Queering Care in Later Life: The Lived Experiences and Intimacies of Older Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Adults

Abstract

Much has been written about transformations in intimacy and changes in people’s personal relationships over the past few decades. Giddens’ (1992) seminal book, together with the works of Beck (1992) and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) have linked intimacy to wider processes of social change, such as individualisation and the lessening of traditional forms of social structure and constraint. Subsequent critical appraisals by others (for example, Jamieson, 1999, 2011; Weeks et al., 2001; Pahl and Spencer, 2004; Smart, 2007) suggest that the association between intimacy, sexuality and relations of trust, reciprocity and care is a complex, but significant, feature of contemporary relationships.