Abstract

OSORIO-PARRAGUEZ, Paulina; NAVARRETE, Ignacia  and  BRIONES, Samuel. An ethnographic approach to agency manifestations in nonagenarians and centenarians in Chile. Etnográfica [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.3, pp.673-692. ISSN 0873-6561.  https://doi.org/10.4000/etnografica.7400.

This paper presents the results of an ethnographic research aimed to study agency manifestations of nonagenarians and centenarians in their process and experience of advanced aging. Agency particularities of longevity are addressed in contexts that shape the aging experience of subjects. The working hypothesis has been that by producing deep qualitative data about the lives of people living in the fourth age, a series of agency manifestations emerge that show that this capacity is not reduced/lost, but rather is transformed in various ways that are specific to this moment of the life course. The research is of descriptive-explanatory nature and is framed within a qualitative-inductive approach of data production and analysis. The methodological strategy put emphasis on direct observation and conduction of in-depth interviews. Ethnographic visits were made to nonagenarians and centenarians in rural and urban areas of Chile. The agency manifestations identified in this article generate actions in four different domains: mobilization; to do/not-to do; resist position; and normalize position. The results show that there is not necessarily a relationship between the deterioration of physical and functional capacities and the reduction/loss of agency. The context of social relations and the various structural positions acquired by older people inhibits or constrains the manifestations of agency in the fourth age.

Keywords : ethnography; nonagenarians; centenarians; agency; fourth age; longevity.

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