The ‘dual tension’ created by negotiating upward social mobility and habitus: A generational study of skilled working-class men, their sons and grandsons following deindustrialization
Abstract:This article presents an intergenerational study of 28 skilled working-class men’s life stories of negotiating social mobility in the wake of deindustrialization. This contributes to emerging qualitative research that aims to build a framework that understands the personal tensions social mobility creates for individuals. In this study, the tensions that men experienced were not exclusively the consequence of ‘habitus clivé’, i.e. men feeling a dislocation from their working-class backgrounds as they climbed t… Show more
“…(Liz Wright, FL)Whereas adult offspring were conscious of their contribution to the relationship in the form of caregiving and mentoring, parents were largely unconscious in their acceptance of this human support. It is widely agreed that if support exchanged between generations is understood as being reciprocal, both generations report more positive experiences of intergenerational cohabitation (Ackers, 2019; Burn & Szoeke, 2016). However, the adult offspring's acts of care and support failed to register against the economic support provided by parents.…”
Objective
This article considers the ambivalence generated in familial cohabitation where adult offspring have never left or have returned to live with their parents.
Background
Ambivalence is commonly used in psychology to describe contradictory emotions at the interpersonal level.
Method
A thematically analyzed ethnographic study of eight cohabitating families living in North Wales, in the United Kingdom, explored both generations' perspectives on cohabitation.
Results
Although our study found evidence of ambivalence at the interpersonal level, we suggest that this was drawn from a structural contradiction, namely, that although cohabitation was the result of structural issues, such as graduate underemployment and the affordable housing crisis, societal values labeled it the personal consequence of a failed adulthood. This caused these families feelings of shame and guilt that created a barrier blocking the interpersonal negotiations needed to develop more positive living arrangements and family roles. The generational contradictions in values of self, family, and society produced irreconcilable personal and political tensions.
Conclusion
This study concludes that two changes are needed to better negotiate ambivalence in family cohabitation. First, the social narrative that responsibilizes young adults for their failure to attain financial and residential independence needs to be challenged. Second, to address current structural contradictions, the social contract on the provision for family social care needs political renegotiation.
Implications
Building on the concept of sociological ambivalence, this article suggests that studies of ambivalence need to take a critical perspective that questions the structural forces that produce and constrain interpersonal familial relationships.
“…(Liz Wright, FL)Whereas adult offspring were conscious of their contribution to the relationship in the form of caregiving and mentoring, parents were largely unconscious in their acceptance of this human support. It is widely agreed that if support exchanged between generations is understood as being reciprocal, both generations report more positive experiences of intergenerational cohabitation (Ackers, 2019; Burn & Szoeke, 2016). However, the adult offspring's acts of care and support failed to register against the economic support provided by parents.…”
Objective
This article considers the ambivalence generated in familial cohabitation where adult offspring have never left or have returned to live with their parents.
Background
Ambivalence is commonly used in psychology to describe contradictory emotions at the interpersonal level.
Method
A thematically analyzed ethnographic study of eight cohabitating families living in North Wales, in the United Kingdom, explored both generations' perspectives on cohabitation.
Results
Although our study found evidence of ambivalence at the interpersonal level, we suggest that this was drawn from a structural contradiction, namely, that although cohabitation was the result of structural issues, such as graduate underemployment and the affordable housing crisis, societal values labeled it the personal consequence of a failed adulthood. This caused these families feelings of shame and guilt that created a barrier blocking the interpersonal negotiations needed to develop more positive living arrangements and family roles. The generational contradictions in values of self, family, and society produced irreconcilable personal and political tensions.
Conclusion
This study concludes that two changes are needed to better negotiate ambivalence in family cohabitation. First, the social narrative that responsibilizes young adults for their failure to attain financial and residential independence needs to be challenged. Second, to address current structural contradictions, the social contract on the provision for family social care needs political renegotiation.
Implications
Building on the concept of sociological ambivalence, this article suggests that studies of ambivalence need to take a critical perspective that questions the structural forces that produce and constrain interpersonal familial relationships.
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