Lucie Galčanová

Socio-spatial aspects of ageing in an urban context: an example from three Czech Republic cities

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine how older people make sense of the changing urban environment – that is, how they experience, perceive and interpret their everyday interaction with its materiality, as well as their social ties, networks and relations. The results, based on seven focus groups and 37 individual in-depth interviews with older residents of the three most populous Czech cities, show how older people maintain the continuity of their activities, autonomy and independence within the limits of their personal resources in an active relationship with a changing urban environment and within the post-socialist context. The research supports the results of former studies that emphasise the ability of older adults to negotiate their position and actively cope with change while they age in place.

Význam a obsah prarodičovské role u mladých českých seniorů a seniorek

Prarodicovstvi je jednou z nově objevujicich se socialnich roli mladeho staři. Neni vsak roli jedinou. V ramci diskursů o aktivnim starnuti se předpoklada, že mladi senioři budou aktivnimi nositeli řady dalsich roli ve veřejnem i soukromem životě. V přispěvku se proto zabývame prarodicovstvim v kontextu ostatnich roli mladých seniorů a seniorek. Pomoci integrovaneho přistupu k analýze reprezentativniho výběroveho setřeni „Životni role“ realizovaneho mezi osobami ve věku 50-70 let a kvalitativnich rozhovorů popisujeme, jake role mladi senioři zastavaji, a jak v ramci svých individualnich rolových setů usazuji a ramuji roli prarodicovskou. Popisujeme obsah typickeho výkonu role skrze podily hlavnich cinnosti a aktivit, kterými je role naplňovana. Pozornost přitom věnujeme genderovým rozdilům, ktere se projevuji jak v připisovanem významu role, tak v miře a typu vykonavaných cinnosti. Jako klicový problem se ukazuje casovost prarodicovske role, kdy intenzivni peci střida rolove prazdno. S výjimkou specifických socioekonomických kategoriich nebyly nezjistěny empiricke souvislosti mezi prarodicovstvim a pocity stěsti, přistupy ke starnuti, osamělosti, nebo stresu. Argumentujeme, že důvodem jsou předevsim aktivni strategie zvladani (rizik) přetiženi, ktere vedou k ustalene životni spokojenosti a vytvaři prostor pro zvladani komplexnich rolových setů mladých seniorů.

Narratives and Practices of Voluntary Simplicity in the Czech Post-Socialist Context

Voluntary simplicity is usually seen as an alternative social movement that is responding to the current social and environmental crisis within affluent societies. Many scholars draw on Inglehart’s concept of post-materialism and consider voluntary simplicity to be a way of limiting one’s consumption in order to free oneself and seek satisfaction in the non-material aspects of life. These scholars assume that the values associated with simplicity emerge out of over-saturation with consumption. This article discusses the results of research conducted among Czech households who voluntarily reduce consumption and who do so in a post-socialist context, without having first lived in affluence. Theoretically and methodologically, the article builds on the work of Hana Librova [1994, 2003; Librova et al. 2016] and is rooted in three main concepts: the concepts of post-materialism [Inglehart 1977], ‘new luxury’ [Enzensberger 1996], and the normative ethical theories of motivation [Pelikan and Librova 2015]. The findings of the study call into question Inglehart’s structural assumption that non-consumption lifestyles like voluntary simplicity only develop in affluent societies and suggest that the Czech socialist past created conditions suitable for the emergence of a non-ideological and primarily self-oriented version of voluntary simplicity. The roots of simple lifestyles may also lie in people’s dissatisfaction with the promise of modernity, a promise suggesting that it is possible to attain and lead the good life through material abundance. Prior experience with an affluent lifestyle did not play a role in the decision of participants in this study to live a nonconsumption lifestyle. This study in a post-socialist country therefore has the potential to provide a deeper understanding of the motivations for choosing voluntary simplicity.

Věrní a rozumní: kapitoly o ekologické zpozdilosti

Kniha „Věrni a rozumni: kapitoly o ekologicke zpozdilosti“ navazuje na uspěsne tituly „Pestři a zeleni: kapitoly o dobrovolne skromnosti“ a „Vlažni a vahavi: kapitoly o ekologickem luxusu“. Autorka si klade otazku, proc v době pokracujici devastace přirody klesa zajem o jeji ochranu. Jsou vinny sdělovaci prostředky, nebo je nase hluchota vůci ekologickým problemům zakotvena v nasi mentalni výbavě, ktera se snaži nepřijemne skutecnosti vytěsňovat? Autorku zajima, proc někteři lide zůstavaji přirodě věrni. Odpověď hleda v rovině sociologicke, filozoficke, psychologicke a teologicke. Kniha vsak ctenaře překvapi i necekanou otazkou, proc vlastně přirodu chranit, když si poradi sama; neni slaba, ale silna a kruta. Empiricka cast ctenaře přivadi mezi terenni ochrance přirody – ochrance dravých ptaků. Předevsim vsak se zajima o věrnost přirodě spocivajici v ekologicky přiznive každodenni životni praxi, v male spotřebě hmotných statků. Autorka se po deseti a třiadvaceti letech vraci sociologickým výzkumem k „pestrým“. Žaci profesorky Librove, Vojtěch Pelikan, Lucie Galcanova a Lukas Kala se zajimaji o děti „pestrých“: zdědily skromný životni způsob rodiců? Kdo je vlastně v dnesnim světě rozumný, a kdo zpozdilý? Ten, kdo s pokrcenim ramen rezignuje, problemy přirody hodi za hlavu a věnuje se radostem, ktere může přinest život v umělem světě? Nebo kdo hleda prostřednictvim takzvaneho environmentalniho žalu katarzi, ktera může vyustit do aktivni ochrany přirody?

“How to wind the clock of the day?” Solo living phenomena and the various stabilities of home

Abstract The domestic home is usually theorized as negotiated and structured space-time and as an emotional attachment to people and places. However, the increasing number of people living on their own brings about the question of how home is experienced, embodied, and narrated by solo-living individuals, especially in terms of ordering and stability under the flexible and fluid nature of some other realms, such as paid work. Following the affordance approach in studies of home, our aim is to integrate research on practices, materialities, and narratives of domestic homes. Our main question concerns how home is perceived, experienced, and performed by childless solo-living people and how they understand the stability of their dwelling—one of the main characteristics of home in social theory. To broaden this “traditional” concept of home, we build upon the emphasis on stability with the notion of flow, as presented by Deleuze and Guattari, along with the concept of boundary work, to describe the processes of delineation between these two from the level of mundane “doings.” Through in-depth interviews conducted using the go-along technique, combined with walking through the dwellings and some of the neighborhoods, we explore the ambivalence of stability, permanence, and temporariness, and the interconnection between materialities and meanings. The appropriation of space and time enables solo-living people to dwell comfortably, while also materializing and stabilizing the sometimes unwanted state of singleness or living alone. In contrast, the unfinished nature of some homes indicates a provisional state of being, pointing out that the current situation is still not satisfactory, being more open to change; however, it might lead to permanent living in unpleasant or even un-homey homes.

Ecological habitus intergenerationally reproduced: The children of Czech ‘voluntary simplifiers’ and their lifestyle

The intergenerational reproduction of values and lifestyles has been at the centre of attention for the social sciences for several decades. However, only rarely has this topic been examined from the perspective of environmentally friendly lifestyles. In this article, we build on unique longitudinal research that includes generations of parents and children from Czech ‘voluntarily simple’ families. Drawing on sociological theories of consumption and the Bourdieusian concept of habitus, we deal with the question of whether and how the intergenerational transmission of eco-habitus emerges. The original research with the parents – called ‘the Colourful’ – was conducted by the Czech sociologist Hana Librová in 1992, 2002 and 2015. We participated in the third wave, conducting 12 in-depth interviews with the Colourful and supplementing it with 21 interviews with their adult children, focusing on how they look back on their childhood and in what respect their lifestyles and attitudes differ from those of their parents. We describe the reproduction of the Colourful’s habitus and identify the main lines of influence that may play a role in this process: positive reflections on a non-affluent childhood, awareness of the values behind simplicity, a liberal model of upbringing, the higher cultural capital of the families, the family atmosphere, religiosity and diverse experiences among siblings related to their birth order. We show that while for the Colourful it was typical to revolt against parents, their own habitus has been reproduced relatively successfully.

Residential preferences in the context of voluntary simple lifestyles: What motivates contemporary Czech simplifiers to reside in the countryside?

Abstract The aim of our paper is to broaden the international discussion on environmentally friendly lifestyles. In most of the previous research, via a survey technique involving the self-nomination of participants, voluntary simplifiers are presented as part of a social movement typically connected with an urban environment. Our paper follows the third wave of longitudinal research conducted in the post-socialist Czech Republic in the years 1992, 2002 and 2015. The data were collected using in-depth interviews combined with observations in 20 voluntary modest households. The biographical style of interview enables us to interpret the sources of the participants’ motivation for relocating to the countryside or staying in the urban environment as they interpret it retrospectively. Four dominant narratives emerged: 1) narrative of distaste for city life, 2) narrative of a nice life, 3) narrative about living in freedom, 4) narrative of a return to roots.