Positive Aging: Resilience And Reconstruction

From a social constructionist perspective, conceptions of aging emerge from participation in relationships. Thus, there is reason to counter the Western stereotype of aging as decline with a more robust and positive vision. In the same way, resilience in everyday life may be achieved by engaging creatively and collaboratively in coordinating the flow of circumstances and interpretations making up daily life. We illustrate the potentials of resilience in terms of collaborative attempts to generate positive reconstructions of what are often defined as debilitating circumstances: reduced income, diminished attractiveness in physical appearance, declining physical and mental abilities, physical handicaps, the “empty nest,” the loss of loved ones and approaching death. As we propose, sustaining a resilient orientation requires continuous improvization, as one\u27s life conditions continue to change. By drawing on the resources accumulated over a lifetime, and collaborating with one\u27s contemporaries, culturally defined losses may be reconstructed and a positive confluence re-established. As we look back at our lives, we both agree that when we were in our twenties and thirties, we had not looked forward to “growing old.” We never wanted to be identified as “old folks” and we did not look forward to “retiring.” Later we viewed with some distress the emergence of wrinkles and gray hair, and we hoped that every forgotten name was not a sign of dementia. It was not so much the signaling of oncoming death that was important in our age anxiety

Human Essence: Toward A Relational Reconstruction

This chapter opens with a social constructionist perspective on human essences. As proposed, essences are not given in nature, but constructed within cultural traditions. Thus, the major challenge is not that of “getting it right” about the essence, but generating accounts that may contribute to society. A criterion of reflective pragmatism is proposed in which questions of contribution and critique prevail. In this light the chapter places in critical light the bio-cognitive and neurological explanations of human nature, especially focusing on the ideological and political implications of these orientations. In contrast, discussion opens on relational conceptions of human essence. Several approaches are considered, including symbolic interactionism and object relations theory in psychoanalysis. However, a fully relational account abandons the individual as the fundamental unit of analysis in favor of relational process out of which the very conception of the individual is formed (or not). Several practical implications are treated including the potentials of relational responsibilit

The Challenge Of Absent Presence

“Let your home know where your heart is.” (Billboard advertisement for cellular phone) The setting is a retirement home for the elderly. Wilfred enters the veranda in search of two close friends. He is in luck, they are both present. But alas, one is lost to her Walkman and the other is engrossed in his book. Neither notices Wilfred\u27s presence. Frustrated, Wilfred is left to stare silently into space. Such is the beginning of Ronald Harwood\u27s London play, Quartet. Young or old, we instantly identify with the scene. How often do we enter a room to find family, friends or colleagues absorbed by their computer screen, television, CDs, telephone, newspaper, or even a book? Perhaps they welcome us without hesitation; but sometimes there is a pause, accompanied even by a look of slight irritation. And at times our presence may go completely unacknowledged. We are present but simultaneously rendered absent; we have been erased by an absent presence. It is the twentieth-century expansion of absent presence that I wish to explore in what follows. My concern is with the growing domain of diverted or divided consciousness invited by communication technology, and most particularly the mobile telephone. One is physically present but is absorbed by a technologically mediated world of elsewhere. Typically it is a world of relationships, both active and vicarious, within which domains of meaning are being created or sustained

Metaphor And Monophony In The Twentieth-Century Psychology Of Emotions

Attempts to define the emotions and elucidate their character have ornamented the intellectual landscape for over two thousand years. Two characteristics of this continuing colloquy are particularly noteworthy: first, the presumption of palpability and, second, the interminability of debate. In the former case, until the present century there has been little doubting the obdurate existence of the emotions. In the second book of the Rhetoric, Aristotle distinguished among 15 emotional states; Aquinas\u27s Summa Theologiae enumerated 6 “affective” and 5 “spirited” emotions; Descartes distinguished among 6 primary passions of the soul; the eighteenth-century moralist, David Hartley, located 10 “general passions of human nature”; and the major contributions by recent theorists, Tomkins (1962) and Izard (1977), describe some 10 distinctive emotional states. In effect, the cultural history is one in which there is unflinching agreement regarding the palpable presence of emotional states within persons. At the same time, these deep ontological commitments are also matched by a virtual cacophony of competing views on the character of the emotions – their distinguishing characteristics, origins, manifestations, and significance in human affairs. For Aristotle the emotions constituted “motions of the soul”; for Aquinas the emotions were experienced by the soul, but were the products of sensory appetites; Descartes isolated specific “passions of the soul,” these owing to movements of the “animal spirits” agitating the brain

Performative Social Science and Psychology

Este articulo presenta una mirada general a la "Ciencia social performativa", la cual se define como la implementación de diferentes formas de interpretación artística en la ejecución de un proyecto científico. Dichas formas pueden incluir: arte, teatro, poesía, música, danza, fotografía, escritura de ficción y aplicaciones multimedios. Las prácticas de investigación performativa están en su fase de desarrollo, la mayoría del trabajo principal ha aparecido en las últimas dos décadas. Frecuentemente basado en una meta-teoría social construccionista, los partidarios rechazan una visión realista o perspectiva de mapa de la representación, y exploran variedades de formas expresivas para construir mundos relevantes a las ciencias sociales. La orientación performativa frecuentemente se basa en un enfoque dramatúrgico que abarca temas y presentaciones cargados de valor emocional. Los científicos sociales dedicados a temas de justicia social y perspectivas políticas han estado especialmente bosquejando este enfoque. La ciencia social performativa invita a las colaboraciones productivas entre varios campos disciplinarios y entre las ciencias y las artes. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101119Mit diesem Beitrag bieten wir einen Überblick über "performative Sozialwissenschaft", d.h. die Nutzung unterschiedlichster Ausdrucksformen aus Malerei, Dichtung, Theater, Musik, Tanz, Fotografie usw. für wissenschaftliche Projekte. Performative Sozialwissenschaft befindet sich in einem noch frühen Entwicklungsstadium; die wesentlichen Arbeiten sind erst innerhalb der letzten beiden Jahrzehnte erschienen. Ausgehend von einer zumeist sozial-konstruktionistischen Metatheorie wendet sich dieser Ansatz gegen eine realistische Repräsentationsidee und experimentiert stattdessen mit Formen, die für die Konstruktion sozialwissenschaftlich relevanter Welten bedeutungsvoll sein können. Performativer Sozialwissenschaft unterliegt zumeist eine dramaturgische Orientierung, die werthaltige, emotional besetzte Themen und Präsentationen umfasst, ebenso Fragen sozialer Gerechtigkeit und eine dezidiert politische Perspektive. Von besonderem Interesse sind transdisziplinäre Arbeiten und die Zusammenarbeit von Wissenschaft und Kunst. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101119This article presents an overview of "Performative Social Science," which is defined as the deployment of different forms of artistic performance in the execution of a scientific project. Such forms may include art, theater, poetry, music, dance, photography, fiction writing, and multi-media applications. Performative research practices are in their developmental stage, with most of the major work appearing in the last two decades. Frequently based on a social constructionist metatheory, supporters reject a realist, or mapping view of representation, and explore varieties of expressive forms for constructing worlds relevant to the social sciences. The performative orientation often relies on a dramaturgical approach that encompasses value-laden, emotionally charged topics and presentations. Social scientists invested in social justice issues and political perspectives have been especially drawn to this approach. Performative social science invites productive collaborations among various disciplinary fields and between the sciences and arts. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs110111

From Mirroring To World-Making: Research As Future Forming

After decades of acrimonious debate on the nature of scientific knowledge, researchers in the human or social sciences are reaching a state of relative equanimity, a condition that may be characterized as a reflective pragmatism. Yet, even while the context has favored the development of new forms of research, the longstanding ocular metaphor of inquiry remains pervasive. That is, researchers continue the practice of observing what is the case, with the intent to illuminate, understand, report on, or furnish insight into given states of affairs. And, while selectively useful, such an orientation is not only limited in potential but subject to a receding span of application. As I will propose, when the logics of reflective pragmatism are fully extended, we enter a new territory of understanding, one in which the vision of research is radically altered. We replace the captivating gaze on the world as it is with value based explorations into what it could be. This conception of a future forming orientation to research opens the way to new aims, practices, and reflections

Relational Being In Question: A Reply To My Colleagues

I thank my colleagues for their generosity and their engaging reactions to my book. It is interesting, as well, to see the variations in the readings they give to the text. Churchill\u27s initial view that I am not offering ontology is useful, as it speaks to a pervasive concern within the other commentaries that I am dismissing or dismantling cherished concepts of agency, experience, responsibility, and, indeed, physical reality. I underscore that the conception of relational being-just as these concepts-is a social construction. I do not wish to debate ontology but, rather, to explore how such constructions function, for good or ill, in everyday life