INTER- AND GENERATIONAL DISCOURSE AS THE CORNERSTONE OF THE EVERYDAY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FICTION

Inter- and generational interaction takes place in everyday communication and serves as the basis of any society as it forms, regulates and maintains the existence of society by collecting, preserving and transferring knowledge and experience from generation to generation. The interaction of generations is practice based; it rationalizes the actions of individuals in society relying on common sense for the purpose of preserving the descendants and turning individual experience into objective knowledge for the following generations. This is done in everyday mundane interaction of generations. It is fiction that has accumulated this experience; it demonstrates not only the abundance of inter- and generational interaction but also its daily presence and vital character. The most vivid description of such generational or intergenerational interaction is seen in fictional works dealing with the relationships in the family, growing up of children and grandchildren and in novels of morals.

An Inclusive Community: Architecture for Age Integration

<p>Our elderly population is increasing and people are living longer. Healthcare advancements mean that illnesses are more controlled and people do not die as young. Due to our age-segregated society, the issue of elderly social isolation is at an all time high. Retirement villages are, for the most part, gated communities, isolated away from the rest of the younger population and wider community. The generation gap between young and older continues to broaden and issues such as elderly neglect, loneliness, financial abuse and other mental-health related problems are becoming more common. This research finds that many suburban community facilities often neglect the needs of this growing senior demographic. The site at 245 Karori Road, Karori, is used to test and challenge the norms of current suburban community architecture typologies for social inclusiveness. The site is tested in three iterative stages led by an interdisciplinary literature review to address this overarching problem of age-segregation in suburban communities. A major focus in this research is to target the suburb’s youngest and oldest members to shift negative ageist attitudes through providing spaces for intergenerational interaction. This research portfolio is a critique of current community architecture typologies such as the community centre and public space, to investigate ways these typologies could be redefined and altered to play a key role in countering the negative effects of age-segregation.</p>

An Inclusive Community: Architecture for Age Integration

<p>Our elderly population is increasing and people are living longer. Healthcare advancements mean that illnesses are more controlled and people do not die as young. Due to our age-segregated society, the issue of elderly social isolation is at an all time high. Retirement villages are, for the most part, gated communities, isolated away from the rest of the younger population and wider community. The generation gap between young and older continues to broaden and issues such as elderly neglect, loneliness, financial abuse and other mental-health related problems are becoming more common. This research finds that many suburban community facilities often neglect the needs of this growing senior demographic. The site at 245 Karori Road, Karori, is used to test and challenge the norms of current suburban community architecture typologies for social inclusiveness. The site is tested in three iterative stages led by an interdisciplinary literature review to address this overarching problem of age-segregation in suburban communities. A major focus in this research is to target the suburb’s youngest and oldest members to shift negative ageist attitudes through providing spaces for intergenerational interaction. This research portfolio is a critique of current community architecture typologies such as the community centre and public space, to investigate ways these typologies could be redefined and altered to play a key role in countering the negative effects of age-segregation.</p>

Exploring the Concept of the Ethical Will as a Way to Leave a Legacy of Values: A Scoping Review

Ethical wills communicate a legacy of values through non-legal emotional and supportive instruction to others and are distinct from legal or living wills. Employed for centuries, little is known about how and why ethical wills are used. We conducted the first scoping review on ethical wills to survey the breadth of published information and identify how they are defined and utilized. We followed the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews employing an a priori protocol and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines . We searched 14 databases in November 2019 and January 2021 without filtering publication date or type. Our final extraction form included frequently used terms describing content, purpose, and outcomes. Two reviewers independently screened 1,568 results. Final extraction included 51 documents from 1997-2020, which were primarily published in lay or peer-reviewed journals within law, estate and financial planning, and religion; only 6 research articles were identified. Most frequently, descriptors characterized ethical wills as a non-material legacy of values, beliefs, wisdom, and life lessons learned written to family or future generations. Ethical wills were utilized most to be remembered, address mortality, clarify life’s meaning, and communicate what matters most. They provided opportunity to learn about self, were considered a gift to both writer and recipient and fostered intergenerational interaction and transcendence. Our findings highlight interdisciplinary utilization and dearth of research on ethical wills. Gerontological research is needed to explore ways ethical wills can be used to enhance generativity and intentional living as individuals age and prepare for the end of life.

Program Practices Predict Intergenerational Interaction among Youth and Older Adults

Non-familial intergenerational programs engage younger and older people in shared programming for mutual benefit, frequently involving senior centers or adult day programs and preschools. With growing interest in the potential benefits of intergenerational strategies, it is imperative to know their effects on participant interaction during intergenerational programming. To address this knowledge gap, activity leaders at five sites serving older adults and/or preschoolers received training to implement 14 evidence-based practices during intergenerational activities involving 109 older adult and 105 preschool participants over four years. We utilized multi-level modeling to test whether variations in implementation of practices were associated with variations in participants’ responses to programming on a session-by-session basis. For both preschool and older adult participants, analyses revealed that the implementation of certain practices was associated with significantly more intergenerational interaction. Specifically, when person-centered best practices (e.g., leading activities that are age- and role-appropriate for older adults) were implemented, preschoolers (estimate=5.83, SD=2.11, p=0.01 and older adults (estimate=5.11, SD=.10, p=0.02) had more intergenerational interaction. Likewise, when environmental-centered best practices were implemented, such as pairing materials between intergenerational partners, preschoolers (estimate=6.05, SD=1.57, p=0.002) and older adults (estimate=6.50, SD=1.85, p=0.001) had more intergenerational interaction. Our findings reveal session-by-session variation in intergenerational interaction that can be impacted by implementation practices, which highlights the importance of training activity leaders to implement evidence-based practices. Researchers and practitioners should consider how session-by-session variation in program implementation affects participant response.

Generativity in Life Review: Discovering Life Lessons and Wisdom in Naturalistic Intergenerational Conversations

According to the theory of generativity, one would expect older adults to inherently feature life lessons in naturalistic conversations with younger adults. Little though, is known about the process of these conversations, and to what extent they convey wisdom characteristics. In this project, intergenerational conversations between university students and older adults living in assisted and independent living communities were analyzed to identify life lessons within older adults’ informal life reviews. In the original study, 37 young and 52 older adults engaged in an intergenerational interaction as part of an undergraduate course. These conversations were recorded with participants’ consent, and transcribed with identifying information removed. For the current project, we analyzed 15 of these recorded conversations, averaging 46 minutes each between 10 students and 5 older adults to (1) develop a coding scheme and procedure to examine life lessons in intergenerational conversations, and (2) investigate whether wisdom characteristics are embedded into life lessons shared in this context. On average, each older adult referenced 4 life lessons (SD = 2) per conversation, which were coded for the following constructs: meaning making, personal growth, emotional valence, wisdom characteristics, life lesson type, and autobiographical memory type. Exploratory analyses suggest life lessons are inherently integrated into naturalistic intergenerational conversations, and that reflectivity is the most frequently expressed wisdom characteristic. This supports previous research identifying reflectivity as key to wisdom, and to the process of generativity. Further analysis is needed to illuminate the value of intergenerational conversations, particularly in a time of age segregation and ageism.

Problems of Intergeneration Interaction in Commercial Organizations and Ways of Their Solution

One of the key problems in the functioning of any commercial organization, regardless of its size, its type of activity and the number of personnel, is the problem of interaction between various social groups. This problem can arise in mutual understanding between managers and subordinates, between employees of various divisions of companies, in the form of competition between employees of one department, but this problem is most clearly manifested in the interaction of employees belonging to different generations. Moreover, as the research experience shows, the problem of intergenerational interaction now has the character of a clash of worldviews — digital and postindustrial. This article will consider the features of representatives of different generations who work together in a commercial organization and propose methods for resolving contradictions that arise in the process of this activity, formulated through the study of the views of representatives of several generations. In conclusion, the author will offer to the audience his judgments about such modern trends in human resource management as a selfdeveloping organization and assessments.

Analysis of progeny–parents family travel process from perspective filial piety: driving factors, intergenerational interaction and tourism evaluation

PurposeThis paper attempts to explore why adult progeny initiate progeny–parents family travel, how two generations interact and deal with intergenerational conflicts during travel and how they evaluate their travel experiences from the perspective of filial piety.Design/methodology/approachBased on in-depth interviews with both parents and their adult progeny, it is found that “repayment” or “compensation” of filial piety is the most important driving force to family travel with parents, and in many cases an adult child exhibits “overspending” by showing filial obedience. On the other hand, parents occasionally utilize filial piety as cultural resources to fulfill their personal goals and to evaluate their interactions with adult children. Finally, the authors offer an exploratory explanation to why filial generation has a relatively low evaluation while parent generation has a higher evaluation of family trip.FindingsThe authors suggest that future study in this particular area should attach much more importance to the “filial piety tool boxes” paradigm, which is in parallel with the paradigm of “concept (values) affecting behavior”.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study is to investigate the family travel process of “taking the elderly people to travel” from the perspective of interaction and filial piety.

Design Guidelines for Socio-Domestic Systems Supporting Informal Elderly Caregiving

Current communication practices broadly rely on social media services and instant messaging. However, in the context of intergenerational interaction, this paradigm has not been deeply studied from a holistic perspective, i.e., considering the attitudes, expectations, viewpoints, and concerns of all involved stakeholders. Therefore, there is still a broad amount of open research questions in exploring the potential and implications of designing, developing, and deploying computer-supported solutions in this domain. In this paper, we aim to model---in a comprehensive manner---the structure and dynamics of informal elderly caregiving and intergenerational communication, as a way to understand their socio-technical nuances as a way to support the design of novel computer-supported mechanisms to mediate these processes. More precisely, this implies identifying key design aspects, considering the perspective raised by older adults and how other family members articulate themselves in this context. By addressing the proposed design guidelines, social computing researchers, designers, and practitioners would be able to better understand the complexity of informal elderly caregiving, and identify plausible solutions that would improve user experience and the effectiveness of computer-supported mediation strategies.