Anna Sofia Lundgren

Occupational Well-Being among the Very Old

Background: Limited knowledge is available on how very old people orchestrate and carry out their occupational life to achieve a sense of occupational well-being. Study objectives: To highlight very old persons’ ways of describing and discussing their occupational engagement in relation to a sense of occupational well-being. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 48 men and women between 90 and 98 years of age in their urban homes. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results show that occupational engagement in relation to the surrounding world and occupational engagement unconstrained by space and time were important in achieving occupational well-being. The surrounding world involves having contact with family, friends, and society as well as living up to a shared norm of being independent. Unconstrained by space and time includes thinking, planning and creating a narrative of life based on the past, present and future. Limitations: The present study contributes to the body of knowledge focusing on occupational engagement and how it is linked to health through occupational well-being among older people, however; it is not known to what degree the respondents were experiencing healthy ageing. Recommendations: Future studies should further develop the understanding of doing in relation to being among older people.

Doing age : Methodological reflections on interviewing

The aim of this article is not only to discuss how the interview method has implications for the construction of aged identities, but also how the research area conditions the positionings that are made within the interview. Drawing on a set of qualitative semi-structured interviews with persons identifying as, and having experiences of volunteering as ‘class grandparents’ in schools for children, this article highlights and investigates three regimes that proved central in these interviews and that affected the construction of the data: the ‘confessional mode’, the ‘use of life scripts’ and the ‘theoretical identifications’ affecting the interview conversations.

The marriage boom: Spanish and Swedish women making sense of marriage during the marriage boom

This article analyzes the marriage boom that took place during the middle decades of the twentieth century. The increase in nuptiality is analyzed in Spain and Sweden from a qualitative perspective, and the authors describe how cultural, social, economic and institutional transformations were understood by women who were in their reproductive period during the marriage boom. In-depth interviews were conducted in both places with 51 women born between 1919 and 1951. The authors argue that it is important that the ways in which the factors previously identified as decisive of the marriage boom are studied for their motivating power, and the way they were or were not made important in peoples understandings of their marital practices. The results show that despite the differences between the national contexts of Spain and Sweden, three interrelated themes recurred when the interviewed women framed their marital choices: (1) the normalization of marriage as a life event; (2) religion; (3) and education and work life. The results also suggest that the women highlighted norm systems within which their choices and decisions were made, rather than describing individual choices and decisions as stemming from individual preferences and wishes.

‘For a living countryside’: Political rhetoric about Swedish rural areas

The expression ‘a living countryside’ is often used to characterize the goal of Swedish rural politics. In this article the use of the expression in 170 non-government bills related to Swedish rural politics is analysed using discourse theory. On a general level, the expression was found to be empty of meaning and open for use by different and often opposing political parties proposing different and sometimes antagonistic measures. However, there were aspects of it that flirted with positively charged notions of Swedish national identity. It was also clear that the discursive struggle for a living countryside was also part of a party-political struggle. Further, the fantasy of a living countryside performed an ideological function in that it under-communicated how rural areas are generally and structurally subordinated to urban centres in ways that reach far beyond easily performed measures and political party quarrels.

The moral geographies of public sector job relocation: discourses of compensation and competence in the Swedish news press

Abstract Previous research has pointed to the fact that ideological images of geographies are bound up with the ongoing struggle for economic and social resources, and that moral values and emotions are central in rendering such images intelligible and accepted. To explore this further, we critically engage with the ways in which moral values and emotions contribute to the (re)production of centres and peripheries in the Swedish news press reports of public-sector job relocations. We deploy the discourse theoretical notion of ideological fantasy to critically explain the forces that make particular moral and emotional judgements comprehensible. We identify two discourses in the news press material – one about competence and one about compensation – built up by morally and emotionally charged articulations. We argue that ideological fantasies worked as driving forces both in this moral and emotional news debate and also in the ongoing constitution of geographies.

Between activity and solidarity: Comprehending retirement and extended working lives in Swedish rural areas

The expected costs of population ageing have generally led to perceived needs to postpone the age of retirement. Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews, the aim of this paper is to describe the ways that the possibility of an extended working life is comprehended by persons over the age of 60 living in sparsely populated areas in northern Sweden. While defining themselves as active, the interviewees argued strongly in favour of the right to retire. What are often described as opposing retiree subject positions - healthy and active vs. vulnerable and dependent - were partly transgressed in the interviews. The interviewees performed a solidarity that had the potential of including their future selves as possible objects of solidarity. Another important result was that in comprehending the possibility of an extended working life, morally charged notions of geographic place became central.

Meaning-making around experiences in interventions : Identifying meaningfulness in a group based occupational therapy intervention targeting older people

ABSTRACT There is a need to understand the underlying mechanisms at work within health promotion and occupational therapy interventions. The aim of this article was, therefore, to explore and describe how the participants of a group-based occupational therapy intervention with positive health outcomes created meaning of and around their experiences of the intervention. The studied intervention was part of the evaluation of a single-blinded, exploratory randomised controlled trial of three different interventions. A total of 19 participants between 77 and 82 years of age with experiences from the group-based intervention were interviewed, and the transcribed interviews were analysed from a constructivist approach. The results showed five different perspectives of meaning, including enjoyment, usefulness, togetherness, respect for individuality and self-reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that the possibility of getting information, sharing with others and having fun, and the ability to adjust the activities in the intervention so that they met the individuals needs, created meaning for the participants. Moreover, meeting with others supported the participants’ perspectives of themselves. The results are discussed in relation to the pervasive discourse of successful ageing, including how it was present but also challenged within the participants’ accounts of the intervention.

‘I was struck dumb’: identity production in Swedish class grandparent narratives

In this article I discuss a number of excerpts from interviews with class grandparents; that is to say, older people helping out in schools for children in Sweden. The interviews focused on experiences of taking part in class grandparent projects. Indirectly, however, they dealt with identity. By treating the interviews as stories, as ways of storying people’s lives, I show how some of these discourses seemed especially central to producing subject positions in the narratives on class grandparent experiences. I also suggest that the studied stories are ideological in character, in the sense that they constitute fantasies that cover over the contingencies of everyday life.