Gay and Pleasant Land?

Gay and pleasant Land? -a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales

Gay and Pleasant Land? from Kip Jones on Vimeo.

Dr Lee Ann Fenge, Dr Kip Jones & Dr Rosie Read, Bournemouth University

A work package in the New Dynamics of Ageing Project, "Grey and Pleasant Land?: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Connectivity of Older People in Rural Civic Society"

The project is rooted in and continues upon in-depth findings and networks established by a three-year action research project, Gay and Grey in Dorset. The Gay and Grey project investigated the needs, wants, fears and aspirations of older lesbians and gay men. This study's conclusions were that older gays and lesbians feel at risk of isolation in rural areas and that this phenomenon needed further study. Further, the study's participants coming out stories seemed to be a device employed in negotiating social inclusion over the life course.

Learning more about how this is accomplished, and over time, seemed important for further investigation. Gathered narrated biographies will eventually form the basis for the composite characters for a short film, produced by a professional filmmaker in collaboration with the research projects investigators. In addition to the collected biographies, visual ethnographic data will be collected which enriches the location, age range and activities of the research population. This primary data will then be interpreted by citizen panels and developed by them, in collaboration with the filmmaker, into the film's script. The professional level, broadcast quality film itself will be totally grounded in the data—both in the life story interviews and the visual anthropological data gleaned from observation in the study's rural communities.

[See also: "Gay and Grey in the Green British Countryside: What could possibly go wrong?"]