Ageing bodies, technological shifts - retired fire fighters and the embodied implications of instrumental development by Jennie Olofsson

Ageing bodies, technological shifts – retired fire fighters and the embodied implications of instrumental development.
[email_address]
www.ltu.se

MSB (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency)
coordinates the structure for the Swedish civil emergency planning. ”The task of the MSB is to enhance and support societal capacities for preparedness for and prevention of emergencies and crises.”
is divided into three agencies of which the Swedish Rescue Agency is one.
For more information, please visit http://www.msb.se/en/About-MSB/

The project Gender and Rescue Service
takes place in collaboration with the Swedish Rescue Agency.
engages around twenty researchers from four universities in Sweden
is estimated to run between the years of 2010 and 2013
The purpose is to change the working conditions within the Swedish rescue services, from male dominated working sites to more gender equal organizations that mirror socety in large.

” The MSB is pushing forward and supporting municipalities in their efforts to increase the number of women in local fire brigades, as well as the number of individuals of a non-Nordic ethnicity. Currently only a couple of percent of Swedish firefighters are women, and even fewer are of non-Nordic ethnicity.”
http://www.msb.se/Upload/English/About_MSB_fact/Development%20of%20equality%20and%20diversity%20in%20municipal%20fire%20brigades.pdf.pdf

The research proposals
Generational discrepancies among fire fighters are pivotal in order to understand the pofession as labelled male.
Ageing is a socio-material ( Østerberg 1998) process.

A contradictory breeding ground
Age is a negation of masculinity (Thompson 1994)
Age, at least when it comes to men, is often equated to experience, growth and maturity (Sandberg 2007)

The current proposal
Processes of ageing at once frustrate and endorse constructions of masculinity

Collection of empirical material
Interviews with retired fire fighters in the city of Luleå (the veterans of the local fire brigade)
Participation in the weekly gatherings of my informants.

Conveying masculinity - story telling and comemoration
Through acts of story telling the retired fire fighters conflated age and experience, which in turn allowed them to enjoy a crucial position at the local fire brigade despite the fact that they were no longer active as fire fighters

Technological use
1950
Ladders equipped with manual cranks
Manual water pumps
Fire engines equipped with 80 – 90 HP
2000
Hydraulic ladders
GPS
Fire engines equipped with 400 HP, automatic transmissions and power-assisted steering

The generational differences within the fire brigade of Luleå are intimately linked to utility of professional equipment.
Adequate use of technology serves to conflate age and experience

Continued inqueries:
to further explore the ways in which my informants’ position as experienced fire fighters is upheld as they get older.
to specifically attend to how age, the use of tools and spatial occupation is crucial in order to retain (or attain) the position as an experienced fire fighter.

Ageing bodies, technological shifts - retired fire fighters and the embodied implications of instrumental development by Jennie Olofsson

by British Sociological Association on Aug 04, 2010

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Ageing bodies, technological shifts - retired fire fighters and the embodied implications of instrumental development by Jennie Olofsson — Presentation Transcript