Thinking within, across and beyond lifestyle paradigms: Later-life mobility histories and practices ‘in’ Ubud, Bali

Ethnography ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Green

This article examines the mobility histories and practices of later-life foreigners living or based in Ubud, Bali. Through an exploration of mobility practices, past and present, I question the analytical relevance of emerging lifestyle paradigms that paradoxically seek to contain experiences of mobility in metaphysical imaginings of flux and dynamism. Based on long-term ethnographic research in Ubud, Bali, I consider the extent to which people continually move across academic paradigms to make sense of their life projects. This mobility of thinking, about selfhood, mobility, place and kin relationships, draws analytical attention to the notion of life course. From this conceptual and methodological sticking point I illustrate how later-life foreigners embrace metaphysical imaginaries of mobility and dwelling on their own evolving, innovative and relational terms. Such imaginaries ultimately unsettle the ‘contained fluidity’ of lifestyle paradigms, as place becomes variously imbued with sedentarist and nomadic qualities of residence, fly paper and water.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Iveson ◽  
Chris Dibben ◽  
Ian J. Deary

Older adults are particularly prone to function-limiting health issues that adversely affect their well-being. Previous work has identified factors from across the life course –childhood socio-economic status, childhood cognitive ability and education – that predict later-life functional outcomes. However, the independence of these contributions is unclear as later-in-the-life-course predictors are themselves affected by earlier ones. The present study capitalised on the recent linkage of the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 with the Scottish Longitudinal Study, using path analyses to examine the direct and indirect associations between life-course predictors and the risk of functional limitation at ages 55 (N = 2,374), 65 (N = 1,971) and 75 (N = 1,534). The odds of reporting a function-limiting long-term condition increased across later life. At age 55, reporting a functional limitation was significantly less likely in those with higher childhood socio-economic status, higher childhood cognitive ability and higher educational attainment; these associations were only partly mediated by other predictors. At age 65, adult socio-economic status emerged as a mediator of several associations, although direct associations with childhood socio-economic status and childhood cognitive ability were still observed. At age 75, only childhood socio-economic status and adult socio-economic status directly predicted the risk of a functional limitation, particularly those associated with disease or illness. A consistent pattern and direction of associations was observed with self-rated health more generally. These results demonstrate that early-life and adult circumstances are associated with functional limitations later in life, but that these associations are partly a product of complex mediation between life-course factors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara L. Comolli ◽  
Danilo Bolano ◽  
Laura Bernardi ◽  
Marieke Voorpostel

Critical events are occurrences that create turning points, disrupt individuals’ life courses and affect wellbeing. Here, we investigate how the co-occurrence of critical events and, in particular, the spacing in time of events across the life course influences life satisfaction in later life. We argue that life phases densely populated of critical events may translate into an acute resource drain affecting wellbeing in long term more strongly than if the same events were sparsely distributed. We use retrospective biographical information on critical events in family, work, health and residential trajectories in Switzerland to construct a life course Concentration Index of events based on the number, the time-lag between the occurrences and the number of life domains involved. Our results show that the higher is the concentration in time of critical events, the stronger will be their negative long-term effect on wellbeing, net of socio-demographic characteristics, of the total number of events ever experienced and of the time since the last event. Furthermore, such negative effect is even stronger if the person experienced periods dense of events during midlife and older adulthood than during youth or early adulthood.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S382-S382
Author(s):  
Hongmei Tong ◽  
Daniel, W L Lai ◽  
Lun Li

Abstract Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations among three types of cumulative disadvantages: long term poverty, spatial disadvantage, and multiple exclusions using a Cumulative dis/advantage (CDA) and life course perspective. Method: A sample of 419 Chinese adults aged 60 and older from three communities in Shanghai completed a structured questionnaire. Multiple exclusions were measured by variables related to material resources, housing conditions, social relations, civic activities, basic services, and neighbourhood factors. Hierarchical regression was implemented by SPSS 25 and moderation analysis was performed with the SPSS macro PROCESS from Hayes (2013). Results: 39% of respondents reported that they experienced multiple exclusions and one in five respondents report often or most time living in poverty. Regression analysis indicated that experience long-term poverty and length of living in the same neighbourhood is positively associated with multiple exclusions in later life and these associations are not attenuated by demographics, and health factors. But, moderation analysis showed the length of living in the same neighbourhood has significant moderating effect on the relationship between long term poverty and multiple exclusions, particularly for older adults living in the same neighbourhood for more than 30 years. Discussion: The study findings illustrate the need to consider not only life course risks such as long-term poverty but also spatial disadvantages in addressing multiple social exclusions among older Chinese adults.


Matrizes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
C. Lee Harrington ◽  
Denise D. Bielby

In this article we explore a life course perspective on fandom, with particular emphasis on fandom and adult development. While there is growing interest in issues of age and aging within fan studies and within media studies more broadly, there is a tendency in this literature to discuss aging and the life course atheoretically, ignoring a rich body of scholarship in fields that examines how lives unfold over time. Our goal in this manuscript is to make explicit what is typically rendered implicit in fan studies to enrich our understanding of long-term and later-life fandom, and to suggest ways that fan studies might more fully account for fandom over time


Author(s):  
Richard Dodds ◽  
Holly Syddall ◽  
Avan Aihie Sayer

This chapter describes a life course approach for understanding later life sustainability, focusing on grip strength as a marker of physical sustainability, and explaining how a life course approach recognizes that muscle strength in later life reflects not only rate of loss in later life, but also the peak attained earlier in life. We present evidence that risk factors operating throughout the life course have an impact on physical sustainability in later life with particular consideration of the effects of body size, socioeconomic position, long-term conditions, physical activity, diet, and smoking. We have shown that low birth weight is associated with weaker grip strength across the life course and that there is considerable evidence for developmental influences on ageing skeletal muscle. Finally, a life course approach suggests opportunities for early intervention to promote later life physical sustainability; but optimal strategies and timings for intervention are yet to be identified.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Nesteruk ◽  
Christine Price
Keyword(s):  

1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian De Vries

This article introduces a volume devoted to the examination of later-life bereavement: an analysis of variation in cause, course, and consequence. Six articles address and represent this variation and comprise this volume: 1) Prigerson et al. present case histories of the traumatic grief of spouses; 2) Hays et al. highlight the bereavement experiences of siblings in contrast to those spouses and friends; 3) Moss et al. address the role of gender in middle-aged children's responses to parent death; 4) Bower focuses on the language adopted by these adult children in accepting the death of a parent; 5) de Vries et al. explore the long-term, longitudinal effects on the psychological and somatic functioning of parents following the death of an adult child; and 6) Fry presents the short-term and longitudinal reactions of grandparents to the death of a grandchild. A concluding article is offered by de Vries stressing both the unique and common features of these varied bereavement experiences touching on some of the empirical issues and suggesting potential implications and applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1759720X2110069
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Moon ◽  
Elizabeth M. Curtis ◽  
Stephen J. Woolford ◽  
Shanze Ashai ◽  
Cyrus Cooper ◽  
...  

Optimisation of skeletal mineralisation in childhood is important to reduce childhood fracture and the long-term risk of osteoporosis and fracture in later life. One approach to achieving this is antenatal vitamin D supplementation. The Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis Study is a randomised placebo-controlled trial, the aim of which was to assess the effect of antenatal vitamin D supplementation (1000 IU/day cholecalciferol) on offspring bone mass at birth. The study has since extended the follow up into childhood and diversified to assess demographic, lifestyle and genetic factors that determine the biochemical response to antenatal vitamin D supplementation, and to understand the mechanisms underpinning the effects of vitamin D supplementation on offspring bone development, including epigenetics. The demonstration of positive effects of maternal pregnancy vitamin D supplementation on offspring bone development and the delineation of underlying biological mechanisms inform clinical care and future public-health policies.


Author(s):  
Neta Roitenberg

The article extends the discussion on the challenges in gaining access to the field in medical ethnographic research, focusing on long-term care (LTC) facilities. Medical institutions have been documented to be difficult sites to access. The reference, however, is to the recruitment of patients as informants. The challenges of recruiting practitioners as informants have not been investigated at all. The article presents the key issues that emerged in the process of gaining social access at the sites of two LTC facilities as part of a study on care workers’ identities. The main obstacles encountered during the fieldwork were organizational constraints and negotiating control over the process of recruiting the lower occupational tier of care workers with gatekeepers. The article presents the coping strategies implemented to overcome the ethical and methodological obstacles: continually reassessing the consent and cooperation of participants and developing a rapport with nurse’s aides during interviews.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Braun ◽  
Vivien Filleböck ◽  
Boris Metze ◽  
Christoph Bührer ◽  
Andreas Plagemann ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesTo compare the long-term effects of antenatal betamethasone (ANS, ≤16 mg, =24 mg and >24 mg) in twins on infant and childhood growth.MethodsA retrospective cohort follow up study among 198 twins after ANS including three time points: U1 first neonatal examination after birth and in the neonatal period; U7 examination from the 21st to the 24th month of life and U9 examination from the 60th to the 64th month of life using data from copies of the children’s examination booklets. Inclusion criteria are twin pregnancies with preterm labor, cervical shortening, preterm premature rupture of membranes, or vaginal bleeding, and exposure to ANS between 23+5 and 33+6 weeks. Outcome measures are dosage-dependent and sex-specific effects of ANS on growth (body weight, body length, head circumference, body mass index and ponderal index) up to 5.3 years.ResultsOverall, 99 live-born twin pairs were included. Negative effects of ANS on fetal growth persisted beyond birth, altered infant and childhood growth, independent of possible confounding factors. Overall weight percentile significantly decreased between infancy and early childhood by 18.8%. Birth weight percentiles significantly changed in a dose dependent and sex specific manner, most obviously in female-female and mixed pairs. The ponderal index significantly decreased up to 42.9%, BMI index increased by up to 33.8%.ConclusionsANS results in long-term alterations in infant and childhood growth. Changes between infancy and early childhood in ponderal mass index and BMI, independent of dose or twin pair structure, might indicate an ANS associated increased risk for later life disease.SynopsisFirst-time report on long-term ANS administration growth effects in twin pregnancies, showing persisting alterations beyond birth in infant and childhood growth up to 5.3 years as potential indicator of later life disease risk.


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