Connecting people and generations

Abstract

This article is concerned with the near magical charging of objects with meaning and with the role of these objects in social situations and inter-/actions, where they obtain the character of personalized hybrid structures. Objects may be the expression of an individual, who created, shaped, and owns them. When owners relinquish objects in the course of predecessor-successor transitions that arise from retirement or death, these may continue to have a lasting effect on the new owners through the personally charged material legacy. These transgenerational bonds are discussed and exemplified for different, mundane situations including succession in family business, inheritance, mourning, and remembrance. The article shows that personalized linking objects lead to the articulation and negotiation of existential questions concerning continued presence, attachment to the past, and im/mortality. Drawing on the genre of the social scientific essay, I develop new categories for thinking about and understanding a problem of interest and relevance to both theory and everyday, mundane life.