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Drawing on in-depth interviews with recent movers in over a hundred diverse U.S. households, David Ekerdt analyzes the downsizing process and what it says about the meaning and management of possessions. He details how households approach and accomplish downsizing, exploring the decision-making process and the effectiveness of different strategies. From an expert gerontological perspective, he considers the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social tasks that the process entails and the role of factors such as gender and class on the divestment of things. Ekerdt finds that despite the fatigue and emotional challenges people encounter, afterward they report satisfaction in having completed a downsizing and feel empowerment on the other side of the task. Offering an empathetic and practical look at one of life's major transitions, Downsizing brings forward the voices of elders so that older adults, their families and friends, and practitioners working with older clients can understand and benefit from their experience.
List of contents
Introduction: Not Forever
1. A Convoy of Possessions Across the Life Course
2. With Aging, How Large a Convoy?
3. Moving Calls the Question
4. Contours of Household Disbandment
5. Gifts to Others
6. Selling Possessions
7. Donations and Discards
8. Emotion and Evaluation
9. Advice
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
About the author
David J. Ekerdt is Professor of Sociology and Gerontology at the University of Kansas and president of the Gerontological Society of America (2017–2018). He is the author of Families in Retirement (SAGE 2012), The Experience of Retirement (ILR Press, 2005), and the editor of the Encyclopedia of Aging (Macmillan, 2000).
Summary
Drawing on in-depth interviews with recent movers in over a hundred diverse U.S. households, David Ekerdt analyzes the downsizing process and what it says about the meaning and management of possessions. He details how households approach and accomplish downsizing, exploring the decision-making process and the effectiveness of different strategies.
Additional text
With sociological tools and gerontological insight, David Ekerdt tackles the vexing challenge of household downsizing. Through a thoughtful mixed-methods analysis, he explains how we accumulate and deal with our material convoy—the belongings we acquire—as we age. This book will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered why they have so much stuff and what they are going to do with it.
