Retiring to Spain : women's narratives of nostalgia, belonging and community / [electronic resource]
Ahmed, Anya,author.
The book offers a critical perspective, challenging positivistic, essentialist definitions of lifestyle migration. We follow the journeys of retired working-class British women as they seek, recreate and construct community in a new context.
RETIRING TO SPAIN; Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface; 1. Retiring to the Costas: British women's narratives of nostalgia, belonging and community; Retiring to the Costas; Introducing the women ; Knowing community and belonging in retirement migration: epistemological and methodological considerations; Part 1: Lives in context; Part 2: Lived experiences; Conclusion: Nostalgia, belonging and community: linking time and space; Part 1. Lives in context; 2. Conceptualising, theorising and narrating retirement migration; Introduction; Conceptualising retirement migration
Theorising retirement migrationNarrating retirement migration; Narrative and plot; Narrative and time; Narrative, identity and positionality; Conducting the research; Analysing narratives; Conclusion; 3. Locating the women: macro, meso and micro contexts ; Introduction; Structural contexts in retirement migration; Positionalities in retirement migration; Gender; Age; Ethnicity; Class; Reflexivity: locating myself in the research ; Conclusion; 4. Boundary spanning and reconstitution: retirement migration and the search for community; Introduction
'Thinking with' community to understand social changeCommunity as 'lost'; Community and different forms of belonging; Conclusion; Part 2. Lived experiences; 5. Leaving the UK: motives, agency and decision-making processes ; Introduction; Retirement migration: why Spain and not elsewhere; 'The call': multiple motivations for migration; The quests' call: biological disruption and everyday adventure time; The call: agency, gender and decision-making in migration; Imagining a dystopic future: retirement in the UK; Feeling marginalised: age and ethnic positionalities; Conclusion
6. Living in Spain: 'idyllisation' and realisationIntroduction; Community idealised; Idyllising Spain; Regaining community and a sense of belonging in Spain; Obstacles to living 'the good life' in Spain; Conclusion; 7. Belonging to networks: reconciling agency and positionalities; Introduction; The 'social scene' in the Costa Blanca; Spending time with partners: an obstacle to overcome?; The ladies' club; The important role of language; Constructing 'Englishness'; Living an English life in Spain: an obstacle or asset?; On not being English: Enid; Othering the Spanish; Conclusion
8. Renegotiating family relationships: managing intimacy from a distanceIntroduction; Grandparenting styles and intergenerational solidarity; Performing grandmother 'identities' through narrative analysis; Negotiating relationships; Conclusion; 9. Locating 'home' and community: the end point of plot movement ; Introduction; Spain as home; Ambivalent feelings about Spain as home; The UK as home; Living betwixt and between; Locating home and community; Conclusion; Conclusion. Nostalgia, belonging and community: linking time and space; Introduction; Place, networks and positionalities
Belonging, community and narrative
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Mar 2022).
The book offers a critical perspective, challenging positivistic, essentialist definitions of lifestyle migration. We follow the journeys of retired working-class British women as they seek, recreate and construct community in a new context.
Retirement, Places of
Retirees
Retired women