CSS Lunch Series with Agnete Meldgaard Hansen

Meet Associate Professor Agnete Meldgaard Hansen, who in this CSS Lunch Series talks about: Choreographing Dignity in Eldercare – Mirrored Engagements in Good Care.
Wednesday
11
March
Start:12:00
End:13:00
Place: Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Building 03 - Further information upon registration.


Over the past 10–15 years, dignity has become a key concept in discussions about eldercare. The notion of dignity has an intuitively positive and engaging resonance, yet it is also a loosely defined and ambiguous concept. Its meaning is shaped historically, culturally, and situationally, and we know relatively little about what dignified eldercare actually means in practice. The DIGNICARE project therefore examines what dignity comes to mean and how it is practiced in efforts to promote dignified eldercare in Denmark.

I will present preliminary results from a sub-study within the DIGNICARE project, in which I follow the work of a homecare unit that is in the process of implementing a “dignity model” in their practice. Empirically, I draw on participant observation of workshops and meetings within the homecare unit, shadowing of home care visits, as well as interviews with staff, citizens, and managers.

I analyze how staff reflect on dignified eldercare and how, in relation to this, they plan and perform specific choreographies of care (Law 2015) in their interactions with citizens. Based on empirical ethics (Pols 2015) and an understanding of dignity as “relational engagements” and a “mirrored experience” between care recipients and caregivers (Pols et al. 2018), I investigate how these choreographies are oriented toward particular (political and professional) understandings of good care (e.g., person centered care and continuity), but also how “the good” and “the dignified” can be interpreted in quite different ways.

 

Registration

Please send your registration to katia@ruc.dk 

 

CSS Lunch Series

The CSS Lunch Series is an informal lunch format hosted by the Centre for Social Sustainability (CSS) about once a month - Wednesdays from 12-13. Here we share unfinished research ideas and dilemmas and have intellectual conversations in an open and curious atmosphere.

Like to lead a conversation?

If you already know that you would like to lead a conversation, send a note to katia@ruc.dk 

Please include: 

  1. A title
  2. 4-5 lines about your idea or dilemma
  3. A Wednesday from 12-13 in the spring where you can present 

We look forward to hearing from you - and to seeing you at lunch!