Fulfilling late life? Childless men aging in San Francisco
Item
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Title
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Fulfilling late life? Childless men aging in San Francisco
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:a784b307d484:10688
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identifier
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10871
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Creator
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Turner, Dylan,
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Contributor
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Michael Blim
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Date
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2010
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Cultural anthropology | Aging | Gerontology | Childlessness | Identity | Men | Mortality | Self
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Abstract
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Much of the extant social research on childlessness in late life employs a "lens of deficiency", where it is assumed that confronting old age without children itself constitutes a precarious or problematic situation. This thesis builds on an emerging critical literature that moves beyond this perspective, and shifts focus to more exploratory considerations of the aging process for adults without children. The text documents specific means by which childless men seek fulfillment in late life, in an urban U.S. context. The study is based on two years of ethnographic research in San Francisco, California, with a total of twenty-five, independently living, white men between 64 and 86 years of age. None of the men had children, and though a few were married or had long-term partners, most lived alone. By focusing exclusively on older men's lives, the analysis redresses a conspicuous gender bias in social research centered on parental or reproductive status, where women's lives have drawn most scholarly attention.;For the men portrayed here, weighty questions about identity, family, and ultimately, social standing, remain rather unsettled in late life. Many participants experience significant frustrations addressing such "big picture" questions, and these difficulties are often tied to social and physical environments that cannot offer the proper stage for enacting desired visions of senescence on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the men persist in attempts to establish what matters most to them individually, and seek to project a personal character worthy of respect. To accomplish this, participants work to narrate the parameters of belonging in their lives, and engage in gift/exchange relations to offer up and display their personal values to others.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Anthropology
