I would first like to welcome myself to the technological age of blogs. This will be a grand adventure I am sure. I think it is quite fitting that my first online portfolio journal entry will actually be posted on the notes page and not the home page, because, I believe that might just be asking to much out of my technological abilities, and I couldn't figure out how. I will have to ask the blog experts around me.
As a learning journal for my upcoming field experience in India I will be trying to faithfully post at least once a week. This project for me has been a long time coming. Where to pick a starting point is particularly difficult. For this case I will say it began in the Summer of 2009 when I was in Ghana working on a very similar project to what I hope to be doing in India. It started with a half question half statement. It was along the lines of, "You would like India, have you thought of doing a project there?". At this point I have thought a lot about doing a project in Southern India. This blog will be an outlet for some of those thoughts and mostly questions.
I like questions. I really like answering them, but mostly I love asking them. However, I do prefer thought out questions. I am in the process of working out a project question. So far some of my ideas look like this.( In no particular order) 1)What is the lived experience of Aging in Tamil Nadu? 2)How is aging perceived by the aged? (This is very similar to one in fact it might be one re-worded). 3)How is aging viewed within the culture and community? 4) How are the aged cared for? 5) Are there any measures through the community or government that are taking place to assist the aged? All of these questions are pretty similar. I want to make sure that I am not taking on to much for one field visit. I am really interested in the perception of aging from a multi-generational context. I want to learn about the everyday experiences of the aged and how those effect there perceptions of age. I want to also learn how middle age adults feel about getting older as well as how the youth see themselves, their parents and grandparents in relation to aging.
My next step from here is to continue work-shopping my question. I want to take the question and fit it into a research design to get a more extensive understanding of what it might look like on the ground. I also want to continue to search in the literature focused on the region, other studies focusing on multi-generational data collection, and studies done from a phenomenological approach.
Some Project Updates 1/24/11
I wanted to get a few new things posted. I have been working a lot on my question/thesis/purpose. The following are a few of those thoughts and the beginnings of a potential thesis statement and my questions.
Q-What are the perceptions and experiences of aging in Tamil Nadu: a cross-generational study? So this still needs some work on wording choice, but it is the general idea.
Purpose- Here are some reasons for why I am doing this study, and what I am hoping to be able to contribute to academic dialogue.
-To gain further understanding of aging cross-culturally and across generations.
-Learn what the lived experience of aging is. (A phenomenological approach from the perspective of the aged about there experiences with aging).
-How is aging perceived- by aged, middle age, and young adults?
-How do perceptions of aging play into- the experiences of the aged, effect policy, effect societal attitudes and change? (Of course I will never be able to answer this question in three months with my project, but it is a long term research goal).
-How do these things fit with the larger issues of an aging world populations?
-What does it say about youth/society/age/culture?
Thesis/Purpose Statement (very rough draft)
The worlds aging population is rapidly increasing (exact data to be included later). This creates changes for individuals as well as within families, communities, and society. This increase will directly effect health care, economy, and social policy world wide. In India the aged population is expected to reach ( ) by 2025. A rate higher than at any point in modern history. There are many aspects of aging that can and should be studied. This research will focus on a cross-generational understanding of the perceptions and experiences of aging in Tamil Nadu, India.
(As previously mentioned this is rough, but the general idea of what I am interested in focusing on).
