Galkin K.A. Aging Assemblies in Various Environments: The Use of Material Optics. 2021. № 3. pp.244-260. doi: 10.17323

Текст статьи на сайте журнала UIRL: https://sociologica.hse.ru/2021-20-3/510761004.html (дата обращения 13.10.2021)

Abstract

The article considers a new approach to the research of aging — material gerontology and the application of this approach to the empirical study of the everyday life of elderly people who are in boarding schools and living separately. The article answers the question of how aging is collected within the framework of the interactions of older people with material and social resources present in two different environments in which older people are located. The article uses the concept of tunability of material and social resources, on the basis of which conclusions are drawn about how the assemblies of aging as a complex inhomogeneous category occur in various environments. Different environments are a nursing home in the city of Petrozavodsk and villages in Karelia, where elderly people live separately. A total of 20 biographical interviews with elderly people (n = 20) and 16 semi-structured interviews (n = 16) with nurses and volunteers working in a boarding house were collected. The article aims to fill the gap in the study of aging, which consists, firstly, in the absence of social research on aging through the prism of considering the material and social resources (actors) present in various environments and collecting aging, and secondly, in the absence of discussion about the possibilities of applying material gerontology in social research and the features of the application of this direction. To fill these gaps, I empirically illustrate the features and roles of material and social resources in the lives of older people and show how aging processes occur and how material and social resources can affect the agency of older people. The study shows that, depending on the environment in which the assemblies of aging take place, its meanings and the understanding of the tunability and features of the tunability of material and social resources by older people also differ