Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 11:00 - 12:30
PAPER SESSION 7
disproportionate influence, while the sparse literature that exists about responses to death in the global South has
focused largely on material circumstances and consequences. This paper will report on our initial qualitative analysis
of semi-structured interviews with two generations of family members living in urban Senegal, and consider the
potential theoretical approaches that might inform, and be informed by, this work as a form of family sociology. The
project, funded by the Leverhulme Foundation, has involved in-depth interviews with 29 adults and 31 children and
young people (aged 12-30) who had experienced the death of a relative, as well as 20 key informants, comprising
local and religious leaders, community-based organisations, government and NGO representatives working at local
and national levels. We also conducted four focus groups (one in each area) with groups of women and young people
to explore community members' perceptions of the neighbourhood, cultural and religious practices, and norms
surrounding death, mourning and grief. For this paper, we focus particularly on the intergenerational dimensions of the
study, and how responses to death are embedded in understandings of family relationships.
The (Im)mortality of Parents: Thoughts from a Study on English End-of-Life Care
Borgstrom, E.
(University of Cambridge)
The concept of social death is actively engaged with in English end-of-life care policy and social death before
biological death is seen as a problem. Social death denotes a loss of personhood, a shift in social roles and the
disintegration of relationships, whereby the individual is treated as if dead. Policy posits that dying persons are likely to
be subject to a social death prior to their physical death unless they play an active and aware role in planning their
death. Such a view foregrounds interactions with the health service and may not aptly regard what happens within
families. Ample sociological and anthropological evidences suggests that sociality and relationality may endure even
when a person is considered 'dead', particularly through the notion of legacy and remembrance. Drawing on an
ethnographic study of English end-of-life care, I describe how people enact 'living' – in terms of being relationally
important in the present – by maintaining certain qualities of parenthood and the flow of care and concern within the
family. This applies to both persons who are considered to be physically dying or already dead. By taking a relational
perspective to personhood and considering the affective nature of agency, I will argue that the concept of social death
can be difficult to apply within the family without posing ourselves questions about how 'the English' treat their dead,
and what significance death has within interpersonal relationships and conceptualising the family.
Revisiting Caringscapes: From Crisis to Chronic Care in Midlife
McKie, L., Bowlby, S.
(Durham University)
In contributions to the analysis of informal caring and paid working, across time and space, we offered the framework
of caringscapes. This incorporates past and current experiences, knowledge of the experiences of others, together
with anticipations about the changing nature of caring over time-space.
Caringscapes continues to offer relevance and explanatory potential when we consider the example of stroke among
the middle aged and the implications for working partners and family members. However, our original framework did
not adequately address (a) the multifaceted experiences and inequalities of opportunities facing carers given their
differing social capital, class, ethnicity and age, as well as gender, and (b) the particular demands of crisis and chronic
care. Crisis care requires short term, intensive everyday care support which may give way to the need to manage a
chronic condition through rehabilitation, adaptations and long term everyday care support. Much of this everyday
support is provided by family members (or more rarely friends) who may be involved in paid work and wish, or need,
to continue doing so.
In this paper we revisit the caringscapes framework in the context of crisis and chronic care through the example of
stroke survivors and their carers. Recognising the gendered nature of the multifaceted nature of care we explore the
intersectionalities of carers who continue to try to do paid work in late middle and older age.
Relationality, Care and Ambivalence in Devolution: Older Couples Negotiating Ageing with Care Needs
Rees, D.
(Swansea University)
Research has shown that ageing with a partner or spouse increases the likelihood of care giving (Calasanti, T. M., &
Bowen, M. E., 2006). This paper forms part of an exploratory, qualitative PhD study examining the joined experiences
of older couples, living at home with care needs, in the devolved Welsh policy context. Using findings from 48
BSA Annual Conference 2015 266
Glasgow Caledonian University