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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2011

DAVID J. EKERDT ,
MARK LUBORSKY  and
CATHERINE LYSACK
DAVID J. EKERDT*
Affiliation:
Gerontology Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
MARK LUBORSKY
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
CATHERINE LYSACK
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: David J. Ekerdt, Gerontology Center, University of Kansas, 1000 Sunnyside Ave., Room 3090, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. E-mail: dekerdt@ku.edu
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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.

Keywords

giftslegacylater lifepossessionsresidential relocationself
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , July 2012 , pp. 833 - 850
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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