Bill Bytheway

An evaluation of the use of diaries in a study of medication in later life

This paper is based upon our experience of commissioning diaries to be kept by research subjects. First the paper reviews some previous research based on diaries, then it outlines the aims of our research and the method of data collection. Then the paper goes on to evaluate the design and use of a diary that participants in our research completed. In particular we consider the ways in which the diary may have biased our sample, caused the participants difficulties and generated poor data. There is also a discussion on how it may have affected behaviour and on the ethical issues that are raised by commissioned diaries. In conclusion, observations are made about the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as an investigative tool with a wider applicability. The diary proved particularly revealing and we recommend that other researchers consider diaries as a method of investigating everyday life.

Valuing lives? Obituaries and the life course

This paper presents the outcome of a preliminary study of the various images of the life course that are conveyed in published obituaries. Following a review of recent developments in the obituary columns of national newspapers in the United Kingdom, we present our analysis of the 86 obituaries that were published in The Guardian in June 1995. We pay particular attention to the ways in which obituaries cover the biography, age, ill-health, death and personal relationships of the deceased. We conclude that, although the sampled obituaries as a whole feature the mid-life careers of men, they also reflect common expectations, fears and prejudices about age, illness and death. We would suggest that a more substantial study comparing obituaries in a wide range of contrasting publications and cultures would reveal important differences in dominant images of the life course.

Youthfulness and agelessness: a comment

In recent years, we gerontologists have been forced to re-examine the conceptual base of our work – both in the wake of developments in postmodernist thought, and following the emergence of ageism as a media issue. Two particular problems have been addressed: one is how we recognise and define age in the context of the partly-disaggregated individual human being: body, mind, self, identity, etc. The second is how we relate to popular sentiments, judgements and objectives regarding age: thinking positively, being prejudiced, remaining active, being a burden, etc. On both fronts there has been a shift away from emphasising the significance of age, and one often reads such arguments as: people do not change, they remain the same; but they can continue to develop; but there is a massive diversity; so we must not generalise about age or prejudge older people; and so on. It is not difficult to associate these trends with powerful ideological movements. There is a third issue that lies just beneath the surface: how we gerontologists theorise our own personal experience of ageing.

Writing about age, birthdays and the passage of time

ABSTRACT How do we experience ageing, how do we interpret changes in our lives and what do we say about the passage of time? The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal evidence about the personal and social significance of birthdays in adult life and, in particular, how birthdays contribute to a sense of ageing. The primary source of data is the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex. Members of its panel of ‘ordinary’ people living in the United Kingdom were in 1990 invited to write anonymously about celebrations, and in 2002 they were invited to write more specifically on the topic of birthdays. A total of 120 accepted both invitations and 55 included accounts of their last birthday in both submissions. As a consequence, it is possible to compare what they wrote on the two occasions and how this reflects their unfolding experience and changing feelings about age. The analysis reveals the personal salience of the date of a birthday and of continuity in how birthdays are celebrated. Who remembers birthdays and who participates in their celebration reflect the generational structure of families and age-related patterns of friendship. Birthdays are used to celebrate collective continuity more than individual change.

25th volume celebration paper Age-identities and the celebration of birthdays

In a paper in the January issue of this volume of Ageing & Society , Eric Midwinter argued that ‘much can be learned from re-drawing the demographic map with social rather than chronological contours’. This opinion reflects a widespread view among social gerontologists that chronological age is an ‘empty’ variable, even though it is central to the construction of social identities, both in bureaucratic contexts and in less formal social interaction. This paper draws on material stored in the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, England. A large panel of ‘ordinary people’ was asked to write about ‘growing older’ in 1992 and about ‘birthdays’ in 2002. An analysis of the ways in which they revealed their age demonstrates that the revelation of chronological age is unproblematic in certain contexts that are deemed appropriate. Difficulties arise as a result of the association of age with various more nebulous statuses such as ‘middle-aged’ and ‘old’. The implications for the concept of ‘the third age’ are discussed and it is concluded that social gerontology should pay more attention to the theoretical significance of chronological age and age-identity and less to age statuses.

Late life reflections on the downturn: perspectives from The Oldest Generation

‘The Oldest Generation’ project is concerned with the dynamic nature of older peoples relationships and identities in the context of these changing structures of intergenerational support. It tracks the lives over the months following the start of the economic downturn in September 2008 of ten people aged over 75. In this paper we review our data in the context of discussions of the early 21st-century downturn, drawing both empirically and methodologically based conclusions. Beginning with a brief overview of contemporary debates, we go on to present and discuss our data, arguing the need for multi- and inter-generational accounts in order that the impact of events such as an economic downturn can be understood as variable and interconnected within families and across age groups. Key findings include that apart from increased spending on fuel and food, the oldest generation seem to fear more for younger people than for themselves, focusing on other peoples futures rather than their own.

Responsibility and Routines: How Older People Manage Their Long-Term Medication

Abstract This paper explores the daily routines of people aged 75 or more who live in their own homes and who have been receiving prescribed medication for twelve months or more. It draws on a representative UK sample of 77 such people and uses a variety of methods: diaries, interviews and observation. First it examines patterns of medication, identifying different daily routines and the impact of disruptions and intermittent medication. It then goes on to consider ways of organising and managing medication. This focuses on three key elements: storage, access and reminders. In conclusion, it argues that if a more collaborative approach to prescribing is to replace the traditional emphasis upon compliance, then a clearer understanding of the daily routines of later life is much needed.

Working with different temporalities: archived life history interviews and diaries

This paper explores the contrasts and complementarities of two different sets of archived data, life history interviews and diaries. Both are well-tried methods of data collection in the social sciences, but little attention has been given to ways of using them in combination. We begin with an outline of how we went about collecting data for archiving: recruiting 12 families, interviewing people aged 75 and over, and collecting diaries from other family members. We go onto present examples of the data from one particular family. We then compare what the interviews and diaries, analysed in combination, contributed to our understanding of time, concluding with comments on the relevance of different temporalities to current debates on family and intergenerational relationships. The archived data offer researchers interested in qualitative longitudinal investigations a complex and many-faceted understanding of temporality.

Grandparenting Across the Life Course

Mass grandparenting is a twentieth-century phenomenon. The likelihood of being a grandparent or great-grandparent has become more the norm as greater numbers of people have survived into later life (Herlofsen and Hagestad 2012: 30). For the oldest generation and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, this has brought new experiences and relationships (Antonucci et al. 2011). Recent research and policy papers have tended to focus on what is referred to as ‘active grandparenting’ or ‘active ageing’ (see for example Harris-Johnson 2010, Van Bavel and De Winter 2011, Sahlen et al. 2012, Walker and Maltby 2012), contributing to campaigns that encourage participative and healthy lifestyles in later life with the aim of reducing health and social care costs. At the same time, an increasing number of grandparents are contributing care and support to their families during times of austerity (Arber and Timonen 2012: 253–256, Grace 2012). Grandparents’ support to family members conflicts with policies that aim to reduce the cost of pensions by delaying the age of retirement (Gray 2005). Moreover such policies tend to elide an ambivalence which more accurately describes relationships in late life, particularly where an older generation is seeking or expected to pursue independently fulfilling lifestyles (Luescher and Pillimer 1998, May et al. 2012).

The Oldest Generation As Displayed in Family Photographs

Photographs of family groups are often taken by family members on specific occasions and arranged in very deliberate ways. Those members being photographed are conscious that the resulting image may be stored in albums or other family archives and be available for themselves and others to peruse in the years to come. How people are positioned reflects the temporal and relational dimensions of the group. Our particular interest lies in intergenerational arrangements, for example in how members of the oldest generation are often seated at the centre.