Project information
Grandparent-Grandchild Bonds: Cross-Generation Relations and Everyday Negotiations of Care Commitments

This research project focuses on cross-generation relations and mutual exchange of care
between grandparents and grandchildren through an analysis of care commitments. It
distinguishes three kinds of commitments—normative, family, and individual. The analysis of
caring practices through care commitments provides the framework to investigate experiences and expectations about providing and receiving care, scenarios and incentives to provide care, and the actual practices of care and their negotiations. The research project is interview-based: I will conduct biographical interviews with two groups of two pairs of interviewees: 1) first pair: grandparents, who are primary caregivers for their grandchildren, and these grandchildren, and 2) second pair: adult grandchildren, who provide care for their grandparents, and these grandparents. The project seeks answers to following questions: What is the character of caring relations of grandchildren and grandparents? How is the grandparenthood and grandchildhood defined through caring practices? How are the care commitments constructed?