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This study explores how ‘gatherings’ turn into ‘encounters’ in a virtual world (VW) context. Most communication technologies enable only focused encounters between distributed participants, but in VWs both gatherings and encounters can occur. We present close sequential analysis of moments when after a silent gathering, interaction among participants in a VW is gradually resumed, and also investigate the social actions in the verbal (re-)opening turns. Our findings show that like in face-to-face situations, also in VWs participants often use different types of embodied resources to achieve the transition, rather than rely on verbal means only. However, the transition process in VWs has distinctive characteristics compared to the one in face-to-face situations. We discuss how participants in a VW use virtually embodied pre-beginnings to display what we call encounter-readiness, instead of displaying lack of presence by avatar stillness. The data comprise 40 episodes of video-recorded team interactions in a VW.
Change ahead—emerging life-course transitions as practical accomplishments of growing old(er)
(2019)
With the aging of the "Baby Boomer" cohort, more and more adults are transiting from work into retirement. In public discourse, this development is framed as one of the major challenges of today's welfare societies. To develop social innovations that consider the everyday lives of older people requires a deeper theoretical understanding of the retiring process. In age studies, retiring has been approached from various theoretical perspectives, most prominently disengagement perspectives (retirement as the withdrawal from social roles and responsibilities) and rational choice perspectives (retiring as a rational decision based on incentives and penalties). Whereas, the former have been accused of promoting a deficient image of aging, the latter are criticized for concealing the socially stratified constraints older people experience. This paper proposes a practice-theoretical perspective on retiring, understanding it as a processual, practical accomplishment that involves various social practices, sites, and human, as well as non-human, actors. To exemplify this approach, I draw upon data from the project "Doing Retiring" that follows 30 older adults in Germany from 1 year before to 3 years after retirement. Results depict retiring as a complex process of change, assembled by social practices that are scattered across time, space, and carriers. Practice sequences and constellations differ significantly between older adults who retire expectedly and unexpectedly, for example through sudden job loss or illness. However, even among those who envisaged retiring "on their own terms," the agency to retire was distributed across the network of employers, retirement schemes, colleagues, laws, families, workplaces, bodies and health, and the future retiree themselves. Results identified a distinct set of sequentially organized practices that were temporally and spatially configured. Many study participants expressed an idea about a "right time to retire" embedded in the imagination of a chrononormative life-course, and they often experienced spatio-temporal withdrawal from the workplace (e.g., reduction of working hours) which entailed affective disengagement from work as well. In conclusion, a practice-theoretical perspective supports social innovations that target more than just the retiring individual.
Scholars of institutional design attribute large importance to the choice of new institutions. The comparative analysis of how Rwanda and Zambia crafted their new electoral systems and the systems of government regards procedural, structural and rational choice variables which may influence the option for particular solutions. External influences and the type of transition are determinants that can decide which actors make their interests prevail. The degree of innovation or conservatism of new institutions is mainly a result of the speed of the process and the kind of actors involved. However, rational reflections on how to produce legitimacy and minimize personal risks which take into consideration the state of conflict in the country decide on the speed and on innovative outcomes. The structured analysis of only two cases uncovers already that it is rather difficult to realise the transfer of design recommendations into reality.
Objectives: It is known that transition, as a shift of care, marks a vulnerable phase in the adolescents’ lives with an increased risk for non-adherence and allograft failure. Still, the transition process of adolescents and young adults living with a kidney transplant in Germany is not well defined. The present research aims to assess transition-relevant structures for this group of young people. Special attention is paid to the timing of the process.
Setting: In an observational study, we visited 21 departments of paediatric nephrology in Germany. Participants were doctors (n=19), nurses (n=14) and psychosocial staff (n=16) who were responsible for transition in the relevant centres. Structural elements were surveyed using a short questionnaire. The experiential viewpoint was collected by interviews which were transcribedverbatim before thematic analysis was performed.
Results: This study highlights that professionals working within paediatric nephrology in Germany are well aware of the importance of successful transition. Key elements of transitional care are well understood and mutually agreed on. Nonetheless, implementation within daily routine seems challenging, and the absence of written, structured procedures may hamper successful transition.
Conclusions: While professionals aim for an individual timing of transfer based on medical, social, emotional and structural aspects, rigid regulations on transfer age as given by the relevant health authorities add on to the challenge.
Trial registration: number ISRCTN Registry no 22988897; results (phase I) and pre-results (phase II).