Activistic citizenship in nursing homes: co-ownership in the mundane
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3097389Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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Sammendrag
The traditional narrative of dementia, focused on cognition as constructive of personhood, has been
challenged by person-centred care as well as a rights-based citizenship lens. However, reports of
everyday discrimination leading to occupational deprivation and pathologising interpretations of
people living with dementia in nursing homes highlight the need for further investigation. The
purpose of this study was to investigate the transformative power of mundane and relational
enactments of citizenship in nursing homes, exploring the potential of adding an activistic lens of
citizenship to our interpretive practices. Through an ethnographic study in Norwegian nursing
homes, a narrative analysis of fieldnotes and interview transcripts was conducted. Narratives were
interpreted using narrative theory, occupational perspectives and theories of citizenship. Findings
reveal a phenomenon of shared ownership between residents and staff, and a vulnerable balance
between silence and active social and occupational engagement in the nursing homes. Further, they
shed light on how group-based assessments of residents’ abilities or occupational needs may
constrain opportunities, and staffs’ options, to facilitate co-ownership. We suggest that a lens of
activistic citizenship implies interpreting residents’ behaviours as mundane forms of subtle re-
sistance. A professional and ethical responsibility building on such interpretive practices may turn
attention towards structures that constrain residents’ expressions of citizenship.