More than just a bracelet: the use of material symbolism to communicate love

Emond, Ruth

doi:10.14324/111.444.ijsp.2017.04

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Less attention has been paid to how existing relationships are reinforced through ongoing interactions with objects, and to the ways in which objects can help to construct new relationships. Research conducted in residential care settings for children has found that the gifting of objects can create and reinforce emotional ties between children and adult members of staff (Emond 2016). I suggest that the lack of comparable research in older people's residential settings into how objects can facilitate social interaction, reflects dominant assumptions that older people are predominantly past oriented and have limited capacity to use objects to form new social relationships.…”

Section: Decisions About What We Do With Objects Then For Example Whmentioning

confidence: 98%

Relationships and material culture in a residential home for older people

Lovatt

2020

Ageing and Society

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Residents of older people's homes furnish their rooms with belongings that are associated with meaningful relationships. Previous research shows how material culture symbolises residents’ past and existing relationships, helping residents to remain embedded within familial and social networks. Less attention has been paid to how relationships are actively (re)constituted through socio-material interactions, and to the potential for objects to facilitate new relationships. This article presents findings from an ethnographic study into the everyday experiences of residents of an older people's home in northern England. Using observations of daily life and in-depth interviews with residents, it demonstrates how residents used material culture in gift-giving, divestment practices and in mundane social interactions. In this way, residents used objects to not only maintain relationships with family members outside the home, but form new relationships inside the home with other residents and members of staff. Combining theories of materiality, relationality and social practice, I argue that residents’ interactions with material culture helped to facilitate new social interaction and meaningful relationships. This is important in a social context where loneliness has been identified as a significant threat to residents’ mental and physical health. Residential homes for older people can develop guidance on practical activities and strategies that can use material culture to increase social interaction and enhance quality of life for residents.

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Section: Decisions About What We Do With Objects Then For Example Whmentioning

confidence: 98%

Relationships and material culture in a residential home for older people

Lovatt

2020

Ageing and Society

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“…Las actividades de la vida diaria, en los recursos residenciales, son oportunidades para trabajar aspectos de interés pedagógico en escenarios de vinculación afectiva reparadora con la figura profesional, situación que supera los tiempos previstos de tutorías (Sala, 2019). Los lazos relacionales, en contextos residenciales, se fraguan en actuaciones prácticas que se dan en la cotidianeidad de los cuidados culturales (Emond, 2016). Los tiempos de intervención directa se ven afectados por la carga laboral de los equipos que se ejecuta en un entorno lleno de dificultades (Fernández-Simo et al, 2020;Lindahl & Bruhn, 2017).…”

Section: Discusión Y Conclusionesunclassified

Buenas prácticas y oportunidades de mejora en el acompañamiento socioeducativo con juventud en protección durante la transición a la vida adulta

et al. 2023

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La juventud en protección se emancipa en un contexto de vulnerabilidad y con carencias de apoyo social. El acompañamiento socioeducativo que realizan los equipos profesionales es determinante para facilitar relaciones y espacios de seguridad. La intervención educativa facilita la consecución de las metas propias de la transición a la vida adulta. La presente investigación pretendió analizar buenas prácticas en el acompañamiento socioeducativo que permitan configurar un espacio educativo seguro desde el que la adolescencia en protección pueda asumir el proceso de transición a la vida adulta, así como definir líneas de mejora en el sistema de protección que faciliten que las estrategias eficaces puedan consolidarse y superar los obstáculos presentes. Se diseñó una investigación cualitativa, organizada en tres fases según la teoría fundamentada, mediante observación participante de casos (N=6), seguimientos longitudinales (N=11) y entrevistas con figuras profesionales (N=7). La muestra de jóvenes se configuró con once hombres y siete mujeres. Participaron siete educadoras sociales. En la fase uno se tomaron notas en un cuaderno de campo. En las fases dos y tres se realizaron un total de 62 entrevistas, siendo 55 con juventud egresada del sistema de protección y siete con figuras profesionales. Los resultados indicaron que las prácticas de los equipos educativos facilitaron espacios de referenciado profesional que favorecieron un escenario seguro desde el que los jóvenes asuman los extenuantes retos de la vida adulta. Se detectaron condicionantes burocráticos y organizativos del sistema de protección que dificultaron las intervenciones. La acción socioeducativa eficaz priorizó los tiempos de acompañamiento en espacios marcados por la cotidianidad de la vida diaria. Se concluyó que es preciso que los recursos residenciales adecuen la organización del trabajo a la perspectiva socioeducativa de los equipos profesionales.

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“…Conventionally, many materials are employed as signifiers of love (Emond, 2016). People frequently use these materials to manifest their love, and such materials are closely related to the feeling of affection.…”

Section: Symbolic Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loves Me or Loves Me Not? Passing through the Forest of Love Symbols and Unveiling Its Social Nature

Yeh¹

2021

IJPS

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This article unveils how love, as a signified, can be constituted by the artificially constructed symbolic signs (“signifiers”) represented in our everyday life. Only when we regard love as a symbolic system and try to decipher its meanings can we understand how love is transmitted through sociomental patterns. This article attempts to provide examples from language, symbolic materials, the imprinted body, the code of temporality, and the spatial aspect to interpret the general elements that commonly form the forest of love symbols. Moreover, this article introduces cognitive sociology as a significant analytic approach to examining love. On the one hand, taking the “semantic square” proposed by Zerubavel, I articulate that when we want to understand the meanings of symbols, we usually have to embed them into their symbolic context. On the other hand, based on the distinction between marked and unmarked social categories proposed by Brekhus, I explain that more often than not, we can shed light on the marked love types even when we focus on love issues. Last, this article reminds us that the symbols of love are not fixed and constant but change according to the transformations of context.

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More than just a bracelet: the use of material symbolism to communicate love

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Relationships and material culture in a residential home for older people

Relationships and material culture in a residential home for older people

Buenas prácticas y oportunidades de mejora en el acompañamiento socioeducativo con juventud en protección durante la transición a la vida adulta

Loves Me or Loves Me Not? Passing through the Forest of Love Symbols and Unveiling Its Social Nature

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