Managing everyday (in)securities: Normative values, emotional security and symbolic recognition in the lives of Russian rural elders

• Published in: Journal of rural studies Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 63 - 71
• Main Author: Kay, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2012; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aged; Care; Caring; Elderly; Emotional security; Emotions; Ethnography; Everyday life; Foreign Countries; Helping Relationship; Interpersonal Relationship; material forms; Older Adults; people; Postcommunist Societies; Psychological Patterns; Rural; Rural Areas; Rural communities; Rurality; Russia; Russian Federation; Security; Security (Psychology); Siberia; Social norms; social support; Socialism; Symbolism; Values; Russia; Siberia; Rural; Emotional security; Elderly; Care; Russia
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.01.018

Qualitative studies of ageing have called for attention to be paid to the diverse experiences of older people and to their agency in negotiating opportunities and constraints. A lack of research into the experiences and subjectivities of rural elders has been noted. Yet, the majority of research concerning elderly people in contemporary Russia continues to treat old age as a category and focus on particular practical and material forms of assistance available to pensioners. This article, aims to contribute to the small but growing body of ethnographic studies which shed light on the lives of elderly people in Russia as subjects in their own right. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from rural Siberia, the article explores the ways in which elderly people experience and interpret day-to-day (in)securities, forms of care and social support. In doing so the article explores three key questions: Firstly, how do lived realities, both past and present, and normative values of rural life intersect in elderly people's experiences of (in)security in post-socialist contexts?; Secondly, what forms of assistance do older people view as legitimate in their everyday lives? In particular, how are emotional exchanges and interpersonal connections interpreted and what securities do they bring?; Thirdly, what is the significance of symbolic support and recognition for elderly people and how do these draw on practices and frameworks from the socialist past?