This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between spatial control and care in nursing homes governed by Finnish municipalities. Although the attitude towards elderly care is gradually changing, most nursing homes governed by Finnish municipalities are still traditional, large institutions. In the study, I examine how care and control emerge spatially in nursing homes and how living in a limited environment shapes the everyday life of the residents. I argue that spatial practices affect the well-being of the residents, since a great deal of the control in Finnish nursing homes is spatiotemporal. The institutions use multiple methods to control residents, such as limiting mobility and daily routines, which can also result in unintended mistreatment. As the analysis demonstrates, staff and their attitudes have a significant effect on the residents' well-being. It also underlines how feelings of self-determination or "imagined" liberty can relieve anxiety and feelings of being confined. Control may be needed to keep residents safe; however, there is a risk that control can merge into care which affects staff culture and the well-being of residents. This paper responds to the call for greater diversity within carceral geography, and conceptualises the nursing home as a complex (quasi-)carceral environment that sits uneasily on the continuum between care and control.

This article addresses the recent legal and property changes, and their socio-spatial consequences in Christiania, Copenhagen. During recent years the community that has always been against private ownership has lost its special legal status, and has become a property owner of a vast area in the middle of Copenhagen. We analyse the situation in relation to Christiania’s current housing condition, individual residents’ privatisation efforts, and decades-long normalisation efforts by the state. We argue that the processes of normalisation, legalisation, criminalisation and privatisation are expressions of the carceral in more-than-institutional context, and that questions of property are strongly involved in these carceral practices in Christiania. Not only in the relations between Christiania and the state, but also in socio-spatial relations inside of the community, defining who is included or excluded, or how people behave towards each other. Moreover, a part of the community is cultivating a carceral culture towards those in favour of privatisation, using the rights of the property owner and the community’s ideologies as justifications.

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This study participates in the discussion on risks and carceral spaces, and furthermore, introduces the concept of carceral riskscape. Since there is a strong, but less studied connection between risk and the carceral, this study combines these concepts to provide a new viewpoint on the mechanisms that create carceral spaces. Riskscapes represent spaces embedded with risk and they are usually referred to in connection with health or environmental hazards. The emphasis in this study is on the carceral riskscapes that working communities face in institutional premises. The study analyses the working culture of a geropsychiatric ward in Turku, Finland. Some of the staff members allegedly mistreated the patients and some of the carceral practices were also targeted at co-workers. The research is qualitative in nature and analyses documents from the inner reports to the trial documents. The findings of the study suggest that the relationships between staff members are significant in the context of carceral riskscapes. Furthermore, the carceral riskscapes cause inequalities and have influence on the well-being of the staff members as well as the quality of care.

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