Societies, Volume 7, Issue 3 (September 2017) – 11 articles

The purpose of this phenomenological research was to discover whether training in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo may benefit undergraduate (UG) students in handling stress. The goal of this innovative approach to learning and stress management was to allow UG students from across disciplines at a metropolitan university achieve an increased sense of emotional balance, inner peace, and overall well-being in body, mind, and spirit. No such study has been conducted before now. This research was multidisciplinary in its inclusion of insights from the tenets of higher education, human development and psychology, nursing and sociology, as well as the art, philosophy, and sport of Taekwondo. Ten UG student participants were sought for this research study, though a total of eight students agreed to participate. The study was open to all of the UG students at this university. Phenomenology was used to identify themes that emerged regarding student participant’s experience with stress. Consequently, new ideas were established about the ways in which UG students learned to use Taekwondo training to overcome stress, thereby improving upon and maintaining health and well-being in body, mind, and spirit. Full article

This essay provides a critical analysis of the ageing-and-innovation discourse. The ageing-and-innovation discourse is a key rhetorical structure that legitimizes very large investments in technologies for older people. In this discourse, ageing is positioned as an imminent crisis that will affect whole societies, both socially and economically. Investing in technological solutions is, in turn, positioned as a solution that generates benefits on a societal, economical and individual level. This discourse is used to legitimize investment, rally support and reduce uncertainty. We contend that there are three problems with the ageing-and-innovation discourse. First, it legitimizes investment in every technology for older people and thus provides no means of discriminating between useful and non-useful technologies. Second, this discourse presupposes a very negative view of ageing that jars with the positive view of ageing that many older people have, which, in turn, leads to problems with acceptance of these technologies. Third, the ageing-and-innovation discourse creates a moral high ground that makes it hard for opponents to disagree with this discourse. The ageing-and-innovation discourse is a successful rhetorical device, but it ultimately hinders the development of suitable technologies that fit in with the lives of older people and thus needs to be reconsidered by scientists, policy makers and industry. Full article

A diverse range of digital devices and software are available to women to seek and share information and personal experiences about pregnancy and parenting. This article reports findings from a focus group study involving Australian women who were pregnant or had very young children. The participants were asked to recount their experiences of using digital media for pregnancy and parenting and what media they would like to see developed that were not yet available. The findings revealed that digital media were very important to the participants. They were using mobile apps, social media, content-sharing platforms and online discussion forums to connect with each other and with family members, post images and other information about their pregnancy and children, track their pregnancy or their children’s behaviours and development, and learn about pregnancy, infants and childcare. Despite their frequent use of and reliance on digital media, few participants had begun to consider the implications of sharing personal information about themselves or their children online or by using apps to record details. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the complexities of the intersections between information, emotional support, intimacy, personal data generation, sharing and privacy as they are conducted and experienced on the digital media used by women during these life stages. Full article

The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and its aftermath led to large-scale individual traumatization, disruption of family structures, shifts in gender roles, and tensions in communities, which are all ongoing. Previous research around the world has demonstrated the transgenerational effects of mass violence on individuals, families and communities. In Rwanda, in light of recurrent episodes of violence in the past, attention to the potential ‘cycle of violence’ is warranted. The assumption that violence is passed from generation to generation was first formulated in research on domestic violence and child abuse, but is receiving increasing attention in conflict-affected societies. However, the mechanisms behind intergenerational transmission are still poorly understood. Based on qualitative research with 41 mothers and their adolescent children, we investigated how legacies of the 1994 genocide and its aftermath are transmitted to the next generation through processes in the family environment in Rwanda. Our findings reveal direct and indirect pathways of transmission. We also argue that intergenerational effects might best be described as heterotypic: genocide and its aftermath lead to multiple challenges in the children’s lives, but do not necessarily translate into new physical violence. Further research is needed on how children actively engage with conflict legacies of the past. Full article

Several prospective multigenerational studies have shown that crime runs in the family, while empirical research on the biological causes of crime has also established that low heart rate is related to antisocial behavior. This study examines whether the intergenerational transmission of crime is moderated or mediated by a low heart rate of the son. Prospectively collected conviction data on 794 men from three consecutive generations of the Dutch Transfive dataset is used. Heart rates were measured around age 18, during the medical examination prior to the mandatory military service in the Dutch army. All analyses were conducted separately for violent and non-violent crime. Both paternal violence and low heart rate levels are associated with increased violent offending. Intergenerational transmission of violence was only found among families in which the son had a low heart rate, although the degree of transmission did not differ significantly from families in which the son had a high heart rate. No support was found for a mediating influence of low heart rates of criminals’ offspring on the intergenerational transmission of crime and violence. The results from this study underline the importance to focus on the interaction between biological risk factors and psychosocial risk factors for criminal behavior. Full article

Leisure is an instrument used to facilitate the social integration of people with disabilities. However, it requires significant knowledge of the needs and expectations of this clientele, who often experience isolation, especially in rural areas. The general objective of this study was to attempt to identify and understand the realities experienced by the partners of the Quebec Association for Leisure for People with Disabilities, who offer various services and leisure activities to people with disabilities in rural Quebec. Through focus groups and semi-structured interviews with seventy local stakeholders, this study highlights the fact that the needs of organizations offering recreational activities to people with disabilities are increasingly urgent, especially in terms of finances, paratransit, accessibility, specialized human resources and consultation. This study also demonstrates that recreational activities are essential for the social and identity development of people with disabilities, but also for the development of more inclusive and connected rural communities. Full article

This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in aging experiences by opening space to rethink conceptions of successful aging futures. We propose a ‘queering’ of aging futures that disrupts the ways that expectations of a good later life and happy aging are seen to adhere to some bodies and subjectivities over others. Drawing on feminist, queer, and crip theories, we build on existing critiques of ‘successful aging’ to interrogate the assumptions of heteronormativity, able-bodiedness and able-mindedness that shape the dividing lines between success and failure in aging, and which inform attempts to ‘repair’ damaged futures. Conclusions suggest that recognizing diversity in successful aging futures is important in shaping responses to the challenges of aging societies, and presents an opportunity for critical cultural gerontology to join with its theoretical allies in imagining more inclusive alternatives. Full article

Micro-enterprises are typically classified as businesses with fewer than six employees and very small amounts of financial capital. Focusing on black immigrant women’s micro-entrepreneurial ventures in Boston, this paper explores how non-economic forms of capital are crucial to the survival of micro-enterprise, in large part because of customer choices to patronize businesses they trust and to support proprietors whose identities and values they share. The richness of social and cultural capital and local information—controlled by minority immigrant women micro-entrepreneurs—can easily go undetected by mainstream lenders, training programs, and policy-makers. Other features that go unnoticed include the fact that the proprietors and patrons of micro-enterprises can often be highly skilled and educated and that innovative business moves are often embodied in already-existing processes of reciprocity and exchange. With implications for how funding can be infused into communities deeply connected to informal economy processes in U.S. cities, the paper argues for support for community-based processes of local development, economic growth, and social justice that are rooted in the communities that need them. Full article

Informal caregivers provide the majority of care for older adults residing in their own homes. Caregivinghood, a new evidence-based concept, describes a time of life when relatives provide care at home. These caregivers need knowledge regarding resources to help them resolve the challenges they encounter. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory of health. This study had two aims: (1) to examine the salutogenic core concepts Generalized and Specific Resistance Resources and Deficits (GRRs/SRRs and GRDs/SRDs) described by Swedish informal caregivers as originating from the environmental and contextual domain of caregivinghood and (2) to discuss how this new knowledge might contribute to the development of health promotion initiatives. This qualitative and theory driven study used inductive and deductive data analysis. Data were gathered through salutogenically guided face-to-face interviews of 32 Swedish informal caregivers. In addition, the study relied on the salutogenic core concepts Specific and Generalized Resistance Resources and Deficits originating from their environment and context. Being in empowering surroundings reflects the presence of usable SRRs/GRRs, whereas Struggling in impeding surroundings reflects the presence of SRDs/GRDs. The results indicate that health-enhancing support has to be individualized (SRRs/SRDs) and generalized (GRRs/GRDs). This study’s salutogenic approach and the methodology enhance the understanding of the mechanisms behind the development of Sense of Coherence. The results contribute both empirically and theoretically to strengthen health promotion research and practice when developing activities and support for caregivers in stressful situations, such as informal caregiving. Full article

The main purpose of this paper is to review the benefits and factors to be taken into consideration for the design of intergenerational digital games. We conducted a systematic in Scopus, Web of Science, PsicInfo, Pubmed and Science Direct, finally including 16 empirical studies written in English. The identified benefits were found to fall into four main categories, i.e., (1) reinforcing family bond, (2) enhancing reciprocal learning (3) increasing understanding of the other generation and (4) reducing social anxiety. According to the literature, two types of factors are important to take into consideration: player-centric and game-centric factors. We identified the nature of the interactions between older (55–81 year-olds) and younger players (4–22 year-olds), their motivations to play digital games and the difference in abilities as the main player-centric factors to take into account when designing intergenerational games. The most relevant game-centric factors were found to be goal-related and space-related forms of interaction. To gain more insight into how specific benefits of playing digital games are related to a type of game, gender or age of the participant, additional empirical studies (comparative analyses), that take these factors into account are needed. Full article

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) represent the fastest-growing racial category in the U.S., largely due to its increasing immigration from the Asia-Pacific region (AAJC 2015). Of the 10.9 million undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S., 14% (1.5 million) are from Asia (Migration Policy Institute 2014). In response to immigrant youth organizing, President Barack Obama initiated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which offers temporary relief from deportation to approximately 2 million undocumented childhood arrivals (Ibid). Yet, the unique perspectives of AAPI youth have gone unheard, and their political activities have been rendered invisible in public discourse on undocu/DACAmented youth in the immigrant rights movement. This study aims to capture political identity formation through what I coin “dual liminality” that leads to political participation for undocu/DACAmented AAPI youth. It considers how their status as undocumented or DACA, as being marginalized from both mainstream and co-ethnic claims to belonging, helped them form a collective political identity and engage in political activities. The use of strategic storytelling (Polletta 2006) throughout the process of their political development also led to their return to organize co-ethnic communities against internalized stereotypes of both “Model Minority” and “Yellow Peril”. This study involves 12 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with politically active AAPI, ages 20–26, from four major cities on the East Coast, conducted between 2014 and 2015. The interviews demonstrate how these youths’ choices to reveal their status shape their collective identity formation that leads to their political engagement. Through strategic storytelling, they use their dual liminality to shape their narrative framing in both the immigrant rights and in AAPI communities, enhancing their political participation across inter-racial boundaries. Full article