Disruption foreclosed
Older Women's Cancer Narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5138336 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chris Sinding (McMaster University, corresponding author), Jennifer Wiernikowski (McMaster University) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 389-411 |
| Publication date | 2008-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1363459308090055 |
| PMID | 18579634 |
| OpenAlex | W2068871641 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 26 |
A challenge has emerged to Bury's (1982) conceptualization of chronic illness as biographical disruption. The idea that certain life circumstances - notably older age or the presence of significant health and social problems - render the experience of chronic illness biographically `continuous' or `reinforcing' has gained currency in the social study of chronic illness. This article draws from a qualitative study with women diagnosed with cancer in their 70s or 80s. Respondents' narratives suggest that a long life, especially a life characterized by struggle, does provide a context for the assessment of cancer as non-disruptive. However, the study offers evidence that a long life characterized by sufficiency may also be associated with an assessment of cancer as non-disruptive, and that older age and hardship sometimes render chronic illness especially problematic. Centrally, the article examines respondents' oft-cited commitment to avoid `dwelling' on illness, highlighting how broad cultural and moral discourses, patterns of social interaction and structures of power combine to foreclose older women's accounts of disruption
Conceptualization · Currency · Developmental psychology · Health care · Narrative · Political science · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of health and illness · Aging and Gerontology Research · History · Obesity and Health Practices · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Psychology
Modern Symbolic Interaction Theory and Health
Aging and the Body
Art therapy and quality of life among children undergoing stem cell transplantation
Ethnicity and cultural models of recovery from breast cancer
An ‘unholy alliance’ of existential proportions
Narratives of continuity among older people with late stage chronic kidney disease who decline dialysis
Chronic illness as biographical contingency? Young people's experiences of asthma
The sociology of cancer
Shifting normalities
Discussing the effects of prostate cancer beyond biographical disruption and new normalcy
A Nonheroic Cancer Narrative
Surprise Reveals the Affective-Moral Economies in Cancer Illness Narratives
Remaking the Self
You learn to live with all the things that are wrong with you’
Narrative health research
Disrupted lives and threats to identity
Older People's Perceptions of Remaining Physically Active and Living With Chronic Pain
Living Well? Strategies Used by Women Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer
The Role of Self-Management Practices as Mechanisms for Re-Establishing Normality in Cancer Survivors
Living an everyday life with head and neck cancer 2-2.5 years post-diagnosis - A qualitative prospective study of 56 patients
I'm a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical
Embodying health identities
Coming-Around
Personhood, belonging, affect and affliction
Basics of qualitative research
The Quality of Qualitative Research
The NVIVO Qualitative Project Book
The sociology of chronic illness
Active aging—spunky survivorship? Discourses and experiences of the years beyond breast cancer
Feminist participatory action research
Sudden illness and biographical flow in narratives of stroke recovery
Moral Argumentation in Talk about Health and Old Age
The patterning of health by social position in contemporary Britain
I am not the kind of woman who complains of everything
Thinking differently about thinking positive
Turning the tide
Chronic illness as biographical disruption
From biographical disruption to biographical reinforcement
Lay experiences of health and illness
The significance and consequences of having painful and disabled joints in older age
Illness and other assaults on self
Illness narratives
Chronic illness as biographical disruption or biographical disruption as chronic illness? Reflections on a core concept
Illness in the Context of Older Age
Age and Gender in Women's Accounts of Their Health
| Unique citing works | 24 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |