| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
The relational making of people and place
— the case of the Teignmouth World War II homefront | | Author(s) | Gavin J Andrews |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 37, no 4, April 2017 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, April 2017 |
| Pages | pp 725-752 |
| Source | cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | War ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Memory and Reminiscence ; Historical studies ; Devon. |
| Annotation | Building on the pioneering research of a small number of gerontologists, this paper looked at the rarely trodden common ground between the academic domains of social gerontology and modern history. Through empirical research it illustrated the complex networking that exists through space and time in the relational making of people and places. Specifically, the study focused on the lived reality and ongoing significance of life on the small-town British coastal homefront during World War II. 17 interviews with older residents of Teignmouth, Devon, investigated two points in their lives: the 'then' (their historical experiences during this period) and the 'then and now' (how they continued to reverberate). In particular, their stories illustrated the relationalities that made each of these points. The first involved residents' unique interactions during the war with structures and technologies (such as rules, bombs and barriers) and other people (such as soldiers and outsiders) which themselves were connected to wider historical, social, political and military networks. The second involved residents' perceptions of their own and their town's wartime histories, how this gelled or conflicted with public awareness, and how this history connected to their current lives. The study closed with some thoughts on bringing together the past, present and older people in the same scholarship. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170516008 A |
| Classmark | VMC: F: DB: HL: 8DE |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|