ABSTRACT

Drawing from an interview based household survey of 453 older parent(s) and adult children (sons and daughters-in-law) in the Ahmedabad district, this study utilised the solidarity-conflict-ambivalence models to understand both the perceptions and experience of joint living. Overall, findings reinforce popular imagination of the socially-sanctioned joint family as a site of reassuring continuity with high levels of congruence in reporting relational sentiments. Evidence of intergenerational stake phenomenon was observed in responses of older adults when compared with the mature child. In addition to examining normative ambivalence, I contend that joint family relations embody a concept of ‘ambiguity’ – an uncertain, somewhat conflictual emotive space that offers members a temporary escape without confronting the contradictions in the objective demands of expected roles. In conclusion, I assert the need to go beyond the western tools of measurement to capture a deeply complex emotive space with its regularities, irrationalities and incoherences in the experience of everyday life.

摘要

该调查是通过对艾哈迈达巴德地区453名年龄较大的父母和成年子女（儿子和household妇）进行的基于访谈的家庭调查得出的，该研究利用团结冲突矛盾模式来理解夫妻的共同观念和经验。活的。总体而言，研究结果增强了人们对社会认可的共同家庭的想象力，因为这是在报告关系情感时确保连续性和高度一致性的场所。与成年人相比，在老年人的反应中观察到了代际利益现象的证据。除了研究规范性歧义之外，我还认为，共同家庭关系体现了“歧义”的概念-一种不确定的，有点冲突的情感空间，使成员可以暂时逃脱，而不必面对预期角色的客观要求中的矛盾。总之，我认为有必要超越西方的测量工具，以其日常活动中的规律性，非理性和不连贯性来捕捉一个深深复杂的情感空间。