Sociologies (Mar 2014)
Les temps de la vieillesse au Sénégal : le malentendu intergénérationnel
Abstract
Differences between older and younger generations in their views about how old age should be managed appear to be a threat to the effectiveness of care of the elderly in Senegal. These differences seem to reflect a time lag between the younger generation, who believe that they can look after their parents by bringing them to live with them, and their parents, who for their part expect to be able to stay on in their familiar social settings. Access to health care, residence, and professional employment are all domains of the lives of the elderly in which these inter-generational conflicts are taking shape, because of an adherence to distinctly different temporal regimes. This article draws on data from cross-referenced interviews with elderly respondents and in urban and rural households in Senegal to demonstrate the gap between these temporal frameworks of old age, and to explore inter-generational differences in practices of caring for people in old age. The aim is to grasp the reality of the living conditions of older people by focusing on aspects of their vulnerability in the family setting, where the care offered by their children may prove to be inappropriate, or may be experienced as involving social isolation, infantilisation or even mistreatment: and to show how the strategies adopted by older people enable them to draw attention to their situation and to maintain themselves in respectable social positions.
