Josien de Klerk
PhD Candidate,
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Social Science Research
Related Interests
My research looks at older people’s (over 60 years of age) experiences of daily life in Kagera Region, Tanzania. It particularly looks at what older people describe as discontinuities and how older people attempt to make or not make continuity. It views older men and women as pragmatic actors who are reacting to what is at stake for them, within their possibilities and limitations. AIDS is seen as a disruption of daily life, a 25-year old disruption, but is explicitly not seen as the only disruption in the lives of older men and women. Therefore the focus of the research is on the experience of being old. Experiences and narratives of loss, and the pragmatics of making continuity are analyzed within a historical and inter-subjective framework.