Abstract
Objective: This paper analyses intergenerational relationships in Sweden during the corona pandemic, with a special focus on practices of care. The research question is: How is care between generations – between grandparents, adult children and grandchildren – done during pandemic conditions?
 Background: In Sweden, where an extensive welfare state provides affordable child- and eldercare, the corona strategy of generational separation has still affected family practices of care between generations. In this article we analyse narratives of intergenerational care, taking our point of departure in theories of personal life (Smart 2007), relationality (Mason 2004), and care as sentient activity (Mason 1996).
 Method: The paper draws on a qualitative interview study with grandparents (n=30), adult children (n=12) and grandchildren (n=12), with data collection taking place shortly before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
 Results: The study detects the reciprocal and complex ways in which care between generations takes place. When people relate their experiences, strategies for new ways of doing care are at the centre, involving creative ways of negotiating distance and risk, all marked by both worry and relief.
 Conclusion: The pandemic condition becomes a "filter" affecting and leading to a reformulation of practices of care, from taken-for-granted co-presence narratives, into narratives of relational participation resulting in an overall heightened awareness of the importance and difficulties of intergenerational care practices. The study concludes that a strong welfare state does not translate into complete autonomy or independence; rather, people continue to live "linked lives".
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought intergenerational relationships into focus in new ways
The study detects the reciprocal and complex ways in which care between generations takes place. When people relate their experiences, strategies for new ways of doing care are at the centre, involving creative ways of negotiating distance and risk, all marked by both worry and relief
The aim of this article is to analyse these narratives, with the overarching research question: How is care between generations – between grandparents, adult children and grandchildren – in Sweden done during pandemic conditions? Analysing narratives of care from a theoretical understanding of care as a reciprocal sentient activity (Mason 1996), and of narratives of family and kin relationships as negotiated and relational (Finch & Mason 1993, 2000; Mason 2004; May & Nordqvist 2019), we argue that the corona pandemic becomes a ‘filter’ over practices of care, resulting in strain and changed strategies of care, as well as worry and relief for the actors involved in intergenerational relationships
Summary
The COVID-19 (or corona) pandemic has brought intergenerational relationships into focus in new ways. In Sweden, the corona strategy stated that all citizens over the age of 70 were to avoid contact with others, and, especially, to stay away from interactions with grandchildren This affected practices of care and emotional support in personal and kin relationships, and especially between generations (Iversen et al 2020; Kulin et al 2021). Previous research shows that the involvement of Swedish grandparents in the everyday care of their adult children’s families has increased in recent decades (Hank & Buber 2009), as has the engagement of adult children in the everyday care of grandparents (Ulmanen 2015) These engagements have been challenged during the pandemic, with multifaceted consequences (Kivi et al 2020; Iversen et al 2020; Cantillon et al 2021). In its capacity as filter, the corona pandemic enables the continued significance of intergenerational care relations in Sweden to emerge in new ways, adding to a more general questioning of assumptions of ‘detraditionalization’, and pointing towards the dangers of ageism (Ayalon et al 2020) and adult-centrism in attempts to tackle the crisis
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