Conference Day 3: Gender, Age, Intergenerationality (3A)

Bridge Research with Older People and in Schools

Dr Marek Malysa, Bridge to the People Foundation, Poland

The Bridge to the People Foundation, together with scientists from Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń, carried out pilot research with older residents of nursing homes in 2019 and 2020.

Besides standard activities, we offered them a bridge course and later regular play of the game. Both before intervention and after 20 weeks of bridge, residents were checked with a series of various tests. Results showed much lower depression and significant growth of wellbeing. The main research will commence later this year once the COVID lockdown is over.

The same team is studying the effects of a year-long bridge course we applied to pupils in 38 schools in Poland. Data are still coming in so the conclusions and the main research plan for the period 2021-2022 will be presented during the conference.

Between Loneliness and Connection: Older Adults’ Leisure during a Pandemic

Dr Miriam Snellgrove, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling; Professor Samantha Punch, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling

From the end of March 2020, a national lockdown was announced in the UK. All businesses, schools and hospitality venues shut down, with only a category of ‘essential worker’ allowed to continue operating in a face-to-face capacity. With the majority of people sequestered indoors, digital spaces for work, socialising and leisure became part of the ‘new normal’. Through diary data collected during the first lockdown and beyond, this paper explores how older adults’ leisure was impacted due to the pandemic. Using the case study of bridge, we show how the move to online bridge was a social lifeline for many older people, cut off from regular contact with family, friends, and their local bridge club. For other participants, the move online was difficult, fraught with issues around using a new technology and fundamentally, no substitute for face-to-face bridge play. Despite these issues, online bridge has boomed during the various lockdowns, and national bridge organisations recognise that online bridge is here to stay in a (post) Covid world. This paper shows the ways in which online bridge is interconnected with other aspects of participants lives, thereby eschewing any easy distinction between online and offline worlds. Alongside this, we demonstrate how participants articulate online bridge as enabling connections across the globe, region and neighbourhood whilst also missing the feel of cards, the smell of bridge clubs and the chatter before and after games. This paper reveals the processes, practices and narratives older adults engage in to maintain a much-loved leisure activity during a pandemic. It further reveals the important role technology plays in enabling leisure activities to be continued and developed in a time of serious health risk to older generations.

Keywords: bridge, pandemic, online/offline, older people, diary data

There’s a bit of a ripple-effect: A social identity perspective on the role of third-places and ageing in place

Polly Fong, PhD researcher; Professor Catherine Haslam; Dr Tegan Cruwys; Professor S. A. Haslam

This case study examines a well-functioning medium-sized bridge club in Australia. Using a social identity approach, it explores when and why older adults engage with community spaces, such as bridge clubs. The bridge club in question is located in a Council-owned community centre in a suburb of a major city. The clubhouse’s physical environment is not well suited to the needs of the bridge club as it comprises three small rooms and has limited capacity to accommodate their 400 active members. However, despite its restrictive environment, the club has been regularly attended by 70-100 players daily in pre-COVID19 times. In 2018 we conducted focus-group interviews with 31 members of the bridge club, whose average age was 71 years old, to gain a better understanding of how club attendance contributed to a sense of wellbeing and perceived ability to age well in place. Three key results of thematic analysis appeared to show that (a) the social and physical context can be facilitative or restrictive of participation, (b) the bridge club supports social identities of bridge players, club members and locals, and (c) bridge clubs can serve to ‘bridge’ into the wider community.

Mind Sports in Competition: Globalisation and Socio-political Influence at the Local Level – the Case of Bridge

Jose Julio Curado, Global Studies, Open University of Portugal

In the context of globalisation, games and sports – as congregating and bonding cultural elements – contribute to the existence of a global culture. Sports are an excellent medium for cultural and political influence, on account of their popularity and quick expansion. Even better for this purpose are Mind Sports, which are less circumscribed by gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and physique. Among Mind Sports, bridge may have an advantage in terms of promoting society-transforming policies, owing to some of its intrinsic characteristics: it is simultaneously competitive and cooperative; it requires decision-making on the basis of incomplete information, which promotes the development of initiative and is hence a great tool for empowering girls and young women (especially in places where they are not encouraged in these attributes); it combines reasoning with social skills, with great benefits to the immune system, autonomy and wellbeing, especially in the elderly population. Could, therefore, bridge be an interesting way to promote a more inclusive, fair, and cohesive society, and at the same time increase longevity and social wellbeing? Tracking recent lines of investigation in the fields of the Sociology of Mind Sports and Bridge Sociology may help to answer such questions.

Building bridges: developing community and linking the intergenerational gap through contract bridge

Chris Panagiotaros, PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences Western Sydney University

There has been a fracturing of relationships around the world – and loneliness continues to grow at prodigious rates. This breakdown of community is having distressing effects on our health and wellbeing. Social work, with its sound understanding of community development and grass-roots action, can play a pivotal role in restoring community connection. This involves a multiplicity of narratives with the prospect of developing new ways of being. Contract bridge is one avenue the profession can utilise. Bridge is a popular trick taking card game played in partnerships using a combination of short- and long-term memory. Partnership adds a collective element to the game where players work together to solve complex problems. The demographic of bridge players is overwhelmingly older people. Although, this article postulates that bridge can be taught to young people with positive communal implications. Linking the intergenerational gap through a shared activity is an endeavour that can create reciprocal benefits for both populations. The article will explore this idea through an auto-ethnography approach and semi-structured, in-depth interviews with three professional Australian bridge players. The data will be subsequently analysed using a thematic analysis. Alongside the joys of incremental improvement and deep concentration, bridge provides an exciting opportunity for social work to foster cohesiveness, reduce isolationism and restore community.