Suchergebnisse

Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with 12 grandfathers of young grandchildren living in Czech Republic, this study explores how men perform and conceptualize their role of grandfather in relation to their previous role of father and their own family history. The analysis shows grandparenthood as an ambivalent space for the reconstruction of masculinity. One the one hand, grandparenthood was depicted by the participants as an important way of transitioning one's own relationship to care and emotionality that enable them to relate to the care for young children outside the traditional frameworks of masculinity associated with the role of father. On the other hand, grandfather role represents an important tool for maintaining a connection with the ideal of hegemonic masculinity in older age and as a space for reconstructing the dichotomy between femininity and masculinity and the traditional dichotomies of care/work, activity/passivity, and private/public.

AbstractDeep demographical shifts in western societies are significantly influencing the patterns of family life including the various forms of solidarity between generations. At the same time, we are facing significant changes in the social representation of ageing, which also influence the ways in which the roles of seniors in society are perceived and how the meaning of old age is constructed. The paper highlights the significance of these changes for the possible (re)definition of grandparenthood. It discusses the ways in which these demographical changes, the current heterogeneity of family life, and changing representations of ageing can affect the practices and meanings of grandparenthood. Simultaneously, it points out the need to analyse grandparenthood as a role which is strongly gendered.

Time has become one of the most researched topics in the field of sociological, but especially psychological, research. While broad attention has been paid to the impact of chronological age on planning and the perception of time, much less is known about these processes in (advanced) old age. Drawing on 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with people aged above 70 years (half of which are conducted with people aged above 80 years), this article explores the type of plans people make in older age and how they relate to the idea of planning face-to-face the shortening time perspective. This research indicates the significant ambivalences in how older people relate to plans and the future. While making short-term plans represents an essential part of their lives, the participants problematise the idea of planning as unreasonable concerning their chronological age. Two dominant approaches to formulating plans are identified: (1) framing future plans referring to the future achievement of a loved one and (2) emphasising 'living in the present'. The findings also indicate that the social imaginary of the fourth age plays a vital role in how older adults frame the time ahead of them. In conclusion, we summarise our findings and argue that mortality represents just one of the horizons accompanied by other possible milestones structuring the time remaining and redefining the meanings attached to such time.