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If interviews are to be considered embodied experiences, than the potential influence of the embodied researcher must be explored. A focus on specific attributes such as age or ethnicity belies the complex and negotiated space that both researcher and participant inhabit simultaneously. Drawing on empirical research with stroke survivors in an ethnically mixed area of Indonesia, this paper highlights the importance of considering embodiment as a specific methodological concern. Three specific interactions are described and analysed, illustrating the active nature of the embodied researcher in narrative production and development. The intersectionality of embodied features is evident, alongside their fluctuating influence in time and place. These interactions draw attention to the need to consider the researcher within the interview process and the subsequent analysis and presentation of narrative findings. The paper concludes with a reinforcement of the importance of ongoing and meaningful reflexivity in research, a need to consider the researcher as the other participant, and specifically a call to engage with and present the dynamic nature of embodiment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many older women experience the loss of a spouse or partner in later life. This paper explores older women's experiences of Christmas in order to locate process and meaning in relation to the transition of later life widowhood. Drawing on longitudinal data, derived from three in-depth interviews conducted over 18 months with 26 older widows, this paper presents a number of themes from the women's accounts of their Christmas celebrations and their Christmas cards. The importance of continuity, social relations and autonomy is situated in three emergent themes: ‘Family, intergenerational ties and tradition’, ‘Friendships, organisational ties and reciprocity’ and ‘Personal continuity and activation’. The significance of discontinuity, change and mediation is illustrated through three emergent themes: ‘Christmas as a catalyst for change’, ‘We are all widows’ and ‘Negotiating change with others’. The findings, including the positive aspects of continuity and discontinuity, demonstrate that Christmas is a potent symbol of both personal and social transformation during later life widowhood, and that the management of transition incorporates not only social relations, but also personal agency and flexibility. This paper further challenges the predominantly negative stereotype of older widows and illustrates their resilience and growth in the later stages of life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

AimTo consider findings from a study that evaluated case management of individuals with long-term conditions (LTCs) by a community matron (CM) service. The paper highlights issues related to the implementation of a new role and the impact this had on the experience of care across hospital and community settings for patients and their carers.BackgroundThe introduction of the role of CM was intended to increase effective management of patients with complex comorbid LTCs through the introduction of case management, thereby reducing unplanned hospital admissions.MethodsThe overall methodological approach was one of mixed methods. This paper reports the qualitative findings from CMs (n = 15); patients (n = 13); family carers (n = 8); and secondary care staff who interface with the CM service (n = 7). Data were collected between October 2009 and May 2010.FindingsA thematic analysis resulted in the identification of four themes: (1) visibility; (2) interpersonal relationships; (3) leadership; and (4) systems/professional boundaries. Patients enjoyed being seen as a whole and family carers appreciated the coordination aspect of the role. Difficulties arose from the limited understanding of the CM role and from a lack of a shared vision across healthcare professionals concerning the role and its goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the different ways in which informal carers for people with dementia negotiate their care-giving role across the changing organisational and spatial landscape of care. In-depth qualitative data are used to argue that the decisions of carers are socially situated and the result of negotiations involving individuals, families and wider cultural expectations. These decisions affect where care occurs. In addressing these issues this paper draws attention to the lack of choice some carers may have in taking on the care-giving role; how and why carers draw upon support; and the different expectations of the care-giver's capabilities across the different sites of care, specifically at home and in nursing homes. It concludes that research and policy attention should focus on how the expectations about the role and abilities of carers are affected by where, and how, care is delivered. In doing so this paper contributes to the emerging health geography literature on care-giving as well as developing the spatial perspective in the established gerontological literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I examine the unpublished First World War diaries of Giovanni Pirelli - heir to the helm of the Pirelli tyre company - for their account of how the war and fall of Fascism may have catalysed his dissociation from his family, his class, and his ideological foundation. In the post-war period, Pirelli traced the source of his rejection of his inheritance to his experiences during the Russian retreat, but in the moment, the expression of this kind of transformation is fragmentary and complex. Scholars often look to war diaries and letters for their testimony to the state of the individual in combat. Through close reading, I trace how Pirelli's writings negotiate his immense privilege and his attempt to construct a moral identity in the midst of war. I consider how they demonstrate his break with his wartime ideals and Fascism and how they anticipate his later transition from industrial heir to socialist activist. My examination of these diaries reveals the ambiguities inherent in this transformation of Fascist and bourgeois subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, populations are ageing and consequently so are the consumer profiles for most organisations. Understanding how best to ensure satisfaction in interactions with older customers, patients, members of organisations, and so on is therefore increasingly important. This paper examines two research questions: (a) How satisfied or dissatisfied are older people with their customer service experience, and what are the factors associated with dissatisfaction? and (b) What prompts older people to want to change service providers? The research questions are addressed using a mixed-methods approach – quantitative analysis of observation logs, supported by illustrative quotes from focus groups. We find that on the whole older people are generally satisfied with their interactions with organisations, although a substantial minority of interactions lead to dissatisfaction or lower-than-expected satisfaction. Dissatisfaction with interactions is mostly associated with impersonal communications, including interactions that are not conducted face to face, and those that are one-off interactions rather than repeated interactions. Media and communications firms prompted the greatest levels of dissatisfaction among older consumers. Dissatisfied older consumers from our sample are more than 12 times more likely to report an intention to switch providers than satisfied consumers. This highlights the potential costs to organisations of poor customer interactions with older people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After decades of silencing and discrimination, people with dementia are beginning to join forces, take action and campaign for social change. Drawing on data obtained from ‘activists’ with dementia using diary interview method and participant observation, this paper considers the emergent modes of dementia activism in the context of the social movement literature, and in particular, work emphasising the role of networks in health social movements. The study identified three emergent modes of dementia activism; these were the ‘protecting-self against decline’ mode, ‘(re) gaining respect’ mode, and ‘creating connections with other people with dementia’ mode. Taken together, these modes show how a sense of elapsing time pervades this form of activism. The investigation reinforces the contention that time is a dominated force that structures human motivation and goals. Furthermore, it raises the possibility that activism can protect against decline amongst people with dementia given the appropriate temporal space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers how issues of conscience might be considered in seventeenth-century England. It looks at how some of the moral problems arising from the resto:ation of an episcopal Church of England in 1660 were debated, and focuses on the response of the clergy to the demands for conformity to the Book of Common Prayer, renunciation of the Solemn League and Covenant, and episcopal ordination. A large number of books were published on these subjects, and contemporary diaries show that ministers read these books and discussed the problems among themselves, in reaching difficult and often painful decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]