Graying Siblinghood - A Sociological Study of Siblinghood in Late Adulthood - Dana Sýkorová

This monograph provides insight into the thus far sociologically neglected issue of siblinghood in older adulthood. The authors answer questions about the meaning of siblinghood through qualitative research conducted in the Czech context, which included nearly one hundred individual interviews and several focus groups with older men and women who have at least one living sibling.
The sibling bond is viewed in the book through the lens of a relationist approach. Within this theoretical framework, siblinghood, as well as the family, are conceptualized as shared practices - activities, or all kinds of interaction between siblings and among members of their extended family. By means of these practices, and according to specific in interaction negotiated rules, siblinghood or family are "doing”. The authors also use the potential of the concept of ambivalence as a framework for interpreting research outcomes.
The authors focus on topics that "emerged from the data”, including the availability of siblings in later life as a source of support; older siblings within the complex structure of family relationships; implications of siblinghood-in-law for doing siblinghood; siblinghood in life crises such as widowhood, divorce and illness; contradictions and conflicts in sibling relationships. They present an understanding of not only siblinghood in older age, but also its changes across the life course. At the end of the monograph, a "story” of late-life siblinghood, i.
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