Adolescent grandparents and grandchildren: transmission and related effects in times of civilization vertigo

Abstract

Problem to investigate

In this poster we systematize a line of work: “transmission and civilizational vertigo: articulation between the intersubjective work of generational transmission and the time marks (the transubjective)”. This axis is part of the broader research project “Current modalities of the encounter between elders and adolescents: vicissitudes of the grandparent function” (PPID: 2018-2019), carried out within the School of Psychology of the National University of La Plata. This project investigates the modalities adopted by this intergenerational meeting in a context of social transformations: family, demographic and technological.

The axis that we will present through the poster mode refers to an articulation between the intergenerational and transubjective transmission work, that is to say, the modalities that are manifested at the intersection of the process of elaboration of transcendence, with the time marks and the civilizing vertigo, concept coined by Marcelo Viñar (2013). We will recover the value of the generational conflict highlighted by the author, arguing the need, on the part of the new generations, for the resistance and opposition to the older generation that would work as the engine that provides the strength to give birth to their originality.

We will refer to the conceptualizations of Isidoro Berenstein (2007) regarding the notion of link as the encounter between two selves. The presence of the other will be essential for the bond to be established and sustained -presence that is imposed to, affects and modifies us-. The link can be understood as what bonds  the self and the other with the representable and the unrepresentable. In this way, it has three dimensions: the similar, the different and the alien.

We will also use the theorizations of Pierre Bourdieu (1990) to address the young/old generational contrast. According to the author, it denotes a relationship in its most empty form: “You are always young or old for someone. That is why the divisions in classes defined by age, that is, in generations, are the most variable and exposed to manipulations… ”. With that said, he points out that youth and old age never have to be thought of as given representations, but rather socially built in the struggle between youngsters and elderly people. And here the relations between the social age and the biological age are very complex, neither of them making by itself a generational place subjective.

Goals

• To investigate the nuances and the modality of the intergenerational encounter between elders and adolescents.
• Find meeting and difference points.
• Observe the answers that old and young people find when faced with epochal emergences.
• Investigate the effects of technological impact on the forms of communication in the exchange between adolescents and the elderly.

Methodology

The qualitative methodology to be implemented will aim to provide a description, explanation, categorization and interpretation of the data collected based on:

• Individual interviews in depth, semi-directed, with elderly men and women, who have teenage grandchildren and/or who interact in their daily lives with young people and teenagers.
• Interviews with teenage grandchildren who bond with their grandparents.
• Interviews related to the technique of joint drawing (Abelleira & Delucca, 2004).
• Questionnaire for young students in the 3rd year of Psychology at UNLP.

Questions and conclusions

Based on the contributions of the mentioned authors, we ask ourselves:

• What particular configurations can the bond between grandparents and teenage grandchildren acquire at these coordinates?
• How is the subjectivity of the elderly and the adolescent constructed?
• What are the novel and creative elements in this crisis of civilizing vertigo?
• What of the transmitted survives and is taken by the young people for the elaboration of their biographies? What novelty do young people bring to grandparents?

As a provisional conclusion we can posit that the value of the ancestors' experience is questioned facing the construction of an uncertain future, but their presence and accompaniment are privileged to signify the present.