Suchergebnisse

Surprisingly, the discourse on ageism hardly profits from stigma research despite their common denominator—discrimination. The goal of this article is to discuss the stigma concept developed on micro-level interactions and apply it to ageism research on the macro level, i.e. using Round 4 data of the representative international European Social Survey (2008). The data analysis is focused on dominant opinions of the Lithuanian population (N=2002) and usual behavior toward older people, while international comparison is used for interpretation of results. The results show that old age in the Lithuanian society is an "open secret" type of stigma: verbal praise of older people, high assessment of their morals and polite declaration of respect conceal intolerance, disregard and discrimination on the behavioral level. The old age stigma is widespread in Lithuania and stronger than in advanced European countries. Its level is close to discrimination particular to other post-communist and Mediterranean countries.

The world shaped by the media is taken over by its audience. The media homogenizes different views, influences age identity of individuals and attitudes towards their own and other age groups. Western research reports under-representation of elderly, especially women, and they are often portrayed negatively in physical, psychological and social sense. In this paper images of elderly in 396 publications of 2007 on the internet portal Delfi are analyzed. Contrary to the Western trends, elderly women here are more often represented than men. Dominating criminal reports, as previously, create the image of victims – weak, naive, harmed elderly, accentuated by the trends of old age institutionalization. Positive pole in the Lithuanian media is represented by the image of fighters, public figures, deportees (instead of Western healthy leisure class representative image).

The Lithuanian consumer society is evolving, but we know little about it. On the one hand, previous research shows that it is a survival society that prioritizes functional needs, on the other hand, there are indications that a segment of consumers oriented towards self-expression is forming in Lithuania. Since consumption is both a consequence and a factor of class stratification, it is important to know whether (and how) it contributes to the strengthening of the social otherness of the group. The aim of this article is to find out whether (and how) consumption attitudes of older people differ from those of other age groups in Lithuania and what they are in the context of consumption values. In this study we analyzed the data of the representative Lithuanian population survey TNS Atlas (2012, N = 1847), divided into age groups (15–29, 30–44, 45–59, and 60–75 years). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for the comparison of consumption preferences, post hoc criteria and Spearman coefficient were applied, and the typology of values was used for the analysis of the content of statements. The results of this research showed that consumption attitudes of the Lithuanian population are not highly differentiated according to age, the attitudes of the oldest respondents (60–75 years old) differ little from others. The entire population aged 45–75 is more characterized by a combination of conservative and altruistic-ecological attitudes than the younger ones (18–44 years old), less characterized by openness to innovation and the pursuit of social self-enhancement. Although the differences in attitudes according to age are not bright in quantitative terms, in terms of content, there is a noticeable detachment of the older population from the refined consumer community.

Emigration is one of the sorest problems in Lithuania. Emigrants from Lithuania most often fill the sector of unskilled labour in the target countries, one of which is elder care. Financial factors are considered the main motivation for emigration; however, migration is a complex phenomenon and requires a more nuanced investigation. The aim of this article is to analyse subjectively identified reasons of emigration from Lithuania to work in the elder care sector and motivation in choosing a particular country. The thematic data analysis of 13 semi-structured interviews revealed that emigration is motivated by an entirety of reasons: beside financial factors other "push" (family, health) and "pull" (knowledge about the country, family formation) factors are important. The move also is facilitated by the chain migration factors. The importance of the economic reasons for migration is revealed in cases of financial insecurity (loss of employment, threat of company bankruptcy, financial difficulties in the parents' family etc.). Economic considerations become significant again, when comparing the job options and working conditions available to migrants. Work in the care sector for older people is seen as relatively easy, accessible and well paid. Other "push" factors were related to an unsatisfactory life situation, including stressful employment, and unsatisfying family relationships. The desire to get to know a foreign country, the opportunity to start a family or establish oneself there can work as "pull" factors. The decision to emigrate was supported by the chain migration factors – encouragement, help and support of previously established immigrants. In some cases, it emerged as an independent factor of migration people emigrated, invited by relatives or acquaintances from abroad even though they did not initially plan to migrate.
With the rapidly growing share of older people in Lithuania and the underdeveloped care services, the opportunity to retain potential emigrants by creating attractive working conditions for them in Lithuania, remains untapped. Policies should aim to improve the working conditions and opportunities in the care sector in Lithuania in order to encourage Lithuanians to stay in the country. In addition, regulations to better absorb (returning) migrants should be in place, given the ongoing movement between countries.

Loneliness as a subjective consequence of social exclusion has a negative impact on both individual and public health, and impedes societal development. Even though Lithuania has one of the highest rates of loneliness among EU countries, it has not been closely studied. This paper presents for the first time the analysis of the prevalence and factors of loneliness in Lithuania, covering all age groups, and provides the European context. Data from the European Social Survey 7th Wave (2014) were analysed using binary logistic regression. Contrary to our expectations, (older) age is not a predictor of loneliness in Lithuania. Lonely people are more likely to be of other nationality than the majority and the main minorities (i.e. not Lithuanian, Russian or Polish); are less likely to live with a spouse or partner, but more likely to live with children in the same household; more often experience serious financial difficulties; have a history of financial instability in their childhood; tend to have poor subjective health. Not having a partner/spouse and lower economic status are well known risk factors of loneliness from previous international studies. In the context of European countries, the share of lonely people in Lithuania is about average and living without a spouse/partner is a common characteristic of loneliness across all countries. However, other factors of loneliness, such as financial difficulties (current and during childhood), living with children in the same household and poor subjective health appear to be more pronounced in Lithuania.

Social (non)participation is one of the key elements associated with social exclusion in old age. Scholarship about this topic tends to rely mainly on quantitative research from Western and Northern European countries. The aim of this article, based on qualitative interviews with older people (N=27) in Lithuania, is to give some insight into how older people in an Eastern European country experience social participation, and the reasons they offer for abstaining from engaging in it. Findings are contradictory: social participation is valued by older people for both direct and indirect reasons (e.g. a desire to simply be among people), but they hesitate to participate for a variety of reasons. The article contributes to the academic discussion by providing insights into older people's perspectives about social participation, their preferences, and, in particular, the backdrop that particular organizations (such as the church) can play in promoting social participation and consequently strengthening the social inclusion of older adults in post-communist countries.

Foreign scholars highlight that despite the modernization of social life, cultural attitudes towards thefamily are changing slowly, and women remain closely tied to the role of motherhood (McKennon Brody, Frey,2017). The media has the power to reflect on and change the attittudes prevailing in society, thereby reducing the stigmatizing ones. Researchers discover the domination of pronatal discourse by analyzing images of childlessness, which supports parenthood in many ways, and individuals, especially women, who do not raise children and are underestimated and often stigmatized (Gibb, 2019; Grill, 2019). In order to understand the current cultural attitudes towards childless women and to analyze changes in comparison to other countries, it is important to examine them from a historical perspective.The representation of childlessness in Lithuanian media during the last decades of the 20th century was not studied yet. The scholars (Marcinkevičienė, Praspaliauskienė, 1999; Maslauskaitė 2001; 2002) who had analyzed Lithuanian women's magazines during the late Soviet period and after the Independence in 1990 focused mainly on the representations of familial and romantic relationships. This research, based on a qualitative content analysis of 224 articles from the most popular women's magazines of 1991–1996, showed that sex education and abortion prevention were the prevailing topics covering the lack of public knowledge about reproductive and sexual health. The aim of the media was to consolidate motherhood as the main expression of femininity within the framewok of declining birth rates; therefore, infertility and voluntary childlessness were stigmatized.

Modern bureaucratic organisations are characterized by hierarchical structure, control and accountability. Post-bureaucratic organisations, which are widely established in the postmodern world, encourage empowerment, initiative, creativity and responsibility of their members while transferring control functions to the corporate culture and a clearly defined and comprehensible mission of their organisation. Despite the fact that the postmodern, or post-bureaucratic, type of an organisation that came into being in the 1960s is being increasingly integrated in various aspects and areas of society, including public institutions and universities, the question whether this type of organisation gains ground over the modernist type is still yet to be answered. This paper has been written on the basis of the materials from 3 focus groups, representing administration and faculties of one university, that summarise their seven-year experience of EU Structural Funds project management. The paper presents insights into the issues arising due to the interplay between different corporate values and cultures and considers alternatives of solving these issues.

Based on biomedical view bodily ageing in gerontology traditionally was associated with biological decline. Theorists of social gerontology recently noticed certain ambiguity of biomedical age discourses: between statements that ageing is universal, natural on one hand, and the proposed means for its "treatment" on the other. The objective of the article is to discuss results of an investigation on representation of ageing body in Lithuanian mass media. The method used is qualitative content analyse using Hamlet data analysis software. Research data: publications mentioning bodily ageing in the internet portal "Delfi" (Lithuanian version) 2007.01.01 – 2007.12.31. The analysis of publications confirms theoretical insights showing that two interconnected topics are dominant in the public discourse: medical knowledge and body care. Ageing of body is associated with decline, destruction and risk to health, so ageing body is socially constructed as
marginal.

While Lithuania advances rapidly in the ICT sector, a digital divide persists among older adults. A study of 289 elderly Internet users highlighted key barriers and facilitators in digital engagement. Motivation stemmed from personal qualities like curiosity and past work experience with digital tools. Major barriers included language challenges, technical jargon, limited support, device comprehension issues, and emotional factors. Formal and informal training, peer support, gaming's role, and family, particularly younger members, emerged as crucial learning aids. The study underscores the need for strategies tailored to enhance digital inclusion of older people in Lithuania.

This paper focuses on childless women reflections of their current status. During the qualitative research (2017–2018), 44 interviews have been completed with 28–71 year old women without children. Based on the positioning theory (Harré et al. 2009; Allen, Wiles 2013), the paper reveals how childlessness is being positioned on different levels: personal, interpersonal and cultural. The individualistic values – freedom from the burden, taking care of oneself, recognizing responsibility to raise children – were revealed on the personal level. On the interpersonal level, women of reproductive age expressed positions that were agreed upon with their partners or stated how difficult it is to reach the agreement. Meanwhile, the narratives of women from older generations reveal inert life scenarios. The cultural norms to have children in marriage had a strong influence on both women groups, who were in their reproductive age and who have finished their reproductive career.

Vyresnio amžiaus žmonių socialinės atskirties tyrimuose dominuojanti tendencija – tirti dėsningumus, o šio straipsnio išskirtinumas – siekis atskleisti vyresnio amžiaus žmonių, kurie gyvena vieni, subjektyvius dalyvavimo visuomenėje vertinimus. Socialinė atskirtis / įtrauktis straipsnyje apibrėžiama kaip daugialypė sąvoka, apibūdinanti (ne)teisingus socialinius ryšius. Originalaus empirinio tyrimo (27 pusiau struktūruoti interviu) duomenų analizė atskleidžia platų socialinės atskirties, patiriamos įvairiu lygmeniu, spektrą. Remiantis socialinio teisingumo schema, neįtrauktumo visuomenėje naratyvai grindžiami asmeniniu ir tarpasmeniniu (amžiaus, sveikatos, bendravimo, savarankiškumo), organizaciniu, bendruomenės (darbo) ir visuomenės (dalyvavimo renginiuose ir politikoje) kontekstais.

While there is a tendency to study regularities in the social exclusion of older people, the distinctive feature of this article is the aim to reveal the subjective assessments of social participation of elderly people who live alone. Social exclusion/inclusion is defined in the article as a multiple concept describing (un)just social relationships. An analysis of the data from the original empirical research (27 semistructured interviews) reveals a wide range of social exclusion cases experienced at various levels. In line with the social justice scheme, the narratives of social exclusion are based on personal and interpersonal contexts (age, health, communication, autonomy), as well as the organizational, community (work) and broader social context (participation in events and politics). ; Vyresnio amžiaus žmonių socialinės atskirties tyrimuose dominuojanti tendencija – tirti dėsningumus, o šio straipsnio išskirtinumas – siekis atskleisti vyresnio amžiaus žmonių, kurie gyvena vieni, subjektyvius dalyvavimo visuomenėje vertinimus. Socialinė atskirtis / įtrauktis straipsnyje apibrėžiama kaip daugialypė sąvoka, apibūdinanti (ne)teisingus socialinius ryšius. Originalaus empirinio tyrimo (27 pusiau struktūruoti interviu) duomenų analizė atskleidžia platų socialinės atskirties, patiriamos įvairiu lygmeniu, spektrą. Remiantis socialinio teisingumo schema, neįtrauktumo visuomenėje naratyvai grindžiami asmeniniu ir tarpasmeniniu (amžiaus, sveikatos, bendravimo, savarankiškumo), organizaciniu, bendruomenės (darbo) ir visuomenės (dalyvavimo renginiuose ir politikoje) kontekstais.

The members of the International Network for the Analysis of Intergenerational Relations (Generationes) proudly present the most recent issue of the jointly produced compendium "Generations, Intergenerational Relations and Generational Policy". This new version includes 12 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish (new), Hungarian (new), Turkish (new), Romanian (new), and Lithuanian (new). The layout of the compendium is designed for using it to translate the specific concepts and terminology of research into generations and intergenerational relations from one language into another. ; Członkowie Międzynarodowej Sieci Relacji Międzypokoleniowych (Generationes) z dumą prezentują najnowsze wydanie wspólnie opracowanego kompendium "Pokolenia, relacje międzypokoleniowe, polityka relacji międzypokoleniowych". Nowa wersja zawiera 12 języków: angielski, francuski, niemiecki, włoski, hiszpański, polski, portugalski, szwedzki (nowy), węgierski (nowy), turecki (nowy), rumuński (nowy) oraz litewski (nowy). Układ kompendium został zaprojektowany tak, aby możliwe było stosowanie go do tłumaczenia konkretnych pojęć i terminologii z zakresu badań nad pokoleniami i relacjami międzypokoleniowymi z jednego języka na inny.