessity in order to achieve a certain humorous leavening of the somber material and to make its horrors bearable to myself as well as to the reader.6 He decided to entrust a harmless and simple soul, well-meaning and timid, with the recital of the story. This was in itself a comic idea. But above all the inner position of the narrator made it possible to tell the story on a dual plane of time, to weave together the events which shake the writer as he writes with those he is recounting, so that the quivering of his hand is ambiguously and yet obviously explained both by the vibration of distant bomb hits and by his inner consternation. That Professor Zeitbloom begins his narrative on the same day that I myself put the first lines on paper is characteristic of the entire book, of the curious brand of reality that clings to it which seen from one aspect is total artifice.7 It is the life story of a German composer, Adrian Leverkühn, born in 1885, who dies in 1940 after 10 years of mental alienation. A solitary, estranged figure, he ‘speaks’ the experience of his times in his music, and the story of Leverkühn’s compositions is that of German culture in the two decades before 1930—more specifically of the collapse of traditional humanism and the victory of the mixture of sophisticated nihilism and barbaric primitivism that undermine it. With imaginative insight Mann interpreted the new musical forms and themes of Leverkühn’s compositions up to the final work, a setting of the lament of Doctor Faustus in the 16thcentury version of the Faust legend, who once, in hope, had made a pact with the Devil, but in the end is reduced to hopelessness. The one gleam of hope in this sombre work, however, in which the personal tragedy of Leverkühn is subtly related to Germany’s destruction in the war through the comments of the fictitious narrator, Zeitblom, lies in its very grief. Mann drew his inspiration for his interpretation of Schönberg’s twelve-tone theory from T.W.Adorno.

John Staude

359

______________________________________________________________ What I appropriated from it in order to portray the whole cultural crisis in addition to the crisis in music, was the fundamental motif of my book: the closeness of sterility, the innate despair that prepares the ground for a pact with the devil…I felt clearly that my book itself would have to become the thing it dealt with: namely, a musical composition.8 The composition of the novel was fully documented by Mann in 1949 in The Story of a Novel. Doktor Faustus exhausted him as no other work of his had done, and The Holy Sinner and The Black Swan, published in 1951 and 1953, respectively, show a relaxation of intensity in spite of their accomplished, even virtuoso style. Mann rounded off his imaginative work in 1954 with The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, the light, often uproariously funny story of a confidence man who wins the favor and love of others by enacting the roles they desire of him. Mann’s daughter Erika, recalled that Once, when we were still living in California, he said to me 'When one is old and due to die, there's so much that oppresses one. A great cloud of anxiety and melancholy overshadows my latter days.' That is what he said once, but latterly... the cloud of apprehension dissolved and lightened as the evening mist dissolves when the sky and the night have made friends. No longer did we hear him quote Prospero's dreadful words: 'And my ending is despair,’ which used to pierce his heart when he thought of his own ending. Death was gentle with him, and the last year of his life was illumined and warmed by grace... This grace was visible. Anyone who saw him toward the end of his life ...must have perceived the radiance that issued from him and illumined all his endeavors. He was, as is known, an accomplished speaker, a performer of the highest rank. Yet it is neither his talent nor his technique, nor the sum of both, that can explain the rare emotional force that emanated from him, especially toward the end. What touched and almost invariably captivated his audience was his personality, with all its secrets, its heights, and its depths, which, when one thinks of them in connection with a man of eighty, can only be called the hallmarks of grace.9

360

Last Works

______________________________________________________________ Mann died August 12th, 1955. In his funeral address Hesse said: In deep sorrow... I bid farewell to the dear friend and great colleague, the master of German prose, who despite all his honors and triumphs was misunderstood by many. The qualities that underlay his irony and his mastery of technique - his great heart, his loyalty, his sense of responsibility, and his capacity for affection - were for decades completely misinterpreted by the German public, but those are the qualities that will keep his work and his memory alive far beyond the span of our perplexed age.10 3.

Mann and Hesse The correspondence between Hesse and Mann reveals their common mission as co defenders of the humanistic tradition in German culture. The two writers were well past fifty before they recognized their common mission and undertook a systematic correspondence. By 1947 the superficial differences between the two writers had largely receded in the face of their fundamental similarities. Assured in the integrity of their own personalities and in the achievement of the work each was able to appreciate the life and accomplishments of the other without that personal and professional tension that had often disturbed their earlier contacts. To their critics they pointed to their underlying similarities their aesthetic playfulness and their mutual concern for the problematic condition of man in a world of shattered values. To those who objected to Mann’s calculation and detachment Hesse stressed his personal loyalty and above all his capacity for love. To those who denigrated Hesse Mann cited the universalism of Hesse’s culture, the humour of his style, and the perceptiveness of his mind. Their last letters reveal the ultimate coincidentia oppositorum in two great writers who overcame extremes of background and temperament to embrace humanism that acknowledges no arbitrary differences of class or ideology and which respect only the integrity of the free individual. Their sense of irony must have appreciated the fact that the two of them coming from opposite corners of Germany to lead such utterly different lives spent their last years sharing the common ground of neutral Switzerland. 5.

Conclusion Sometimes the best comes last. Verdi wrote Falstaff when he was eighty and that opera is in many ways his best—certainly very different in style than anything ever written before. Sophocles wrote Oedipus at Colonnus when he was ninety years old. Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocal lens when he was seventy-eight; Frank Lloyd Wright completed the

John Staude

361

______________________________________________________________ Guggenheim Museum, one of his masterpieces, when he was ninety-one and Michelangelo was painting the frescoes in the Pauline chapel of the Vatican at eighty-nine. Vaughan Williams went on to write a ninth symphony. He had his next symphony in mind, as well as a host of other ideas, when he died. Georgia O’Keefe also remained a font of energy, until her body finally gave out at age ninety-eight. Some writers may actually postpone their swan song. For example, Thomas Mann postponed writing ‘Dr. Faustus’ for many years because he thought it would be his last work. However, later, after writing it, he lived longer than expected, and then wrote ‘The Confessions of Felix Krull.’ Indeed, many long-lived creative artists have had more ideas, experiments, and projects in mind after completing what they originally thought was their final work As Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse aged they both suffered from arthritis, sciatica, and other complaints and they shared these in their correspondence. Hesse was also troubled with declining eyesight. He gave up on novel writing after he finished the Bead Game at age 64. Mann continued writing right up to his death at age 80. Later works tend to be more introspective, focusing more on inner emotions and experiences than on outer world scenes and events. Some observers note a greater attention to themes of aging and issues of death in late life works. Hesse and Mann transformed the crises of their last years into symbolic forms. So although performance in many areas of life may indeed peak in the twenties, the attraction to change media or domain, and thus contribute to society, may actually increase in later years. There is no denying that health complications are a part of life for many older people and that risk of chronic disease or disabilities increases with age. But all around us, throughout history and today, there is evidence that the creative spirit can find expression despite age, obstacles, grief, and loss, and sometimes more powerfully in the process. Sometimes the best does come last.

Notes 1

GD Cohen,The Creative Age. Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life, Quill, New York, 2001, p. 19. 2 T.Mann. The Story of a Novel. The Genesis of Doctor Faustus, translated by Richard and Clara Winston,Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1961, p.38. 3 Ibid, p.19 4 Ibid, p.20 5 Ibid, p30 6 Ibid, p.31

362

Last Works

______________________________________________________________ 7

Ibid,p.31 Ibid,p.65 9 E Mann, The Last Year of Thomas Mann, translated by Richard Graves,Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958, pp.8-9 10 Ibid,p.39 8

Bibliography Bergsten, G., Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. The Sources and Structure of the Novel ,translated by Krishna Winston, University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1963. Cohen, G. D., The Creative Age. Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life, Quill, New York, 2001. Hesse, H., and T Mann The Hesse/Mann Letters. The Correspondence of Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann 1910-1955, Edited by Anni Carlsson and Volker Michels, Translated by Ralph Mannheim, Jorge Pinto Books, New York, 1975. Hesse, H., The Glass Bead Game. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1969. _______

, Autobiographical Writings Translated by Denver Lindley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York, 1972. Mann, E., The Last Year of Thomas Mann, translated by Richard Graves,Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958. Mann, T., Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man (The Early Years).Translated by Denver Lindley. Vintage Press, New York, 1955. _______ , Doctor Faustus. The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn as Told by a Friend.Translated by John E. Woods, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1997. _______

, The Story of a Novel. The Genesis of Doctor Faustus.Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1961.

John Staude

363

______________________________________________________________ Staude, J., ‘The Daimon of Creativity, the Mid-life Crises of Nietzsche, Jung and Hesse,’ in Consciousness and Creativity, J Staude, editor, Pan Books, Berkeley, 1977. John Staude is affiliated with The Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of California, San Diego

The Love Stories and Impact of HIV/AIDS: Generations of Gay Men in Urban Australia and New Zealand Ian Flaherty Abstract In this paper the love stories of gay men in contemporary Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland are examined in the context of the participants’ attitudes and experiences with HIV/AIDS. The participants were asked to reflect upon a common text, a well-known and loved real account of the lives and deaths of two men, sometimes partners, sometimes not, in the contexts of Sydney and Melbourne in the 70s and 80s. The participants themselves were gay men who lived in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland over the same period. Ages of the participants ranged from 28 to 55 at the time of interviewing. The choice of the common text, Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave, was intended to provide a common foundation across generations upon which the participants could frame their thoughts in relation to their own love stories and their experiences with HIV/AIDS. The examination of the responses of the participants focused on inter- and intragenerational differences and similarities, both in the ways these men described their love stories and their experiences of HIV/AIDS. The key feature of all of these narratives is that despite aging processes, resonances of the Conigrave text could be traced. It could be argued that recency effects, for example, produced the commonality of narrative thread. I argue however, more than this, the commonalities in love stories may point to a commonality of experience of love across generations, the spectre and aftermath of an HIV/AIDS crisis notwithstanding. Additionally, the participants’ responses may indicate the capacity for written stories, both fictional and non-fictional, to inform the readers’ understandings of their own love stories, and in the case of attitudes regarding HIV/AIDS, drive towards larger ideographic understanding. Key Words: Love stories, HIV/AIDS, narrative threads, ideographic understanding. ***** 1.

A Brief, Less Formal Introduction When I first started writing my PhD, from which this paper comes in part, I thought that I would find that there would be large differences between the narratives younger gay men constructed about their own experiences of love and the ever-hovering issue of HIV/AIDS and those narratives of more chronologically senior gay men. I was interested to listen to the stories of the people who had fought for acceptance and recognition through such events as

366

The Love Stories and Impact of HIV/AIDS

______________________________________________________________ the 1978 Sydney Mardi Gras, and reflect upon the stories of men who had come out in a much different world of the early to mid 1990s. My initial feeling was that in many ways, the older participants in the study would think and speak about their narratives of love in the context of a battle against great external forces that sought to criminalise their understandings of what it was to be in love, and in particular, during the 1980s, criticise and marginalise their narratives as a warning against the spread of a virus and disease scarcely understood. In contrast, my feeling was that among the participants who were my contemporaries, narratives would arise that included love stories as a necessary and accepted part of the experience of being a gay man. It turned out that my intuition did not actually take account of the way the participants’ narratives of love, loss and the HIV/AIDS phenomenon change over time. A discussion of the rationale for the selection of what I have described as the set-text follows in more depth, but for now, it is enough to say that I wanted to introduce a framework, familiar to all participants, in which they could reflect upon their narratives of love both intra- and intergenerationally. What became apparent is that there are both differences and similarities across and within generations, partly attributable to the way in which these narratives change over time, and that these narratives make strong connections with a text that has had strong significance across several generations. My conclusion is that narratives of love in the face of HIV/AIDS and influenced by the text, can point to larger ideographic understandings of HIV/AIDS and love across time.

2. The Set Text: Auto/Biographical Narratives of the Author Written into the Lives of the Participants The larger dissertation presents the lives of the participants as auto/biographical constructions in the same way that the lives within the settext are presented. This point is further discussed in another part of the larger dissertation. For now, I want to focus on the responses to a ‘set text’. The set text was Holding the Man (1995) by Timothy Conigrave.1 This text is approximately three hundred pages long, and is an auto/biographical work. The author details his relationship with his male partner, from first falling in love in secondary school to their separate lives in Sydney and Melbourne and finally the death of his partner from AIDS-related illnesses. The text spans fifteen years, from the mid 1970s until the early 1990s. The text has also been adapted for the stage, and had two sold out seasons in Sydney between December 2006 and March 2007, and returned to the stage with the same cast for another season at a much larger theatre later in 2007. Holding the Man2 is one of Australia's Favourite 100 Books3 and won the United Nations Human Rights Award for Non-fiction in 1995.4 This text was selected because many

Ian Flaherty

367

______________________________________________________________ parallels can be made between the lives of the central characters and the lives of the participants. The interview process itself progressed through the following stages in succession: 1.

Once the individual participants had completed the preliminary procedure of providing consent, they were asked to participate in a non-standardised interview, the duration of which was approximately one hour.

2.

After the initial interview, the participants were given a copy of Holding the Man5 and asked to read it, or – if they had already read it – to reserve their responses to the text until a second interview.

3.

At the second interview, participants were asked to consider in depth their response to the set text. A detailed discussion of the questions asked of the participants follows in a later chapter of the larger dissertation. For the purposes of the current paper, I will tease out what I consider to be the most salient parts of the narratives relating to love, HIV/AIDS and the life-course produced by two of the participants.

4.

A third follow up interview was conducted between two and three years after the participants initially consented to participate in the project. While unstructured in nature, this interview was designed to bring some reflective thought to the original narratives the participants had produced and how these had changed, or remained constant, over time.

The larger dissertation aims to illustrate how, within the context of same-sex attracted males in highly developed societies, the fiction an individual reads, and the popular media an individual sees, has a transformative effect on the way an individual develops their own narratives about themselves and about society more generally. As Brenneis states: ‘stories both draw upon experience and engender it.’6 The rationale for the introduction of the set text comprises its familiarity, in terms of time, place and content for the participants. This text was also chosen to provide a common frame of reference for the participants in answering the more structured questions in the second round of interviews. The larger dissertation aimed to illustrate that Brenneis’ assertion that stories are reflective of, and influence, personal narratives,7 accurately reflects the process through which an individual engages with auto/biography and indeed fiction and popular media, and uses them to shape his own life. As the set text is an

368


______________________________________________________________ auto/biography, it was typically easy for the participants to see how ‘such texts create ‘real’ persons about whom truthful statements are presumably made.’8 It is argued, therefore, that there is a lot more to auto/biographical work than simply ‘real persons’. The larger dissertation illustrates the ways in which ‘lives and the (auto) biographical methods that construct them are literary productions...these texts are narrative fictions, cut from the same cloth as they lives they tell about.’9 Strong emotions and complex considerations are given to the intimate relationships in the set text. The text was used to illustrate that the ‘deep, inner life of the person can be captured in an autobiographical or biographical document.’10 The set text was also used to encourage the participants to think about their ‘deep inner worlds’ in relation to the ‘deep inner worlds’ of the characters in the text, for example, the tensions brought by dishonesty within an intimate relationship. From this standpoint, the material provided in the interviews effectively became a form of auto/biography: the stories that the participants told about themselves. The responses of the participants were compared in order to uncover common links between the narrative of the set text and the narratives the participants produced as their autobiography. In this way it was possible to illustrate the way in which the narrative of the set text had become part of the narrative of the participants. The texts, or narratives, had become interwoven, ‘this interweaving... is the text produced only in the transformation of another text.’11 Auto/biography as fiction is illustrated in this way to be an effective ‘literary and sociological form that creates particular images of subjects in particular historical moments.’12 Most importantly, as the set text is a compassionate and eminently empathetic look at love, HIV/AIDS and the changing narratives surrounding these over the life-course, it seemed the perfect framework within which to investigate the same narratives of the participants. 3.

Some Biographical Detail of Two of the Participants The two following participants in particular were chosen for several reasons. The first is that these two participants represent ‘worlds apart’ in age, life-experiences, socio-economic and educational experiences and current life-opportunities. My rationale was that this would be a brilliant place to start to draw both differences and similarities across and within societal and personal differences, and in particular, generationality. To this end, I will give a brief biography of these two participants, before reflecting on the similarities and differences of their narratives across time and social place. For the purposes of de-identifying the two participants, we shall know them as Dave and Phillip. Dave grew up in what has traditionally been a financially and educationally disadvantaged community in Sydney’s outer suburbs. The housing estate in which Dave had his early life-experiences was

Ian Flaherty

369

______________________________________________________________ often characterised by relatively high-levels of unemployment and generalised social disadvantage. Dave still shares a somewhat fraught relationship with his parents and some of the many siblings with whom he grew up. A key theme that emerged from the interviews was the ongoing relationship Dave has with the abuse he experienced as a child. Dave’s narrative regarding this experience is often contextualised within the narratives of ‘self-help’, and is often problematised by his adolescent experiences of his emerging sexuality. By the age of seventeen, Dave had come out to his family. The contiguous issues that this coming out may have produced do not largely form an isolated narrative for Dave, but are melded with the experiences he had with his first enduring partner and the broader social events that were taking place at the time. Most significantly, Dave contextualises this coming out within the far-reaching consequences of the first Sydney Mardi Gras in 1978, and the vibrant, if somewhat dangerous and underground gay scene of Sydney in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dave has lost many friends to AIDS-related illnesses. Dave has a very supportive and vital friendship network from many different social places. At present, Dave is the full-time carer for a former partner who is currently experiencing complications from HIV-related illnesses. It was extremely difficult to locate this devotion within a traditionally accepted narrative of love, but this narrative to me seems incipient, if not overtly stated. Phillip by contrast, grew up in a financially and educationally advantaged social place in the relatively affluent inner suburbs of Sydney. At quite an early age, Phillip was sent to boarding school outside of Sydney, a boarding school of considerable prestige. It was here Phillip recalls, that he first felt a feeling of love develop between he and another student, the son of a diplomat. When the relationship was discovered by the school and parents, the other young man was promptly returned to school in the United Kingdom. Phillip contextualises this with some resignation, within an inflexible schooling system more specifically, and within a more inflexible society more broadly. The love narrative within is obfuscated by Phillip’s resignation, but attention needs to be give also to the legal framework within which these inflexible systems are operating. Is it possible here to make comparisons between Dave’s experience in 1978, when homosexuality was illegal in New South Wales, and the early 1990s, when age of consent is strictly legally determined? Phillip, like me, grew up in a time when the human immunodeficient virus was little understood, and highly feared. Phillip was presented with highly graphic, and for me confusing, images of men, women and children being bowled over as if pins in a bowling alley by a scythe-wielding grim reaper meant to represent HIV. While HIV/AIDS prevention approaches have largely been successful in Australia, and the spread of the virus never conflated with male homosexuality at an official level, much of the objection to cultural events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras

370


______________________________________________________________ was levelled by conservative groups on the basis that they promoted the transmission of HIV. It was important therefore that Phillip shared his narrative of love in the wake of HIV prevention education at the critical time at which he was exploring his sexuality. Phillip is currently and has been in a relationship for some time now, one that can be characterised by elements of a traditional love narrative. The stories of these two men represent almost polar social spaces. Yet, at the same time, similarities can be drawn between their narratives regarding love and HIV/AIDS over their individual life-courses. 4.

The Narratives of Dave and Phillip When asked about their current relationships an extreme counterpoint can be drawn between the narratives of Dave and Phillip. In describing his current relationship, Dave says: We were friends for 14 years and then we sort of became partners five years’ ago but that was a bit of a mistake on my behalf, but yeah it’s only ever been a friendship on my behalf to this day but he seems to believe it’s still a partnership and that’s what he wants to believe and I’m not going to change that for him at this … stage of his illness.13 Phillip by contrast, describes his current relationship with his partner of six years in a curious way: ‘I don’t need to have acceptance from other heterosexual couples although I have a normal relationship like them’. When asked further about that which characterises and constitutes a normal relationship, Phillip’s response aligns quite closely with what would generally be considered a loving partnership: So I think that’s [a loving partnership] important for happiness, I think also just people being in love, how do you describe that, it’s really difficult, but love is, I’m not going to start describing it but I think love is really important for all gay men and even intimacy and I’ve a whole range of different things about gay men and intimacy and issues with being intimate with another guy.14 Implicitly, Phillip identifies being in love and intimacy as constituent parts of his current relationship as well as for partnerships for gay men in general. Is this so different, however, from Dave’s narrative about his ex-partner, a man with whom he shared a relationship for more than twenty years, and who had recently died of complications from alcohol-related illnesses:

Ian Flaherty

371

______________________________________________________________ I suppose my ex-partner was alcoholic and he died this year so that was sort of like … that was difficult for him I suppose, not so much for me because it’s been 10 years since I’ve tried to sort of help him, he just couldn’t socially cope in this world with anything really, he just didn’t have the capacity emotionally to cope with anything so he just used to drink it away?15 Incredibly, after twenty or more years of being the partner of a sometimes abusive alcoholic, Dave refers to the alcoholism as difficult for his partner, and not for him. Implicit too, is that Dave had tried to help his expartner emotionally, but in the end had not been able to. This kind of devotion speaks of love and at some point, intimacy, not dissimilar to Phillip’s account of his current relationship. At some point, too, one could assume that Dave’s ex-partner had been a source of happiness for Dave, however wilted by the issues around alcohol. The personal narratives of Phillip and Dave are really disparate when asked to comment on the capacity and willingness of gay men to mobilise around issues such as homophobia and HIV/AIDS. Dave describes his experiences at the first Mardi Gras in Sydney, particularly in relation to the ways in which that form of activism is viewed by younger people today: I suppose back in 79 [Dave later assents that it was actually 1978] when you know …I came out and it was quite active that night when people were arrested and you know I was there on front line with people and they’d turned you know a car on the street upside down, Volkswagen and it was quite violent and abusive in those days… Yeah they [younger people] don’t want to … they don’t see HIV as a … as an issue because they’re young, it’s not going to touch them; they think that they have this barrier up.16 When asked about the contemporary state of equality for the queer community within the dominant system in Australia, Phillip’s seeming complacency possibly belies the reality that he has not experienced violent protest and arrest for merely being gay: I just sit there as an individual because I can’t relate to something and say, well that’s not important, I would just say, no that’s unimportant for me but I acknowledge that that’s an issue for this individual and therefore I wouldn’t stand in the way of … of that happening if that was important for a group of individuals. You don’t know, I

372


______________________________________________________________ guess is my point. I tend to only engage in issues that excite me or interest me directly but on other issues that, on other agendas that people are pushing, if I don’t have a viewpoint, ‘cause it doesn’t affect me, if it doesn’t affect me, therefore I haven’t formed a viewpoint, where the impact on me is so minimal … I simply not engaged in it.17 Dave, on the other hand, has a very different view of what it means to be gay today in Sydney, despite the transitions he has seen over the past thirty years: ….but homophobia seems to be coming back now and it seems to be like a I don’t know, 20 year cycle where 30 years ago you had to break down the barriers to say it’s who I am and now you’re fighting down the barriers of we’re still here you know, but we’re not going anywhere but there are people out there that have a problem with it socially and physically.18 In some ways, Dave’s and Phillip’s narratives coalesce and in some ways, their narratives are divergent. Dave has accurately identified how some young people today, such as Phillip, might feel about protests for equality for a large group of individuals. Phillip however, seems to feel that broadranging discrimination of the basis of sexual preference and identity is not really an issue that concerns him, a position starkly at odds with Dave’s analysis. One way of drawing together all of these narrative strands to describe some of the aspects of intimate gay male relationships in contemporary Australia and New Zealand is by asking the participants to respond to the set text, and reflect upon their own experiences relative to the characters in the book. Heavily devoted to the stories of two gay men, their love stories and their narratives around HIV/AIDS over their life-courses, Holding the Man (Conigrave, 1995) inspired in the participants very similar responses. For Phillip, for example, HIV/AIDS prevention, education and research as a cause around which gay men in particular should mobilise was seen as highly estimable, albeit not especially relevant to him personally. For Dave, the same cause was viewed highly personally and extremely emotively given how closely he had been affected by the virus. The flexible and loving relationship of the central characters of the set text was seen deeply personally, and with great relevance to Phillip’s current experience, while for Dave it was a reminiscence of something that was once and had been lost.

Ian Flaherty

373

______________________________________________________________ 5.

Conclusion My conclusion from the responses of these two participants to the set text has three parts. The first is that there are significant points of merging and divergence in the narratives around love and HIV/AIDS of gay men, both intra- and intergenerationally. The second conclusion I have drawn is that, when including as a framework a work of auto/biography, itself a form of fiction, which is of enormous relevance to the participants in this study, important connections can be made between the divergent stories of the participants. In this way, and as the third part of my conclusion, that which is acutely personal, when engaged with responses to the set text, can lead us to greater ideographic understanding of the love stories and narratives of gay men around HIV/AIDS across the life-course.

Notes 1

T Conigrave, Holding the Man, Penguin, Melbourne, 1995. T Conigrave, Holding the Man, Penguin, Melbourne, 1995. 3 2003 Australian Society of Authors 40th Anniversary list. 4 United Nations, New York, 1995. 5 T Conigrave, Holding the Man, Penguin, Melbourne, 1995. 6 D Brenneis ‘Telling Troubles: Narrative, Conflict and Experience’, in Disorderly Discourse: Narrative, Conflict and Inequality, ed. D. Briggs, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1996, p. 42. 7 D Brenneis ‘Telling Troubles: Narrative, Conflict and Experience’, in Disorderly Discourse: Narrative, Conflict and Inequality, ed. D. Briggs, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1996, p. 42. 8 N Denzin, Interpretive Biography, Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, CA, 1993, p. 26. 9 N Denzin, Interpretive Biography, Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, CA, 1993, p. 26. 10 N Denzin, Interpretive Biography, Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, CA, 1993, p. 29. 11 J Derrida, Positions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1971/1982, p. 26. 12 N Denzin, Interpretive Biography, Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, CA, 1993, p. 26. 13 I Flaherty, Ph.D. thesis (awaiting publication). 14 I Flaherty, Ph.D. thesis (awaiting publication). 15 ibid. 16 ibid. 17 ibid. 18 ibid. 2

374


______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Banks, A. and Banks, S.P., ‘The Struggle Over Facts And Fictions’. in Fiction and Social Research: By Ice or Fire. Altamira, Walnut Creek, CA, 1998. Bauman, Z., Postmodern Ethics. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1993. Beck, U., ‘The reinvention of politics: towards a theory of reflexive modernization’. in Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. U. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash (eds.), Polity Press, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 1-55. _______

, ‘Living Your Own Life in a Runaway World: Individualism, Globalisation and Politics’. in Global Capitalism. W. Hutton and A. Giddens (eds), The New Press, New York, 2000, pp. 164-174. Bell, A. P. and Weinberg, M. S.. Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women. Touchstone, New York, 1978. Bersani, L., ‘Is the Rectum a Grave?’, in ‘AIDS: Cultural Analysis, Cultural Activism’. D. Crimp (ed), Massachusetts Institute of Technology Magazine. October 1989, pp. 197-222. Bertaux, D. (ed), Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1981b.

Blumstein, P. and Schwartz, P., American Couples: Money, Work, Sex. William Morrow, New York, NY, 1983. Boling, P., Privacy and the Politics of Intimate Life. Cornell University Press, USA, 1996. Brenneis, D., ‘Telling Troubles: Narrative, Conflict and Experience’. in Disorderly Discourse: Narrative, Conflict and Inequality. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1996. Butler, J., Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. Routledge, New York, NY, 1993. Coffey, A., The Ethnographic Self: Fieldwork and the Representation of Identity. Sage, London, 1999.

Ian Flaherty

375

______________________________________________________________ Clark, D., ‘Commodity Lesbianism’. in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. H. Abelove, M. A. Barale and D. M. Halperin (eds), Routledge, New York, NY, 1991, pp.186 – 201. Conigrave, T., Holding the Man. Penguin, Melbourne, 1995. Cook, J. and Fonow, M. M., ‘Knowledge and Women’s Interests: Issues of Epistemology and Methodology in Feminist Sociological Research’. Sociological Inquiry. 56, 1986, pp. 2-27. Denzin, N. K., Interpretive Biography. Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, CA, 1993. Derrida, J., Positions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1972/1981. de Vaus, D. D., Surveys in Social Research. George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1986. Ellis, C., Kiesinger, C. and Tillman-Healy, L. M., ‘Interactive Interviewing: Talking About Emotional Experience’. in Reflexivity and Voice. R. Hertz (ed), Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1997. Drummond, M., ‘Men’s Bodies: Listening to the Voices of Young Gay Men’. Men and Masculinities, vol. 7(3), 2005, pp. 270-290. Edwards, T., Erotics and Politics: Gay Male Sexuality, Masculinity and Feminism. Routledge, London, 1994. Fielding, N. and Thomas, H., ‘Qualitative Interviewing’. in Researching Social Life. N. Gilbert, (ed), Sage, London, Chapter 8, 20012. Fontana, A. and Frey, J., ‘The interview: From structured questions to negotiated text’. in Handbook of qualitative research. N.K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds), Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2000. Fraser, N., ‘Sex, Lies, and the Public Sphere: Reflections on the Confirmation of Clarence Thomas’. in Feminism: The Public and the Private. J. Landes (ed), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998. Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1991. Glassner, B. and Loughlin. J., Drugs in Adolescent Worlds: Burnout to Straights. St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 1987.

376


______________________________________________________________ Goffman, E., Stigma. Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963. Haasager, S. L., ‘Stories that Tell It Like It Is? Fiction Techniques and PrizeWinning Journalism’. in Fiction and Social Research: By Ice or Fire. Altamira, Walnut Creek, CA, 1998. Habermas, J., Legitimation Crisis. (trans. T. McCarthy) Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1975. _______

, Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, 1981.

Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P., Ethnography: Principles in Practice. Routledge, London, 1997. Hertz, R., ‘Separate But Simultaneous Interviewing of Husbands and Wives: Making Sense of Their Stories’. Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 1, 1995, pp. 429-51. Jamieson, L., Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998. Jamieson, L., ‘Intimacy Transformed: A Critical Look at the ‘Pure Relationship’’. Sociology, vol. 33(3), 1999, pp. 477-94. Jorgenson, J., ‘Co-Constructing the Interviewer/Co-Constructing ‘Family’’. in Research and Reflexivity. F. Steier (ed), Sage, London 1991, pp. 210-215. _______

, ‘Relationalising Rapport in Interpersonal Settings’. in Social Approaches to Communication. W. Leeds-Hurwitz (ed), Guilford, New York, NY, 1995. Krieger, S., Social Science and the Self: Personal Essays on an Art Form. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1991. Lesser, W., ‘Autobiography and the ‘I’ of the Beholder’. The New York Times Book Review. 27 November, 1988, 1, pp. 26-28. Laslett, B. and Rapoport, R., ‘Collaborative Interviewing and Interactive Research’. Journal of Marriage and the Family vol. 20, 1975, pp. 968-77.

Ian Flaherty

377

______________________________________________________________ Miller, M., ‘Ethics and Understanding Through Interrelationship: I and Thou in Dialogue’. in Ethics and Process in the Narrative Study of Lives. R. Josselson (ed), (vol.4) Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1996. Mumby, D., ‘Modernism, Postmodernism and Communication Studies: A Rereading of an Ongoing Debate’. Communication Theory, vol. 7, 1997, pp.1-29. Paine, R., ‘Friendship: The Hazards of an Ideal Relationship’. in The Anthropology of Friendship. S. Bell and S. Coleman (eds), Berg, Oxford, 1999. Patton, M., Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3rd ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2002. Plummer, K., Documents of Life. Allen and Unwin, London, 1983. Proulx, A., Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories. Harper Perennial, London, 2006. Punch, K., Developing Effective Research Proposals. Sage, London, 2000. Quan, A. Calendar Boy. New Star Books, Vancouver, 2001. Reinharz, S., Feminist Methods in Social Research. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1992. _______

, ‘Who am I? The Need for A Variety of Selves in the Field’. in R. Hertz, Reflexivity and Voice. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1997. Roberts, H., Doing Feminist Research. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1981. Roth, P., The Facts. Knopf, New York, NY, 1988. Scheper-Hughs, N., ‘Ire in Ireland’ Ethnography, vol. 1(1), 2000, pp. 117140. Sedgwick, E. K., Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1985.

378


______________________________________________________________ Sedgwick, E. K., ‘Epistemology of the Closet’. in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. H. Abelove, M. A. Barale and D. M. Halperin (eds), Routledge, New York, 1993, pp. 45-61. Silverman, D., Interpreting Qualitative Data. Sage, London, 1993. Sontag, S., AIDS and Its Metaphors. Penguin, London, 1988. Weeks, J,. Invented Moralities: Sexual Values in an Age of Uncertainty. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1995. Weston, K., Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1991. Wodak, R., Disorders of Discourse. Addison Wesley Longman Ltd., Essex, UK, 1996. Worth, H., Reid, A. and McMillan, K., ‘Somewhere over the rainbow: love, trust and monogamy in gay relationships’. Journal of Sociology, vol. 38(3), 2002, pp.237-253. Yip, A., ‘Gay Male Christian Couples and Sexual Exclusivity’ Sociology, vol. 31(2), 1997, pp. 289-306. Ian Flaherty, PhD., is an associate in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney, Australia.

World Without End Ian Nichols Abstract Aging is not simply the accumulation of years; it is also the accumulation of experience. Those who are older differ from those who are younger in ways which are not only physical and, as people live longer, healthier lives, will this difference exacerbated? What if people’s lives were enormously extended, even indefinitely extended? Immortality and extended lifespan have been major themes in speculative fiction since The Epic of Gilgamesh. Up to the present day, authors have speculated on both the cause and effect of extended life. Isaac Asimov pointed out, in an article in The Stars in Their Courses1, that it could very well be, quite literally, a universal disaster. Other authors, such as Robert Heinlein, Paul Anderson, et al, have conjectured that those whose lives were extended could suffer discrimination. This paper will discuss extended lifespan and immortality in the speculative fiction genre, with particular reference to the work of Robert Heinlein, Paul Anderson and Larry Niven. It will examine the way in which differences between younger and older people are represented when the gap between them is widened. It will explore the social effects of people simply getting older, and the compensations that these effects create. Key Words: Fiction, Immortality ***** 1. An Examination of Immortality and Extended Life in Speculative Fiction Extended life and immortality have been common ideas in literature for as long as literature has existed. In The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2700 BC), Gilgamesh travels to the immortal hero Utnapishtim to discover his secret of immortality, but fails in his two chances to achieve it. In the Old Testament of the Bible, people had greatly extended lives. Adam, Seth, Methuselah and Noah all lived for more than nine hundred years. Gods receive immortality as a condition of deity, even though, as in the case of Osiris, they can be killed. Jonathan Swift’s Struldbrugs are immortal, although they continue to age. Greek mythology abounds with immortals, although many of these achieved their immortality by becoming stars or going to the Elysian Fields. Tithonus was granted immortality, but suffered the fate of the Struldbrugs by continuing to age. Odysseus was offered immortality by Calypso, but refused it. Immortality seems widespread through other mythologies and religions, as

380

World Without End

______________________________________________________________ well. When compiling the Great Books of the Western World, the editorial staff of the Synopticon found in that ‘The philosophical issue concerning immortality cannot be separated from issues concerning the existence and nature of man's soul.’2 Prior to the nineteenth century, the devices by which life and youth could be preserved all related to some form of mysticism. The legend of the Fountain of Youth and its magical waters stems from Herodotus. The concept of a magical elixir of life was embodied in the eighteenth century novel St Leon, by William Godwin.3 The idea of equally magical Philosophers’ Stone comes from the late Hellenistic.4The stories of vampires originated in folk stories and mythology, and were reinterpreted by poets such as Ossenfelder, Goethe, Burger and Byron.5 The image of the vampire which has developed through fiction, such as John Polidori’s The Vampyre, and, more prominently, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is of an undead being who remains eternally young, along with being suave and sophisticated, by drinking the blood of others. H Rider Haggard’s She features the bath of life, a pillar of flame that makes those who bathe in it once immortal. In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey,6 the eponymous character achieves extended youth by trading his soul for his portrait to age instead of himself. All these devices of literature relate to an unexplainable, supernatural force which can grant long life or immortality. Then, in the twentieth century, science fiction emerged as a distinct sub-genre, and one of its most frequent tropes was extension of life. There are many claimants for the first to explore the idea of life extension and immortality in science fiction. It seemed a logical outcome of advances in medicine and technology that people would live longer, and perhaps live indefinitely. It would be futile to attempt to discuss all the science fiction stories to focus on longevity in a paper as brief as this; it would require a volume, at least. There are, however, science fiction works which can be considered seminal in the field, works by Robert A Heinlein, Paul Andersen and Larry Niven. These authors have raised fascinating questions about how humanity would function if people could live forever, and whether it would be worth it. While others, including Robert Heinlein himself, had written of extended life and included it in their stories,7 it was with the publication of Methuselah’s Children8 that he first made a direct literary investigation of greatly extended life and its consequences. The plot involves the Howard families, a group of people who, under the auspices of the Howard Foundation, have been encouraged to marry within their own circle. This is an attempt to breed for longevity, since the people encouraged to marry are descended from long-lived parents and grandparents. The setting is within Helinlein’s ‘Future History,’ in the year 2136.9 The Howard Families, after more than 250 years, have become very wealthy and their members seem to

Ian Nichols

381

______________________________________________________________ have borne out the idea upon which they were founded; they all live for a long time. They are at a crisis point because, after centuries of secrecy, they have allowed some of their members to reveal themselves, and they await the response to see if they should all do this. Into the middle of a meeting where they debate this steps the protagonist, Lazarus Long, the oldest member at 213 years of age, who takes control. The issue at hand is that the world at large has reacted badly to the knowledge that there are longer lived people among them. They believe that there is some secret treatment that the Howard Families are concealing. They plan to take all revealed members of the Howard Families into custody and force them to reveal a secret which does not exist. When the plan is implemented, Long takes all the family members who can be located in time to a great starship which has been constructed to take a colony to a far planet and steals it, commencing a series of adventures which leads, ultimately, to their return to Earth, where the secret of extended life has actually been discovered since they left. The belief that there was such a secret has led to research into extended life, and a solution has been found. In Paul Anderson’s The Boat of a Million Years10 immortality is an inherent quality. Throughout history, some people, a very few, are born who do not age past maturity. They are immune to illness and heal completely from minor injuries, although they can be killed and do not regenerate limbs or heal from major injuries. They are born separately, in many different ages, and a large part of the novel deals with the quest of Lugo, a Phoenician from Tyre, to find other immortals. He achieves this, but the immortals are often reluctant to join him. Far smaller groups than in Heinlein they, too, are concerned about discovery. In most cases they hide their age and move when they believe it has become obvious that they do not grow older. One of them, Saygun, born in the time of imperial Rome, states it thus: . . . sometimes, he marries and raises a family, which is pleasant – or if it happens not to be, will pass, so all he needs is patience. This does complicate his little deceptions, hence he spends other periods in tranquil bachelorhood, varied by discreet indulgences. He is never in any danger of being found out.11 As in Heinlein, the immortals are concerned about revealing their presence to the wider culture: ‘The basic question is, shall we surrender to the government and reveal to the world what we are, or shall we continue our masquerade, using new masks?’12 However, in Anderson, the world, with the immortals’ help, discovers an immortality treatment and there is a smooth transition to a world filled with ageless people. But this leads, for the Survivors, as the natural immortals are known, to a further problem; ennui.

382

World Without End

______________________________________________________________ As do the Howard Families in a later Heinlein work, Time Enough for Love, they leave on a long journey into space, where they hope to discover what has been, ironically, lost, their lust for life. Time Enough for Love begins with an attempt to rescue Lazarus Long, the oldest human in the universe, from suicide. Long says, when asked to complete a rejuvenation treatment: To what end, sir? When I’ve had more than two thousand years of trying everything? When I’ve seen so many planets they blur in the mind? When I’ve had so many wives I can’t remember their names? . . . No, son, despite all rejuvenation there comes a time when the only reasonable thing to do is turn out the light and go to sleep.13 This is a sentiment expressed, in a different way by one of Anderson’s immortals, Nornagest: ‘. . . each year went down into death and awaited the homecoming of the sun that would bring it to rebirth; he too could let go if he would, and drift away on the wind with the leaves.’14 He then dies by deliberately slowing his heart, through deep meditation, to a halt. He does this because he has just received a Christian baptism, and he now hopes for resurrection. In both the cases so far mentioned, the problem of ennui has been dealt with in two ways, death or adventure. Lazarus Long is stimulated to continue his life through the promise of time travel back to the early twentieth century to meet his mother and investigate the times of his birth. The Survivors embark on a journey that may last forever, always meeting new races and enjoying new challenges. In the Larry Niven novel, Ringworld, the hero, Louis Wu, uses ‘boosterspice,’ a drug derived from the genes of ragweed, and ‘As a regular user of boosterspice, he didn’t show his years. If he didn’t get bored first, or broke, he might reach a thousand.’15 Part of his boredom stems from the repetition of actions, over and over again and he fears he will not live to a thousand: . . . not if I have to put up with any more cocktail parties, or Bandersnatch hunted, or painted flatlanders swarming through an anarchy park too small for them by a factor of ten. Not if I have to live through another one-night love affair, or another twenty-year marriage or another twentyminute wait for a transfer booth that blows its zap just as it’s my turn. And people. Not if I have to live with people, day and night, all those endless centuries.16

Ian Nichols

383

______________________________________________________________ He solves problem of his boredom and periodic ennui, and goes on ‘sabbaticals’ beyond the boundaries of know space to revive himself. His ennui stems from the ‘blanding’ of the world in the future: But the blending of the cities was real. Louis had watched it happen. All the irrationalities of place and time and custom, blending into one big rationality of City, worldwide, like a dull, grey paste. Did anyone today speak Deutsche, English, Francaise, Espanol? Everyone spoke Interworld.17 By leaving the Earth, Wu escapes this ennui by as is the case with the Survivors and Lazarus Long, experiencing things that are new and different, even if these things may threaten his life. It is significant that, for all these, challenges to existence become the means of continued existence. In Ringworld, as in some other stories in the Niven ‘Known Space’ series, health and youth are maintained by ‘boosterspice,’ but this is only one of the techniques Niven has proposed for longevity. Niven has explored many possible ways of extending life in his fiction. Transplant technology is featured in the ‘Gil the Arm’ series of stories and World of Ptaavs,18 where Lucas Garner, the president of the Strudbrugs’ Club and the oldest man in the world, has lived for more than 170 years with the aid of transplanted organs. Garner is also head of the World Police. Transplant technology is also explored in Niven’s A Gift from Earth, where an entire society is dependent on a few who control the transplant facilities for their health and extended life. In A World out of Time, there are several modes of life preservation that are examined. The protagonist, Jerome Branch Corbell19 is originally a ‘corpsicle;’ someone who had an incurable disease who was frozen in the hope that a cure might be found in the future. He is revived, in a fashion, after his brain is melted to record the electronic patterns of his personality, and to gather the memory RNA concentrated within it. The memories and the RNA are used to recreate his personality and memories in the brain of a condemned criminal, and so Corbell Mk II comes into being. Interestingly, he is asked why he chose to become a corpsicle, when the process was uncertain. He relies that it was a good risk; he was dying. Significantly his interrogator says ‘If you had something to believe in, perhaps dying wouldn’t mean so much.’ This echoes the sentiments of Nornagest in Anderson, who chose to die after he had found something he believed was larger than death, and also those of Lazarus Long, who believes that there is something after death, but does not know what. It also brings up the interesting characters of Pearson’s Puppeteers in the Niven universe, highly intelligent aliens who are obsessed with preserving their lives because, as one of them says ‘My species has no immortal part. Our scientists have proved this. We are afraid to die, for we know that death is permanent.’20

384

World Without End

______________________________________________________________ Corbell escapes this repressive future society by stealing, as do the Howard families, a spaceship. His intention is to travel at near the speed of light for some years, thereby taking advantage of the relativistic time dilation effect, and return to the Earth when the repressive society has collapsed. He will wait out the years in a cold-sleep tank, preserving his life in a similar fashion to freezing, but without the destructive consequences. This too is a way of extending life, by extending the experiences of life without extending its span of years. Unfortunately, Corbell is followed into space by the personality of his interrogator on Earth, Pierce, transcribed into the on-board computer. Again, the personality is preserved, for as long as it can be transmitted from one computer to the other, a form of immortality. Corbell succeeds in his goal to return to Earth, three million years later, when, despite the cold sleep and medical treatment, he has aged drastically. What he encounters on a vastly changed Earth are two more forms of immortality. The first is a form of arrested development. Children are given a treatment prior to puberty that causes them to stop growing and aging – young forever. This however is a replacement for an older form of immortality treatment that was lost in a war, the Dictator treatment. Corbell is inadvertently exposed to this, but does not discover this is so until he begins to grow younger. It forms the mystery of the latter part of the novel, and the solution is that the Dictator immortality is an extension of the technology of matter transfer booths. These were used for transportation, but special ones were altered to only transport the: Inert molecules from your cells! Chemical medicines won’t reach that stuff, but the ‘phone booth does. It takes the just those dead molecules and does the instant-elsewhere trick with them. Just the stuff that builds up over ninety years of life.21 More so than do either Heinlein or Anderson, Niven explores the social consequences of extended lifespans. The major problem is overpopulation, solved in Anderson by voluntary birth control and expansion into space, and by the same means in Heinlein. Niven uses the same devices, but shows that there are problems with them, and that birth control would have to be rigorously enforced.22 Other writers have used a different solution; to limit age. In Cordwainer Smith’s ‘Instrumentality of Mankind’ stories, life span is limited to 400 years. Niven also forecasts that, if organ transplant becomes more widespread, crime will follow in its footsteps. The more it is used the greater the opportunity for crime will become, and he has written his stories of organlegging set in just such a world.

Ian Nichols

385

______________________________________________________________ All the writers mentioned have all also brought forward the idea that one might simply become bored with living so long. In Anderson, Heinlein and Niven, the result of extended life is a graying of existence; one place is much like another and everything is under rigid control, even if the control is benevolent. Anderson postulates that immortals would find stimulation and interest in sophisticated computer modelling and games, except for the Survivors, who prefer the real world. Heinlein simply ignores the problem, putting his faith in space travel, except that even that, after a time, becomes jejune. Niven sees a solution in control allied with gradual expansion, and the ability to get away from the dullness in such things as ‘anarchy parks.’ But would immortals necessarily develop the intellectual resources to cope with their greater age? Gerald Kersh, in the short story Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? shows us a character who has lived since 1507. A soldier who fought at the battle of Turin in 1536, he was wounded and given a ‘universal digestive’ by the surgeon who attended him, which stopped him aging and made him heal quickly from any wound. However, when we meet him in the twentieth century, he has remained a soldier, since that is all he knows how to do, and in five hundred years he has progressed from private to corporal. ‘I mean it fixed me, just like I was, and am, and always will be. See? A footsoldier, ignorant as dirt. It took me nearly a hundred years to learn to write my name, and four hundred years to get to be a Corporal.’23 The prospect of immortality is inextricably linked to problems. Changes in society, alienation, envy, isolation, boredom, but most of all the difficulty of coping with change as it happens. If one lives for a thousand years how quickly can you adapt? For two thousand? Even now, when people are living for decades longer, there seems to be an exacerbation of the generation gap. Courses are held to educate older people in the intricacies of the internet and computers, things which did not exist when they were growing up. Older people seek for things that were commonplace when they were younger, and are unable to find them. They very landscape changes around them, rendering what was familiar unfamiliar. How difficult would coping be, then for someone who has lived for hundreds of years? It would seem that physical immortality requires a great deal of adaptability and an uncommon ability to deal with future shock. And in reality, very few stories of science fiction offer many speculations on life that goes on for more than a few thousand years. What of true immortality, which endures for longer than the age of a universe? Forever is a very long time, and even our best speculators in fiction don’t seem to be able to see that far.

386

World Without End

______________________________________________________________

Notes 1

I Asimov, The Stars in their Courses, Panther Books, Frogmore, 1975, p207. 2 M J Adler, et al., The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, 1952, pp.788. 3 First printed 1791. See W Godwin, St Leon. Oxford University Press, USA, 1994. 4 From an alchemical textbook, the Chrysopoeia of Kleopatra, 5 See Ossenfelder’s Der Vampyre, Goethe’s The Bride of Corinth, Burger’s Lenora, Byron’s The Giaour as examples. 6 Lippincot’s Magazine, London, 1890 7 See R Heinlein, Revolt in 2100, Street & Smith, New York, 1939. 8 R Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah’s Children, Baen Books, New York, 1999, first published 1958. 9 See p277, Methuselah’s Children. 10 P Anderson, The Boat of a Million Years Sphere Books, London, 1990 11 Anderson, p341. 12 Anderson, p447. 13 R Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, Ace Books, New York, 1988, (first published Putnams, New York, 1973), p11. 14 Anderson, p130. 15 L Niven, Three Books of Known Space, Ballantine, New York, 1996, p544. 16 L Niven, Three Books of Known Space, Ballantine, New York, 1996, p544. 17 L Niven, Ringworld, Ballantine Books, New York, 1970, p2. 18 See L Niven, Three Books of Known Space. 19 A pun on the name of a fantasy author of the thirties, James Branch Cabell. In Cabell’s best known work, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, the hero, Jurgen, travels through many otherworldly realms, including Heaven and Hell, and this is a metaphor for the experience of Niven’s hero after he is revived from death. 20 Ringworld, p103. 21 L Niven, A World Out of Time, Futura Publications, London, 1977, p233. 22 I Asimov, in The Stars in Their Courses, a series of essays, notes that at the ‘doubling rate’ of population growth in 1969, the entire universe would be converted to flesh by A D 8700. 23 G Kersh, ‘Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?’ in Star of Stars, F Pohl (ed), Doubleday, New York, 1960, p11.

Ian Nichols

387

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography Adler, M. J., et al. (ed)l The Great Ideas: A Syntotpicon of Great Books of the Western World. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, 1952. Anderson, P., The Boat of a Million Years Sphere Books, London, 1990. Asimov, I., The Stars in their Courses, Panther Books, Frogmore, 1975. Heinlein, R., Revolt in 2100, Street & Smith, New York, 1939. –––, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah’s Children, Baen Books, New York, 1999, first published 1958. –––, Time Enough for Love, Ace Books, New York, 1988. Niven, L., Ringworld, Ballantine Books, New York, 1970 –––, Three Books of Known Space, Ballantine, New York, 1996. –––, A World Out of Time, Futura Publications, London, 1977. Pohl, F.,(ed), Star of Stars, Doubleday, New York, 1960.

Ian Nichols is a Doctoral candidate in Creative writing at Curtin University in Western Australia. He has had a lifelong interest in science fiction and fantasy and in Shakespeare, the last probably from his long association with theatre. His latest work, ‘The Whorl and the Pallin,’ a fantasy novel, has recently been published by Tactile Books.

Times of Our Lives: Making Sense of Growing Up & Growing Old

Reading Our Lives: The Poetics of Growing Old

Reading Our Lives: The Poetics of Growing Old

Growing Up