Ageing and Everyday Life
Projects

The project explores the eating habits of older adults as a result of social influences, cultural patterns and transitions as well as the individual agency. The qualitative research approach (in-depth interviews and observation with visual methods) will be employed to describe the dynamics of the importance of food during ageing, both the subjective perception of this importance and the implemented practices and changes caused by health factors. The project identifies food as an important element of quality of life in old age and explores how eating habits are practiced in the home environment and how they are affected by living in institutional care, specifically in care homes. It is innovative in that it explores the agency of older adults in negotiating eating habits in various social and cultural contexts and contributes with new knowledge, theoretical grounding and the application of the principles of food anthropology to the development of social gerontology and sociology of everyday life.
More about project
Project Period
1/2023 - 12/2025
Research Team
Cooperating Organizations
List of Publications
Total number of publications: 13
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Stravování seniorů v institucionální péči Forum sociální politiky, year: 2023, volume: 17, edition: 3
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Význam jídla ve vyšším věku Stárnutí 2023 : Sborník příspěvků 6. gerontologické mezioborové konference, year: 2023
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Význam jídla ve vyšším věku Year: 2023, type: Requested lectures

Czech society is ageing and this process is gendered. Yet, we know very little about the ageing of Czech men. Men are often not named as a gendered category. The project aims to challenge this approach by addressing the topic critically, providing an intersectional analysis situated in a context of a post-socialist country. The design is based on mixed methods sequential research approach, combining qualitative fieldwork with supplementary quantitative secondary analyses. It addresses processes of ageing as a reflected gendered practice by a chosen analytical logic of intersecting power and care relationships. Answers to the research question “how do Czech men do gender, age and ageing in selected social contexts?” will provide an understanding of the dynamics of relations in later lives. Powerful as well as marginalising relations of men as they age will be scrutinised together with caring and being cared for. The study fills gaps beyond fieldwork from a specific context. It will conceptually enrich current international knowledge by adopting a critical perspective.
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Project Period
1/2023 - 12/2025
Research Team
List of Publications
Total number of publications: 26
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Maskulinity péče a stárnutí Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Maskulinity péče a stárnutí ve zkušenosti mužů – zdravotních sester Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Muži - zdravotní sestry jako výzva i možné řešení Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Podoby ztělesněné moci v životních příbězích stárnoucích manažerů a sportovců Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Privileges, unbearable lightness of masculinity and middle age crisis of ageing men Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Researching Men as Men Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Stáří na startu a v cíli: sport a závodění v seniorském věku. Sportující muži 60+ Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Successful ageing, well-being and age identity: the case of athletes Year: 2024, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Ageing men: intersections of health, age and gender Year: 2023, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Ageing on the Margin: Intersection of Age and Gender in the Experience of Older Men in Homeless Shelters in Czechia Year: 2023, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
Materials and videos
Journeys of Masculinity Symposium: Bodies, Identities, Wellbeing and the Life Course
University of Surrey
22 March 2024

Social exclusion in later life is a multifaceted social problem with substantial disruptive consequences for individuals and society. One aspect of social exclusion is the exclusion from social relations, which is the key focus of this project. Being socially connected is a universal basic human need; key to the development of infants, and important throughout the life course. However, a substantial proportion of older adults are socially excluded and lack the essential social connection necessary for a healthy and happy life. Social exclusion may have its roots in early life, but patterns of social exclusion over the life course may well be different for men and women. Scientific knowledge of the gendered pattern of exclusion from social relations is scattered and policies to reduce the inequalities limited in effectiveness. The proposed project aims to analyse gender differences in the construction and consequences of exclusion from social relations across European countries, and its consequences for health and wellbeing. Findings will be used to inform the scientific debate about social exclusion, and to inform policies to reduce exclusion from social relations in older men and women.
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Project Period
3/2019 - 12/2021
Researchers
- Mgr. Lucie Vidovićová, Ph.D.
- Mgr. Lucie Galčanová Batista, Ph.D.
- Mgr. et Mgr. Marcela Petrová Kafková, Ph.D.
Cooperating Organization
List of Publications
Total number of publications: 39
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Osamělost jako nová forma pandemie? Year: 2022, type: Special-purpose publication
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Osamělost jako společenský problém? Year: 2022, type: Popularization text
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Ageing on the Street : Trajectories of Older Homeless People in Relation to Social and Health Care Institutions Year: 2021, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Doing ageing research in COVID-19 pandemic times and insights from reflexive ethics Year: 2021, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Dopady opatření proti COVID-19 na exkluzi ze sociálních vztahů seniorů a seniorek Year: 2021, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Exclusion from Social Relations in Later Life : Micro- and Macro-Level Patterns and Correlations in a European Perspective International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, year: 2021, volume: 18, edition: 23, DOI
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Exclusion from Social Relations in Later Life and the Role of Gender : A Heuristic Model Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research, year: 2021, volume: 22, edition: 1, DOI
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Jak na osamělost (nejen) ve starším věku : Naléhavé otázky současné doby (lekce pro školy) Year: 2021, type: Teaching aids, texts (including individual chapters in textbooks)
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Lonely older men – gendered construction and experience of loneliness Year: 2021, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Sociální participace ve vyšším věku ve vztahu k partnerské dráze Sociologický časopis, year: 2021, volume: 57, edition: 2, DOI
The Fourth Age: The Identity of Disability during the Period of Active Ageing

The project brings new observations to the topic of ageing, specifically the fourth age and active ageing. It examines the fourth-age population and tries to understand the experience of advanced age, an experience influenced the new demographic regime, socio-political context, and economic context, as well as the dominant concept of active ageing. The fourth age is studied as a specific life stage, definable not only on the basis of chronological age, but determined above all socially and individually. The project makes use of publicly available sources of data, including panel data (Czech Bureau of Statistics and SHARE), supplemented by qualitative interviews. The qualitative part especially captures the transition to fourth age and the associated changes in identity. The project is innovative because it explores the possibilities for social research on the fourth age population, and the topic of the fourth age itself is handled, but from the perspective of sociology, not from standpoint of health and social care.
More about project
Project Period
1/2015 - 12/2017
Researchers
List of Publications
Total number of publications: 26
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Význam rodinných a přátelských vztahů ve čtvrtém věku Year: 2018, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Who Should Interview Older People? The Effect of Interviewer and Interviewee Characteristics in Surveys of Older People and Aging Topics Sociológia, year: 2018, volume: 50, edition: 6, DOI
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Ageing body through the triangular-shaped perspective: Exploration of individual and relational autonomy. Year: 2017, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Čtvrtý věk jako specifické pole pro vyjádření aktérství Sociologický časopis, year: 2017, volume: 53, edition: 5, DOI
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Fourth Age Identity : An Ambiguous Field Year: 2017, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Living within limits: Challenges and strategies of exploring fourth age Year: 2017, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Neviditelní senioři a jejich každodennost : Čtvrtý věk jako stárnutí s disabilitou Year: 2017, edition: 1. vyd., number of pages: 143 s.
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The Fourth Age - Dailiness Conditioned by Social Care and Health Care Year: 2017, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Ageing As an Increasing Uncertainty Year: 2016, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Čtvrtý věk jako obávané skutečné stáří? Year: 2016, type: Popularization text

The project brings new observations to the topic of ageing, specifically the fourth age and active ageing. It examines the fourth-age population and tries to understand the experience of advanced age, an experience influenced the new demographic regime, socio-political context, and economic context, as well as the dominant concept of active ageing. The fourth age is studied as a specific life stage, definable not only on the basis of chronological age, but determined above all socially and individually. The project makes use of publicly available sources of data, including panel data (Czech Bureau of Statistics and SHARE), supplemented by qualitative interviews. The qualitative part especially captures the transition to fourth age and the associated changes in identity. The project is innovative because it explores the possibilities for social research on the fourth age population, and the topic of the fourth age itself is handled, but from the perspective of sociology, not from the standpoint of health and social care.
More about project
Project Period
1/2013 - 12/2015
Researchers
List of Publications
Total number of publications: 70
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The expected, evaluated, perceived, valued, and prevalent social roles of older people : are they by consent? Building Evidence for Active Ageing Policies : Active Ageing Index and its Potential, year: 2018, number of pages: 16 s.
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Worker and carer – two conflicted roles of active agers Year: 2018, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Frequency and Intensity of Contact between Ageing Parents and their Adult Children in the Czech Republic : Exploration of Selected Predictors Sociológia, year: 2017, volume: 49, edition: 6
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Modes of Incorporation in Study of Norms on Ageing Year: 2017, type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
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Older people´s families : challenge for policy and research? Year: 2017, type: Requested lectures
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Index aktivního stárnutí (AAI) v regionální aplikaci Demografie, revue pro výzkum populačního vývoje, year: 2016, volume: 58, edition: 1
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New Social Roles of Older People (conference session) Year: 2016, type: Conference abstract
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Path Dependency Versus New Determinants of Retirement in the Czech Republic Delaying Retirement Progress and Challenges of Active Ageing in Europe, the United States and Japan., year: 2016, number of pages: 24 s.
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Postarat se ve stáří Year: 2016, type: Review
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The parent and grandparent roles from the perspective of contemporary Czech grandparents Studia paedagogica, year: 2016, volume: 21, edition: 2, DOI