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    Safe passage of goods and self during residential relocation in later life

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    Issue Date
    2011-07-22
    Author
    Ekerdt, David J.
    Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
    Type
    Article
    Article Version
    Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Techniques of possession research among older people tend to accentuate their prizing of things and their use of special dispositions to achieve the protection or ‘safe passage’ of things as they transfer to a new owner. Such efforts on behalf of possessions may also be undertaken to perpetuate the self. To study the care of things and self in a wider context, we examined older people’s repertoire of disposition strategies during episodes of household relocation and downsizing. We analysed the narratives of persons in 75 households in the Midwestern United States of America. People indeed told stories about the safe passage of cherished possessions – their initiative to place things, appreciation by new owners, and attempts to project the values or memory of the giver. Such accounts of special placements, however, dotted rather than dominated recollections of the move. More commonly, large quantities of items were passed via non-specific offers of possessions to others who may volunteer to take them. This allowed people to nonetheless express satisfaction that their possessions had found appreciative owners. Even though our interviews did not disclose extensive attempts at self-transmission, whole-house downsizing may affirm the self in another way: as conscientious about the care of things. Such affirmation of the present self as accomplished and responsible can be seen as a positive adaptation to the narrowing life world.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/22732
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X11000705
    Collections
    • Sociology Dissertations and Theses [81]
    Citation
    Ekerdt, David J., Mark Luborsky, and Catherine Lysack. "Safe Passage of Goods and Self during Residential Relocation in Later Life." Ageing and Society 32.05 (2011): 833-50.

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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