Abstract

This chapter considers the role of communication technologies in grandparenting, specifically grandfathering, with a focus on empirical data collected from men who are grandfathers. The changing spatialities of grandfather-grandchild relations, and relationships across generations more generally are explored, as they facilitate gendered care and practices of intimacy (referring to ‘the quality of close connection between people and the process of building this quality’ (Jamieson 2011: 15)). Excerpts from qualitative, in depth interview data collected from 31 men are presented, revealing that grandfathers actively seek to maintain intimate intergenerational relationships with grandchildren through the use of technology. This reveals the affective nature of doing care in disembodied ways, challenges gender and age biases in understandings of familial care and reveals tensions created by extending care beyond the homespace.