Through the Magnifying Glass: Performing Intergenerational Relatedness on Ritualised Occasions
Families in Motion: Ebbing and Flowing through Space and Time
ISBN: 978-1-78769-416-3, eISBN: 978-1-78769-415-6
Publication date: 25 October 2019
Abstract
This chapter argues the importance of ritualised family occasions in the moral economy of intergenerational families. The chapter draws on 34 semi-biographical interviews with 13 men and 21 women aged 20–90, focussing on stories about troubled or failed rituals. The analysis shows that family members depend on the support and recognition of each other to maintain their moral identities. Ritualised occasions work as magnifying glasses, focussing and intensifying the ongoing relationship work, and forcing family members to take stock and signpost the state of their social bond, and as cultural reference points, providing a window into normative expectations of how parents and adult children should perform relatedness.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I thank the editors of this volume for constructive comments and advice on earlier drafts of the chapter. The research for the chapter was supported by The Danish Council for Independent Research (grant number 1329-00112A).
Citation
Marckmann, B. (2019), "Through the Magnifying Glass: Performing Intergenerational Relatedness on Ritualised Occasions", Murray, L., McDonnell, L., Hinton-Smith, T., Ferreira, N. and Walsh, K. (Ed.) Families in Motion: Ebbing and Flowing through Space and Time, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-415-620191008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019 Bella Marckmann