Conversation and Social Exchange: Managing Identities in Old Age

Abstract

It has been argued previously that, due to industrial development and the related ideology of modernity, old people in contemporary society are less able to negotiate favorable or, even, equitable exchange rates. This structural analysis, however, leaves unanswered important issues concerning the "working out" of the terms of the exchange agreement. The focus of this paper is the negotiation and maintenance of exchange relationships. How, for example, does the individual old person and his or her exchange partner(s) decide such issues as the relative "social worth" of the partners, the resources each possesses and is willing to exchange, the value of the resources to be exchanged, or the rate at which resources are to be exchanged. While such terms may occasionally be submitted in written form for the approval of each partner, in most cases such issues are resolved in a much more informal manner. Approval or consent to an exchange agreement is generally reached through a process of informal negotiation which is commonly referred to as conversation. Because of the lack of any obvious or generally accepted conversion table (by which resources are converted in standardized units of power), the mere possession of a power resource is insufficient, in most cases, to obtain an automatic share of privilege. Rather, the resource must be entered into the exchange negotiation in orderfor the individual's claim to be accepted as legitimate. Talk is the means by which potential power is converted into power-in-use.