Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:09:34.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship: challenges of exploring transition to the fourth age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2017

TATIANA SEDLÁKOVÁ Open the ORCID record for TATIANA SEDLÁKOVÁ [Opens in a new window]  and
ADÉLA SOURALOVÁ
TATIANA SEDLÁKOVÁ*
Affiliation:
Office for Population Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
ADÉLA SOURALOVÁ
Affiliation:
Office for Population Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
*
Address for correspondence: Tatiana Sedláková, Office for Population Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic E-mail: t.sedlakova@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article opens the discussion on age asymmetries within the research relationship between researchers who are young and able-bodied and research participants who are much older and have acquired impairments in later life. Based on the knowledge of age relations, we present our conceptualisation of power imbalances based on age. We see these asymmetries as co-existing with other forms of power imbalances between researchers and participants, and argue that these asymmetries are not the results of the limitations of the older adults but rather the consequences of different constellations of possibilities for researchers and participants. Moreover, we assert that taking these asymmetries into account is a necessary step when conducting research with people with acquired impairment in later life. As researchers, reflecting on age asymmetries helped us to avoid othering our research participants and prevented us from marginalising their life experiences. Drawing upon our own research, we reflect upon the network of cognitive, physical and social asymmetries that emerged in our research relationships and identify the main challenges that we faced. In the presence of some of these age asymmetries, we approach the research relationship through the roles which we played vis-à-vis the participants. We consider reflecting and addressing these asymmetries to be a necessary step in creating and maintaining a research relationship based on equality. Only a reflexive and transparent approach to these power imbalances can ensure that data collection and analysis do not contribute to their reproduction. This article presents some general insights on research practices and contributes to the debate on power imbalances in qualitative research. The article also contributes to gerontology and provides new insights about the lives of those individuals with acquired impairment in later life, a topic that has so far received inadequate research attention.

Keywords

age asymmetriesolder adultsimpairmentfourth ageinterviewqualitative research
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , February 2019 , pp. 409 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adriansen, H. K. 2012. Timeline interviews: a tool for conducting life history research. Qualitative Studies, 3, 1, 40–55.Google Scholar
Atchley, R. 2001. Aging and society. In Morgan, L. and Kunkel, S. (eds), Aging: The Social Context. Pine Forge Press, San Francisco, 3–26.Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B. and Smith, J. 2003. New frontiers in the future of aging: from successful aging of the young old to the dilemmas of the fourth age. Gerontology, 49, 2, 123–35.Google Scholar
Bartlett, R. 2012. Modifying the diary interview method to research the lives of people with dementia. Qualitative Health Research, 22, 12, 1717–26.Google Scholar
Buse, C. E. and Twigg, J. M. 2014 a. Women with dementia and their handbags: negotiating identity, privacy and ‘home’ through material culture. Journal of Aging Studies, 30, 14–21.Google Scholar
Buse, C. E. and Twigg, J. M. 2014 b. Looking ‘out of place’: analysing the spatial and symbolic meanings of dementia care settings through dress. International Journal of Aging and Later Life, 9, 1, 69–95.Google Scholar
Calasanti, T. M. 2003. Theorizing age relations. In Biggs, S., Lowenstein, A. and Hendricks, J. (eds), The Need for Theory: Critical Approaches to Social Gerontology. Baywood, New York, 199–218.Google Scholar
Calasanti, T. M. and Slevin, K. F. 2006. Age Matters: Re-aligning Feminist Thinking. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Carmody, J., Traynor, V. and Marchetti, E. 2015. Barriers to qualitative dementia research: the elephant in the room. Qualitative Health Research, 25, 7, 1013–9.Google Scholar
Coons, K. and Watson, S. 2013. Conducting research with individuals who have intellectual disabilities: ethical and practical implications for qualitative research. Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 19, 2, 14–24.Google Scholar
Fontana, A. and Frey, J. H. 2000. The interview: from structured questions to negotiated text. In Denzin, K. N. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage, London, 645–72.Google Scholar
Friedan, B. 1994. The Fountain of Age. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Gerstorf, D., Ram, N., Lindenberger, U. and Smith, J. 2013. Age and time-to-death trajectories of change in indicators of cognitive, sensory, physical, health, social, and self-related functions. Developmental Psychology, 49, 10, 1805–11.Google Scholar
Gill, F. and Maclean, C. 2002. Knowing your place: gender and reflexivity in two ethnographies. Sociological Research Online, 7, 2. Available online at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/2/gill.html [Accessed 23 November 2016].Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2014. Ageing, Corporeality and Embodiment. Anthem Press, London.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2015. Rethinking Old Age: Theorising the Fourth Age. Palgrave, London.Google Scholar
Grenier, A. 2007. Crossing age and generational boundaries: exploring intergenerational research encounters. Journal of Social Issues, 63, 4, 713–27.Google Scholar
Grenier, A. 2015. Transitions and time. In Twigg, J. and Martin, W. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. Routledge, London, 404–11.Google Scholar
Grenier, A., Lloyd, L. and Phillipson, C. 2017. Precarity in late life: rethinking dementia as a ‘frail’ old age. Sociology of Health and Illness, 39, 2, 318–30.Google Scholar
Grenier, A. and Phillipson, C. 2014. Rethinking agency in late life: structural and interpretative approaches. In Baars, J., Dohmen, A., Grenier, J. and Phillipson, C. (eds), Ageing, Meaning and Social Structure: Connecting Critical and Humanistic Gerontology. Policy Press, London, 55–79.Google Scholar
Guenette, F. and Marshall, A. 2009. Time line drawings: enhancing participant voice in narrative interviews on sensitive topics. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 1, 85–92.Google Scholar
Higgs, P. and Gilleard, C. 2016. Personhood, Identity and Care in Advanced Old Age. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Holstein, M. B. and Minkler, M. 2003. Self, society and the ‘new gerontology’. The Gerontologist, 43, 6, 787–96.Google Scholar
Hoong Sin, C. 2007. Ethnic-matching in qualitative research: reversing the gaze on ‘white others’ and ‘white’ as ‘other’. Qualitative Research, 7, 4, 477–99.Google Scholar
Horgas, A. L., Wilms, H. and Baltes, M. M. 1998. Daily life in very old age: everyday activities as expression of successful living. The Gerontologist, 38, 5, 556–68.Google Scholar
Hubbard, G., Downs, M. G. and Tester, S. 2003. Including older people with dementia in research: challenges and strategies. Aging and Mental Health, 7, 5, 351–62.Google Scholar
Katz, S. 2000. Busy bodies: activity, aging, and the management of everyday life. Journal of Aging Studies, 14, 2, 135–52.Google Scholar
King, N. 2006. The lengthening list of oppressions: age relations and the feminist study on inequality. In Calasanti, T. M. and Slevin, K. F. (eds), Age Matters: Re-aligning Feminist Thinking. Routledge, New York, 47–74.Google Scholar
Krekula, C. 2009. Age coding – on age-based practices of distinction. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 4, 2, 7–31.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. 1991. A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age. Harvard University Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Lloyd, L., Calnan, M., Cameron, A., Seymour, J. and Smith, R. 2014. Identity in the fourth age: perseverance, adaptation and maintaining dignity. Ageing & Society, 34, 1, 1–19.Google Scholar
Milligan, C., Bingley, A. and Gatrell, A. 2005. Digging deep: using diary techniques to explore the place of health and well-being among older people. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 9, 1882–92.Google Scholar
Murphy, K., Jordan, F., Hunter, A., Cooney, A. and Casey, D. 2015. Articulating the strategies for maximizing the inclusion of people with dementia in qualitative research studies. Dementia, 14, 6, 800–24.Google Scholar
Newman, B. M. and Newman, P. R. Very old age 75 until death. In Newman, B. M. and Newman, P. R. (eds), Development Through Life – A Psychosocial Approach. Centage Learning, Boston, 551–86.Google Scholar
Nicholson, C., Meyer, L., Flatley, M. and Holman, C. 2013. The experience of living at home with frailty in old age: a psychosocial qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 50, 9, 1172–9.Google Scholar
Nicholson, C., Meyer, L., Flatley, M., Holman, C. and Lowton, K. 2012. Living on the margin: understanding the experience of living and dying with frailty in old age. Social Science and Medicine, 75, 8, 1426–32.Google Scholar
Nind, M. 2008. Conducting Qualitative Research with People with Learning, Communication and Other Disabilities: Methodological Challenges. National Centre for Research Methods Review Paper. Available online at http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/491/1/MethodsReviewPaperNCRM-012.pdf [Accessed 23 November 2016].Google Scholar
Nygård, L. 2006. How can we get access to the experience of people with dementia? Suggestions and reflections. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 13, 2, 102–12.Google Scholar
Seidman, I. 2006. Interviewing as a relationship. In Seidman, I. (ed.), Interviewing as Qualitative Research. A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Science. Teachers College Press, New York, 95–111.Google Scholar
Shankar, A., McMunn, A., Demakakos, P., Hamer, M. and Steptoe, A. 2016. Social isolation and loneliness: prospective associations with functional status in older adults. Health Psychology, 36, 2, 179–87.Google Scholar
Sheridan, J., Chamberlain, K. and Dupuis, A. 2011. Timeline: visualizing experience. Qualitative Research, 11, 5, 552–69.Google Scholar
Smith, J. M. 2012. Toward a better understanding of loneliness in community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Psychology, 146, 3, 293–311.Google Scholar
Stathi, A. and Simey, P. 2007. Quality of life in the Fourth Age: exercise experiences of nursing home residents. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 15, 3, 272–86.Google Scholar
Stocking, C. B., Hougham, G. W. and Danner, D. D., Patterson, M. B., Whitehouse, P. J. and Sachs, G. A. 2008. Variable judgments of decisional capacity in cognitively impaired research subjects. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 56, 10, 1893–7.Google Scholar
Tarrant, A. 2014. Negotiating multiple positionalities in the interview setting: researching across gender and generational boundaries. The Professional Geographer, 66, 3, 493–500.Google Scholar
Twigg, J. 2004. The body, gender and age: feminist insights into social gerontology. Journal of Ageing Studies, 18, 1, 59–73.Google Scholar