Aging identity: Do theories match experiences?

Dominant aging identity theories (“mask of ageing”, “social mask”, M. Foucault’s “disembodiment thesis”, gerotranscendental theory) as well as the concept of the postmodern reflexive self of A. Giddens cannot be used to effectively explain old age identity in contemporary Lithuania. More suitable for this purpose is E. Goffman’s concept of stigma that explains denial, evasion and marginalization of old age. These are the conclusions of a qualitative piece of research – involving in-depth interviews with elderly people – that was designed to examine the ways in which old age identity is created and aging is experienced by older people, as well as to ascertain whether the elderly experience stigmatization in everyday interactions. The data were collected from October 2010 – January 2011 in Vilnius (N=24): the selection of informants was targeted by gender, age group (60–74 and 75–89), level of education (primary, secondary, higher), and household type (households of several generations, single-generation and institutional households). To interpret the data, the method of abduction or inference to the best explanation (Harman, 1965) was used

Skaitmeninis vyresnio amžiaus žmonių įsitraukimas Lietuvoje: barjerai ir pagalbos galimybės

While Lithuania advances rapidly in the ICT sector, a digital divide persists among older adults. A study of 289 elderly Internet users highlighted key barriers and facilitators in digital engagement. Motivation stemmed from personal qualities like curiosity and past work experience with digital tools. Major barriers included language challenges, technical jargon, limited support, device comprehension issues, and emotional factors. Formal and informal training, peer support, gaming‘s role, and family, particularly younger members, emerged as crucial learning aids. The study underscores the need for strategies tailored to enhance digital inclusion of older people in Lithuania.Lietuvoje informacinių komunikacinių technologijų (IKT) sparti kaita vyksta paraleliai su gana dideliu vyresnio amžiaus žmonių skaitmeninio dalyvavimo atotrūkiu. Remiantis Kebede ir kt. (2022) apibendrintu teoriniu modeliu, straipsnyje siekta ištirti vyresnio amžiaus žmonių skaitmeninio įsitraukimo kliūtis ir jį lengvinančius veiksnius. Buvo atlikta vyresnio amžiaus interneto vartotojų nereprezentatyvi internetinė apklausa (N=289). Remiantis tyrimo rezultatais, asmeninės savybės, tokios kaip smalsumas ir ryžtas, buvo didžiausia paskata mokytis IKT. Ankstesnė darbo su skaitmeninėmis priemonėmis patirtis palengvino jų naudojimą vyresniame amžiuje. Tyrimo duomenų analizė parodė, kad dominuojančios kliūtys naudotis IKT susijusios su reflektyvios motyvacijos ir galimybių kategorijomis. Anglų kalbos nemokėjimas ir techninio žargono nesupratimas buvo pagrindinės kliūtys. Kiti reikšmingi barjerai – ribota techninė pagalba, įrenginių veikimo principų supratimo problemos, mentorystės trūkumas. Emocinės kliūtys, tokios, kaip klaidų baimė, nesaugumas ir mokymosi sunkumai, taip pat kėlė iššūkių. Skaitmeninį įtrauktumą skatinančių veiksnių analizė atskleidė formalaus ir neformalaus mokymo svarbą, bendraamžių pagalbos, žaidimų vaidmenį mokyme. Šeima, ypač vaikai ir anūkai, vaidino esminį vaidmenį mokantis. Nors asmeninė motyvacija yra svarbus veiksnys, išoriniai ištekliai ir parama yra būtini. Tyrime pabrėžiamas vyresnio amžiaus žmonėms pritaikytų strategijų poreikis, siekiant gerinti skaitmeninę įtrauktį Lietuvoje

Old Age Stigmatization

Surprisingly, the discourse on ageism hardly profits from stigma research despite their common denominator—discrimination. The goal of this article is to discuss the stigma concept developed on micro-level interactions and apply it to ageism research on the macro level, i.e. using Round 4 data of the representative international European Social Survey (2008). The data analysis is focused on dominant opinions of the Lithuanian population (N=2002) and usual behavior toward older people, while international comparison is used for interpretation of results. The results show that old age in the Lithuanian society is an “open secret” type of stigma: verbal praise of older people, high assessment of their morals and polite declaration of respect conceal intolerance, disregard and discrimination on the behavioral level. The old age stigma is widespread in Lithuania and stronger than in advanced European countries. Its level is close to discrimination particular to other post-communist and Mediterranean countries

Projects in Academic Institutions: Between Bureaucracy and Post Bureaucracy

Modern bureaucratic organisations are characterized by hierarchical structure, control and accountability. Post-bureaucratic organisations, which are widely established in the postmodern world, encourage empowerment, initiative, creativity and responsibility of their members while transferring control functions to the corporate culture and a clearly defined and comprehensible mission of their organisation. Despite the fact that the postmodern, or post-bureaucratic, type of an organisation that came into being in the 1960s is being increasingly integrated in various aspects and areas of society, including public institutions and universities, the question whether this type of organisation gains ground over the modernist type is still yet to be answered. This paper has been written on the basis of the materials from 3 focus groups, representing administration and faculties of one university, that summarise their seven-year experience of EU Structural Funds project management. The paper presents insights into the issues arising due to the interplay between different corporate values and cultures and considers alternatives of solving these issues

Motinystės diskurso paraštėse: bevaikystė 1991–1996 m. Lietuvos moterims skirtuose žurnaluose

Foreign scholars highlight that despite the modernization of social life, cultural attitudes towards thefamily are changing slowly, and women remain closely tied to the role of motherhood (McKennon Brody, Frey,2017). The media has the power to reflect on and change the attittudes prevailing in society, thereby reducing the stigmatizing ones. Researchers discover the domination of pronatal discourse by analyzing images of childlessness, which supports parenthood in many ways, and individuals, especially women, who do not raise children and are underestimated and often stigmatized (Gibb, 2019; Grill, 2019). In order to understand the current cultural attitudes towards childless women and to analyze changes in comparison to other countries, it is important to examine them from a historical perspective.The representation of childlessness in Lithuanian media during the last decades of the 20th century was not studied yet. The scholars (Marcinkevičienė, Praspaliauskienė, 1999; Maslauskaitė 2001; 2002) who had analyzed Lithuanian women’s magazines during the late Soviet period and after the Independence in 1990 focused mainly on the representations of familial and romantic relationships. This research, based on a qualitative content analysis of 224 articles from the most popular women’s magazines of 1991–1996, showed that sex education and abortion prevention were the prevailing topics covering the lack of public knowledge about reproductive and sexual health. The aim of the media was to consolidate motherhood as the main expression of femininity within the framewok of declining birth rates; therefore, infertility and voluntary childlessness were stigmatized.Užsienio mokslininkai pastebi, kad, nepaisant visuomeninio gyvenimo modernėjimo, kultūrinės nuostatos šeimos atžvilgiu keičiasi lėtai, o moterys išlieka glaudžiai susietos su motinystės vaidmeniu (McKennon Brody, Frey, 2017). Žiniasklaida turi galią reflektuoti visuomenėje vyraujančias nuostatas ir kartu jas keisti, taip mažindama visuomenės grupių stigmatizavimą. Nagrinėdami bevaikystės vaizdinius žiniasklaidoje, tyrėjai atranda pronatalinio diskurso dominavimą, kai visokeriopai remiama motinystė / tėvystė, o asmenys, ypač moterys, nesusilaukusios vaikų, vertinamos menkiau ir neretai yra stigmatizuojamos (Gibb, 2019; Grill, 2019). Tam, kad suprastume šiuo metu vyraujančias kultūrines nuostatas bevaikių moterų atžvilgiu ir galėtume analizuoti pokyčius lygindami su užsienio šalimis, svarbu turėti atskaitos tašką ir nagrinėti jas iš istorinės perspektyvos. Bevaikystės vaizdavimas Lietuvos žiniasklaidoje XX a. pabaigoje iki šiol nebuvo tyrinėtas. Mokslininkės (Marcinkevičienė, Praspaliauskienė, 1999; Maslauskaitė, 2001; 2002), nagrinėjusios vėlyvojo sovietmečio ir Nepriklausomybės atgavimo laikotarpio moterų žurnalus, daugiausiai dėmesio skyrė romantinių ir šeiminių santykių visuomenėje pokyčiams ir jų vaizdavimui žiniasklaidoje. Atlikus 224 straipsnių bevaikystės ir susijusiomis temomis iš 1991–1996 m. laikotarpio populiariausių moterų žurnalų ir savaitraščių kokybinę turinio analizę paaiškėjo, kad tuo laikotarpiu daugiausiai dėmesio skirta lytinio švietimo ir abortų prevencijos temoms, siekiant užpildyti moterų neišprusimo lytinės sveikatos srityje spragą. Gimstamumo mažėjimo fone motinystę siekta įtvirtinti kaip svarbiausią moteriškumo raišką, o nevaisingumas ir savanoriška bevaikystė buvo stigmatizuojami

Vyresnio amžiaus žmonės Lietuvos žiniasklaidoje: naivūs, kenčiantys ir bejėgiai

The world shaped by the media is taken over by its audience. The media homogenizes different views, influences age identity of individuals and attitudes towards their own and other age groups. Western research reports under-representation of elderly, especially women, and they are often portrayed negatively in physical, psychological and social sense. In this paper images of elderly in 396 publications of 2007 on the internet portal Delfi are analyzed. Contrary to the Western trends, elderly women here are more often represented than men. Dominating criminal reports, as previously, create the image of victims – weak, naive, harmed elderly, accentuated by the trends of old age institutionalization. Positive pole in the Lithuanian media is represented by the image of fighters, public figures, deportees (instead of Western healthy leisure class representative image).Žiniasklaida įtakoja individų amžiaus tapatumą. Tyrimais Vakaruose nustatytas menkas pagyvenusių žmonių, ypač moterų, reprezentavimas. Šiame straipsnyje analizuojami pagyvenusių žmonių įvaizdžiai 2007 m. 396 internetinio portalo „Delfi“ publikacijose apie pagyvenusius žmones. Priešingai Vakarų tendencijoms, moterys juose reprezentuojamos dažniau nei vyrai. Dominuojantys kriminalinio pobūdžio pranešimai kuria pagyvenusių žmonių-aukų įvaizdį, paryškinamą senatvės institucionalizavimo tendencijų

Senstantis kūnas Lietuvos viešajame diskurse

Based on biomedical view bodily ageing in gerontology traditionally was associated with biological decline. Theorists of social gerontology recently noticed certain ambiguity of biomedical age discourses: between statements that ageing is universal, natural on one hand, and the proposed means for its „treatment“ on the other. The objective of the article is to discuss results of an investigation on representation of ageing body in Lithuanian mass media. The method used is qualitative content analyse using Hamlet data analysis software. Research data: publications mentioning bodily ageing in the internet portal “Delfi” (Lithuanian version) 2007.01.01 – 2007.12.31. The analysis of publications confirms theoretical insights showing that two interconnected topics are dominant in the public discourse: medical knowledge and body care. Ageing of body is associated with decline, destruction and risk to health, so ageing body is socially constructed as marginal.Kūno senėjimas gerontologijoje tradiciškai buvo siejamas su biologiniu nykimu. Šio straipsnio tikslas – aptarti tyrimo apie senstančio kūno reprezentavimą žiniasklaidoje rezultatus. Pasirinktas metodas – turinio analizė. Tyrimo duomenys – 2007 m. internetiniame portale „Delfi” (lietuviškoje versijoje) paskelbti straipsniai, kuriuose paminėta kūno senėjimo tema. Tekstų analizė patvirtina teorines įžvalgas: kūno senėjimas siejamas su nykimu, destrukcija, rizika sveikatai ir ligomis

The Approach to Care Among Older People Living Alone in Lithuania

The Lithuanian context of an increased need for care in old age is framed by the demographic trends, such as population aging, the intense emigration of younger generations, and a significant proportion of older people living alone on the one hand, and on the other the strong support represented by filial duties in respect of care and insufficiently developed social services. How do older people experience and handle the situation? This paper uses qualitative interviews (N=27) to analyze the preferences and experiences of care among older people living alone in Lithuania. Based on the study findings, older people seek to maintain their agency under all circumstances related to care, and informal support is appreciated as providing more such options. Formal social services are rejected for reasons including distrust, the lack of social skills, or the cost and insufficient accessibility of such services

Policy to Reduce Late-Life Social Exclusion – From Aspirations to Action

Drawing on interdisciplinary, cross-national perspectives, this open access book contributes to the development of a coherent scientific discourse on social exclusion of older people. The book considers five domains of exclusion (services; economic; social relations; civic and socio-cultural; and community and spatial domains), with three chapters dedicated to analysing different dimensions of each exclusion domain. The book also examines the interrelationships between different forms of exclusion, and how outcomes and processes of different kinds of exclusion can be related to one another. In doing so, major cross-cutting themes, such as rights and identity, inclusive service infrastructures, and displacement of marginalised older adult groups, are considered. Finally, in a series of chapters written by international policy stakeholders and policy researchers, the book analyses key policies relevant to social exclusion and older people, including debates linked to sustainable development, EU policy and social rights, welfare and pensions systems, and planning and development. The book’s approach helps to illuminate the comprehensive multidimensionality of social exclusion, and provides insight into the relative nature of disadvantage in later life. With 77 contributors working across 28 nations, the book presents a forward-looking research agenda for social exclusion amongst older people, and will be an important resource for students, researchers and policy stakeholders working on ageing

Socialiai įtraukti ar atskirti? Vyresnio amžiaus žmonių, gyvenančių vienų, patirtys

While there is a tendency to study regularities in the social exclusion of older people, the distinctive feature of this article is the aim to reveal the subjective assessments of social participation of elderly people who live alone. Social exclusion/inclusion is defined in the article as a multiple concept describing (un)just social relationships. An analysis of the data from the original empirical research (27 semistructured interviews) reveals a wide range of social exclusion cases experienced at various levels. In line with the social justice scheme, the narratives of social exclusion are based on personal and interpersonal contexts (age, health, communication, autonomy), as well as the organizational, community (work) and broader social context (participation in events and politics).Vyresnio amžiaus žmonių socialinės atskirties tyrimuose dominuojanti tendencija – tirti dėsningumus, o šio straipsnio išskirtinumas – siekis atskleisti vyresnio amžiaus žmonių, kurie gyvena vieni, subjektyvius dalyvavimo visuomenėje vertinimus. Socialinė atskirtis / įtrauktis straipsnyje apibrėžiama kaip daugialypė sąvoka, apibūdinanti (ne)teisingus socialinius ryšius. Originalaus empirinio tyrimo (27 pusiau struktūruoti interviu) duomenų analizė atskleidžia platų socialinės atskirties, patiriamos įvairiu lygmeniu, spektrą. Remiantis socialinio teisingumo schema, neįtrauktumo visuomenėje naratyvai grindžiami asmeniniu ir tarpasmeniniu (amžiaus, sveikatos, bendravimo, savarankiškumo), organizaciniu, bendruomenės (darbo) ir visuomenės (dalyvavimo renginiuose ir politikoje) kontekstais