Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 16:00 - 17:30
PAPER SESSION 3
Lifecourse
W828, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
‘We’ve Had Our Sex Life Way Back’: Old(er) Care Home Residents and Sexual/Intimate Citizenship
Simpson, P., Horne, M., Brown Wilson, C., Dickinson, T., Br, L.
(University of Manchester)
This think-piece addresses the neglected if not taboo topic of older care home residents and sexual/intimate
citizenship. It examines three related bodies of work. First, the focus in the general literature on care homes for older
people on prolonging physical and/or psychological autonomy has overshadowed concerns with sexuality/intimacy
(Bauer 1999). There is also a tension in this work between views of care homes as sites of control (Wiersma and
Dupuis 2010) and as empowering spaces (Knight et al 2010). The relations of care are more ambivalent than this
binary formulation allows (Twigg 2000). Second, the literature on sexuality and ageing/care homes addresses
sexuality in limited, often sexological ways, though some work highlights the problem of ageism intersecting with
differences of gender, sexuality, class and race (Richardson and Lazur 1995). Third, work concerned with the rights of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGB&T) residents has highlighted the problem of heteronormativity/homophobia and
how individuals become 'twice hidden' because of ageism combined with the heterosexual assumption (Willis et al
2013). All three bodies of work lack fuller engagement with needs relating to sexuality/intimacy. We conclude by
outlining an agenda for research based on more critical, sociologically-informed work (Hafford-Letchfield 2008) that
recognizes residents' exclusion from sexuality/intimacy and identifies practical solutions to such problems.
The Impossible Choice? Making Decisions of Care for Older Parents
Morgan Brett, B.
(University of East London)
Witnessing one parent's ageing process and the associated dilemmas of placing a parent in care often cause 'midlife
children' enormous emotional turmoil. Drawing upon data collected across four different qualitative and literature
based research projects which I have worked on in recent years, the aim of this paper is to highlight the psychosocial
dilemmas faced by midlife children of older parents, with the aim to improving inter-generational relationships. It will
consider what practical, emotional and psychical effects does witnessing the increasing agedness and death of
parents have on those in midlife? How are the relationships between the (midlife) child and their parents negotiated
during this phase of the life course on a practical, emotional and psychical level? And how can care provision for older
people be improved in order to support not only those in the older generations but also those in the midlife generation
who are caring for them?
Changing Perceptions of Identity Over the Lifecourse of Mass Observation Project Writers (1981-2014)
Lindsey, R.
(University of Southampton)
The Mass Observation Project (MOP) is a volunteer writing project in which more than 3,500 self-selected individuals
have written in response to themed questions -directives - sent out by the Mass Observation Archive (MOA) three
times a year since 1981. Directives are wide-ranging, asking writers to write contemporary and retrospective accounts
of their views on current events, descriptions of their lives and experiences, and descriptions of themselves.
Cumulatively these responses provide rich insights into changes and continuities in writers' lives, and offer a strong
sense of individual voice across the 1981-2014 timeframe. Whilst there has been very little analysis of MOP writers'
characteristics, some social scientists have argued that the MOP is unreliable because certain sections of British
society are underrepresented within this data-source.
This paper draws on the findings from two longitudinal research projects to discuss who the MOP writers are. The first
study followed 38 individual writers across time looking at their volunteering attitudes and behaviours. The second
study, which is ongoing, uses mixed-methods to investigate the socio-economic characteristics of all the MOP's
volunteer writers, the extent and nature of their engagement with the archive, and how the characteristics of
respondents may have changed over time. This paper discusses preliminary qualitative analysis of MOP writing on
identities, exploring continuity and change in individual writers' identities in relation to life-events, class and place over
their life-courses. It examines the disconnection between shifting individual perceptions of class and quantitative
longitudinal analyses of class that use occupation as a measure.
BSA Annual Conference 2015 120
Glasgow Caledonian University