In this paper I suggest ways in which a geographical approach to grandparent identities could successfully build upon social geography's understandings of relational geographies of age. In intergenerational geographies, the compartmentalised nature of age studies means that transitions in later stages of the lifecourse, particularly in family life, remain substantially under-researched. The paper draws together established geographical literatures of age, family and lifecourse, and evidence from qualitative interviews conducted over the past 12 months in the UK for ongoing research with grandfathers, to suggest ways in which the discipline might engage with and critique intergenerational geographies to move it forward. In particular there is a focus on spatialities of body space, embodiment and intimacy, activity spaces, and distance and locality.

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This paper examines the spatio-temporalities of the intergenerational caring practices that contemporary grandfathers engage in with their grandchildren, in order to critique old men's constructions and performances of ageing masculinities, and the gendering and ageing of contemporary carescapes. Findings are based on 31 qualitative interviews and two participant observations, conducted in the NorthWest of England with men who are grandfathers. The concept of carescapes (Bowlby, Gregory and McKie 1997) is employed to explain that grandfathering is both spatially and temporally organized. Findings suggest that men construct distinctly masculine spaces of care later in life, contingent on both their resistance to spatially embedded ageism and their comparisons of grandfathering to previous lifecourse subjectivities, such as fathering. Complexity and diversity in how men negotiate these factors is also apparent and is explored. There is evidence for example that some men's performances of ageing masculinities contribute to the maintenance of a gendered division of labour in family care work, while others perform alternative masculinities that offer potential to transform gendered carespaces. This is further mediated by intergenerational interactions with children and grandchildren. Focus on old men who are grandfathers necessarily complicates geographical perspectives on the spatio-temporalities of multiple masculinities, ageing and informal familial care.Key words: Grandfathering; family; carescapes; masculinities; age; identity IntroductionAs a result of existing material, institutional and discursive framings, alongside a privileging of focus on gender over other dimensions of identity, care has come to be understood as Grandfather identities; neglected intersections of masculinities and 'old age'A small yet noteworthy body of sociological work is now attending to the apparent neglect of old men and ageing masculinities and it is this theoretical base that geographers could usefully exploit for developing and re-thinking the geographies of care as gendered, intergenerational and spatio-temporally organized, and masculinities as multiply produced, . These assumptions are problematic however as they are premised on essential understandings of both old age and hegemonic masculinity. Nonetheless this is theoretically interesting because the paradoxical and contradictory nature of these normative values suggests that ageing presents significant challenges to men as they get older and as they face the potential for gendered disempowerment resulting from the material processes of ageing. Geographies of ageing masculinitiesTo some extent the theoretical assumption that old age acts to de-gender old men has been replicated by social geographers, who rarely focus explicitly on old men and ageing masculinities. However limited research does suggest that old men's locations in age and gendered relations are of interest to geographers (Tarrant 2010). At one extreme, old men have been found to avoid public life altogether an...

Drawing on qualitative interview data, this article examines how grandfatherhood relates to the assertion and transformation of masculinities in later life. Recent attention to ageing and masculinities has identified how older men are challenged to successfully maintain connections to hegemonic masculinity in light of altered family and life circumstances. We consider men's engagement with grandfatherhood as a means for so doing, illustrating how men make sense of the role through continuity with hegemonic masculinity. While grandfathers describe emotionally intimate and affectionate relationships with their grandchildren, their accounts reflect desires to re-affirm previous connections to masculinities. Attention to the way individualised masculinities are re-negotiated in later life can help to explain how men are making sense of the new family opportunities that arise from being a grandparent. Such an analysis of grandfatherhood, we argue, also offers significant critique of hegemonic masculinity and its distinction to non-hegemonic masculinities intersected by old age.

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There have been significant developments in methods of qualitative secondary analysis (QSA), prompted in part by growth in infrastructure for archiving and sharing qualitative data, facilitating reuse. Building from these developments, this article presents QSA that brings together subsamples of men in low income contexts from two qualitative longitudinal datasets produced under Timescapes, demonstrating the complex linkages between them, and addressing two key questions. First, in bringing these two datasets together, is it possible to build an intergenerational sample of men in low income contexts to further our understanding of their generational identities and intergenerational experiences? Second, what sorts of intergenerational, or intra-generational, analyses are possible? We conclude that it was not possible to build a straightforwardly vertical intergenerational sample, but our theoretical focus on generational identities has enabled insights into the dynamic relational processes productive of longitudinal experiences of marginalisation and vulnerability for men living in low income contexts.

The possibilities and pitfalls of qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) have been the subject of on-going academic debate, linked to the growing availability of qualitative data in digital archives. This article contributes to, and extends these methodological debates, through a critical consideration of how the secondary analysis of linked qualitative longitudinal datasets might be utilised productively in qualitative research design. It outlines the re-use of two linked datasets from the Timescapes archive, that were analysed to develop a new empirical project exploring processes of continuity and change in the context of men’s care responsibilities in low-income localities. Following brief discussion of the substantive outcomes of the analysis, I conclude by arguing that the pitfalls of qualitative secondary analysis, that are complicated further when working with longitudinal data, effectively supports the development of new empirical research and in honestly reporting the process of ‘getting out of the swamp’, in early research development

Observable anxieties have been developing about the position of boys and young men in contemporary society in recent years. This is expressed as a crisis of masculinity, in which place is often implicitly implicated, but is rarely considered for its role in the shaping of young men's practices, trajectories and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with young people who accessed a range of social care support services, this paper argues that transition means different things for young men in different locales and that local definitions of masculinity are required to better understand young men's lives and the opportunities available to them. We argue that home life, street life, individual neighbourhoods, regions and nations all shaped the young men's identities and the practices they (and the staff working with them) drew on in order to create 2 successful futures and 'safe' forms of masculinity. We suggest that this place based approach has potential to re-shape the 'crisis' discourse surrounding masculinity and the anxieties associated with young men.