How to Be a Man Differently: Intersectionality of Gender and Disability in the Life Course of a Powerchair Athlete

2022 ◽  
pp. 1097184X2110643
Author(s):  
Laurent Paccaud ◽  
Anne Marcellini

This article focuses on the intersection of gender, dis/ability and other social forces in the life course of a young man who has had physical impairments from an early age. Drawing on interactionist theories and applying an ethnographic approach, we analyze the life experiences taking place in multiple social spheres throughout the life phases of Simon, a Swiss powerchair hockey player with cerebral palsy. During his childhood and adolescence, Simon was not in a position to embody the familial ways of performing hegemonic masculinity, and he was functionally dependent on women. Through his ongoing transition to adulthood, his commitment to sport and the process of technologizing his body enabled him doing gender differently and emancipate himself from the familial masculine figure, while remaining reliant on the care provided by women. Thus, we show how the body, context, and life phases contribute to the performances of gender and dis/ability.

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berit Ingersoll-Dayton ◽  
Neal Krause ◽  
David Morgan

This study examined patterns of change and stability in religiosity over the life course. Open-ended interviews with 129 adults aged 65 and older provided a rich source of data for applying a life course perspective to the study of religion. Two theoretical constructs from the life course perspective (i.e., trajectories and transitions) were used as a framework for understanding religion and aging. The interviews were content analyzed to identify: 1) dimensions of religiosity that exhibit change; 2) patterns of religious trajectories; and 3) social forces that promote changes in religiosity. These analyses revealed four distinct patterns: stable, increasing, decreasing, and curvilinear trajectories. Several forces were involved with either increasing religiosity (e.g., child rearing, adverse life experiences) or decreasing religiosity (e.g., disillusionment with church members, adverse life experiences). Directions for future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Mary L. Sellers

Folklore occurs at every stage of a person’s life, and this chapter covers the way folklore and folklife across, and of, the life course has been studied. Six divisions in the life course that mark traditions of age groups as well as perceived stages in the United States are pregnancy and birth, infancy and early childhood, childhood and adolescence, adulthood, seniority, and death. Although much of the scholarship of age groups has been on the beginning and end of life, I demonstrate the conditions of aging in adolescence through the senior years that generate folklore and should be studied in relation to formation of age-group identity. This chapter emphasizes the use of folklore as an adaptation to aging. It examines the connection of folk traditions to the role that anxiety plays in the aging process, the formation of self and group identity, and the rites of passage that mark transitions from one stage to another. It shows that the presence of invented and emerging traditions indicates changing values and beliefs across the life course and encourages research in age-based research as a basic component of folklore and folklife studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 836-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne van Rhyn ◽  
Alex Barwick ◽  
Michelle Donelly

The body is central to the experience of aging. In this metasynthesis, the authors located, analyzed, and reconceptualized phenomenological research on how life is experienced within and through the body after 85 years. Sandelowski and Barroso’s metasynthesis method was employed. Seven databases were searched for primary phenomenological studies. After systematic screening and quality appraisal, 19 studies were included for review. Analysis was guided by Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s existential philosophy of embodiment. Findings were organized using Max van Manen’s reflective lifeworld existentials. Four ontological dimensions emerged, namely, being in a body (corporeality), being in time (temporality), being in place (spatiality), and being with others (relationality). Each dimension captures a distinct experiential dimension of this stage of the life course. The results suggest vast heterogeneity in the ontological experience of aging, supporting the view that diversity grows with age. The ability to adapt to multidimensional losses was identified as a source of resilience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Wolke ◽  
Samantha Johnson ◽  
Marina Mendonça

Around 15 million children are born preterm (<37 weeks of gestation) every year. Of these, 15% or 2.25 million are born very preterm (VP; <32 weeks of gestation). Here, the developmental outcomes of VP babies in diverse domains from motor, cognitive, and social function to mental health and well-being throughout childhood and adolescence are reviewed. Their life course adaptation in terms of romantic relationships, employment, and quality of life into adulthood is also considered. Some adverse effects reduce as individuals age, and others remain remarkably stable from childhood into adulthood. We argue that to advance understanding of developmental mechanisms and direct resources for intervention more effectively, social factors need to be assessed more comprehensively, and genetically sensitive designs should be considered with neuroimaging integrated to test alternative developmental models. As current evidence is based almost exclusively on studies from high-income countries, research from low- and middle-income countries is urgently needed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Pallas

This review examines the role of schooling in the life course of individuals, focusing on the timing and sequencing of schooling in the transition to adulthood. First, I examine conceptual issues in the study of schooling and the life course, drawing heavily on the sociological literature. I then consider the timing and sequencing of schooling in the transition to adulthood in the United States, and the consequences of variations in the timing and sequencing of schooling for adult social and economic success. I then discuss the role of social structure, norms, and institutional arrangements in the transition to adulthood, with special attention to cross-national comparisons with the U. S. and historical changes within countries. I conclude with speculations regarding trends in the role of schooling in the life course, and some directions for future research on this topic.


Author(s):  
Jarl Mooyaart

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the linkages between socio-economic background, family formation and economic (dis)advantage and reveals to what extent the influence of parental education on family formation persists over time, i.e. across birth cohorts. The second part of this chapter examines to what extent the influence of socio-economic background persists over the life-course. This part covers: (1) the influence of parental education on union formation over the life-course, and (2) the influence of socio-economic background on income trajectories in young adulthood, after adjusting for the career and family pathways that young adults followed during the transition to adulthood, thereby examining the influence of socio-economic background on income beyond the first stage of young adulthood. This chapter reveals two key insights on the linkages between socio-economic background, family formation and (dis)advantage: (1) Whereas union and family formation patterns have changed across birth cohorts, socio-economic background continues to stratify union and family formation pathways; (2) Although the influence of socio-economic background on family formation and young adults’ economic position decreases throughout young adulthood, socio-economic background continues to have an impact in young adulthood.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 283-283
Author(s):  
Joseph Kotarba ◽  
Amanda Couve

Abstract This presentation describes the “crush” experience as it occurs among older adults. A basic definition of a crush is a one-sided, proto-romantic relationship. The scholarly and commonsense understanding in American culture focuses on the crush as most commonly occurring during the developmental phases of adolescence and pre-adolescence. Symbolic interactionists view life course as a somewhat fluid process of adapting to changing situations in life. Experiences like the crush can potentially occur at almost any age at which romantic thoughts and feelings are possible. Our ethnographic research on older adults residing either in group facilities or in domiciliary locations indicates that crushes are fairly common. These crushes follow the same general narrative as crushes among younger people: a beginning, a middle and an end. There are two narrative styles among older adults: face-to-face and mediated. The crush in a group facility is encouraged by interaction during social hours, meals, entertainment, and religious/spiritual activities. Crushes are more observable among women who do not have to delve into their past for objects of their affection. Available paramours from the mass media include young celebrities such as Michael Buble and Josh Groban. These crushes differ from those among younger women in the denouement, to the degree affection generally fades away from memory rather than comes to a distinct end. Factors such as increased access to electronic media and music, and increased sociality in the community and in residential environments will create situations in which the security, excitement and rewards of a crush are plausible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-154
Author(s):  
Laura Daukšaitė

The article presents a research on trajectories of leaving the parental home in the last Soviet and the first post-Soviet generations. It focuses on social transformation of the state during the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet and its impact on the life-course of these generations. In our study, we applied a dyadic approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with women of the last Soviet generation (born in 1962–1972) and their children (born in 1992–2002), who represent the first post-Soviet generation. Early changes in and the differentiation of the timetable of transition to adulthood of the last Soviet generation indicated a declining effect of ideologically supported social structures on the life-course of young adults and the growing power of individual decision to leave the parental home or stay within. The rapidly increasing globalization and a transformed economy shaped a new structural environment for the coming of age for the first post-Soviet generation; therefore, we can interpret the further pluralization, de-standardization, and differentiation of the timetable of the transition to adulthood of this generation as a reaction of young people to the emerging risks and insecurities.


Author(s):  
Tom R. Tyler ◽  
Rick Trinkner

Every developing child goes through a series of stages associated with childhood and adolescence. This is the focus of chapter 3. To some extent development is an invariant progression shaped by cognitive and biological growth, and the capacities and limits that exist at any stage of individual growth. At the same time, the progression reflects the unique experience of each individual over their life course, particularly with nonlegal and legal authority figures. Beyond that, every child grows up during a particular period in history that has particular events such as the war in Vietnam or the 9/11 terror attacks, which create a unique social climate and produce common concerns and outlooks among the members of a particular age cohort. These common elements have been widely discussed in popular writing that has sought to distinguish among the silent generation, baby boomers, generation X, millennials, and generation Z.


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