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Abstract

Studying the life courses of older people: The McAdams life-story interview

Research among older people often focuses on the present. Nevertheless, life course research can help to understand how certain behavior and feelings take shape and evolve throughout the course of life, and how life events at a younger age can influence conditions, behaviors and feelings in later life. In this article, we focus on the McAdams life story interview method, which we applied in three different studies. We describe the different steps, reflect on the main pitfalls in the implementation of this approach and explain how we attempted to avoid them. The experiences and reflections of both the participants and the researchers are discussed.

Phenomenological research into the experiences of elderly people who feel life is accomplished and no longer worth living
Phenomenological research into the experiences of elderly people who feel life is accomplished and no longer worth living
This article presents an empirical phenomenological research project with older people who feel life is accomplished and no longer worth living. The aim of phenomenological research, the need of an open phenomenological attitude, the method of phenomenological interviewing and data analysis, as well as the value of phenomenological research for practice and policy are characterized and explained.

The career of all the burgomasters in office on 1 Aug 1975 (N=722) was studied. The concept of career was operationalized as the change in population-size of the administered municipality. Two dimensions in the career of Dutch burgomasters are distinguished: (1) intramunicipal (following the growth of the municipality), or (2) intermunicipal (being transferred to a larger municipality). There is a negative relationship between the two dimensions. Burgomasters from growing municipalities are less likely to be rapidly transferred to larger municipalities. However, the reverse holds true of the 38 municipalities that have more than 10,000 inhabitants. The burgomasters of those municipalities have a different kind of career from their colleagues. For those burgomasters transferred from growing municipalities there is a positive r between the growth of the municipality & the total growth of their career. No cause can be assigned to the negative r between population growth & intermunicipal career growth without further study. A. Orianne.

Experiences of researchers interviewing older men with prostate cancer
Not enough research is being done into the experiences of older men with prostate cancer. This article describes the research steps with regard to conducting semi-structured interviews with men aged 70 years and older who were diagnosed with prostate cancer. The researchers interviewed the men about their experiences with prostate cancer and the care they received. The course of the investigation, from selecting the patients to the coding and analyzing of the transcripts with affinity diagramming, is discussed. Special attention is paid to the assumptions of the researchers at the start of the study and their reflection on the process afterwards.

To ascertain how Flemish politicians first enter local politics, interviews were conducted with 797 politicians elected locally in 1994, yielding profiles of demographic & socioeconomic factors, & distinguishing between ascribed status positions derived from politically active family members & achieved status positions through membership in political & other organizations. The expectation that achieved status would take precedence was confirmed. Many politicians were members not only of their respective political parties, but also of workers' unions, health care mutualities, sports clubs, etc. Some 67+% had at least one politically active family member, & 33+% a politically mandated family member, indicating at least some family influence on a successful career in politics. 14 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Majority rule has various applications. In parliamentary theory, it intervenes at the level of relations between assembly & gov, & again, in elections. We find it in democratic theory where the majority of the people must approve decisions of the constitutional organs. Finally, it is employed in the decisionmaking process of the assemblies, & it is this aspect which forms the object of the present study. Since antiquity the majority principle has been generally observed in the decisions of deliberating bodies; but it was not until the 16th cent that it triumphed in England & France. In Switzerland up to the 16th cent majority rule was in effect, disappeared for a while, & then reappeared after the transition from confederation to federation. In Holland, majority rule was applied with certain restrictions from the 16th cent on. Poland had the 'liberum veto' up to the beginning of the 19th cent. From a theoretical viewpoint, the jurists of the Middle Ages based their justification of majority rule on an old Roman adage, & Canon Law has also made an important contribution to this doctrine. The authors of the 18th cent elaborated a legal theory based on rational fictions & on the doctrine of the Social Contract in particular. Among the moderns, 3 principal schools can be distinguished: those who, with Duguit, give a utilitarian basis to the principle, those who see in it a sublimated power, particularly sociol'ts, & finally the theoreticians who accept the principle for ethical reasons. The problem has increased in importance with the existence of international org's where at present, the majority principle is applied only exceptionally. (Translated by Z. Dana from IPSA).

A profile of the careers of Belgian ministers since WWII is presented, drawing on data from various studies. The ministers are predominantly French-speaking, M, U-educated, & of UMc or Mc origin. The most frequent professional occupations are lawyer, U professor, & business executive. The political career leading to a ministerial post is most likely to go through the legislative bodies (city council, county council, & parliament); a secondary route is via the political parties (district & then national party leader). After their ministerial careers ended, 39% of the ex-ministers continued to play a prominent part in parliament. These findings are compared with those for the Netherlands, West Germany, & France. The main difference is the importance of the bureaucratic component in the structure of the ministerial elite in those three countries; in Belgium this is not very important. 10 Tables. Modified HA

Sounding polyphonic stories. Part 3. Method of analysis
Sounding polyphonic stories. Part 3. Method of analysis
In this study an unconventional qualitative, narrative methodology is applied to shed a new light on the significance of having a job and working in elderly care for health care professionals and to use this as a source of inspiration for labor market policy makers.The methodology is rather unconventional because it doesn't focus only on the lingual content of the stories, but also includes other significant aspects of storytelling (e.g., voice and sound). Therefore musical work forms (e.g., music listening and singing) are used additionally.In the first phase of data collection stories of care professionals about the intertwining of their lifeline and career have been collected. In the second, listening phase HR professionals listened to the stories told by the care professionals and used them as a source of inspiration for HR policy innovation. The applied method of analysis connects analysis methods from both arts-based research and voice-centered research. In two previous articles the theoretical domains underlying this study and the methodology of both the story-telling and story-listening phase have been presented. This article treats the method of analysis.