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Emerging age asymmetries in the
research relationship: challenges of
exploring transition to the fourth age
TATIANA SEDLÁKOVÁ*†and ADÉLA SOURALOVÁ*
ABSTRACT
This article opens the discussion on age asymmetries within the research relation-
ship between researchers who are young and able-bodied and research participants
who are much older and have acquired impairments in later life. Based on the
knowledge of age relations, we present our conceptualisation of power imbalances
based on age. We see these asymmetries as co-existing with other forms of power
imbalances between researchers and participants, and argue that these asymmetries
are not the results of the limitations of the older adults but rather the consequences
of different constellations of possibilities for researchers and participants. Moreover,
we assert that taking these asymmetries into account is a necessary step when con-
ducting research with people with acquired impairment in later life. As researchers,
reflecting on age asymmetries helped us to avoid othering our research participants
and prevented us from marginalising their life experiences. Drawing upon our own
research, we reflect upon the network of cognitive, physical and social asymmetries
that emerged in our research relationships and identify the main challenges that we
faced. In the presence of some of these age asymmetries, we approach the research
relationship through the roles which we played vis-à-vis the participants. We consider
reflecting and addressing these asymmetries to be a necessary step in creating and
maintaining a research relationship based on equality. Only a reflexive and transpar-
ent approach to these power imbalances can ensure that data collection and analysis
do not contribute to their reproduction. This article presents some general insights
on research practices and contributes to the debate on power imbalances in qualita-
tive research. The article also contributes to gerontology and provides new insights
about the lives of those individuals with acquired impairment in later life, a topic that
has so far received inadequate research attention.
KEY WORDS –age asymmetries, older adults, impairment, fourth age, interview,
qualitative research.
*Office for Population Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno,
Czech Republic.
†Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno,
Czech Republic.
Ageing & Society, Page of . © Cambridge University Press
doi:./SX
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Introduction
Contemporary gerontological research shows two particularities: a predom-
inant interest in the active and healthy third age, and a minimalisation, bor-
dering on neglect, of the points of view of older adults with acquired
impairments in later life. The conditions of the lives of these individuals
meet some characteristics of the still-ambiguous concept of the fourth age
(Gilleard and Higgs ; Grenier and Phillipson ; Higgs and
Gilleard ; Laslett ; Lloyd et al.) and the concept of precarious
old age that requires the recognition of shared vulnerability and responsibil-
ities for care (Grenier, Lloyd and Phillipson ). On the one hand, we see
a clear interest in third-age seniors, no doubt due to the large post-war gen-
eration entering retirement and enjoying their old age actively with greater
health and financial security than any previous generation (Gilleard and
Higgs ). On the other hand, our review of the literature related to
older people living with acquired impairments shows that most findings
rely on proxy accounts of the experiences of later age, usually provided
by professional care-givers or care-giving family members (e.g. Stathi and
Simey ). We would like to draw attention to the fact that only a small
fraction of studies report research conducted with these people and not
just about them. Some empirical works (e.g. Lloyd et al.; Nicholson
et al.,) state that the lack of knowledge gained in interactions
with these specific individuals originates in the limitations of the people
(research participants) themselves. Evidently, some of these characteristics
are considered barriers to research and consequently cause these forms of
old age, which qualitatively differ from the third age, to be an under-
researched phenomenon.
We decided to overcome these obstacles, to approach this research topic
differently. We consider the difficulties of conducting research with older
adults living with acquired impairments not to be the result of their
health and social conditions but rather to be an outcome of what we call
age asymmetries between researchers and research participants. A large
body of literature discusses power imbalances in research practice caused
by gender (e.g. Gill and Maclean ), ethnic (e.g. Hoong Sin )
and socio-economic (e.g. Seidman ) distinctions. However, the issue
of age-based power imbalances in the research process is rather invisible
in both qualitative and quantitative research. In this article, we argue that
conducting intergenerational research requires detailed attention from
both social gerontologists and scholars in the field of ageing studies.
The objective of this article is to deepen the understanding of age asym-
metries in research practice and provide a new lens for future inquiries into
Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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old age lived in the conditions of acquired impairments. The article has two
main aims. First, we hope to start a discussion about the existence of age
asymmetries in social science research. Power imbalances are an inherent
part of the research relationship and are aggravated by inequalities based
on gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status. We propose expanding this
list to include age asymmetries and stress that age asymmetries tend to
come to the fore within the research interaction with those individuals
with age-related and permanent impairments whose lives are qualitatively
different from the lives of active and healthy third-agers. Secondly, we aim
to show that age asymmetries, and the resulting challenges of the research
process, are an important source of research data. We consider that addres-
sing these age asymmetries in research relationships represents a way to
deepen the understanding of the lives of these specific participants and to
lend support to further research with vulnerable older people.
To fulfil these aims, the article is divided into four sections. The first dis-
cusses the theoretical background of age relations. In the second section, we
introduce our conceptualisation of age asymmetries and distinguish their
cognitive, physical and social dimensions. In the third, we outline our
research project, which was conducted over the course of one year.
Finally, reflecting upon our research experience, we describe the manifesta-
tions of age asymmetries within the research relationships and provide
sample quotes from interviews and field notes. We present an approach
to analysing how these asymmetries appeared in our research and
emerged as challenges. Further, we propose viewing the asymmetries in
terms of the roles of the researchers facing these challenges. We offer our
results both as a contribution to the methodological discussion on age rela-
tions within the research relationship and as a testimony to the daily life of
vulnerable older individuals with acquired impairments, who have so far
received inadequate research attention.
Considering age relations in the research process
Long overlooked by scholars, age is, like gender, ethnicity and class, a source
of possible power imbalance in research practice. Despite the apparent rec-
ognition that gender is multiply produced and intersected by other axes of
difference, including age, feminist scholars have also largely overlooked the
category of age and have rarely examined age relations critically. However,
these scholars have theorised about the age relations that underlie the
devaluation of old age in many spheres of life, including research practice.
Many of them (e.g. Calasanti and Slevin ; King ; Krekula )
have called for the recognition of age as an organising principle of power
and for further engagement with questions of methodology when working
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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across age boundaries (e.g. Grenier ; Tarrant ). In line with our
assumptions, they argue that there is an extensive amount of care-work
research, but that old age as a location of power has been largely ignored.
From the perspective of these scholars, age relations are systems of inequal-
ity based on age that privilege the not-old at the expense of the old and form
the ways of sharing such resources as authority, wealth and esteem
(Calasanti )–all distributed within social networks according to
formal rules or ascribed status. These inequalities are further seen to be
natural and thus beyond dispute. The reality that being old, in and of
itself, is a position of low status is apparent, for example, in the flourishing
anti-ageing industry. According to these scholars, age relations comprise
three dimensions that together have consequences for life chances: (a)
age serves a social organising principle, (b) different age groups gain iden-
tities and power in relation to one another, and (c) age relations intersect
with other power relations. The second and third aspects of age relations
speak more directly to issues of power and how and why such age-based
organisation matters for life chances. Calasanti and Slevin () further
argue that old age not only exacerbates other inequalities but also is a
social location in its own right, conferring a loss of power for all those desig-
nated as ‘old’regardless of their advantages in other hierarchies. In line
with the perspective of feminist scholars, we would like to emphasise two
important aspects of the power imbalances based on age: first, these
power imbalances often deepen in such forms of old age that are qualita-
tively different from the third age and therefore even ‘less visible’
(Calasanti and Slevin ); and second, age relations differ to a certain
amount from other power relations in that one’s group membership
shifts over time. As a result, one can experience both the advantages and dis-
advantages of age relations within a lifetime.
Although it remains little discussed, age relations also influence research
practice and the relationship between researchers and researched (Tarrant
). For example, Friedan (), in The Fountain of Age, argues that most
of the people who collect data from older people are almost always outsiders
precisely because of their age differences. Grenier (), in her explor-
ation of intergenerational research encounters, contends that -some-
thing-year-old researchers, like herself, might be seen less as research
professionals in the field and more as grandchildren. She further mentions
that some participants might adopt family-like relationships and it might be
harder to develop and explore certain topics (e.g. sexuality, mortality).
Tarrant () surmises that problems might arise when thoughts about
age differences construe researchers as insiders or outsiders in the research
process and risk reproducing these rigid binaries. It seems that working
across age boundaries can be advantageous to younger researchers but
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also problematic; the negotiations of age relations within research practice
certainly require more attention. In this article, we recognise that the knowl-
edge in research practice is produced relationally in the complex negotia-
tions of similarities and differences between researchers and research
participants –including those based on age. Consequently, the research
interview is a product of the research relationship itself (Fontana and
Frey ). Rather than reinforcing decisive lines between individuals
and groups based on age, a relational and reflexive approach on age
power imbalances within research relationships would acknowledge the
potential for generating knowledge within the research relationship based
on equality.
Though our theoretical argument refers to age relations, we are writing
from the position of social gerontology researchers and take into consider-
ation the consequences these power imbalances based on age have for indi-
viduals’lived experience. Evidently, many older adults are stigmatised as
sick and unattractive, receive little deference and are segregated from
younger adults in some situations (King ). In the context of the
Czech Republic, many of them –including some of our research partici-
pants –live in institutions such are nursing homes that are often located
in the suburbs. Often, these individuals are served by young staff, which
renders their age more relevant, and usually not in ways that privilege
them. Consider, for example, the everyday situation of the bathing of frail
clients in a nursing home. As shown in the analysis by Twigg (), this
ritual can reinforce the status of these people as bodies to be managed,
and dirty ones at that. In many cases, people around them produce and
reproduce the practices of inequality. Consequently, the residents may
find that their age becomes even more salient than it would otherwise be
and that they suffer for it (King ). We emphasise that these power
inequalities are often more pronounced for those groups of older indivi-
duals who live in the conditions of age-related acquired impairments.
These older people, who often do not maintain the activities popular
among the middle-agers and third-agers often privileged with health,
money and leisure time, are often considered to be ‘problematic’older
people (Calasanti and Slevin ; Holstein and Minkler ; Katz ).
We decided to resist the logic that distinguishes between ‘problematic’
and ‘unproblematic’older adults (possible research participants) and
emphasise that the challenges of conducting research with individuals
who acquired impairments in their later years are mostly the consequences
of the different possibilities for researchers and research participants.
Through this approach, we aspire to shift attention from the perception
of stable limitations of the research participants to the perception of emer-
ging age asymmetries in the research relationship between researchers and
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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research participants. In the following section, we present our conceptual-
isation of age asymmetries. As these asymmetries are understood as the
result of relational research practice, we further call for a reflexive and
transparent approach when these power imbalances based on age emerge.
Age asymmetries in the research process: opening the discussion
Age asymmetries exist in all research processes; however, only in some cases
do they become more salient and necessary to address directly. We use the
term age asymmetry to refer to the situated nature of the age positioning of
individuals vis-à-vis each other and vis-à-vis the definitions, meanings, roles,
norms and expectations associated with particular states within the lifecycle.
In the research process, age asymmetries are not the outcome of the differ-
ent chronological ages of researchers and research participants. Rather,
they are the result of the interplay between the differences in the research-
er’s and research participant’s ages, knowledge and personal experiences
based on the dynamics of different socio-cultural and historical conditions,
and health and social conditions. Age asymmetries are therefore consti-
tuted, negotiated and reproduced in and by the research practice.
Experiencing these age asymmetries can lead to challenging research situa-
tions for both researchers and research participants that are at the same
time an important source of data about the lives of those individuals with
acquired impairments in later life.
Drawing on Atchley’s() distinction between psychological (cogni-
tive), physical and social ageing, we distinguish three dimensions of age
asymmetries in the research process: cognitive, physical and social. The cog-
nitive dimension includes changes in cognitive functioning as research parti-
cipants grow old. A wealth of research has investigated the possibilities for
exploring the lives of people with dementia (e.g. Carmody, Traynor and
Marchetti ; Hubbard, Downs and Tester ; Murphy et al. )
and communication difficulties (e.g. Coons and Watson ; Nind
). Acknowledging the challenges of including people with dementia
in research, several studies have developed techniques which can co-exist
alongside interviews to get the researcher closer to the lived experiences
of these people (Bartlett ; Buse and Twigg a,b; Milligan,
Bingley and Gatrell ; Murphy et al. ; Nygård ). According
to Hubbard, Downs and Tester (), to conduct research with people
with various cognitive impairments, researchers should be trained and
skilled verbal and non-verbal communicators.
Some of these studies have addressed the power imbalance between
researchers and participants with these types of impairments (e.g. Bartlett
). However, the imbalances only partially overlap with the cognitive
Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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dimension of age asymmetries; disability asymmetries and age asymmetries
should not be confused. Age asymmetries are not only disability asymmetries
and disability asymmetries are not only about age. In addition, of course, not
all older individuals have dementia. At the same time, however, older
people experience slowed thinking and response to stimuli, sensory
changes and short-term memory difficulties (Newman and Newman
). These cognitive changes are often the consequence of the involution
process or other physical changes related to age. These conditions can
sharply contrast with the researcher’s use of (abstract) language, ability to
quickly recall information from memory and structuring of the interaction,
e.g. following the a priori defined structure of the interview and research
plan. Awareness of these aspects of age asymmetries may lead the researcher
to changes in language use, sound volume, rhythm, interview design, etc.
The physical dimension of age asymmetries entails the differences between
researchers and research participants that result from physical changes
related to advanced age or to acquired impairments that are permanent
and irreversible (e.g. osteoporosis, arthritis). These changes in health condi-
tions often cause restrictions in mobility, bring sudden surges of pain or
tiredness and affect overall functioning (e.g. bathing and showering, dress-
ing, personal hygiene, transferring, self-feeding, etc.). Such situations in
the research relationship may make the research participant feel vulnerable
and therefore require sensitive reflection on the part of the researcher. One
definition of the fourth age derives from health conditions and focuses on
frailty in later life and the boundary of old age as abject (Higgs and Gilleard
). For Grenier and Phillipson (), the fourth age captures the
experience of older age combined with disability. These authors further
understand the fourth age as a social position marked by declines that
require the recognition of the shared vulnerability and responsibilities for
care (Grenier, Lloyd and Phillipson ). Such a conceptualisation of
the fourth age suggests that rather than classifying the stages of old age
according to chronology (Baltes and Smith ; Laslett ), rather
than a concept that focuses on proximity to death (Gerstorf, Ram,
Lindenberger, and Smith ) and rather than the concept of the
fourth age understood as a ‘social imaginary’(Higgs and Gilleard ),
it is important to look at the distinction between able-bodiedness and
infirmity or between the fit and the frail (Grenier ; Nicholson et al.
,). Following this dichotomist view, the researcher –when
being able-bodied and fit–creates a research relationship with an infirm
subject whose life is significantly influenced by acquired and often perman-
ent and irreversible impairments. These differences in health conditions
can be anticipated but unknown factors, and a possible source of stress
within the relationship.
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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Finally, the social dimension is an umbrella term for the imbalances in
social role performance, and the mobilisation of agency in creating and
reproducing social relations, networks and personal bonds. People with
acquired impairments usually depend on varying levels of care from
others. Often their network of care-givers becomes denser, while social
contact with people other than care-givers may decline. This aspect of
later life is more poignant when daily life is lived in institutions such as
nursing homes (King ). According to the cultural gerontologist per-
spective of Gilleard and Higgs (:), it is through care that the
fourth age is most intimately connected to society. While the amount of
agency in creating and reproducing social relations and ties may vary
from senior to senior, we can conclude that older adults with acquired
impairments are more vulnerable to such phenomena as social isolation
and loneliness (Shankar et al. ; Smith ). The lack of contact
with people who are not care-givers or co-habitants of the institution may
lead research participants to consider the researcher as a bridge with the
outside world, or even as a friend. The social asymmetry caused by dissimilar
access to social networks affects expectations about the role the researcher
should play in participants’lives. From the participant’s perspective, this
may lead to unclear expectations and consequent feelings of dissatisfaction,
disappointment and deepening isolation in cases where expectations
springing from their definition of the research relationship are not met.
Different dimensions of age asymmetries appear in varied ways in each
research relationship: sometimes the physical dimension becomes salient
and the social dimension is less relevant, while in other cases it can be the
other way around. Age asymmetries and their various dimensions are
always a result of the life experiences of both the researcher and the partici-
pant. Both of them –when interacting, talking and sharing their views –
have their own particular cognitive and physical health conditions and
dispositions within the repertoire of social roles. Both of them bring their
personal life experiences into the research relationship, but these experi-
ences only become important in relation to those of the other person.
These dimensions do not exist per se; rather, they are strengthened or
weakened in the interaction during the research process.
Why should we address age asymmetries in research? From our experi-
ence, there are at least two reasons. First, reflecting on age asymmetries
helps researchers to avoid othering research participants and prevents
researchers from marginalising their life experiences. We aspire to show
that the asymmetries are not in age itself, but in the interaction between
researchers and participants during which age positioning is negotiated.
We should not therefore ask just why it is difficult for us, as researchers,
to approach these people, but at the same time also ask why it is difficult
Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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for them to participate in the research relationship and to speak with us.
Secondly, we argue for recognising age distinctions in the research
process as dynamic and for looking at how limitations as well as potentials
on both sides are in play. Then the research process itself serves as a
source of data about these older individuals with acquired impairments,
as a collection of event-generating relationships and roles, expectations
and norms which must be carefully analysed.
Outline of the research project: research participants and methods
This article draws upon our qualitative research experiences during the
research project ‘Fourth Age: The Identity of Disability During the Period
of Active Ageing’(GA-S). In the qualitative part of this project,
we conducted three repeated interviews with ten seniors, male and
female, over the course of one year. All participants were from the Czech
Republic and were over years old (Table ). Although we purposely
did not assess the research participants with any tests or scales measuring
cognitive impairment, frailty, or self-maintaining and instrumental activities
of daily living, we can conclude that all of them suffered from acquired
impairments that are permanent and irreversible, and significantly
influence their daily living. In discussions with care professionals, the parti-
cipants were identified as cognitively healthy people of advancing age who
are –due to the changes in their health and age-related impairments –
unable to carry out independent activities of daily living (e.g. bathing, show-
ering, personal hygiene and management of medication). Most of our
participants were immobile due to arthritis, osteoporosis, previous falls, frac-
tures and overall weaknesses. These conditions were combined with other
illness in some cases. In one case, the participant’s poor health prevented
us from carrying out or completing the third and final interview. One poten-
tial participant died before we could conduct the first interview, and one
participant died during the project and we were therefore unable to com-
plete the research with that participant. Participants had the capacity to
consent to be interviewed throughout the study. All of the names and per-
sonal details have been changed in order to preserve participant anonymity.
The first interview was narrative in nature. The subsequent two interviews
had a semi-structured form and focused on daily activities; the help received
during these activities and negotiating one’s own involvement; the mean-
ings of important material artefacts and assistive devices; the experiencing
of one’s body and health difficulties; past and current social relations, etc.
The interviews were complemented by information provided in research
diaries shared between researchers and participants, which the research
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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participants kept between each interview with the help of their primary care-
givers. The diary contained the yesterday interview used in the Berlin Ageing
Study by Horgas, Wilms and Baltes () and a timeline technique which
offered a graphical temporal structure against which participants could
elicit and plot their recollections of everyday events and experiences
during their old age (Adriansen ; Guenette and Marshall ;
Sheridan, Chamberlain and Dupuis ). At the end of the series of
three repeated interviews, we also conducted interviews with the primary
care-givers of each participant, which served to complete the individual inter-
views with our participants. In this article, we do not focus on the materials
written in the shared diaries of our research participants. We reflect only
upon our experiences during the research interviews, working with the tran-
scripts of the interviews with our participants and the field notes taken by
the researchers immediately after each research interview. We use excerpts
of the interview transcripts and field notes to illustrate the age asymmetries
that emerged within the research relationship. Three researchers co-oper-
ated closely on the research project and the interviews.
Addressing age asymmetries in research interviews: the roles of the researcher
Reflecting upon age asymmetries is only the first step in the research
process. This reflection should not reduce the representation of participant
lives to mere vulnerabilities and limitations, but should rather be accompan-
ied by some practical steps during the research process. We asked two
questions:
TABLE .Characteristics of participants
N
Women
Men
Average age
Aged –
Aged –
Aged +
Married and living with partner
Married, living in a nursing home
Widowed
Living in a nursing home
At home with a care professional
At home with an informal care-provider
Total number of participants
Number of completed interviews
Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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. How can we approach data collection and data analysis in such a way that
will not produce and reproduce these asymmetries but rather will create
and maintain a research relationship based on equality?
. What is our role in the network of reflected age asymmetries?
We sought to answer these questions by reflecting on our personal
research experience. Excerpts from the field notes and the narratives of
our interviewees are presented in a fragmented way to demonstrate
emerged asymmetries in our research relationship. We, as young, healthy
and able-bodied researchers, encountered multiple identity positions that
structured power relations between us and our research participants. In
the following section, we demonstrate how we addressed these age-related
asymmetries during our research experience and describe how we
approached them in the research relationship through the roles which we
played vis-à-vis the participants.
We decided to look at the challenges of conducting research with our par-
ticipants by addressing our roles in the network of age asymmetries. Both
asymmetries and the adopted roles of the researcher do not exist a priori
but are (re)negotiated and performed during the research process. We
locate our position in the relationship with our research participants at
the crossroads of the following roles: (a) researcher as a message facilitator (cog-
nitive asymmetries), (b) researcher as a supporter (physical asymmetries), and
(c) researcher as a social world provider (social asymmetries). In our interac-
tions with research participants, each of these roles were experienced differ-
ently, as in each case the salience of each role and the age asymmetries
differed. What we present here is an overview of the asymmetries within
the research relationships with all our participants. The overview of asym-
metries should not lead to understanding them as an inherent part and
stable limitation of a person; rather, the overview of these asymmetries
and the adopted roles shows ways of being closer to specific older research
participants with acquired impairments through an equal research relation-
ship. We argue that the transparent reflection of these asymmetries may
lend support to further research with vulnerable people, and thus provide
important knowledge.
Cognitive asymmetries: researcher as a message facilitator
Although our participants were selected by professional care-givers as those
older adults living with impairments who either had no cognitive impair-
ment, or were mildly affected but were deemed able to consent and partici-
pate in research (see also Stocking et al. ), many of them experienced
various sensory difficulties, slowed response to stimuli, short-term memory
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problems or a combination of these conditions. Take, for example, the case
of Ms Tereza, an -year-old woman living in a nursing home, who is immo-
bile due to multiple falls and fractures, and suffers from major hearing
impairment.
Ms Tereza: Those ears are on batteries, you know. I’ve just got them from the
nurse today.
Researcher (R): And you call them your ears?
Ms Tereza: Ears or headphones …Someone has one, someone, I …(silence)
I have…(silence) My left ear hears better as they told me during
the medical check-up. The right ear is worse. But they anyway gave
me two so now I have two more ears.
During the interviews, her hearing aid kept falling out, disrupting the flow
of conversation. Consequently, the hearing impairment became part of the
interaction. In such situations, we decided to approach the theme of cogni-
tive insufficiencies through talk about compensation devices, which are a
part of her everyday life and body. Talking openly about the relationship
to the hearing aid, we could show greater sensitivity in future situations
when Ms Tereza’s hearing impairment complicated the communication
and brought new moments of misunderstanding.
Some of our participants were not able to recall the answer to specific
questions and this might have caused them personal embarrassment. This
was the case of the research relationship with Ms Sofie, a -year-old
woman with limited mobility and severe joint pain.
R: So, you did not receive a full invalidity pension in those days.
Ms Sofie: No, I was not yet…(silence)
R: Hm, it was probably later…
Ms Sofie: (silence) Later I got, only later, it was, it was, in which year I got it? Well,
eighty …four, nine, six or so, I …(silence) I do not know exactly.
R: It fits. You said you were born in and it fits. It’sfine.
Ms Sofie: Forty, hm.
R: Yeah, it fits.
Ms Sofie: (silence) So I got it.
Today’s interview brought about situations when Ms Sofie was unable to
answer my questions in a manner that she probably expected of herself …I
sensed that during these situations she did not feel at ease even when I
showed her that everything was fine and we could continue. Ms Sofie
stopped in her replies, moved frequently or retreated into herself, she
seemed quieter overall. I became conscious of leaning towards her more fre-
quently and putting my hand over hers to encourage her non-verbally that
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we can, despite missing facts, continue further. (Field notes, October
)
During our meetings, actual anxiety in such situations was demonstrated
via many verbal pauses, incomplete sentences, and changes in facial expres-
sions and body postures. While factual accuracy was not as important for us
as the meaning of lived experiences, Ms Sofie assumed that we primarily
needed accurate facts. Even when we repeatedly reassured her, she contin-
ued to comply and adjust to these assumed requirements, deepening the
existing cognitive asymmetries. Ms Sofie expected factual accuracy of
herself and when she could not recall the facts, it led to frequent feelings
of failure that impacted the research relationship.
Besides difficulty in recalling details, in some cases our participants gave
only short answers to our questions, which made our communications ‘less
effective’. On the basis of both our reflection and the interviews with care-
givers, this situation in the research relationship, e.g. with Ms Jana, an -
year-old woman with limited mobility of the lower limbs and weakening of
the upper limbs after a series of fractures due to repeated falls in the house-
hold, was not caused by a lack of trust but rather was the result of her way of
expressing herself in her current health conditions.
R: What do you enjoy the most in your everyday life?
Ms Jana: The memory training is good.
R: Could you tell me how you train memory?
Ms Jana: Well, some movies.
R: And what about the memory training? How is it for you?
Ms Jana: Hm.
R: What does it include? Is it counting?
Ms Jana: Also.
R: Is it led by someone who comes to the nursing home, or how does it work?
Ms Jana: We are always here in the club.
During the interviews, Ms Jana usually talked in shorter sentences, and
the cognitive asymmetries were an apparent part of the research relation-
ship that led, among other things, to ‘slower’interviews often divided
into shorter parts and to interview content that was interrupted or that
repeated or diverged from the questions posed, thus creating a need to
return multiple times to the same questions.
Taking into account the network of these cognitive asymmetries, we rea-
lised that while conducting the interviews, we frequently adopted the role of a
message facilitator. The function of this role within the research relationship
included creating and maintaining a calm and undisturbed environment,
which supported the limited ability to recall from memory or the ability
to concentrate. This was achieved by choosing a quiet room in the
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senior’s household, by conducting shorter interviews, in the presence of the
care-giver if necessary, and by watching for signs of cognitive tiredness and
loss of attention. Further support for the memory recall process of our
respondents was provided through stimuli and prompts that helped to
organise their answers.
Physical asymmetries: researcher as a supporter
The research participants in our sample faced various types of physical vul-
nerabilities. Repeated hospitalisations of some of our interviewees length-
ened the research process; in one case, poor health prevented us from
carrying out or completing the research; one interviewee died before we
conducted the first interview and another died before we could conduct
the third interview. The physical conditions of our participants required
careful reflection, and in many cases involved monitoring their feelings of
fatigue, which might have resulted from their impairments and body weak-
nesses. This can be seen in the excerpt from the interview with -year-old
Ms Hana, whose ability to move was limited mainly due to frequent falls and
overall weakness.
R: So, you eat in the bed. Every time you eat they give you a kind of table
over your bed.
Ms Hana: I would call it a board. They put it over my bed and myself and ask me to
sit and eat. They serve me the meal and then I try to eat on my own. But I
have to be careful not to flip over that board. You know, I could acciden-
tally kick it and after that everything would be on the ground.
R: Sure.
Ms Hana: Well and now, my head…
R: Should I go now? Are you tired?
Ms Hana: I don’t mind your presence, you can stay here, if you want.
Several times Ms Hana mentioned how sick she feels. It could be under-
stood as a sign of resignation, but through all these references there was a
considerable interest in the events all around her. In a certain phase of
the interview, Ms Hana indicated that she was tired. I think it could have
been – minutes after the beginning. However, she wanted to continue
for another minutes. She was further interested in the interview. Later,
she suggested I should go. (Field notes, May )
As researchers, we were concerned about the everyday life of the seniors
but we did not come to provide direct care for their needs. However, in
some cases it was natural that during the interview we helped the bed-
ridden research participants to sit up, as was frequently the case with Ms
Jana and Ms Jaroslava, or to hand them objects that they needed during
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the visit, etc.Ourrole of supporter entered into the interview itself, most clearly
in the case of Ms Sofie. The beginning of the third interview was marked by
her hospitalisation, during which her legs became so weak she was hardly
able to walk after returning from the hospital. This change was so key to
her that it was practically impossible to speak of anything else. In the follow-
ing excerpt, Ms Sofie expressed her sadness that the rehabilitation nurse did
not arrive to take her out for a walk, and that she feared walking by herself.
R: Last time we met, you said that exercise makes you happy.
Ms Sofie: Well, maybe with the rehab, if she comes. Today, she was supposed to
come but she did not come again. They probably had something import-
ant, they still have some seminars or workshops, so she does not have time
for me. (silence) Lately, there was even a nurse, a student, she has just
started to study and she promised me that she will come at eight and
we will go for a walk together. But she did not come, either.
R: Hm. And you planned to go.
Ms Sofie: Yeah, with someone who could hold me when I faint. You know, my head
is really spinning around, so I’m spinning too. I feel dizzy and fall back-
wards, I always fall backwards. I fall on my back and then that’s bad.
The topic of immobility and desire to walk with accompaniment was so
strongly articulated that the interview took place only after the researcher
promised to take the research participant for a walk after the interview (see
the interview excerpt, below). It was natural to take the woman out for a
walk after we finished the interview, both for Ms Sofie, whose everyday life
is characterised by relationships based on care and help, and for the
researcher, as well, who was maintaining reciprocity in the research relation-
ship. On the other hand, this decision raised a host of questions and poten-
tial dangers. Ms Sofie lives in an institution where relationships are formed
according to certain rules, which should be respected. Given Ms Sofie’s
history of falling and the difficult physical and psychological consequences,
the decision to help her with walking rehabilitation was risky. If she had
fallen again and injured herself, not only would her health have worsened
but the event would have put the researcher in the difficult position of
having to justify the decision with the care personnel. Furthermore, the
researcher would have to come to terms with the harm done to the inter-
viewee during her research visit, the purpose of which was not rehabilitation.
R: You mentioned that when you had a broken arm the hygiene with the
help of others was not pleasant for you.
Ms Sofie: Yes. And now it’s almost the same situation. I do not know what I did with
my feet, I do not know at all. I cannot even stand up…(silence)
R: Well, maybe you just did not use them during those weeks in the hospital.
Ms Sofie: Probably.
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R: Now, they maybe need movement …Hm.
Ms Sofie: They all say that it will be better and I will start moving again. All the
nurses tell me that.
R: And you believe in that. (silence)
Ms Sofie: I believe so. You know, yeah, I believe in it, I cannot believe, I must move.
(silence)
R: (silence) When we finish with the interview, we can try to go for a walk if
you want.
Ms Sofie: Okay.
R: And if we could not do it ourselves, I would call someone who could pos-
sibly help us so we would not fall.
Ms Sofie: Well, okay.
R: Let’s try. All right. And now, I would like to ask more about relationships
and some important people in your current life.
This excerpt illustrates the ways in which physical asymmetry between the
researcher and research participant affects the interview process, and in fact
the entire visit of the researcher with the participant. This is due not only to
the fact that one is able-bodied while the other is infirm and often frail, but
also because this state is mostly irreversible. One aspect of communication
within many relationships is that one side complains about their state of
health and expects reassurances from the other that ‘it will get better’,
‘you’ll do better again’or ‘you’ll be all fit again’. Even though these words
were mostly spoken rarely and rather ‘informally’at the end of the research
meetings (e.g. when leaving and saying goodbye, when a participant was
visited by all the researchers), they were part of our research relationship
and we reflected upon them. Such reassurance of possible improvement
was a kind of imperative of the mutual contact, despite the fact that as
researchers we lacked knowledge that would allow us to make such state-
ments responsibly. We knew that the physical state of the respondents
might not improve. However, as part of our role as supporter, which natur-
ally fit into other care relationships already fulfilling this need, we were
expected to give such assurances. We reflected regularly upon this aspect
of our role during our research team meetings, which in this respect func-
tioned as self-reflection of ethical issues and helped us to step back from
this situation.
Social asymmetries: researcher as a social world provider
In our interviews, we asked about the ‘significant others’in the current lives
of our participants. We encountered stories about relationships with neigh-
bours in the nursing homes, which were very often based on mutual help,
and about relatives coming to visit the participants. Very often these
stories revealed the quite weak social networks or limited repertoire of
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topics for discussion. Right after a few minutes of the first interview, Ms Sofie
told us about how she and her neighbours in the house chatted mostly about
diseases and new experiences from the doctor’s visits. She said: ‘Yeah, yeah,
we talk about that, about some illnesses, yeah, no one talks about anything
but illnesses, for goodness sakes’. Her reflection of contact within the insti-
tution indicates a limited number of topics and opportunities for creating
new social links. During her third interview, Ms Tereza replied in a
similar spirit to our question about her current contact with people.
Ms Tereza: But can I tell you something? Just between the two of us.
R: Hm.
Ms Tereza: I like chatting with you, normal people, because with the people here,
it’s just not possible, really.
The testimonies of these participants demonstrate the character of their
interpersonal relations and social networks. For most of the research parti-
cipants, we were not ‘ordinary people’but rather special visitors from the
‘outside’world. This circumstance alone created asymmetries in our rela-
tionship, at least in three core conditions: ritualisation of the visit,
confiding of secrets by the research participants, and gaining information
about the social world and life through the researcher. We approached
these situations by adopting the role of social world provider that included the
role of welcomed visitors.
We were in the role of ‘welcomed visitors’because our visits were very
often marked by rituals, turning them into social events in the lives of the
participants. They welcomed us into their households with joy and with con-
siderable preparation. Mr Martin, a -year-old man whose disability incapa-
citated him from an independent life, invested energy into preparing his
household for a ‘celebratory’event on the day of the visit, as did many
other participants. Activities that required the help of another, such as
buying cookies and making tea, were delegated, prior to our visit, to his wife.
We sat first in the kitchen and then in the large and pleasant living room
with a big table and prepared tea, coffee, cakes and plates. I felt like a
welcome visitor. After the interview, I asked who had prepared it all. The
wife of my participant disclosed the fact that her husband had been
getting ready for the interview from early morning and had asked her to
prepare a treat. In the morning, he tried to clean everything up. Later, he
brought the plates to the table himself. (Field notes, October )
Ms Tereza approached our visits in a similar way to Mr Martin, making
refreshments before each visit and insisting on sharing a cup of coffee
with the researcher after the interview, which she prepared herself, while
using a walker. These examples show how special the researchers’visits
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were to our interviewees, and can be also interpreted as an indicator of the
infrequency of social contact.
In some cases, the relationship with the researchers represented a special
opportunity for our participants to share stories about an important experi-
ence or to unburden themselves of ‘secrets’. We were thus welcomed as the
‘confidants’from the outside world who would listen to news as well as per-
sonal secrets that would remain safe. These secrets concerned, for example,
‘forbidden’beer drinking, smoking, eating sweets and breaking dietary
rules, as well as more serious issues regarding the participants’health.
One interviewee confided health problems to us that she had managed to
keep from her family and care-giving personnel: ‘No, I didn’t keep the pyor-
rhoea as a secret but I do keep both the back and the falls as secrets from the
doctors, nurses and the family. I was hiding my back in front of my doctor.
That’s me. I’m a rascal’. She mentioned multiple falls that she did not dis-
close to anyone, so as to not cause them any worries. Such private revelations
put us in an unusual position vis-à-vis the caring network, since the respon-
dents had confided important and sensitive information.
The second interview with Ms Sofie began with an extensive description of
a recent event, in which she was able to leave home after a long time and was
able to see a spring meadow full of flowers, nature and strangers, an experi-
ence that was similar to her lifelong experiences from living in a secluded
area near a village. Apparently, this participant had been waiting for some-
body with whom she could share her experiences. For her, the research rela-
tionship represented primarily a way of having ‘normal human contact’.
During our research, we noticed that in Ms Sofie’sflat there was a list of
various care duties with appropriate codes assigned. The codes, as we
later learned, represented the amount of money charged for the care or
duty performed. The duties included, to our surprise, conversation, billed
by the minute. The need for natural and spontaneous contact outside the
existing network of formal caring relationships was also sought in the inter-
actions with the researcher.
Through the role of social world provider, the researcher was further
expected to provide selected information of interest to research participants
that they could not otherwise access to due to their age and age-related lim-
itations. Such information included, for example, social and cultural topics,
the state of nature in particular places and questions about the private lives
of the researchers. We reflected upon these situations as a consequence of
the role imbalance between the researcher and the participants. Many
times, we were expected to talk about our private lives, e.g. holiday plans,
experiences during the weekends or family plans. Our talking gave them,
it appears, the vicarious experience of someone else’s life, another world
and another story. Ms Tereza, for instance, longed to know how particular
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mountains and cottages look now, as she knew she would never see them
again. In another case, Ms Viktorie, an -year-old woman with limited
mobility after surgery and paralysis of the lower limbs, showed determined
interest in our family situation.
Ms Viktorie: And how do you telephone with your man when he lives abroad?
R: Hm, there’s a program called Skype.
Ms Vikorie: Yeah, I heard something about it.
R: Well, Skype is part of my phone …And when I’m at home, I have a Wi-
Fi connection. I think that Wi-Fi is also here in the nursing home, isn’t
it?
Ms Viktorie: I think there is Wi-Fi here. They were forcing me to learn how to use it
(laughing). My daughter can control that machine. And my sister too
and she makes me go up somewhere and get connected to it. She wants
to teach me that (laughing).
We accepted the role of social world providers within our research rela-
tionships, as we deemed it important for our interviewees. Therefore, the
visits to participants often took the form of a mutual exchange of informa-
tion in some phases. For our participants, most of the ‘normal human
contact’was mediated through care-givers and visitors. As researchers, in
some cases, we represented an opportunity to experience a special visit
and an opportunity to relive or get to know something new under
unusual social conditions. These social asymmetries framed our research
interactions and shaped the content of the interviews.
According to our research experience, taking these cognitive, physical and
social dimensions of age asymmetries into account was a necessary step when
conducting research with people with acquired impairment in later life.
These power imbalances based on age constituted age relations between
researchers and research participants and, in their presence, we approached
the research relationship through the roles played vis-à-vis the participants.
However, research interactions are but one particular setting for emerging of
these power imbalances based on age. Our analysis therefore invites the
reader to reflect upon the emerging age asymmetries that might be
enacted and produced through a variety of everyday life situations and
other forms of interactions with older people with acquired impairment.
Discussion
In current social gerontological research, the majority of findings on older
people living in conditions of acquired impairment rely on proxy accounts,
usually provided by care-givers. Only a small fraction of studies reported
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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research conducted with these individuals and not just about them. Based on
the knowledge of age relations (Calasanti and Slevin ; King ;
Krekula ) and drawing upon our own research experience, this
article aimed to deepen the understanding of age relations in research prac-
tice. The article presents the conceptualisation of power asymmetries based
on age that appear in the research relationship between young able-bodied
researchers and research participants with acquired impairments in later
life. Further, the article aimed to show that age asymmetries, and the result-
ing challenges within the research relationship, are an important source of
data about vulnerable older individuals whose lives are qualitatively differ-
ent from those of the third age and who have thus far received inadequate
research attention.
Like many other researchers in the field (e.g. Grenier ; Lloyd et al.
; Nicholson et al.,; Tarrant ), we recognise that con-
ducting research with this specific group of participants is beset by various
challenges. Conducting research with individuals with acquired impair-
ments in later life is demanding, even psychologically. Some interviews
brought us face to face with ‘difficult’topics such as chronic illness, loneli-
ness, disability and even death, as well as fear and helplessness. In addition,
the research presented logistical challenges, because as researchers we had
to put forth large amounts of energy, time and creativity to adjust to unpre-
dictable situations, with specific and rather unsatisfying results in particular
situations (e.g. the transcription of short or incomplete answers from some
interviewees). Finally, such research requires sometimes challenging nego-
tiations of the age differences and the flexible management of roles. The
reflection upon all these experiences led us to the decision to approach
these research challenges differently and pay attention to age asymmetries
within the research relationship.
We consider the difficulties of conducting research with older adults
living with acquired impairments not to be the result of their health and
social conditions but rather to be an outcome of what we call age asymmet-
ries between researchers and research participants. We aspire to reverse this
logic by showing that the asymmetry is not in the age itself, but in the inter-
action between researchers and participants during which age positioning is
negotiated. From this point of view, we should not therefore ask just why it is
difficult for us, as researchers, to approach these people, but at the same
time also why it is difficult for them to participate in our research and to
speak with us within the research relationship.
In this article, we argue for reflecting upon the net of age asymmetries
during the process of data collection and data analysis, and see these asym-
metries as co-existing with other forms of power imbalances between
researchers and participants. We further stress that age asymmetries tend
Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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to come to the fore within the interactions (including research relation-
ships) with those older individuals with age-related and permanent impair-
ments. Here the asymmetries, negotiated and reproduced during the
research process, do not lead to stereotyping older impaired people, but
rather they invite younger, able-bodied researchers to seek opportunities
to come closer to the participants’lived reality. The researcher and the
research participant enter the research process in two distinct phases of
the lifecourse. Within such a relationship, there is an interplay between
the differences in the researcher’s and participant’s ages, knowledge and
personal experiences, health status and dispositions within their repertoire
of social roles. Each of them has different life experiences as well as different
physical, cognitive, and social abilities and limitations, all of which interact
during the research process. The constellations of these asymmetries then
enter the mutual research relationship and the related roles of the
researcher and the participant.
Reflecting upon our own research experience, we assume that cognitive
asymmetries may manifest in the researcher’s role of a message facilitator
who helps the participant to access, recall and articulate a certain type of
knowledge or information. Physical asymmetries result in the creation of
two roles: that of the supporter (the researcher) and the one who is being
helped (the research participant), which is an example of the caring rela-
tionship that the fourth age intrinsically constitutes and forms (Gilleard
and Higgs :). Finally, social asymmetries crystallise at the
moment when the researcher (a carrier of social capital and opportunities
for social roles, social contact and participation in social networks) meets
the research participant, whose options to mobilise social networks are
limited and who is prone to experiencing solitude, loneliness or feelings
of abandonment. In this case, the researcher becomes a social world provider.
Different dimensions of age asymmetries appear in varied ways in each
research relationship: sometimes the physical dimension becomes salient
and the social dimension is less relevant, while in other cases it can be the
other way around. These dimensions do not exist per se; rather, they are
strengthened or weakened during the research process. From our experi-
ence, there are at least two reasons to address age asymmetries: first, reflect-
ing upon age asymmetries helps researchers to avoid othering older
research participants and prevents us from marginalising their life experi-
ences; and second, the negotiation of age distinctions in the research
process is a dynamic process and we argue in favour of looking at how lim-
itations as well as potentials on both sides are in play. Then the research
process itself serves as a source of data about these older individuals with
acquired impairments, as a collection of event-generating relationships
and roles which must be carefully analysed.
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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In this article, we have sought to show that research with people with
acquired impairments in their later years is possible and important, and
results in valuable knowledge. We agree that it is an adventurous and some-
times challenging road. This road, however, leads to greater understanding
of neglected and feared parts of the human experience. This article calls for
transparent reflection and addressing possibly emerged age asymmetries
within research relationships, which from our point of view represents a
way to be closer to specific research participants in old age by maintaining
an equal research relationship. We argue that this approach may support
further research with vulnerable people in advanced age. Our hope is
that this article will encourage and assist researchers to use qualitative
research methods to explore the experiences of ageing individuals, particu-
larly those in unique cognitive, physical and social conditions. Some of these
ideas could also apply to older researchers working with children, or indeed
any research that involves research across different ages.
Acknowledgements
This paper was created as a part of the research project ‘Fourth Age: The Identity of
Disability During the Period of Active Ageing’supported by the Czech Science
Foundation (GA-S). Financial sponsors played no role in the design, execu-
tion, analysis and interpretation of data. At the time of project realisation, Ethics
Committee approval was not required. Both authors contributed to the preparation
of the manuscript and approved the final version of the text; the first author contrib-
uted to the data collection and both authors contributed to the data analysis. The
authors certify that there is no financial or other relationship that might be per-
ceived as leading to a conflict of interest (i.e. affecting the authors’objectivity).
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Tatiana Sedláková and Adéla Souralová
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Accepted August
Address for correspondence :
Tatiana Sedláková,
Office for Population Studies,
Faculty of Social Studies,
Masaryk University,
Joštova ,
Brno, Czech Republic
E-mail: t.sedlakova@gmail.com
Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship
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