"Choice" in Filial Care Work: Moving beyond a Dichotomy

Les auteures analysent le concept du «choix>> dans le travail des aidants naturels filiaux. Dans la documentation théorique et empirique sur le travail des aidants naturels, une dichotomie entre le «choix>> et l'«obligation>> est considérée comme une construction sociale. Néanmoins, cette dichotomie ne reflète pas adéquatement les expériences familiales de fourniture de soins; par exemple, le choix et l'obligation ne constituent pas des motivations mutuellement exclusives. Ils sont plutôt «relationnels>>, «contextuels>> et manifestes dans l'interaction entre des macro et des microcontextes. La dichotomie choix-obligation est également idéologique. Sur le plan de la politique morale, elle fait la promotion du déchargement de la responsabilité des gouvernements sur les familles, elle obscurcit la complexité des relations filiales et peut même promouvoir l'ambivalence psychologique.
In this paper, we discuss the concept of "choice" in filial care work. A dichotomy between choice and obligation is constructed in theoretical and empirical literature on filial care work. However, this dichotomy does not adequately reflect family caregiving experiences; for instance, choice and obligation are not mutually exclusive motivations. Rather, choice and obligation are "relational" and "contextual" and manifest in the interaction between macro- and micro-contexts. The choice-obligation dichotomy is also ideological. At the moral-political level, it promotes the downloading of responsibility by governments to family, obscures the complexity of filial relationships, and may even promote psychological ambivalence.     

The Continuity and Discontinuity of the Embodied Self in Infertility*

Se servant de données d'interviews en profondeur auprès de 110 femmes et 68 hommes, les auteurs de cet article examinent la construction et la négotiation du moi intrinsèque dans l'infertilité. lis analysent comment les hommes et les femmes qu'ils ont interviewés construisent une image de leur corps comme une machine, négocient la perte de contrôle et éprouvent les défauts perçus du moi intrinsèque dans le contexte des discours dominants de la féminité et de la masculinitè. Ils soutiennent que les défauts du corps aboutissent à un moi intrinseque discontinu, au fur et à mesure que l'infertilité fait voler en éclats les perceptions antérieures du moi intrinsèque et remet en question les anciennes conceptualisations des individus du lien tenu pour acquis entre le corps et le moi.
Using data from in-depth interviews with 110 women and 68 men, this paper examines the construction and negotiation of the embodied self in infertility. We analyse how the men and women we interviewed construct the body as machine, negotiate loss of control, and experience the perceived failings of the embodied self within the context of dominant discourses of femininity and masculinity. We argue that the failings of the body culminate in a discontinuous embodied self as infertility shatters previously held perceptions of the embodied self and challenges individuals' former conceptualizations of the taken-for-granted link between the body and the self.     

The Challenges of Socially Responsible Investment Among Institutional Investors: Exploring the Links Between Corporate Pension Funds and Corporate Governance

During the last few decades, globalization of finance markets has come under increasing pressure to manage the many risks that companies face due to the negative impact that certain financial crises have had on securities quoted on the stock exchange. Simultaneously, there is a growing tendency among different institutional investors to take into account nonfinancial aspects—social, environmental, and ethical values—of company management. In this respect, increasing numbers of asset managers are aware of the importance of nonfinancial aspects of company management for finance markets. Asset managers integrate corporate social responsibility, sustainability policies and corporate governance strategies as indicators in risk management and the search for long‐term investments. The largest segment of socially responsible investment (SRI) screened and mutual funds are portfolios that are privately managed on behalf of institutions. Socially responsible investors include private and public pension funds, mutual funds, and private accounts that are managed on behalf of institutional investors such as corporations, universities, hospitals, religious institutions, and nonprofit organizations, among others. The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of SRI‐screened management corporate pension plans in the Spanish finance market. Spain is one of the European countries with a less developed SRI institutional market. Since SRI is still at the fledgling stage in the Spanish institutional market, this analysis is restricted to the awareness of SRI among a sample of the total number of corporate pension funds or schemes in Spain. The paper concludes with some proposals to encourage wider SRI acceptance and practice in Spain.     

Diaspora and mapping methodologies: tracing transnational digital connections with ‘mattering maps’

There is a methodological tendency in work on diaspora and digital media for quantitative investigations to approach diaspora in static ways that contrast with theories of diaspora as a dynamic cultural formation. On the other hand, qualitative, ethnographic work tends not to engage with digital methods and quantitative data‐driven investigation. In this article, we sketch this methodological and disciplinary disconnect and address it by proposing a model for understanding digitally mediated formations of diaspora that combines digital methods techniques with a sensitivity to ethical and theoretical discussions of migration and diaspora. Drawing on interpretive epistemologies and feminist research ethics, we present a case study analysis of a locally informed, Turkish–Dutch issue. We argue for a method that produces ‘mattering maps’. This involves tracking and visualizing digital traces of an issue across web platforms (Google Search results, Facebook pages, and Instagram posts) and integrating this with an analysis of the face‐to‐face interview responses of a key issue actor.     

The Interpretive Dynamics of Filial and Collective Responsibility for Elderly People

À partir de comptes rendus de 28 enfants adultes, l'auteure étudie la dynamique interprétative de la responsabilité sociale et filiale envers les personnes âgées. Dans leurs propos sur leur responsabilité filiale, les participants avaient tendance à qualifier de positives les motivations individualistes et spontanées tandis qu'en parlant des autres Canadiens ils critiquaient les valeurs individualistes comme faisant la promotion de l'irresponsabilité. D'autres personnes ont étéévaluées négativement en contraste à un passé et à des cultures non occidentales idéalisées : la « société canadienne >> a été utilisée comme opposition à celle qui définit la personne comme filialement responsable. Dans ce processus, les participants ont également reproduit l'opposition conceptuelle entre la responsabilité sociétale et la responsabilité filiale; le paradigme alternatif de la « solidarité>> a été utilisé plus rarement.
Drawing on accounts from 28 adult children, I explore the interpretive dynamics of filial and social responsibility for elderly people. Participants tended to characterize individualistic, voluntary motivations positively in talk about personal filial responsibility, yet when speaking about other Canadians, criticized individualistic values as promoting irresponsibility. Others were assessed negatively in contrast to an idealized past and non-Western cultures; "Canadian society" was used as a contrast against which to define self as filially responsible. In this process, participants also reproduced conceptual opposition between filial and societal responsibility; rarer was an alternative, "solidarity" paradigm utilized.     

Older Women's Bodies and the Self: The Construction of Identity in Later Life*

Laura Hurd Clarke Cet article étudie les difficiles et souvent conflictuelles relations entre l'image de soi d'une femme âgée et son corps vieillissant. Se fondant sur les données d'entrevues semi‐structurées avec 22 femmes âgées de 61 à 92 ans, l'auteure examine l'influence de la perte de la perception de l'aspect esthétique et celle de la détérioration de la santé et des capacités fonctionnelles sur le sentiment d'identité d'une femme âgée. Elle commente aussi l'expérience du corps des femmes en tant qu'à la fois masque et prison du soi et dégage le défi de l'image réfléchie que se fait une femme de l'idée d'être jeune « de l'intérieur ». This paper explores the uneasy and often conflicted relationship between an older woman's sense of self and her aging body. Using data from semi‐structured interviews with 22 female participants aged 61 to 92 years, the paper examines the influence of the loss of perceived physical attractiveness and the deterioration of health and functional abilities on an older woman's sense of identity. The paper discusses the women's experience of the body as both mask and prison of the self and elucidates the challenge of the reflected image to a woman's sense of being youthful on the “inside.”