How can we understand the phenomenon of senior camps and its activities?

• Senior camps for as a summerstay or resort have been established on several places in Sweden. These camps build on notions of what it means to age and to ”be elderly” in relation to activity, health, functional abilities and participation in society. In a cross-scientific and holistic study at CASE, Lund university these senior camps have been studied from three perspectives 1) History of ideas. What is the cultural meaning of senior camps? 2) Ethnology: how is age made visible and important at senior camps? 3) Occupational Science: What are the individual social and health aspects of the senior camp? In this presentation we focus on the results from part study 1. The data consists of texts concerning senior camps as well as interviews with directors for the senior camps. The camps are pictured as places where “elderly people almost become children again”. Simultaneously these camps are inprinted with nostalgic ideas of “Swedishnes” and “The good Old Age”. What structural and ideological values are made visible in these utterances and activities? We will discuss the contextual and ideological conditions for senior camps in Sweden and their relations to the historical heritage to other forms of summer camps in Sweden. 

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

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