A place to transform: creating caring spaces by challenging normativity and identity

Like all spaces, concrete caring places both shape and are shaped by understandings and constructions of normativity and identity. The traditional understanding of care for older people, imagining clearly demarcated dyadic roles, is firmly embedded in heterosexual logics of relationships within families, the own (family) home and institutional support. Social and residential places for older people thus both assume particular gender and sexual identities and contribute to a (re)production of the very normativity. But how can this interlinkage between the construction of caring spaces and the normativity of identities be understood and, possibly, challenged? In this article we discuss the transformative potential of the social (and partly residential) space of La Fundación 26 de Diciembre, in Madrid, Spain, which opened up to specifically support older LGBT people. Drawing on an in-depth case study we explore a space that allows visibility of different forms of living and caring practices of people with different genders, sexual preferences, origins, classes or political backgrounds. Through the daily life narratives of the people who work, volunteer or simply use the centre we discuss the potential of challenging the restricted notions, assumptions and constructions through which particular places gain both social and political meaning. The article highlights the transformative power of the active and collective making of caring spaces through which narratives of care, collective sexual and gender recognition and practices of caring relationships can replace both traditional/informal forms of living together and institutional spaces that provide professional care.     

The futures of ethnic groups in the Russian Federation

The changes, sometimes dramatic, in the size and structure of the ethnic groups of the Russian Federation (RF) raise questions about their possible futures. The paper presents simulations of how ethnic groups of the RF could develop in the future and discusses the demographic aspects of the predicted changes. The simulations cover a 25-year period, from 1 January 2011 to 1 January 2036 and were prepared for the 22 most numerous ethnic groups using a multistate cohort-component population dynamics model. To prepare the assumptions for the simulations, ethnicity-specific data (no longer collected) on fertility, mortality, and international migration were used. The results indicate that in the coming 20 years Russia will face numerous challenges related to the changes in the size, age structure, and ethnic composition of its population. The population of the RF will age and, except in the “Modernization” scenario, will shrink. Non-Slavic and Muslim populations will increase their share in the total population at the expense of Slavic and Orthodox ethnic groups and will age more slowly.     

丝绸的老化及保护剂的筛选

讨论了光和热对丝绸老化的影响。结果表明,光比热对丝绸之染料的影响大得多;随着辐照时间的增加,丝纤维强度降低曲线呈典型的动力学反应特征。通过抗张强度、白度等测试,对保护剂进行了筛选。     

老龄人口旅游空间行为特征及其对旅游业发展的启示

老龄化人口发展趋势在我国东部地区大中城市日益明显。本文试从人口老龄化角度来探讨老龄人口对旅游业经济收益贡献率的影响,分析旅游企业如何适应老龄化人口发展趋势,及时转变经营观念,调整经营战略,取得更好的旅游收益。     

Probabilistic life-cycle assessment and rehabilitation strategies for deteriorating structures: a case study

When it comes to existing buildings, the estimation of the structural residual bearing capacity is required to evaluate the potential for reuse/conversion. The level of detail and accuracy of surveys dramatically affect structural diagnostics. In order to optimise the experimental survey process, a simulation of the structural life-cycle may be useful.

Based on a previously developed approach of Monte Carlo simulation implemented with a damage law for the life-cycle analysis of newly designed constructions, this paper presents the method application to a historic roof steel structure. It aims to identify critical situations, assess the residual life of the system, and plan possible retrofit strategies for the building conversion.

The case study is a steel frame roof structure of the ex pig abattoir within the complex of the municipal slaughterhouse in Monza (close to Milan, Northern Italy) and protected from the Cultural Heritage Authority. The life-cycle of the structure is here investigated over different stages of the building lifespan along with the damages caused by aging and negligence. The construction was built in 1902, and abandoned in 1984. Therefore, the periods analysed are: from construction to disuse and from disuse to today. The second phase of life, still on going, has significantly sped up the degradation.

The probabilistic evaluation of failure times is discussed and the possible interventions scenarios in terms of costs, and after-maintenance reliability and safety are investigated.     

多尺度下中国人口老龄化风险集群的时空格局——Flexible空间扫描计量方法的应用

运用Flexible空间扫描计量方法,对比分析了省、市和县域尺度上的老龄化风险集群的时空格局。发现：老龄化成为全国人口结构转型的主旋律,少子化成为新常态,老龄化区域非均衡加剧,并存多种区域模式;三种尺度识别出的风险集群都集中分布于东南半壁;集群的风险程度与地域范围随时间不断扩大,但集群间的风险差异趋于缩小。总体而言,尺度越小,识别出的集群分布越分散,定位越精确,风险越高,差异越大。针对不同地区的人口-经济发展情况,提出保障生育,发展养老产业,基本公共服务均等化,就地、近城镇化等的老龄化风险应对策略。     

(Sick) Love and the Older Woman in Marcel Prévost's L’Automne d’une femme

Marcel Prévost, a prolific novelist, journalist, and academician, is best known for works such as Les Demi-Vierges (1894), which demonstrates how Parisian society and education corrupt young women, and Les Vierges fortes (1900), which, according to Louise Lyle, “develop[s] the concept of the secular, self-perpetuating community of female educators only to explode it as an empty ideal” (60). In his 1893 novel, L’Automne d’une femme, Prévost focuses not on virgins but on the older woman, telling the story of forty-year-old Julie, who has languished for over twenty years in an arranged marriage to Antoine Surgère. Despite having the natural ability to ease the suffering of others, Julie shows no interest in nursing her husband when he falls ill, though she eagerly cares for the daughter of one of his colleagues, Claire Esquier, and the son of another associate, Maurice Artoy, who is all too eager to reciprocate when Julie's feelings for him become something more than maternal. Unbeknownst to Julie, however, Maurice and Claire once dabbled in a youthful romance that neither forgot. The glue that holds this tangled web of relationships together is illness, a theme so pervasive that the verb souffrir and its derivatives are employed no fewer than 137 times, along with myriad other terms related to pain. Prévost's creation of a veritable culture of illness in which love cannot possibly flourish for the woman in her “autumn” might be said, in fact, to feed into the Decadent vision of woman as dangerous and corrupting.     

Snowbirds and snowflakes: Mobility and aging across the Canada-United States border

Changes brought about by globalization such as the growth of the travel industry and increasing interconnectivity between places have opened up new lifestyle options for Canadian retirees. Commonly called “snowbirds,” thousands of Canadian retirees choose to spend their winters in warm destinations outside Canada, with most going to localities in the southern United States. Most snowbirds visit the same place every year and spend many years going back and forth between Canada and their chosen winter destination. Drawing on insights from both life-course theory and the new mobilities paradigm, this paper considers how the cross-border snowbird phenomenon links to wider processes related to aging. Qualitative interviews were conducted with retirees wintering in various communities in southern Florida. The findings of the study highlight the importance of understanding both aging and mobility as processes that intersect in variable ways over time to influence new geographies of aging.