Social Identities across the Life Course

Hockey, Jennifer Lorna; James, Allison

doi:10.1007/978-1-4039-1399-9

Cited by 250 publications

(176 citation statements)

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“…How people feel and act in the face of fateful moments -not just terminal illness or a fall that initiates terminal decline, but also failing a vital exam, a marriage not working out, an accidentthat mark a crossroads in the individual's life are not easily accounted for in terms of either agency or structure (Hockey & James, 2003). Even people with agency and resources may, at such a crossroads, go with the flow rather than rationally evaluate options; the new direction may not be an autonomous choice, but not fatalism either.…”

Section: Who Wants To Choose?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Choice and compassion at the end of life: A critical analysis of recent English policy discourse

Borgstrom

Walter

2015

Social Science & Medicine

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End of life care in England has recently been framed by two very different discourses. One (connected to advance care planning) promotes personal choice, the other promotes compassionate care; both are prominent in professional, policy and media settings. The article outlines the history of who promoted each discourse from 2008 to early 2015, when, why and how and this was done.Each discourse is then critically analysed from a standpoint that takes account of bodily decline, structural constraints, and human relationality. We focus on the biggest group of those nearing the end of their life, namely frail very old people suffering multiple conditions. In their care within contemporary healthcare organisations, choice becomes a tick box and compassion a commodity.Informed choice, whether at the end of life or in advance of it, does not guarantee the death the person wants, especially for those dying of conditions other than cancer and in the absence of universally available skilled and compassionate care. Enabling healthcare staff to provide compassionate, relational care, however, implies reversing the philosophical, political and financial direction of healthcare in the UK and most other Anglophone countries. KeywordsEngland, end of life care, choice, compassion, discourse, old age, relational ethics, governmentality 2 Research Highlights• The 'choice' agenda arises out of (cancer) palliative care.• The 'compassion' agenda arises out of elder care scandals.• Compassion signifies care as a relationship rather than a commodity.• Compassion can be undermined by an overemphasis on autonomous individuals.

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Section: Who Wants To Choose?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Choice and compassion at the end of life: A critical analysis of recent English policy discourse

Borgstrom

Walter

2015

Social Science & Medicine

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“…Thus within a social imaginary frailty, like a black hole, is both unknowable and a space from which there is no return. Hockey and James (2003) argue that social identities in late old age can be conceptualised as liminal. Liminality (after Turner (1974)) is a threshold space, a transitional point between social structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living on the margin: Understanding the experience of living and dying with frailty in old age

Nicholson

Meyer

Flatley

et al. 2012

Social Science & Medicine

135

176

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. The social gerontological literature suggests that constructs of frailty are diverse. Gilleard and Higgs (2010b) posit that culturally those deemed frail have few self-empowering narratives. They argue that frailty is held within a social imaginary as a black hole, a socially void space into which older people are sequestrated away to decay and die. Thus within a social imaginary frailty, like a black hole, is both unknowable and a space from which there is no return. Permanent repository link 4Hockey and James (2003) argue that social identities in late old age can be conceptualised as liminal. Liminality (after Turner (1974)) is a threshold space, a transitional point between social structures. Such spaces are fluid, allow for the potential redefinition of self-identity and can even be a position of power. Thus although older 'liminal' individuals are placed in an uncertain outsider status this social positioning can provide a space from which "weak" elders exert power. The vulnerability of old age can expose the very decline and dependency from which wider society seeks to distance itself. Thus identities are not fixed nor necessarily related to dominant understandings of a declining body. Grenier (2006bGrenier ( , 2007 develops this thesis in her work on the subjective experience of older frail people. She and others (Becker, 1994;Kaufman, 1994) argue that frail elders themselves differentiate between being and feeling frail. The label of frailty is actively resisted as elders distinguish between the body one is (selfidentity) and the body one has -a physical, vulnerable, and objectified social identity.Within Western welfare policy and practice frailty is increasingly used as a means of classification, to prioritise and fund care. Indeed, clinically frailty is often used as a This paper draws on findings from a longitudinal study of the subjective experience of being a frail older person living at home. The aim of the study was to understand the experience of home-dwelling older people living with frailty over time in order to develop the empirical evidence base for this group and to consider more fully how narratives of frailty can shape person-centred care provision. MethodsTo capture the dimensions of social, psychological and physical frailty, the research design used a combined qualitative psychosocial method. Psychosocial research conceptualises experience as a constant and dynamic communication between internal psychological and external sociological dimensions manifest through unconscious or feeling states, and conscious communication (Hollway, 2004;Roseneil, 2006 Trust. All participants received written and verbal information about the study and informed consent was confirmed at each cycle of data collection. All were assured of confidentiality and that pseudonyms would be used in all research reports. Data collectionTwo psychosocial narrative approaches; the Biographic Narrat...

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“…Even with the same profiles and biographical similarities there can be significant differences in meanings for people (Hockey & James, 2003).…”

Section: The Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Other lives in accounting: Critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

Haynes

2010

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

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The aim of this paper is to provide a critical and reflexive evaluation of the use of an oral history methodology in a research project investigating the lived experiences of women accountants. It discusses the nature and benefits of oral history as a research methodology, which allows the subjectivities of individuals to be central to the empirical data. It allows the voices of those who have arguably been ignored, marginalised or silenced within particular contexts to be heard. The paper draws on feminist approaches to research methodology, which stress reciprocity and the minimisation of hierarchies within research. It evaluates some of the ethical issues arising, such as the ownership of research, the use of friends and strangers as research participants, and emotion, within the research relationship. The paper concludes that, when approached critically and reflexively, oral history provides a sound epistemological and methodological base for understanding the meaning of events and experience to individuals.

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Social Identities across the Life Course

Cited by 250 publications

References 0 publications

Choice and compassion at the end of life: A critical analysis of recent English policy discourse

Choice and compassion at the end of life: A critical analysis of recent English policy discourse

Living on the margin: Understanding the experience of living and dying with frailty in old age

Other lives in accounting: Critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

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