People in advanced old age with frailties and those who are resident in old-age institutions manage their identities within the constraints of stigmatised settings. This paper compares the processes of identity construction in an old-age home and in a sheltered housing project for older people in Israel. Applying a symbolic-interactionist perspective that sees old-age institutions as social arenas for the reconstruction of identity, the paper first distinguishes the residents' constructions of stigma and deviance. While the old-age home residents collectively turned their stigma into a source of positive labelling, the sheltered housing residents drew advantages from their previous roles and statuses. Gossip is shown to play a critical role in reproducing stigma, particularly in the old-age home. These findings are used to demonstrate the variability and potential for adaptation among the residents – who are often stereotyped as homogeneous and passive. The paper concludes with a discussion of the literal and metaphorical languages used by older people, and of stigma as a positive instrument that can introduce content into the definition of the self.
This article investigates an intergenerational information and communications technology (ICT) program that seeks expressly to enhance children's civic participation by placing them in mutually educational encounters with seniors. Applying Devine's model of the interrelationship among structure, power, and agency, it problematizes this goal by analyzing the dialectics of the power relations between seniors and children who maintain a technology-driven relationship. The data were gathered via qualitative participant-observation in two elementary schools. The results reveal clashing implications for children's empowerment as computer "teachers" and their experiencing of agency. Implementation of Devine's theoretical model sheds light on the meanings of the stereotyped terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants," as well as on the a-stereotyped senior's identity as "digital consumers." The conclusions suggest that the technological gap may not be definitive in confirming young people's supremacy in the generational hierarchy, signaling the need for caution in handling this gap via civic empowerment in an educational setting.
The Jewish-Yemenite wailing is a “performed weeping” controlled by the expert wailer who uses special strategies to manage the audience's emotions. Questions of emotional sincerity and self-authenticity, especially in the context of death events, render an explanation for the decline of wailing in recent years.
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