Crossing Age and Generational Boundaries: Exploring Intergenerational Research Encounters

Academics and professionals who aim to understand and plan for aging societies are most often younger than study participants and the benefactors of social programs themselves. However, the appropriateness of such intergenerational practice is beginning to be questioned. It has been suggested that only older people should conduct research, consult on and plan programs for older people. To understand the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach, research encounters between younger and older people will be used as examples from which to explore the question: what happens when individuals attempt to reach across age and generational boundaries? Situating age and generation as organizing principles, insights will be gleaned from the anthropological insider–outsider debate, linguistic work on age-based differences, and emotional associations and identification across age and generational boundaries. This paper argues that the ways older and younger people relate to each other may hold the potential for connection and/or conflict between the generations. Results suggest that age and generation be considered one of the many social locations that may impact the research process and outcomes. Researchers and policy makers of all ages must begin to reflect on their involvement with age and generational boundaries.     

Observational Research in Intergenerational Programming

Summary

Research in the field of intergenerational programming is rapidly growing in both quantity and quality. Both those who plan and work directly with intergenerational program participants in the human services and those who hold positions as researchers and evaluators need to be encouraged to research and evaluate their programs. We argue that observational research, though not without its shortcomings, should be more widely used to study and evaluate intergenerational program effectiveness and the relationships among people within them. We also provide some examples of observational strategies useful in practice-based research. We conclude that by recording details of the actual program interactions and relationships and examining them carefully or preserving them for later scrutiny, intergenerational program planners can learn to make relationship-based interventions successful and rewarding for their clients and themselves.     

Inequity in access to the Argentinian pension system (1994–2017)

Pension coverage in Argentina is inequitably distributed between different income levels, both during working years and during retirement. The objective of the article is to study the evolution of inequity in access to the Argentinian pension system in terms of its association with the socio‐economic status of individuals during the period 1994–2017. An evaluation is offered of how variables such as sex, age, and educational attainment influence such inequity. It is concluded that, although the level of average coverage increased, inequity in access increased significantly in the years following the 1994 reform, both among the active and the inactive population. However, inequity in access among active persons did not improve substantially with the return to the pay‐as‐you‐go pension system, while it was considerably reduced among the inactive population. While the former are found to be affected to a greater extent in terms of coverage as a result of the pro‐educated bias among the active population, the latter outcome is thought to be a direct result of the transitory plan (Pension Inclusion Plan) for pension inclusion, after which inequity was to resume its upward course.     

Older Workers in Intergenerational Child Care

Thirty-four older workers in one of five intergenerational child care settings participated in a study exploring the effects of their participation in intergenerational child care programs. The purpose o the study was (1) to identify and describe a sample of older child care workers and (2) to identify characteristics of the older child care workers or the work experience which significantly impact on their lives. The older workers completed a written questionnaire, standardized life satisfaction scale, and interviews. The results suggest that participation in intergenerational child care programs supports the notion of generativity and enhances productive aging. Older workers reported increases in feeling needed, valued, and a sense of self-worth, and increased social contact. Over 90% of the older workers reported that their job expectations were met and that they felt the children had benefitted from their work. Positive changes in attitude about children's growth was positively related to the older workers' personal growth. Older workers also reported greater personal growth when they worked in excellent child care centers as compared to good or fair quality centers. Younger teachers reported positive changes in the classroom environment with the presence of older workers. These findings have implications for training older adults as child care workers and for social policy issues concerning older citizens' roles in our society.     

对回应的回应

我的《国家级学术豆腐渣工程》贴到网上以后 ,见到了李申兄的《回应》一文。对于某权威只要提出一种说法 ,无论是否成立 ,在学术界就不允许发出不同声音 ,这是李申兄所指责的我的”措辞激烈”的原因之一 ,也是李申兄希望看到批评文章而看不到的原因。以后要在学术刊物上看到批评文章 ,也难矣哉 !仅以在《世界宗教研究》的遭遇来说 ,在交给编辑时就同意可以删改 ,只是要求删改后须再经我查看认可。一段时间后 ,编辑未改完 ,我自己改了 ,把被认为是激烈的地方全删掉了 ,连题目也改成了《与中国儒教史作者商榷》。此稿现在还在编辑手里。但仍不…     

Cultural and Intergenerational Narratives: Understanding Responses to Elderly Family Members in Declining Health

Culture exerts powerful influences on each generations' responses to older members in declining health. Narratives, the stories people tell about their lives, depict the different the ways that the elderly and their children experience their world. Their personal narratives chronicle their connections to culture the past. They also illustrate the ways that the cultural values are transformed to accommodate the present and future. The stories are influenced by immigration, assimilation, development, interpersonal relationships, and life events. These differences between the cultural narratives of the elderly and the following generation are particularly apparent during times of chronic stress. One such situation occurs during chronic illness when the younger generation is called upon to provide for the elderly and chronically ill.     

Cultural Feedback and Intergenerational Transmission in Artifact Civilization

“文化反哺”是理解处在急速变迁时代中国社会代际关系的一个本土性概念, 它 在由全球化和社会转型所共同引发的变迁维度上理解中国社会代际关系的颠覆或倒置 现象, 将急速变迁时代所发生的年长一代向年轻一代进行广泛的文化吸收现象视为新 的文化传承模式。在新兴食品、移动电话和电子计算机三类现代器物的传播与选择过 程中, 突出表现出代际倾斜、去中心化和数字鸿沟趋势, 而在器物文明传承过程中 出现的这种代际颠覆现象, 是30年改革开放或社会变迁带给中国人的心理体验的一部 分, 它在精神层面上赋予中国经验以完整的价值和意义。

关键词: 文化反哺 器物文明 代际传承 中国体验

“Cultural feedback” (wenhua fanbu, literally “cultural reverse feeding”), an indigenous concept coined to facilitate the understanding of intergenerational relations in China’s drastically changing society, focuses on the subversion or reversal of conventional intergenerational relations in the light of changes triggered jointly by globalization and social transformation and views the extensive absorption of emerging cultural elements by the older generation from the young generation as a new mode of transmission. The process of the dissemination and selection of three kinds of modern artifacts—new foods, cell phones and computers—highlights the intergenerational tilt, the phenomenon of decentralization and the trend towards a digital divide. The subversion of conventional intergenerational relations in the process of the transmission of artifact civilization, as a significant part of Chinese psychological reactions to over three decades of reform and opening up, is indispensable to the psychological integrity of Chinese experience.     

文化反哺与器物文明的代际传承(英文)

“文化反哺”是理解处在急速变迁时代中国社会代际关系的一个本土性概念,它在由全球化和社会转型所共同引发的变迁维度上理解中国社会代际关系的颠覆或倒置现象,将急速变迁时代所发生的年长一代向年轻一代进行广泛的文化吸收现象视为新的文化传承模式。在新兴食品、移动电话和电子计算机三类现代器物的传播与选择过程中,突出表现出代际倾斜、去中心化和数字鸿沟趋势,而在器物文明传承过程中出现的这种代际颠覆现象,是30年改革开放或社会变迁带给中国人的心理体验的一部分,它在精神层面上赋予中国经验以完整的价值和意义。     

Intergenerational income mobility and inequality in South Korea

Using data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), recent trends in intergenerational income mobility were explored, examining the relationship between income mobility and income inequality in South Korea. The study found that the intergenerational elasticity of income is about 0.2 and there is no clear‐cut trend in intergenerational income mobility. In addition, this study showed that there is no systematic relation between rising income inequality and intergenerational income mobility in contemporary Korea. Overall, the results indicate that intergenerational income mobility is irresponsive to the income inequality the respondents experienced growing up. It is assumed that education and welfare transfer programs might offset the consequences of income inequality by leading to upward mobility for children from low‐income households.     

Intergenerational pathways leading to foster care placement of foster care alumni's children

This study examined a path model that postulated intergenerational relationships between biological parent psychosocial functioning and foster care alumni mental health, economic status and social support; and from these to the likelihood of children of foster care alumni being placed in foster care. The sample included 742 adults who spent time in foster care as children with a private foster care agency and who reported having at least one biological child. A full pathway was found between poorer father's functioning to greater alumni depression, which was in turn associated with negative social support, and then a greater likelihood of child out‐of‐home placement. Other parent to alumni paths were that poorer father functioning was associated with alumni anxiety and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poorer mother's mental health was associated with PTSD; however, anxiety and PTSD were not implicated as precursors of foster care placement of the child. Findings support the need for increased practice and policy support to address the mental health needs of parents of children in or at risk of foster care, as well as the children themselves, as family history may have a lasting influence on quality of life, even when children are raised apart from biological parents.     

Updating the Debate on Intergenerational Fairness in Pension Reform

This article examines the arguments involved in claims about the fairness or unfairness of government policies that would require current working generations to bear the full impact of their lower fertility on the costs of retirement pensions. The analysis is set in the context of a wider review of debate on the role of the idea of generational fairness in assessing options for reform under conditions of population ageing. The article considers three questions: whether generational fairness poses a serious problem for pay‐as‐you‐go pension schemes; whether it is reasonable to assess the generational fairness of pension policy in isolation from other kinds of generational transfer; and whether there is a good case for redistribution from future generations in favour of the baby boom generation.     

对批评的回应

在这篇短文中 ,作者试图回应倪培民和理查德·斯蒂克勒教授对安乐哲、郝大维新近的《中庸》译释所提出的建设性批评。作者感激倪培民和斯蒂克勒教授本着严肃认真的态度仔细研读他们的著作。他们与倪教授的主要分歧在于如何运用恰当的英文术语译释中国过程性世界观。相形之下 ,安乐哲、郝大维与理查德·斯蒂克勒教授有着“实质性”的分歧。     

A Response to Farrell

This article responds directly to an article published in this journal in February 2010 by Graham Farrell entitled ‘Situational crime prevention and its discontents: rational choice and harm reduction versus “cultural criminology” ’. (Farrell's article, in turn, was a rejoinder to my original 2007 article ‘Situational crime prevention and its discontents: rational choice theory versus the “culture of now” ’). In his article, Farrell sets out a case for the role of ‘harm reduction’ and rational choice theory as tools to reduce the contemporary crime problem, concluding that ‘Cultural criminology seems to offer little, if anything, useful to inform crime reduction efforts’. This article rejects this statement and offers a counter critique of the instrumental approach promoted by Farrell. Importantly, this response article is not intended as an outright critique of situational crime prevention per se, rather it is an assessment of Farrell's specific critical logic and the various shortcomings associated with his argument.     

Intergenerational service-learning: an innovative teaching strategy to infuse gerontology content into foundation courses

This article provides an overview of intergenerational service- learning, an experiential pedagogy that involves students in learning outside the traditional classroom while providing a needed service in the community. Examples of intergenerational service-learning projects are presented that have been successfully utilized by the authors. These projects demonstrate the importance of using reflective practice assignments to help students deconstruct and reconstruct images, beliefs and paradigms about older adults. In addition, problems and opportunities in developing service-learning projects in urban and rural settings and with the Hispanic community are described, as well as some of the types of learning that may result from implementing service-learning experiences in various social work foundation courses.     

Response to Commentaries:

It is time to bring nature (genetics) together with nurture (environment) in the study of social development. Following a brief overview of behavioral genetic theory and methods, three examples are described of new genetic research especially relevant to social developmentalists. First, initial research findings on three key domains of social development (attachment, empathy, and social competence) suggest that genetic factors contribute to individual differences in social development. Second, research on widely used measures of social environment implicates a genetic contribution, which opens up new directions for research at the interface of nature and nurture in social development. Third, by the turn of the century, it is predicted that behavioral genetic research will be conducted using DNA markers that assess genetic variation among individuals directly rather than resorting to indirect estimates based on twin and adoption methods. This will revolutionize behavioral genetic research and make it more accessible and applicable to developmentalists. As a first step in the direction of behavioral genetics, social developmentalists are encouraged to include siblings in their research.