 Hello there, it's Thursday at noon. I know it is Do you remember our arrangement Thursdays at noon on CFUV Are you ready to get started? What do you have in mind? What I want to do now is called first-person plural You make it sound excessively attractive That's what I have in mind When American news anchor Tom Brokaw wrote about the veterans of World War two as the greatest generation a couple of years ago Many people debated the truth in the word greatest But no one questioned the lumping of people around the same age living within the same cultural boundaries Experiencing similar events in history into a single entity called a generation Demographers study population statistics in order to understand structural factors that affect our everyday lives in particular ways Like our ethnic backgrounds our gender our sexual orientation When we are born affects how we view the world and how we are viewed by the world When people around the same age experience transitions in life around the same time Demographers refer to this as a birth cohort When people in a particular birth cohort are conscious about the life changes They are experiencing together or they begin to be thought of as a group by themselves or others Demographers refer to that experience or thinking as a cohort effect When members of that birth cohort experience major social trends or historical events together It is called a period effect Brokaw asserted that people born between 1910 and 1925 sacrificed and triumphed through World War two from 1939 to 1945 Had common experiences and were of a common good character Brokaw therefore asserted that a certain age cohort after experiencing important period effects became a cohesive group And could safely be thought about as being from a particular group with a particular character This is of course something we do frequently Bobby Soxers who came of age in the prosperous 50s Baby boomers who came of age in the turbulent 60s and 70s Generation Xers who came of age in the greedy 80s Jen wires who have never known life without a personal computer Period effects are the stuff that marketing focus groups and best-selling books are made of But do cohort effects have meaning in our everyday lives? Because some of life's transitions commonly happen around the same age for most people a certain feeling of cohesiveness Occurs when people of the same age meet together and think of themselves as a group To explore how important it is to be sensitive to these social groupings We recently visited the Fairfield activities Center Society at New Horizons in Cook Street Village 27 years ago a group of 15 seniors formed a club in the Fairfield area of Victoria in an effort to connect with other Seniors and have activities together 10 years ago after raising $400,000 mostly from seniors the group helped purchase the building on Cook Street That also houses three stories of condominiums and a home health care organization The Fairfield activities Center holds 26% ownership on the building and relies upon help from the city of Victoria as well as Membership fees and fundraising events to continue in its efforts The organization boasts between 950 and 1050 members each year including 10 of the founding members who remain somewhat active Most of the members come from the Fairfield area But some of the members live as far away as docking at Sydney the center has opened seven days a week and social Educational and recreational activities are offered for older adults including fitness training weight training dancing crafts computer classes group dinners coffee clotches and afternoon teas The facilities are also available for running to other community groups and activities In short the facility is an important landmark in Cook Street Village and an important resource in the Fairfield community and the greater Victoria area We spoke with several members at Fairfield activity center and asked them why it was important to have a place Specifically available to seniors their answer suggested that cohorts feel comfortable with each other That offering a place that caters to their age group was important for their health and well-being More than mere labels people born close to each other find camaraderie with others who are going through the same transitions Such as retirement and the loss of loved ones and friends So go ahead and tell me your names again my name is Charlie Cutler Bill Sanders, okay, Charlie and Bill and how long you've been coming to the center. I Guess I've been going coming to the center for ten and a half years Wow For me, it's about five. Okay. Have you lived in Victoria? During longer than that or is that since you've moved to Victoria? For me it's since I moved to Victoria but 18 years So where are you from from the Niagara Peninsula? Okay, how about you all over Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver Whatever, okay What what kind of activities do you? Come here for what? Specifically, I know you guys are here for the coffee meeting. You can tell me about that a little bit if you want Well, I take please take part in the cribbage That's about all of the cribbage and this I come to other Other functions. Well, we do the dinners to once a month But I come down here periodically to the entertainment they have here Do you come down daily for this coffee thing or is that basically yeah, so this is pretty much how you start your day Yeah How about you? Well, my thoughts are The reason I belong to this center Is that I feel that my volunteer work can do something that's going to be beneficial to my peers. I Don't do it because I enjoy it myself so much as I do the enjoyment I get out of doing it so other people can enjoy themselves so along those lines I was Facilitator for our discussion group for about a year a year and a half. I guess I Decided it was time to let someone else get the experience As bill mentioned we prepare meals. We have a men's group that do the cooking complete complete meal about 70 year I called bingo for the bingo groups Monday afternoons And of course I one of the members of the coffee Clatch Phoning member Well, I get involved in darts, and I like to shoot darts Because my wife enjoys it and quite often they need someone that can keep the score I get involved that way. So how many hours a week do you think you guys hang out here? Two what two hours? No too many I guess I'm down here all Probably ten ten hours a week. Maybe a little less now. I'm um, I used to be on the executive I was on the executive or when we started the center here, and this is building here Well, I enjoy it. Oh, I enjoy the coffee club particularly. I was like Charlie Mean other things I called bingo for a while my I was on the discussion rather on the discussion Good, but ready for a while, but I Don't know you just move on You mentioned something interesting and you're talking about calling bingo and that kind of thing so for you for them It's not just meaningful because it's a place to go, but it's also meaningful because it gives you an opportunity for Service Oh certainly I think that's what all volunteers feel in their hearts really am I doing this because I want to do it Am I getting the enjoyment out of it? And we don't really care about anybody else Volunteers don't think that way am I doing something that someone else is going to benefit from then I'm going to do it That's the way volunteers think what is special about a senior center being a place for seniors to volunteer Do you understand what I mean? No, it's a very vital item for the seniors themselves But a lot of the people that I'm aware of here Contribute here to give something back. They feel they're able to and so you do it. I don't You said you get just what your words were but my mind thinking about Why I do things around here is because I think they need to be done Fortunately, we're still able to do it and it helps the whole group and I think that's the main motivation What do you think are the advantages of having a community center as opposed to just a general a seniors community center as opposed to just the the regular community centers that are open to all ages Why have a special place for seniors? I think seniors have different interests than younger people and you'd have to cater to their interests That's basically that's my thinking. I would say why do you have so many different departments in university rather than just one university where you got to learn? There you go I suppose and certainly as you age You feel more comfortable with people your own age. There is an uncomfortable feeling sometimes being with people who are working or So I think it's You naturally associate with those who have something in common with it would it be fair to say this is kind of a haven Then a place not so much an exclusive club But just a place where you can find peers where you can kind of get away And be around people that have the same interests. I think it's I think it's different. I think that the senior center is Different things to different people there are people here to whom this is a haven This is their chance to to get out there alone. They're there. They get out They do something to actually just be with people others and My case, I think Charlie Sue we have other interests where we're both married and so therefore we still have a Family connection in that sense there I suppose part of it is the fact that I don't think it's relevant maybe but we are we are in different climates in which we work and live And we're all so much of our life Well, thank you. Okay. Anything else you want to add any? No statement you want to make I just I'd like to make one little statement Everyone keep in mind that the seniors are perhaps the most important people in the community Everyone is saying you know the children of the young people there They're the new generation and they're the ones that deserve all of the attention and all of the goodies and all of the perks Because they're going to form the country In the future, but keep in mind that this country was formed by the seniors and We are what we are today because of the seniors So they're pretty important people Don't wipe them out Keep them in mind Thank you. I'm Jack. Jack Humble. Yes, you're in Billy I'm Christine Caithness. Okay, Jack and Christine and how long have you been coming to to the Fairfield Center? Well ever since this one was built We weren't the founding members, but we were members then because they held it in the United Church Okay, that was one place. So that's about 10 11 years ago. This will be our 11th year here You two you came together? My involvement is a lot longer than that. Okay, because I was a social worker for this area And I started the research that is setting up for the senior center. Oh, wow way back in 1973 Goodness You had to have not been a senior in 73. No, I was working as a social okay my office was along in Fairfield Plaza, okay, and I started the two young ladies to do it the search of all of the Go and talk to all of the seniors that they could get into trying to establish the needs of senior and Then from that office, the New Horizons grant came up at that time from that office We started the all roving to get this So when you were Setting that up back then were you doing it so that you knew you'd have a place to come later in life Oh, it was welcome Shelly was the the director You know, she didn't put an executive director. She was the director of the activities and that sort of thing Have you've been in Victoria for a long time then you've lived here? Okay, back to Victoria. I was in the Navy and I came back to Victoria in 1970 Okay, so you've been in Victoria since 1970 and how about you how long have you lived in Victoria? I immigrated here 30 years ago Wow From where England and the West Indies Okay, and you've been you immigrated directly to Victoria. You've been here. Yes all that time What kind of activities do you come to when you come here? What is what's the kind of things that you do while you're here? Well, Jack and I mostly Jack, but we run the sing-along group here. Oh, okay We're the membership of about between 50 and 60 singers. I Run the projector take the money Enter the names and then run the projector. That's the words on the screen and Jack does the conducting We both write out all the songs before they're put on the screen That's what we were doing this morning. Do you either if you play music or do you have like? Pre-recorded music that you play with it. We have a pianist very fine pianist who comes and plays for us. Okay, and she Sees one of our group too. There are four of us actually that are involved Setting the thing up. How often does this happen every week? Oh, this takes us a week to set up the next week But we have a library at the moment of about 1200 songs Wow Sorry, you guys pretty good singers everybody's things along really well. Jack has a lovely voice I'm one of the lead singers and we have three or four other lead singers We put on shows The last one we did was the songs of the big bands. Oh, wow And then we did one before that the best of Broadway the best of my songs from all the Broadway shows And when you put the shows on do people from the community come or is it just for other people in the center? Just for ourselves because okay, we can't do anything for profit in that regard We use the music Yes Gotta give those royalty payments and you're not careful. Yeah, so we do it. It's a non-profit thing. We do it to amuse ourselves Okay, but we we have about 75 or 80 people Wow That's nice think about that many every week or they rotate around. Oh, no, we have it We have about this first set between 50 and 60 every week. They're very faithful Wow How do you think having the senior center affects your life? Does it make it better or worse? Give you some how would you spend in what ways? the friendship the mixing with people Sharing our sorrows when they come Sharing many things together. We're very good friends particularly our group very good friends Were some of the people that your friends with here were your friends with before you came and you came because they were here or have you made Mostly friends after coming here Well, I made those friends after coming here a lot of them have passed on since Situations just a little different there. I'm a member of Fairfield United Church and a lot of the members of this Center belong to that church, so I've known them for years That's the one in the corner of Moss and Fairfield five points. Yeah As far as I agree with Chris in that regard I think that this is an integral part of my life and I I spend time down here. I was down this weekend. I'm down again working on and It's an opportunity to meet people and talk to people Share all sorts of things problems and health problems. I don't think I would ever be a shut-in, but It gets one out and come down and meet other people and into mingle I think it keeps the brain going You're listening to first-person plow on CFUV 101.9 FM Victoria Do you both live close enough that you can walk here? We could if our legs would let us okay? That Jack has me a new problem and I have a circulation problem. Do you park here or do you yes? Yeah, we pay for annual parking here, but we All that does give you a sticker for the car and if you're lucky you'll get in Only have 12 spots. Yeah And what advantages do you think it is to To the community to have a separate Senior center. I mean why have a separate senior center? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having one? The disadvantage of the yeah, either way you're managing disadvantages. I think that Seniors talk better with seniors I think they can discuss. They all seem to have the same sort of problems overall financial health And it gives an opportunity to talk, but it doesn't cut us up from the community I worked for 46 years in scouting as well and I'm very Much aware of the younger population and I think I in the mingle with them very well, too but I think what I enjoy has been able to talk in In my era with the people present and I think that's a great asset to the seniors As far as the the others are concerned in this area. They do not belong here I need they're not members. It's what I mean We do put things on that they come to you know, and and I think that we do serve a very important Responsibility in this area. I know that the facilities are also used by Non-members at times too. Oh, yeah, which is a nice so that just having a building in the The facilities here is an asset I mean nobody slams the door with somebody comes in with that a card in their hand And on the contrary we and also we've been very used from here little things that have happened in the village someone collapses outside here, you know We can help them here too due to this highly qualified and several others have got the industrial first aid and Haven't taken the many thousands of kids out in my time I've done a lot of first aid too. I guess we're scouting that makes sense Well, anything anything you want to add about the center any other Thoughts about it or anything you want to say Now that you got a chance on form here My life would be empty without it. It really would Meeting people Even just this morning when there's hardly anybody there you can always find one person to sit down and talk And that person is happy that you did And we have brought a lot of new people in here, for instance now Somerset House if you probably know is now on the Dallas road and Through going on a bus tour we have encouraged many of those to join We haven't seen them yet, but they I think one has joined the wind to the chief brain Take our music down to Shottings at St. Francis by the sea we go down there and play their Sing and sing and In that way, we're doing We've longed to admit the music group here too, so we go down the music group one time down to St. Francis They only have 12 And we take about five or six and go down and do a signal I love it this place This was my dream. This is what I started off to do in 1973 and so, you know, I'm I'm really I feel as though that I was the instigator Of this and I feel as though it is fulfilling Exactly what I wanted because I always had the dream of having a center that would be totally senior oriented For that reason that they could talk in the same level in the same language and talk about World War two Which wouldn't be very popular in Starbucks Thank you very much. I Definitely appreciate this Well, my name is Mickey Hansen I'm a director here and I'm Gordon Cunningham, and I was on board of directors I just How long have you been coming to the center? What did you start coming down here and has it been continuous attendance or I? started in 1978 when it was at the school over at Moss and Fairfield Road, I came down mostly in those days and Then I had to work and I was away for a few years, but I came back when it opened I'm not sure of the year, but it was when the Center was at the United Church in the basement and We were almost out here in the winter time for four months a year. We joined we thought it'd be a place to play bridge We never got there, but we stayed members then this present premises went up and We were then here full-time We just continued to be members all alone Now we do participate. At least we come here all the time. I hesitated when I said participate because Joyce and I don't really take much in the way of the activities, but we come here to contribute and work as Mickey says Joyce is president and I Worked in the kitchen. Mickey works in the kitchen and You know, it's giving to the community to the community in which we live Gordon and I don't work on we did work on food For some time and then Gordon and the men have a monthly food And I and my late husband and another lady Audrey Satie. We do meals twice a week twice a month, sorry And we feed about 40 to 45 people and I think Gordon feeds a little more How does coming here affect your life? Oh very much so I've been retired close to 25 years and we tried other Centers for retirement. We didn't stumble on Victoria. Joyce's mother and father lived out here And we were Western Canadians originally so we came out here and we discovered that were other communities may Didn't have a heart. They had a golf course We found that Victoria was a community with a heart and with the Volunteer work that we do as Mickey mentioned said the hell in the center here We swim a little bit and one of you there's not we can't go anywhere in victory that we don't see somebody We know and you know that just so darn. I'll tell you a little story and that might be a little bit We pee My husband just died and the people here were so So caring, you know, you couldn't ask they wouldn't say too much to me But they would just come up to me and say give me a hug And that's the way they are here They really care about the other people in the center The amount of people that have formed and Cards and donations that's been one Were you and your husband your husband was member here as long as you yes for many years He did the garden and then they have a gardener do it now And then he and I made sandwiches on Tuesdays and we did the meal twice a month So he was very involved too. What are the advantages of having a community center designated specifically for use by seniors? I actually think that if Somebody would invest them in a proper center. It would be a good thing for the community, but you must remember that Most of our members live in Rooms apartments. They're solitary. They need a place to come at all hours of well all the hours that they're open They don't like to come out in the dark. We've tried that And they like to stay home and it's dark. I didn't play but if you had a facility where The properties that belong to each group could be secured and kept that way They probably could make it work, but until I can be worked out, you know, it's it's it's really just mathematics and physical design We're comfortable with our own room We know that all the things that we use we put them away. They're going to be where we put them that sort of thing and that if that's I think the I have joined communities centers for Different age groups have come and I find that the seniors group seems to be left out of it. It's mostly young families with children and that and It wasn't really a community. It was Individual sort of things. So I find that here at this center we are all one of an age practically and I find that wonderful commodity between the people here If there's anything else you'd like to say now's your big opportunity I'll go ahead Gordon As I told you before we don't dress night really don't take part in the activities outside of the Great if there's a trip tournament or which tournament we we get into that but it's coming down here and helping and it's getting to know the people and really She go through life. You realize that the more you give the more you get and I think that we're very blessed because I told you there isn't anywhere in Victoria we go Somebody doesn't say hi Gordon my choice and I've got a belonging to a community is what you really it's all about I think the staff make this center There we've had different changes, but Judith has been here since it's opened and Debbie I think a short time after they are really efficient people and They're wanting this run in a way. They keep everything going and I Know there's always a little conflict. You know that'll happen anywhere but I coordinate the bridge and we have 14 tables every Tuesday and I try to come They hide tempered ones down, you know, but that's difficult to do sometimes But we mostly the people here get along very well with each other if anybody's sick People come up and see how they are and do you need anything? I'll tell you a little story a couple of weeks ago. I had a very bad cold and as you can hear I still have a bit of it and A lady in the bridge come phone me up and she said Mickey. Do you need any? Antibiotics picked up at the drug store and I said no, I haven't got any antibiotics. She said well if your doctor phones and says Pick some up where London Rockets close to me and I will bring them over to you That lady just had her 96th birthday And you know, that's the kind of caring I'm talking about Well, thanks a lot for turning you're listening to first-person plural on CFUV Victoria's Public Radio 101.9 FM 104.3 cable and on the internet CFUV.UVAC.CA Giving sociology an edge Generation gap I'm just barely old enough Yes That was a big word when I was a kid Generation or gap? Generation gap. I guess that's two words. I heard about it quite a bit for a few years and then it seemed to just go away Well, I remember hearing about it for most of my childhood in the 60s and It was a really big deal it was nobody over 30 years old could understand anybody under 30 years old and It was as if nobody wanted to live past the age of 30. I actually pulled up the demographics The US population statistics, I should say not Canadian, but US To find out exactly when the baby boom had occurred by quantitative measures, and it was a one-year phenomenon It was 1946 only And I measured it by looking at the percent increase and how it had varied from year to year And I think the reason based on what I saw on my casual examination of the data I think the reason that People thought there was a baby boom was that there had in fact been a huge baby bust in the 30s in that country Oh, that's interesting. So there's a historical context You could call it that But for some reason when we say baby boomers, we don't mean just people born in 1946 Oh, yeah, that's an interesting thing. That's a big debate. There are early baby boomers and late baby boomers Which I you and I are actually know you're just one year out of the so-called late baby boomers, aren't you? I think it goes to 64. I wasn't at the last meeting. I'm not sure You say last meeting but there is an official website on this that actually gets into the Specifics on who is and who is not a baby boomer. It's an interesting group of people who are concerned with what I would think is Well sort of frivolous discussions, but I guess marketers don't think of it as frivolous They really do try to identify who those people are if they're doing it quantitatively I wonder if their results are much better than mine and If in fact all the results are not method-dependent because birds are continuous. There wasn't a really sharp drop in Continuity it wasn't like there were no people born for three or four years and then more people started being born There are some variations to have sex all along Apparently It would be hard to rule out the possibility. I'm so shocked so if it's not being done on Daryl uses word an Objective basis how does one find oneself in a cohort? well a cohort It's really important to distinguish between the idea of age structure that is people are certain ages and The population has X number of people in one age group versus Y number of people in a different age group That's that's one way of looking at a population But it's not a very Informative way in terms of understanding people's everyday lives Another way to look at populations is the effect of the cohort So we can we can say that you are in one cohort or another based upon your birthday But it's more accurate to say that you are in one cohort or another based upon who you identify with Basically, the idea is that people go through The same kind of life experiences pretty much in it in a particular order Within a culture. It's always contextualized by the expectations of culture And because we all go through these particular life milestones around the same time We tend to hang out with and identify other people who are going through these major milestones So you have the newlyweds and the nearly dead talked about and Victoria a lot as a description of the population and what that's referring to is two major life Milestones one is being a young adult being ready to get married and start a Family and the other is the milestone of being retired and facing Different life changes such as the fact that you begin to lose more and more loved ones more more friends your peers Are passing away that kind of thing and also you have more free time You don't have as strong a connection To work life as you once did those kind of things So those are major milestones in a life and cohort effects are built around those milestones Then that culture begins to change which it has in the last 30 or 40 years those milestones are a little mixed up right now So it's a little harder to say that somebody in their 20s or somebody in their 30s is in a particular cohort right now Because they are experiencing life a little bit differently than their parents did For instance, I just read an article yesterday that said that people are marrying much later in life Canadians the average Canadian man doesn't marry until he's 29 years old and the average Canadian woman doesn't marry until she's 27 That's much later Then their parents got married and a lot of people are choosing not to marry at all and that's a milestone that was once Important milestone in Western culture that is becoming less and less in a milestone all the time. I Used the term method dependency earlier. I'm now going to use it three more times method dependency method dependency Method dependency. Yes, or is there something I'm missing. No, you're not missing anything at all But well, yes, you are missing something. You're looking at it from the demo demographers viewpoint Yes, from the demographers viewpoint, it's method dependency, but people still experience Cohort effects they still look around and they say gee I'd like to talk to somebody my own age and they don't necessarily mean somebody born on the same day as them What they mean when they say that is I'd like to talk to somebody who's going through the same kinds of Experiences that I am going through so when people at the senior center talk about how much Easier it is to be someplace with people their own age. They don't necessarily mean Everybody over 65 gets along with them What they do mean is that they've got more in common with people who are retired People who are not working people who want to do volunteer work, etc. Etc. So they're really talking about life experiences not numbers So they're talking about shared values not in the family values sense of the word values But in the cultural sense of that word. Yes, and that can be an important source of meaning for our lives I mean, it's a way of finding camaraderie. It's a way of Understanding new Experiences you talk to other people who are going through those experiences you Connect with them in a way that helps you make sense out of your life That's a very important resource for people all the way through their lives And I think that's why it is important to have spaces and culture where people can find each other Where of similar ages going through similar milestones and the fact that somebody who's 55 and is just retired And is going through the same kinds of things that somebody else might not go through until they're 75 is Irrelevant they can still relate to each other and in a lot of ways now the question is why do we talk about baby boomers and the greatest generation and and Bobby Soxers and all that kind of stuff. Well, that's a whole other effect. That's connecting age to history and Specifically to major historical events. I'm sure that in the next 10 years You're going to start hearing people talk about the post September 11th generation and how that affected young people who were coming of age And it's interesting because we usually get marked in a category based upon when we come of age Like the baby boomers are marked by the turbulent 60s when they were all turning 18 The generation Xers are marked by the greedy 80s by the decade where Conservatism raised its head again and people were thinking more about the bottom line and so forth Your generation gets marked by when you actually are becoming an adult Nobody talks about the people in World War two who were in their 60s and dealing with World War two They talk about the people in World War two who were in their 20s and dealing with World War two That's the World War two generation is that simply because formative Experiences are presumed to occur earlier in life to be blunt about it. It may be of some social concern if a Teenager is scarred for life, but I think the damage would be by consensus less threatening if a 75 year old were scarred for life Possibly that's one way to look at it like it's it's It's more of a crisis if it happens to you when you're younger Because you have a longer life to go To deal with it than when you're older. I suspect that some of this is has got to do with consumerism with a desire in our particular culture in North American culture to care about who has the money the grain of America which is a big Discussion in aging circles and sociology of aging and Injured logical circles is in part being Forced to the forefront because there is now an understanding that older people have more resources it used to be that young families and Middle-aged people were considered the people with the money and by virtue of that their teenage children and So marketers paid attention more to younger generations So I suspect that there's an economic element as to why we pay attention to the 20-somethings and on a related note I'm having trouble determining who does have the money, but that's because I rely on self-reporting to such a great and naive extent The extras claim that they never got a break the seniors claim that they're being left out in the cold and the boomers claim that They never really had access to it, and they don't know where it all went. Maybe there's no money Yes, that must be it. Everybody thinks the other person has it. That's it money is defined subjectively only and thus has no Ontological grounding. Ah the problem is solved. Why am I not relieved? Well that could be another topic for another show But I think that the thing that is important to distinguish here and gets confused a lot and popular rhetoric is the difference between period effects and cohort effects to use the sociological or demographic language about it a Cohort effect is about life changes. It's about connecting with people in your everyday life Who are going through the same things that you're going through, but we tend to confuse that with going through major events With historical events, but the fact is that all generations that are alive Everybody who's alive in a major historical event happens is affected by that event and The fact is that cohorts are usually made up of people of varying ages Because people make life choices differently Some people have no children and never have a family per se some people Don't marry they spend their lives single Some people Come to their careers very late in life where others start their careers in their teenage years So there's a lot of variation and a lot of people that get put into one group actually experience life and connect better with a different age cohort That has a lot of implications you're talking about methodology methodology methodology This has a lot of implications for research that's done from general social surveys Which tend to lump everybody together on the basis of their birthday? That's a big jump It's a big assumption to decide because somebody was born between 1945 and 1964 They have stuff in common They may not be experiencing that at all especially the ones that were born later than 1955 as opposed to those who were born before 1955 well all methods of social grouping are presumptuous It's just a question of how much so and in fact the issue of how presumptuous each method is draws a lot of attention in sociological circles in and of itself is Race the factor is class the factor if we're going to reduce it to a one variable model What would the factor be if we're not how would we handle it? Yes Which is of course being a qualitative researcher my Well, I would say what you need then is Qualitative research you need to go and talk to people and ask them what is meaningful to them You need to do it in depth You cannot just make assumptions because they fit in a category or even because they identify with a category You know that you check a box on a sheet of paper that doesn't necessarily mean that's an important category in your life You have been listening to first-person plural on CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria British Columbia Simon cast it on 104.3 cable and CFUV dot UVIC dot CA First-person plural is produced weekly by dr. Patty Thomas and Carl Wilkerson Music for first-person plural is composed performed and produced by Carl Wilkerson For more information about first-person plural or Patty Thomas and Carl Wilkerson visit our website culturalconstructioncompany.com The I'm interested why you're an MBA Why you're in the next It's like joining the French Foreign Legion. You got a little drunk You think hey, let's do something original and vetted and once it wears off once you're sober again You begin thinking this wasn't such a hot idea after a while But by that time is too late to back out I'm a commerce student. So I just wondered what I read your card. Why an MBA would be mixed up in this Every organizational matters media matters media criticism that sort of thing. It's all up. It's all open season for an MBA Yeah, now it is. We spent most of our time in B school reading texts and commenting on it those texts were not Novels of fiction or anything like that. They were quote case studies close quote, but the principles of dissection are the same in each case I'm interested in the MBA struck me as being a little a non sequitur The money likes to call this a sociology show, but when someone asks me about it directly I say that it's about organizational matters, which you know where there's a big overlap Big overlap big overlap big overlap big overlap