Suchergebnisse

What does it mean to be ageing in Chile as a migrant? What does it mean to be late middle-aged nowadays? How does living half of your life in a foreign country impact perspectives on later life? Is retirement an opportunity to go back to the home country? What will happen to the next generation, raised in a different country from their parents?
Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Chile analyses the experience of ageing for Peruvian migrants aged around 60, who have lived in Chile for over 20 years. Their lives are informed by a series of experiences of being in between. They live between two countries, two generations (their Peruvian parents and their Chilean children), two different stages in life (retained youth and menacing old age), between giving care (to their parents) and not wanting care (from their children) and between a continuing legacy (through their children, who have a promising future) and not transmitting legacy (some traditions will not pass on to the next generation).
Peruvian migration has been one of the most studied in Chile. However, neither the experience of ageing of migrants in Chile nor the experience of late middle age has been fully addressed yet. By focusing on the entanglement of ageing, migration and technology, this monograph is an ethnographic contribution to an unexplored subject in the vast literature on migration studies in Chile.

Partiendo de ideas de Descola (Par-délà Nature et Culture: 2005),comparamos un sistema típicamente analogista: el de los nahuas deMéxico con sistemas del noroeste amazónico, que generan problemasen la clasificación, ya que —aunque descritos como animistas— algunosde sus rasgos recuerdan al analogismo. El objetivo principal esdeterminar qué tipos de sistemas pueden generar los diversos modosde identificación, y si esas configuraciones sistémicas pueden explicarlas similitudes entre los casos mencionados. Luego de destacar suscomponentes lógicos describimos los sistemas que los organizan. Sibien ambos —nahuas y noroeste amazónico— coinciden en nociónde causalidad circular, fuerte idea de orden que organiza las relacionesentre los componentes del mundo, la idea de que las accionesindividuales afectan peligrosamente la totalidad, estos serían efectosde superficie de sistemas cuyos elementos están excesivamente relacionados.No obstante, hay una diferencia de grado entre ambasconformaciones, y es la más rígida la de los nahuas —un solo sistema,elementos inferiores a la individualidad, noción de equilibrio— quela del noroeste —sistemas con subsistemas, elementos equivalentesa la individualidad, noción de estabilidad—. Argumentamos que estadiferencia de grado nace en sus diversos modos de identificación.

Successful aging and active aging policies frame independence in old age as an expectation and a virtue in opposition to the once desired reciprocity between generations. Due to digitalization trends worldwide, mastering digital skills becomes another responsibility for older adults to remain independent. However, this process can create new forms of dependency as support from skilled users – usually the younger generation – is crucial for technology adoption among older adults. This study addresses how older adults may experience digital dependency as a personal failure and a burden upon younger generations. We conducted long-term ethnography among older adults adopting new technology in Brazil and Chile, countries with rapidly aging populations that have implemented aggressive digitalization strategies. The fast digitalization of public services may increase the risks of social exclusion for older adults as the less connected and less skilled age group in Latin America. Contrary to expectations suggested by the research literature, participants preferred to enroll in smartphone workshops instead of relying on their children. We volunteered in smartphone workshops for older adults and mapped the difficulties they face when adopting new technologies and the strategies they develop afterward to use technology while avoiding dependency. Participants may restrict their use of smartphones due to their limited digital skills or claim a lack of interest in technology as a self-defense strategy against appearing ignorant or incompetent. We found that participants preferred relying on friends for support instead, perceiving their help as a form of peer collaboration.

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The smartphone is often literally right in front of our nose, so you would think we would know what it is. But do we? To find out, 11 anthropologists each spent 16 months living in communities in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, focusing on the take up of smartphones by older people. Their research reveals that smartphones are technology for everyone, not just for the young. The Global Smartphone presents a series of original perspectives deriving from this global and comparative research project. Smartphones have become as much a place within which we live as a device we use to provide 'perpetual opportunism', as they are always with us. The authors show how the smartphone is more than an 'app device' and explore differences between what people say about smartphones and how they use them. The smartphone is unprecedented in the degree to which we can transform it. As a result, it quickly assimilates personal values. In order to comprehend it, we must take into consideration a range of national and cultural nuances, such as visual communication in China and Japan, mobile money in Cameroon and Uganda, and access to health information in Chile and Ireland – all alongside diverse trajectories of ageing in Al Quds, Brazil and Italy. Only then can we know what a smartphone is and understand its consequences for people's lives around the world.

El smartphone suele estar literalmente frente a nuestras narices, por eso creemos saber lo que es. ¿Pero lo sabemos? Para responder a esta pregunta, once antropólogos vivieron durante 16 meses en comunidades de África, Asia, Europa y Sudamérica, enfocándose en el uso de smartphones por gente mayor. Sus investigaciones revelan que son una tecnología para todos, no solo para los jóvenes. El Smartphone Global presenta una serie de nuevas perspectivas que emergen de este proyecto de investigación global y comparativo. El smartphone se ha convertido tanto en un lugar dentro del cual vivimos como en un aparato que usamos para tener "oportunismo perpetuo", pues siempre está con nosotros. Los autores muestran cómo el smartphone es más que un "aparato con aplicaciones" y exploran las diferencias entre lo que las personas dicen de él y la forma en cómo lo usan. El smartphone no tiene precedentes por el grado en el cual podemos transformarlo. Como resultado, rápidamente asimila nuestros valores personales. Para comprenderlo debemos considerar una serie de matices nacionales y culturales, tales como la comunicación visual en China y Japón, el dinero móvil en Camerún y Uganda, y el acceso a la información de salud en Chile e Irlanda, junto a las diversas trayectorias del envejecimiento en Al-Quds, Brasil e Italia. Solo entonces sabremos qué es el smartphone y podremos comprender sus consecuencias en las vidas de las personas alrededor del mundo.

Sl Se c'è una cosa che abbiamo sempre, letteralmente, sotto il naso, è lo smartphone. Ed è normale credere, dunque, che sappiamo cosa sia. Ma è davvero così? Per scoprirlo, 11 antropologi hanno trascorso 16 mesi in varie comunità in Africa, Asia, Europa e Sud America per osservare il modo in cui gli anziani utilizzano lo smartphone, e la loro ricerca ha rivelato che si tratta di una tecnologia rivolta a tutti, non solo ai giovani. Lo Smartphone Globale presenta i risultati frutto di questo progetto di ricerca comparativa di respiro globale. Gli smartphone sono diventati tanto un luogo in cui viviamo, quanto un dispositivo di 'opportunismo perpetuo' da cui non ci separiamo mai. Gli autori hanno dimostrato che lo smartphone è molto più di un 'contenitore di app', concentrandosi sulle differenze tra ciò che le persone dicono sugli smartphone e il modo in cui li usano. Nessun dispositivo aveva mai raggiunto un tale livello di 'trasformabilità' – trasformabilità che si concretizza nella capacità di assimilare rapidamente i nostri valori personali. Per poterlo comprendere, dunque, dobbiamo tener presente un'ampia gamma di sfumature nazionali e culturali, quali la comunicazione visiva in Cina e Giappone, i trasferimenti di denaro sotto forma di credito telefonico in Camerun e in Uganda, e l'accesso a informazioni mediche in Cina e Irlanda, oltre alle diverse traiettorie della terza età ad Al Quds, in Brasile e in Italia. Solo allora potremo sapere davvero cos'è uno smartphone e capire appieno l'impatto che ha sulla vita delle persone in tutto il mondo.

In our highly interconnected and globalized world, people often pursue their aspirations in multiple places. Yet in public and scholarly debates, aspirations are often seen as the realm of younger, mobile generations, since they are assumed to hold the greatest potential for shaping the future. This volume flips this perspective on its head by exploring how aspirations are constructed from the vantage point of later life, and shows how they are pursued across time, space, and generations. The aspirations of older people are diverse, and relate not only to aging itself but also to planning the next generation's future, preparing an "ideal" retirement, searching for intimacy and self-realization, and confronting death and afterlives. Aspiring in Later Life brings together rich ethnographic cases from different regions of the world, offering original insights into how aspirations shift over the course of life and how they are pursued in contexts of translocal mobility. This book is also freely available online as an open-access digital edition.​

Investigating local Indigenous processes of creation and creativity, this book uses ethnographic and comparative anthropological perspectives to enquire about creative transformative practices in lowland South America. The volume shows how people create and reinforce their conditions of being by employing different genres of transgression and by creatively shifting contexts of significance. Local socio-cosmic orders, the interrelation of creative genres (myth, verbal art, song, ritual, and handicrafts), and their changing frames of reference (from communal celebrations to wider political and commercial realms) demonstrate the relational, generative, and processual quality of Amerindian creativity