Anton Smol'kin

Conflicts between younger and older generations can take on a character that goes beyond personal experience to become a narrative of more general social conditions. In times of change, this phenomenon may play an important role in defining new social realities. This seems to be occurring in Russia today.

Emerging life extension technologies, as well as some already existing biomedical interventions to prevent ageing-related pathological processes, have significant potential to alleviate the burden of disease in the aging world. However, promoting these technologies requires research in public opinion and the use of marketing techniques. We studied social attitudes towards life extension technologies and geroprotective medicine use with 3 focus groups. The total sample included 18 people with university degrees, 25-70 years old, and living in Moscow (Russia). The tested messages were obtained in advance by the survey of 30 experts in gerontology. The focus group participants got most convinced with the messages that aging prevention is a way to live longer and healthier lives. Despite the concerns of the experts, the idea that aging is a disease convinces considerable share of the informants when the scientific evidences of the connection between aging processes and aging-related hea...

The article looks at the way older people view their labor potential. Their ideas are largely linked to their level of education and various forms of mastery of modern technologies such as active use of the Internet, cell phone ownership, and so on.

The paper presents a scientometric analysis of PhD theses on gerontological topics in Russian humanities (excluding economics) for the period from 1995 to 2012. During this period, 253 PhD theses (238 of "candidate dissertations," and 15 of "doctoral dissertations") were defended in Russia. Almost half of them were defended during the boom years (2005-2006; 2009-2010). The number of theses defended in the 2000-s has increased significantly compared to the second half of 1990-s. However for gerontological PhD-s overall as a percentage of all theses defended in Russian humanities, the number hardly changed and remained small (less than 0.3%). The leading discipline in the study of aging (within the humanities) is sociology accounting for more than a third of all defended theses. Though the theses were defended in 48 cities, more than half of them were defended in 3 cities, which are Moscow, St. Petersburg and Saratov. Thematic analysis showed that the leading posit...

Статья для Большой Российской Энциклопедии

МАТИЛЬДА УАЙТ РАЙЛИ (1911–2004) – американский социолог, внесшая значительный вклад в развитие социологии старения и социологии возраста, автор функционалистской модели возрастной стратификации. Профессор Ратгерского университета (1950–1973) и Боудин-колледжа (1973–1981), также в 1979–1991 гг. – заместитель директора по поведенческим и социальным исследованиям Национального института старения. Автор книг «Старение и общество» (в 3-х томах, 1968–1972), «Социальные изменения и жизненный курс» (в 2-х томах, 1988) и др. Президент американской социологической ассоциации (1985–1986).

The article seeks to answer the questions of how and why rural migrants’ attitudes to the elderly change in the large Russian city, and why they stop respecting the elderly. The article is based on the data of in-depth non-structured non-formalized interviews (2007-2016, N = 71, 19 are cited). Respect for the elderly in rural communities is considered
a natural consequence of their social nature for rural communities are primary groups, a network of potentially familiar people. Thus, a person that avoids mandatory status actions faces the threat of losing credibility and authority for specific ways of showing respect are just small elements of the complex system of mutual assistance and mutual respect and cannot be considered independent actions. In many cases, key incentives for keeping up the norms of respect in rural/traditional societies are the incentives to construct one’s identity, i. e. to confirm one’s social significance, and to feel oneself an accepted part of the rural community. The practices of respect allow to gain the sense of “we” (and “me” as a part of “we”). Apparently, rural migrants’ norms of respect
are either the same or higher than the urban standards, and it is the behavior rather than the attitudes which is deformed slowly and unnoticed by rural migrants. Attitudes to the elderly seem not to change at all if we consider a part of migrants (for example, those who moved to the similar cultural environment or moved for a short time).

Обзор посвящен анализу концепции итальянского философа Луиджины Мортари, развивающей идеи Хайдеггера о заботе как фундаментальном компоненте человеческого существования. Этот сюжет может выступать ресурсом объяснения социального, учитывая беспрецедентность мас-штабов необходимой людям как биологическому виду заботы друг о друге, от материнского внимания до некоторых форм разделения труда. Согласно Мортари, забота (care) подразумевает удовлетворение таких потребностей Другого, которые тот не способен удовлетворить само-стоятельно, в противном случае речь идет об обслуживании (service), при этом предметом подлинной заботы может быть лишь удовлетворение жизненно важных потребностей. Долгое время забота как самостоя-тельная ценность оказывалась на периферии исследовательских инте-ресов, предпочтение отдавалось идеологически более привлекательной автономности; однако человек лишь часть жизни проводит в состоянии автономии, и в этот период обычно сам выступает источником заботы. Отсюда критика Мортари либерального взгляда на автономность как цель и ключевую ценность, а не один из этапов жизни, что открывает перспективы понимания недостижимости автономии кроме как ценой разрушения социального. Однако критика либеральной модели автоном-ности может иметь нежелательные политические последствия, обора-чиваясь оправданием патернализма и тоталитаризма. Дополнительную сложность Мортари обнаруживает в неформализуемости заботы о Другом из-за его принципиальной непознаваемости, что налагает на заботяще-гося особую ответственность. Например, быть хорошей медсестрой не означает строгое соблюдение должностных инструкций – необходимые компетенции нарабатываются опытным путем – благодаря переосмыс-лению случаев из практики. Мортари утверждает, что забота обесценена и не вознаграждается адекватным образом потому что это женская функция, но допустимо предположить, что основную роль здесь сыграла ее неизмеряемость и неформализованность. Идеализируя заботу как одаривающее действие, в своей критике моссовской концепции дара, Мортари игнорирует функции дара по сборке социального.

The paper deals with problems related to old age in contemporary Russia. The materials were collected from unstructured students interviews (n = 53) in Saratov and Moscow in 2007–2014. It is shown that the lack of respectful behavior, regardless of its reasons, is often labeled as " disrespect " ; as a result, the concept of a " neutral attitude " is devoid of practical implementation. In reality, a " good attitude " toward old age often turns out to be unmanifested because of the actions of elderly people themselves, as these actions are incompatible with respect practices. In particular, these include the asymmetrical reactions of elderly people in situations of intergenerational contact and nonstatus behavior, which disqualifies them as a potential object of respect, etc.

Смолькин А. Мультикультурализм в морге. Предисловие к переводу
+
Элисон Дундес Рентелн. Права мертвых: вскрытие и служебное злоупотребление трупами в мультикультурных обществах
(Перевод с англ. Анастасии Кутузовой под редакцией Антона Смолькина и Ивана Напреенко)

Перевод классического (и одного из ключевых) текста знаменитого немецкого историка

Райнхарт Козеллек. «Пространство опыта» и «горизонт
ожиданий» — две исторические категории (Пер. с нем.
Антона Котова и Олега Кильдюшова под ред. А. Смолькина
и И. Напреенко)

ATTITUDES TO ELDERLY PEOPLE IN EVERYDAY LIFE: CONCEPTUAL OUTLINES OF EXPLANATION MODEL

The article deals with problems related to the third age in contemporary Russia. It is based on empirical
data obtained in unstructured students interviews (n=53) in Saratov and Moscow in 2007–2014. The
author shows that the lack of a respectful behavior regardless its reasons is often labeled as «disrespect».
As a result a «neutral attitude» is devoid of practical implementation. In reality a «good attitude» to
the third age is often unrealized because of the actions of older people themselves, as these actions
are incompatible with respect practices. These asymmetrical actions are embodied in intergenerational
contacts and may take form of non-status behavior that disqualifi es an elder actor as a potential object
of respect, etc.

The article analyzes the properties of sensitive questions and, more broadly, of sensitive situations in unstructured interviews. Although direct sensitive questions are not typical for unstructured interviews because they can break the flow of communication, there is a quite large class of questions with contextual communicative perspectives that can be correctly considered as conditional/semi-sensitive. In particular, the questions regarding respect for elderly persons are not sensitive enough for informants to avoid answering them, but at the same time, are sufficiently delicate to make informants employ complex excusatory tactics in their answers. This practice supports the well-known thesis that to overcome the questions’ sensitivity, the most effective tactic is “justifying preambles,” which allows the removal of the moral burden either from the informant (in our case, by asking the question, “Are elderly persons sometimes themselves to be blamed for a bad attitude toward them?"), or from the circumstances in general (by creating a game situation/brainstorm on “How not to cede a seat to an elderly person on public transport?”). It should be remembered that, via this kind of research, we do not learn the real causes of rule-breaking as much, but rather a practical representation of the norm from the informant’s point of view, as well as a set of legitimate reasons for not following it. Particular attention should be paid to the informative value of sensitivity. For example, we can measure the level of the repression of social norms in specific areas of social life on the basis of the differences in the answers obtained in different ways.

Problem: This paper focuses on causes of intergenerational conflicts in everyday life through the eyes of the students of a provincial university. Based on the results of involved observation and interviews (conducted in 2007–2010, N = 50), the author points out that some intergenerational contacts may be marked as potentially conflictual from the very beginning. It is common for young people to dislike being a traditional object of upbringing for elderly people, and to
believe that many elderly people are prejudiced against youth.
Negative expectations of youth and the elderly allow both of them to regard any ambiguous actions of the other side as potentially conflictual. This escalates the situation, and reduces practical opportunities to find a line of behaviour that could be considered neutral. The conflict can arise from the elderly’s side as a result of their common frustration or it can be a way of communicating, to get over their loneliness. Conflict can be also a way to diffuse tension or to translate their generational identity (the latter may explain one of the communication practises in public transport such as “unaddressed
complains”). An important cause of conflict is specific verbal /
communicative behaviour by the elderly, e.g. an aggressive anomic (post)soviet communication style (behaving as an “aggressive victim”), which makes it difficult to demonstrate many forms of solidarity. As a result, young people react in advance in such a way, that they re-form their attitude in order to minimise any contacts, but without violating the practise directly. Conclusions: The conflictual behaviour of the elderly can bring them some immediate pragmatic benefits, but fails strategically, because it destroys the potential for gaining the respect of others. The respectful actions stop being mechanical and grow to be associated with the situational contexts and with the object of hypothetical respect.

В  условиях перехода к  постиндустриальной экономике, сопровождающегося стремительным старением населения, мы вынуждены пересмотреть взгляды на нетрудоспособность (теперь это все больше неспособность к  переобучению, а  не  инвалидность) и  перспективы/
необходимость переквалификации во всех возрастах. В рамках исследовательского проекта «Евробарометр в России» был измерен уровень владения современными технологиями среди людей старше 50 лет. Сам по себе возраст является лишь второй по значимости причиной
низкого уровня владения технологиями. Наиболее существенным фактором, влияющим на степень владения технологиями, является образование, причем его значимость с возрастом существенно возрастает.

Anton Smol’kin. Respect to the Old Age: Sociological Conceptualisation
In this article respect towards old age is considered as one of the central problems of sociology of aging. It is claimed that demographic understanding of aging should be declined because it’s the main barrier for integration of old age problems into social theory. The author suggests to look for a new definition of an old age on the intersection of two notions: age dysfunctionality and life experience/authority. Being a non
autonomous condition in society old age becomes possible only within the network of recognition. Respect has a constitutive meaning for an old age as a consequence. On the basis of Kant and Darwall ideas the author describes two kinds of group respect—«compensation recognition respect» (addressed to groups, considered as needy for support; it’s connected with
age disfunctionality) and «group appraisal respect» (addressed to groups «deserving» additional respect, i.e. to groups to whom we are morally indebted. It’s connected with life experience/authority).

Paul Higgs, Chris Gilleard, Ian Rees Jones. Exploring the idea of a «selfish  generation»
The social sciences have tended to emphasise society’s vertical divisions of class, ethnicity and gender while underplaying the significance of horizontal divisions such as age groups and generations. Over the past few years there have been seen signs of change. In Britain as, well as elsewhere, there have been a number of books and articles reflecting a new interest in intergenerational relations and the idea of generational inequality. Many of these debates have seen the affluent baby boom cohort of the West characterised as a «selfish» generation who by ignoring the
needs of future generations, have placed in jeopardy the intergenerational compact upon which society depends. In this paper we explore these assumed generational fault-lines by re-examining Karl Mannheim’s idea of generation and the potential links that can be made between his idea of
«generational style» and Erikson’s concept of «generativity». If generativity provides the key psychosocial axis mediating the critical social divisions between age groups, is it possible to see the current concerns over intergenerational relationships as a crisis in the generational style through
which generativity is now expressed? Recent evidence from personality psychology indicating the emergence of a
«generation me» might be considered as one potential consequence of such a putative generational shift in generativity.
Key words: Generativity, generational style, third age

Little Trouble in Big Tram: Microsociological Analysis of the Situation “to concede/not to concede a place to the elderly person in public transport”
This work is supposed to study the phenomenon “to (not) concede a place” to elderly people in public transport. Any person, who suddenly feels ill and demonstrates it to others, is likely to be given a seat unconditionally. Nevertheless, a 60-year-old person looking strong and conscious, without any physical troubles (even if  he or she might be retired) will  hardly be invited to take a seat. The logic to concede a place is based not so much on the principle of the “respect for age(ing)”, but more on the “compassion for the [ailing] old age”. The majority of conflict situations is based on different understanding of legitimate reasons for conceding a place – the vigorous behavior of an elderly person might not be compatible with a behavior scheme to which he or she intentionally refers. Conceding a place to the elderly person is a rule conditioned by the observer’s context. On one hand, “conceding a place” is still a socially expected norm, on the other, the rule is regularly broken. There are two main strategies “not to concede a place”: 1. “I see, but I can not” - the strategy of  “demonstration of being busy” when a person pretends to be «occupied with something important». This strategy can be divided into a short-term (“to play for time”) and a long-term (“to expose the impossibility”) options. 2. “Inattention” strategy - I “do not see”, that theoretically does not allow to consider that the sitting person refuses to show respect as he or she is not “really included” in a situation. With regard to this strategy, we can mention: “looking out of the window”, “falling asleep”, “listening to a player” and various options of manipulation with the cell phone. In practice most ways to avoid conceding a place combines both options in different proportions.

PHD THESES ON GERONTOLOGICAL TOPICS IN RUSSIA 1995–2012: SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS
The paper presents a scientometric analysis of PhD theses on gerontological topics in Russian
humanities (excluding economics) for the period from 1995 to 2012. During this period, 253 PhD theses
(238 of «candidate dissertations» and 15 of «doctoral dissertations») were defended in Russia. Almost
half of them were defended during the boom years (2005–2006; 2009–2010). The number of theses
defended in the 2000-s has increased signifi cantly compared to the second half of 1990-s. However
for gerontological PhD-s overall as a percentage of all theses defended in Russian humanities, the
number hardly changed and remained small (less than 0,3 %). The leading discipline in the study of aging
(within the humanities) is sociology accounting for more than a third of all defended theses. Though the
theses were defended in 48 cities, more than half of them were defended in 3 cities, which are Moscow,
St. Petersburg and Saratov. Thematic analysis showed that the leading position was occupied by two
topics: «the elderly and the state» (42 %) and «(re)socialization/adaptation of the elderly» (25 %). 14 %
of the works are devoted to intergenerational relations and social status of the elderly. Other topics (old
man/woman’s personality, self-perceptions of aging, violence and crime against the elderly, loneliness,
discrimination, etc.) are presented by very few studies.

Conflicts between younger and older generations can take on a character that goes beyond personal experience to become a narrative of more general social conditions. In times of change, this phenomenon may play an important role in defining new social realities. This seems to be occurring in Russia today.

Сегодня отношение к пожилым людям со стороны молодѐжи в крупных российских городах по умолчанию считается неуважительным, однако нередко и носители культурных традиций, предполагающих уважение к старшим (например (им)мигранты с Кавказа и из Средней Азии), в рос-сийских условиях не проявляют его в должной мере. Как и почему ме-няется модель отношения к пожилым людям у представителей культур, традиционно характеризующихся почтительным отношением к старо-сти, в условиях крупного российского города? Среди причин исчезно-вения уважительных действий выделяются отсутствие репрессивных санкций за неоказание уважения, размытость объекта уважения, слабая совместимость традиционных поведенческих моделей с экспектациями окружающих и т.п.
Ключевые слова: социальная геронтология, ресоциализация, отношение к старости, адаптация мигрантов, межпоколенческие отношения

В статье анализируется влияние медицинского дискурса на социальное конструирование образа старости. Рассмотрение позднего возраста в терминах функциональности/дисфункциональности, его биомедика-
лизация создают предпосылки повседневного прочтения старости как неизлечимой болезни, что оказывается причиной социальной эксклюзии, может привести к эффекту самореализующегося пророчества.