Abstract
Few studies have investigated how older people themselves conceptualize and talk about what they do with their time. Even fewer have addressed such issues from the perspective of older people whose living arrangements and lifestyles diverge from majority, middle-class pathways. This paper draws on in-depth interview data from the Ageing Men’s Health Project, a three-year ethnographic study of the health, housing, and service use of low income, single, non-homeowning men aged 50 years and over, living in the inner city of Sydney, Australia. Among other topics, the men were asked to describe an average day and otherwise elaborate on the everyday circumstances of their lives. Findings highlight the extent to which the men’s everyday lives are constrained and curtailed by economic disadvantage and health deficits. At the same time, the men invest their activities with a range of sociocultural meanings that do not always match professionally constructed categories and understandings. In particular, social relationships with other men appear to be central to the meanings they confer on everyday life.
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She has research interests in ageing and gender, social isolation in later life, residential environments, and community services for older people.
She is investigating life after work among older coal miners and their wives / widows in a regional community in New South Wales.
A version of this paper was originally presented at the XV World Congress of Sociology, Brisbane, Australia, July 7–13, 2002. The research on which this report is based was funded by the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia.
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Russell, C., Porter, M. Single older men in disadvantaged households: Narratives of meaning around everyday life. Ageing Int. 28, 359–371 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-003-1009-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-003-1009-5