Aging: Narrative micro-sociology versus globalization

Abstract

The social psychology of globalization brings a constant sense of flow, identity loss and of destabilization. It is as if one is always just next to or near, but not quite at the point of meaning and of significance. Radical (postmodern) theory, celebrates just these circumstances and feelings (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, A thousand plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; 1996, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism & schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). In this article, the results of depth interviews with two life-care or continuing-care community residents, illustrate the social psychology of flow, involution, and the rhizomic on the experiential level. The micro-psychological narratives of those studied; display their fear for globalization's de- and re-territorializations. For the elderly, the phenomenology of bodies-without-organs may be more threatening than liberating. Moreover, for researchers, the "petits recits" of narrative research, may remain normatively crucial.