Paper short abstract:

This paper presents uncertainty and insecurity in intergenerational relations, especially around care. The insecurities and related (linguistic) strategies are discussed in a linguistic anthropological framework. The analysis is based on observations in a Dutch nursing home and neighborhood centre.

Paper long abstract:

Like other high-income countries, the Netherlands is dealing with greater longevity and its consequences. Predominantly, the focus is on intergenerational pressure, which is perceived as a financial burden and a social problem. A solution is commonly sought in informal care, but as the generational pressure is building upon fewer people, many foresee an unbridgeable strain on intergenerational solidarity (e.g. Goudswaard 2005; van der Horst et al. 2010). The possible demands for care run counter to changes in family relations. Moreover Dutch expectations, values and norms that surround informal care complicate matters; often mentioned are values of independence, refraining from asking or complaining especially in front of one's your children (van der Geest 1998; von Faber 2002). The contradictions between demands of policymakers and the physical demands of older people on the one side and expectations and norms of these same older people and their caregivers on the other, create numerous insecurities and uncertainties that are implicitly and explicitly expressed in intergenerational micro-interactions. In this paper, conceptualizations of care and expectations, assumptions, and negation strategies in asking for care are exposed through a linguistic anthropological framework. I show how linguistic strategies - such as attenuation, self-stereotyping and linguistic self-protection - reflect, manage and can accentuate current relations between generations (Coupland et al. 1988; Fox & Giles 1993). This paper touches upon (implicit) views on age-identity, roles and social status in naturally occurring speech events that were observed in a nursing home and a neighborhood centre.