Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé
In this article we comparatively explore experiences and notions of retirement in two ethnographic sites of Milan, Italy, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, by paying attention to how grandparenting is perceived and practiced in relation to kinship roles and responsibilities. The paper draws on comparative ins...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Anthropology & Aging |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/anthro-age/article/view/419 |
| _version_ | 1797688111627501568 |
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| author | Shireen Walton Patrick Awondo |
| author_facet | Shireen Walton Patrick Awondo |
| author_sort | Shireen Walton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
In this article we comparatively explore experiences and notions of retirement in two ethnographic sites of Milan, Italy, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, by paying attention to how grandparenting is perceived and practiced in relation to kinship roles and responsibilities. The paper draws on comparative insights from the ASSA project and focuses on Walton’s research in Milan and Awondo’s in Yaoundé, carried out between 2018–2019. The paper explores how both retirement and grandparenting can be embedded in social and moral narratives, gendered distinctions, and various idealisations, while also reflecting individual positionalities and economic roles and responsibilities. Our discussion moves beyond the family context as a unit for analysis, considering how grandparents enact care in urban communities and related online environments such as WhatsApp groups. After a brief introduction to the two field sites, the first section of the paper addresses retirement in Milan and Yaoundé, before turning to consider how grandparenting and retirement is linked to wider conceptions of obligation and freedom in these two different urban neighbourhood contexts.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T01:27:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-795fb7311636440781c59dfccba65784 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2374-2267 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T01:27:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Anthropology & Aging |
| spelling | doaj.art-795fb7311636440781c59dfccba657842023-09-12T14:32:14ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghAnthropology & Aging2374-22672023-09-0144210.5195/aa.2023.419Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and YaoundéShireen Walton0Patrick Awondo1Department of Anthropology Goldsmiths, University of LondonCenter for Social Change Gender and Discrimination Faculty of Sciences Education University of Yaoundé 1 In this article we comparatively explore experiences and notions of retirement in two ethnographic sites of Milan, Italy, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, by paying attention to how grandparenting is perceived and practiced in relation to kinship roles and responsibilities. The paper draws on comparative insights from the ASSA project and focuses on Walton’s research in Milan and Awondo’s in Yaoundé, carried out between 2018–2019. The paper explores how both retirement and grandparenting can be embedded in social and moral narratives, gendered distinctions, and various idealisations, while also reflecting individual positionalities and economic roles and responsibilities. Our discussion moves beyond the family context as a unit for analysis, considering how grandparents enact care in urban communities and related online environments such as WhatsApp groups. After a brief introduction to the two field sites, the first section of the paper addresses retirement in Milan and Yaoundé, before turning to consider how grandparenting and retirement is linked to wider conceptions of obligation and freedom in these two different urban neighbourhood contexts. http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/anthro-age/article/view/419RetirementGrandparentingReciprocityKinshipMilan Yaoundé |
| spellingShingle | Shireen Walton Patrick Awondo Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé Anthropology & Aging Retirement Grandparenting Reciprocity Kinship Milan Yaoundé |
| title | Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé |
| title_full | Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé |
| title_fullStr | Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé |
| title_full_unstemmed | Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé |
| title_short | Grandparenting and Retirement: Re-thinking Roles, Reciprocity, and Responsibility in Milan and Yaoundé |
| title_sort | grandparenting and retirement re thinking roles reciprocity and responsibility in milan and yaounde |
| topic | Retirement Grandparenting Reciprocity Kinship Milan Yaoundé |
| url | http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/anthro-age/article/view/419 |
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