Positioning older men’s social interactions: a visual exploration of the space between acquaintanceship and strangerhood

Abstract

In this article, we show how using a visual method enabled an exploration of the nuances of everyday encounters of older men living alone. It made visible more fleeting encounters, alerting us to the significance of such encounters. The article argues the need to pay more attention to social encounters, situated somewhere in the space between acquaintanceship and strangerhood. While not always easy to articulate verbally, characteristics of such encounters are nonetheless meaningful and supportive of masculine identities delineated by older men living alone.

Effectiveness and sustainability of volunteering with older people living in care homes: A mixed methods systematic review

“…However, none of the studies in the review considered whether gender impacts on the type of volunteering support residents prefer. There is some evidence to suggest that older men may engage differently in social encounters than women (Sorensen & Poland, 2015).…”

Third Places for Older Adults’ Social Engagement: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda

“…Five of these studies were conducted in the US (Campbell & Kim, 2016;Cheang, 2002;Finlay et al, 2020;Versey, 2018;Yen et al, 2012), four in Canada (Burns et al, 2012;Finlay et al, 2015;Gardner, 2011;Ottoni et al, 2016), three in Australia (Alidoust & Bosman, 2015;Alidoust et al, 2019;Veitch et al, 2020) and in India (Adlakha et al, 2020;Adlakha et al, 2021;Jahangir, 2018), two in Denmark (Carroll et al, 2020;Schmidt et al, 2021), and one each in China (Yung et al, 2016), Singapore (Cao et al, 2019) and the UK (Sorensen & Poland, 2015). Half of them were published after 2018.…”

“…Adlakha et al, 2020; [14] Adlakha et al, 2021; [15] Alidoust & Bosman, 2015; [16] Alidoust et al, 2019; [17] Burns et al, 2012; [18] Campbell & Kim, 2016, [19] Cao et al, 2019; [20] Carroll et al, 2020; [21] Cheang, 2002; [22] Finlay et al, 2015; [23] Finlay et al, 2020; [24] Gardner, 2011; [25] Jahangir, 2018; [26] Ottoni et al, 2016; [27] Schmidt et al, 2021; [28] Sorensen & Poland, 2015; [29] Veitch et al, 2020; [30] Versey, 2018; [31] Yen et al, 2012; [32] Yung et al, 2016 …”