Linking critical discourse analysis and narrative … rudman 2013...Linking critical discourse...

Linking critical discourse analysis and narrative inquiry: Boundaries, resistance, contradictions and tensions

Debbie Laliberte Rudman, PhD, OT Reg.(ON), Associate ProfessorUniversity of Western Ontariodrudman@uwo.ca

March 27, 2013

Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research, University of Toronto

Presentation outline

introduction to study and methodological ‘challenge’

background regarding ‘positive’ aging discourses

methodology and methods approach to analysis and interpretation to get

at the ‘in between’ critical reflections and conclusion

Shaping the Modern Retiree within the Canadian context

Critical discourse analysis of Canadian print media addressing aging and retirement

Critical narrative study, addressing preparing for and living in retirement

How do aging individuals position/monitor/negotiate their selves, conduct and bodies in relation to contemporary ‘positive’aging discourses?

How do their narratives challenge the taken-for-granted positivity of such discourses?

(Laliberte Rudman, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, in press, in review)

The methodological challenge: Trying to get at the ‘in between’

DISCOURSE NARRATIVE

“move data beyond level of the individual and into historical, social and cultural realms, making critical analysis possible on a social level” (Hardin, 2003, p.544), but avoid “binary of seeing the person as either the autonomous origin of his or her experience or the ideological pawn of social determination” (Allen & Hardin, 2001, p.163)

Problematizing population aging

central problematic of contemporary governing retirement, pensions, health, and work key foci

common discursive framing impending ‘crisis’, imbued with economic and

social risks need to reduce government expenditures, and

instill personal responsibility to age ‘well’

(Asquith, 2009; Carmel et al., 2007; McDonald & Donahue, 2011; Neilson, 2009)

Problematizing population aging: Re-configuring social policies and practices

deploy neo-liberal modes of governing shift from social to individual risks and

responsibilities activate aging citizens in new ways

incorporate and shape ‘positive’ aging discourses groups of signifying practices that orient

understandings of, and behaviour in relation to, aging as a discursive object

(Allen & Hardin, 2001; Conway & Crenshaw, 2009; Graham, 2012)

‘Positive’ aging discourses: Contemporary pervasiveness

“Successful aging is a concept almost ubiquitous in gerontology today.” (Dillaway & Byrnes, 2009, p.703)

“Successful aging has been enthusiastically adopted by a number of health care professions...” (Estes et al., 2003, p.69)

“Active or productive aging, and the related concepts of healthy, successful or positive aging, now pervade social policy in all OECD countries” (Davey, 2002, p.98)

‘Positive’ aging discourses: Key emphases

triumvirate: forever young, forever health, and forever productive

‘hyperindividualism’ and activation offer up an array of practices to work on

the self, conduct/activity and body

re-shape population and individual aging from problems to opportunities

(Asquith, 2009; Biggs, 2001; Conway & Crenshaw, 2009; Dillaway &Brynes, 2009; Laliberte Rudman, 2006, in review)

‘Positive’ aging discourses: The importance of critical analyses

celebrated for enhancing rights, options and working against ageism

growing body of work questioning the ‘positivity’, pointing to: new expectations for activity, identity and

citizenship power relations and political rationalities implications for aging individuals and society

(Biggs et al., 2006, Calasanti, 2002; Carmel et al., 2007; Mann, 2007; Roberts, 2006)

Theoretical frame: ‘Positive’ aging discourses as a technology of government

governmentality perspective expanded notion of government government of the ‘other’/‘self’

power as dispersed and productive “insertion of a certain way of thinking and doing

within the fabric of everyday life” (Kendall & Wickham, 2004, p. 143)

(Dean, 2010; Foucault, 1982, 1999; Nasedan, 2009 ; Rose, 1999)

Theoretical frame: ‘Positive’ aging discourses as a technology of government

produce and circulate morally-laden messages that shape “conduct, aspirations, needs, desires, capacities of specified categories of individuals [e.g. retirees, aging citizens], to enlist them in particular strategies and to seek defined goals” (Dean, 1994, p.146)

Theoretical frame: Governing through subjectivity and everyday ‘doing’

discourses shape subjectivities “new categories of people and ‘new ways for people to

be’ are brought into being” (Ainsworth & Hardy, 2004) outline ways to monitor, judge and improve the self (and

others)

discourses bound everyday ‘doing’ “to govern, in this sense, is to structure the possible field

of actions of others” (Foucault, 1982) shape ‘taken-for-granted’ perceptions regarding ideal,

ethical and possible activities for self (and others)

Positive aging and the duty to age well: Shaping good neoliberal citizens

discourses shaped within, and contribute to shaping of, political rationality align and inter-link neoliberal political and individual

values, aims and practices enlist aging citizens in a moral duty to “dare to

age well” (Health Canada, 2001) “The ethical obligation to exercise responsibility to

manage risks becomes an enactment of citizenship obligations – our moral duty to the community.”(Cardona, 2008, p.481)

Returning to the ‘in between” of discourse/narrative: ‘Bounded agency’

“As actors draw on broader societal discourses in constructing identities, these broader discourses make possible a limited range of ‘sensible’constructions which, in turn, provide for a limited range of ‘sensible’behaviours and social practices.” (Ainsworth & Hardy, 2004, p.245)

“We are not without agency as positioned subjects, but neither do we have free reign over which positions we occupy, as those positions are always dependent upon available and circulated historical and cultural discourses.”(Hardin, 2001, p.16)

Paradigm position and methodology: Critical narrative inquiry

historical/tentative realism question taken-for-granted circulated via ‘positive’

aging discourses constitutive view of language

draw upon narratives to expose (often unnoticed) ways relations of power shape everyday life “...the roots of critical studies lie in connecting the

everyday to larger political and economic questions”(Mumby, 2004, p.252)

Critical narrative inquiry: Conceptualizing narrative

socially and epistemologically constitutive (Johnstone, 2004; Tanggard, 2009)

form of social action and social performance (Ainsworth & Hardy, 2004; Chase, 2011; Hardin, 2003) situated within available discursive possibilities varying resources and power to negotiate/take

up/resist subject positions and practices

Methods: Narrative elicitation

informed by Wengraf’s (2009) Biographical Narrative Interview method 5 interviewers

first session SQUIN (single question for illiciting narrative) prompts following event/topic sequence

second session review, clarification and elaboration photo elicitation

Informants (N=30)

diversity of recruitment strategies, but primarily ‘resource-rich’ sample

age range, 45 to 83 (mean=64.6; SD=9.9)majority self-identified as retired (17); mean

age of retirement of 58.6 (SD=6.1)majority married (18), adequate finances (21),

completed college or university (16), and lived in private home in urban setting (19)

self-rated health, good (15) or excellent (15)

Narrative analysis and interpretation: Aims

centre “on ways that discourses position individuals in particular ways and the effects of these in positioning how people story their lives” (Hardin, 2003) gain insight into possibilities and boundaries

illustrate ‘systems in practice’ make visible conditions and resources that bound

‘choice’ and possibilities to take up/modify/resist idealized subject positions and practices

Narrative analysis and interpretation: Guiding questions

In what ways does the informant position him or herself within the narrative? What subject positions does he/she attempt to lay claim to, and how?

How do these ways of positioning relate to subjectivities (affirm, negotiate, fracture) constructed through ‘positive’ aging discourses?

What ‘normalizing’ truths are brought into the narrative and/or contested to monitor, position and present the self, one’s body and one’s activities?

Narrative analysis and interpretation: Identifying ‘instances’ of linkages

points of resistance (e.g. articulations of refusal, of going against ‘the grain’)

points of seeming contradiction/fractures (e.g. confident self-assertions/self-questioning)

points of tension (e.g. of ‘othering’, of being marginalized, of being judged)

‘narrative linkages’ made between ‘life lived’and resources and constraints (Chase, 2005)

Narrative example: Mrs. SStriving to be an “active retiree”

ten years ago, retired “very young” (aged 52) from full-time job as elementary school teacher

received retirement package and private pension; felt “ready” to stop teaching

working and volunteering, about 6 hours/week, as a musician

retired at same time as husband; separated from husband in last few years

Mrs. S: Being an ‘active retiree’ and taking up the duty to age well

“And after the ‘veg’ stage, well you just realized that you don’t want to sit around all day. I felt kind of like I was lazy. I was too young, I was wasting some of my time. So I have filled my days, I have kept quite busy.”

“So, I have taken on another career because I’m a young retiree…I wanted to be an active retiree.”

“I think it’s really important to volunteer …do some of the things I’m doing… it’s really important for retired people to do something with their life because they should be active, as long as they can.”

Mrs. S: Being an ‘active retiree’ and taking up the duty to age well

“So I am trying to keep as young at heart as I can be, and do the very best I can be to be young. And prolong that, as long as I can.”

“You have an obligation to prolong…this healthy stage of your retirement…Do everything you can to stop it.”

Mrs. S: Tensions, ‘othering’ , ageism and ‘victim-blaming’

“..see myself as one of the people that I often see on television. Positive. Happy. Made most of the right choices.”

“You see people…old, being overweight, can hardly walk, grey hair, etc. Those are not the seniors that I know. Seniors that I hang around with try to keep themselves looking as good as they can…watch their weight... be fairly trim, be fairly active. Most of my friends are very, very active, happy.”

“I mean I know that there are people who are financially in trouble in their retirement years. But I certainly thought aboutthat years ago. I mean I chose a career where it would have a pension”

Mrs. S.: Tensions, monitoring and judging the self

“I feel that it’s important for us to keep ourselves as physically fit as we can, so that we can enjoy our retirement and not be a burden to others. I don’t want to be a burden to my children”

“I am having difficulty keeping physically active as I should …”

“I do get out twice a week for physical exercise but I know I need more…I am not as faithful as I should be…I really know that I should and it’s nagging at me.’

Narrative example: Mrs. DResisting being a ‘productive retiree’

retired 3 years prior to interview, at age of 55, from full-time management job

worked 30 years at one company; took “buy-out” package when “the writing kind of was on the wall”

feels “partially retired”, as husband still working full-time (partly for financial reasons)

describes self as currently “quite happy to sit at home and be a homemaker.”

Mrs. D: Resisting the call to be a ‘productive’retiree

“I really do enjoy the freedom of retirement”

“I’m doing what I want to do, on a daily basis. If I feel like doing something then I do something. I don’t feel like doing anything, then I don’t do anything.”

“Second year I still would not have considered working…I just don’t want any commitments to deal with. So that’s the way it’s been since I’ve retired.”

Mrs. D: Tensions in relation to ‘productive aging’ and the duty to age well

“I’m not sharing all this free time that I have, because I think in a lot of cases expectations nowadays are, if you’re retired then you should be pursuing something else. You should be starting a business yourself or you should be volunteering and sometimes I get guilt feelings over that, or I get guilt feelings over the fact that, my God, you’ve…done nothing all day.”

“So I think society expects you be active all the time…Like if I sat and read all day that would probably not be a great thing to do because it’s not a productive thing, even though its something I might like to do.”

Mrs. D: Points of contradiction and tension

“It’s an inner thing that I’m manifesting within myself because I’m not reconciling myself to accepting what I’m doing…The norm is that you’re expected to do all this marvelous stuff after you retire and it’s just not [easy]…”

“It’s hard for me. I think, I’ve been very (sigh), what’s the word I’m looking for…responsible. I’ve been a very, very responsible person, and if there’s something I should be doing then I should do it.”

Mrs. D: Points of contradiction and tension

“My mom died at 62, my one brother died at 55, my other brother just passed away…he was 64…he had just retired about 3 or 4 years. So I get the feeling because of this history, I don’t want to…I just want to do what I’m doing right now and life is so short that I don’t feel that I want to commit myself to anything, I guess.”

“Maybe sometime within the next few years I will look for a job or I’ll do more volunteering, but right now it’s important for me to…to do what I want to do when I want to do.”

Narrative example: Mr. FStriving to be a ‘working retiree’

retired from full-time upper management position in human resources at age 64 ½ (16 years ago)

10 adult children; lives with wife in family home did not feel ready to retire as felt he still had

“something to offer”, “didn’t feel old”, and worried that would not “have enough money”

“And so I came up with the idea well I’m 64-ish, I could…eliminate my position and come back and work part-time. I could act as a kind of consultant in the department.”

Mr. F: Limits of contingent work and boundaries of workplaces

“during the time that I had gone part-time…I realized that I’m now ultimately on the shelf.”

“I sensed there was a feeling that well the sooner he goes, the better. When he’s working part time that’s a step in the right direction. But when he goes that’ll be good…”

“it was just the way it is …And so they took the opportunity… give me some work but pretty insignificant stuff…I began to feel for the first time at work, insignificant. And I didn’t like that…I began to get the message and began to realize this is what happens.”

Narrative example: Mr. JBarriers to being ‘forever productive’

did not complete high school; worked various manually oriented jobs throughout life

left last full-time work position (trailer mechanic) 25 years ago at age 55, “when the company went broke”, taking a “reduced pension”

between 55 and 65, took “whatever work I could get”, along with unemployment benefits, and “got by”

since fully retiring, sold family home and lives with wife in small apartment

Mr. J: The impossibility of being proactive

“ There was actually no planning, it just came on me.”; “ I didn’t have a chance to plan good. It came, ‘Boom, you’re done’.”

“I thought I was going to go out and get a job just like that, but that don’t work.”

“The Canada Pension I collected since I was 60. I took it early…You only get 70% of it. So I’ve done that to live by, or I would have nothing, right. Between the little jobs in between and unemployment, we got by until I was 65.”

“We never had a chance to put any aside our self.”

Mr. J: Barriers to ‘forever productive’and financial penalties

“But I would sooner be working, I tell you…I’m always looking for something to do around here. You can’t do it because its an apartment building.”

“Well, I can’t lay there and look at the ceiling, I can’t do nothing. So I get up..So that’s what I do, just stuff like that, hang around. The wintertime is the worst… boring, boring.”

“I just can’t do anything on it cause it’s an apartment. With a house I could do something, go down in the basement and use my saws and stuff like that. I can’t do that here. What I do around here, in summertime I get a bag and I go around the lot, pick up papers and garbage..I don’t know if they like it or not. I got to have something to do.”

Critical reflections: The relevance of examining the ‘in between’

stimulate awareness and raise questions about the possibilities and boundaries shaped through discourses e.g., fracture notions of ‘choice’ and ‘opportunity’ e.g., make structurally shaped barriers visible

particularly vital within context of broader ‘individualization of the social’

(Brodie, 2007; Cooper, 2008 Cardona, 2008; Kemp & Denton, 2003; Mann, 2007; Martinson & Minkler, 2006; Vickerstaff & Cox, 2005)

Examples of critical reflections: Possibilities for whom and what?

shapes beliefs regarding, and action/inaction toward, the ‘failed’ aging citizen creates tensions at individual level aligns with neoliberal ‘assault on dependency’

perpetuates and extends ageism few ‘positive’ possibilities’ for those who “fail to meet our

criteria for a ‘good old age’” (Martinson & Minkler, 2006, p.325)

Conclusion: Addressing the ‘in between’

importance of becoming “acutely aware of the context in which claims about how one ought to live are advanced” (Minkler & Holstein, 2008, p.200)

examining interplay of narratives and discourses enhancing awareness of boundaries, divisions and

inequities shaped through discourses an essential step in promoting discursive and practical change

(Cheek, 2004; Foucault, 1988; Jager & Maier, 2009)