Dirty Work in a Norwegian Health Context (The Case of Norway)

Dahle, Rannveig

doi:10.4324/9781351159968-7

Cited by 8 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…As Anna explained in the quote above, the care workers are carrying out a restrained and distanced form of body work that is thought to stimulate the citizen's self‐activity, and reconfigure the everyday lives and surroundings of citizens into an arena of training for independence. In line with the defeminization of care work suggested above, distance to the bodily has been pointed out as a marker of professional status in healthcare contexts and is associated with traditionally male health occupations (Dahle, ; Isaksen, ; Twigg, ).…”

Section: From Carers To Trainers: Transforming Body Work and Becomingmentioning

confidence: 88%

From Carers to Trainers: Professional Identity and Body Work in Rehabilitative Eldercare

Hansen¹,

Kamp²

2016

Gender Work & Organization

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This article explores how a nationwide reform initiative, calling for a rehabilitative, activating and 'training' approach to elderly people in Danish homecare services, may transform gendered and embodied conceptions of 'the professional care worker'. Care work for the elderly is a low-paid and low-status occupation, affected by the stigma connected with elderly bodies. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a homecare unit, this article shows how the adoption of a new distanced, goal-oriented approach to elderly bodies attempts to transform professional identities, and how care work is constructed as reflexive and change oriented, in contrast to emotional and relational approaches. This transformation potentially leads to a more advantageous position for care workers in gendered professional hierarchies. Simultaneously this process seems to render care workers' own bodies more visible, problematizing what are perceived as uncontrolled and unhealthy care worker bodies. The article thus argues that rehabilitative eldercare leads to an intertwining of two forms of bodywork, where work on the care worker's own body and the elderly body mutually constitute each other in a novel body-body articulation.

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Section: From Carers To Trainers: Transforming Body Work and Becomingmentioning

confidence: 88%

From Carers to Trainers: Professional Identity and Body Work in Rehabilitative Eldercare

Hansen¹,

Kamp²

2016

Gender Work & Organization

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“…In the Scandinavian context, care work with elderly citizens has often been studied with a primary focus on the relational aspects of work (e.g., see Waerness 1984;Astvik 2003;). However, this type of care work is also (and perhaps increasingly) characterized by so-called 'bodywork'; an aspect often under-represented in accounts of professional care work (Twigg 2000b;Dahle 2005). Bodywork can be defined as 'work that focuses directly on the bodies of others: assessing, diagnosing, handling, treating, manipulating, and monitoring bodies, that thus become the object of the worker's labour' (Twigg et al 2011).…”

Section: Understanding Technologically Assisted Care Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bodywork can be defined as 'work that focuses directly on the bodies of others: assessing, diagnosing, handling, treating, manipulating, and monitoring bodies, that thus become the object of the worker's labour' (Twigg et al 2011). Bodywork with elderly citizens is often transgressive, as it involves intimate physical contact between citizens' and care workers' bodies, and interaction with sexualized and tabooed parts of the body and its functions; interaction that breaches normal social rules of intimate physical contact (Dahle 2005). Furthermore, the object of labor in eldercare, the elderly body, is a socially marginalized body related to cultural imageries of old age as a time of decay, dysfunction, lack of bodily self-control, and impurity -the so-called fourth age (Katz 1996;Isaksen 2002;Gilleard & Higgs 2011).…”

Section: Understanding Technologically Assisted Care Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the object of labor in eldercare, the elderly body, is a socially marginalized body related to cultural imageries of old age as a time of decay, dysfunction, lack of bodily self-control, and impurity -the so-called fourth age (Katz 1996;Isaksen 2002;Gilleard & Higgs 2011). This type of work is of low social status and may be characterized as a form of 'dirty work' (Dahle 2005;Stacey 2005) -work that, though considered societally necessary, is culturally perceived as physically, socially or morally 'tainted' (Hughes 1962;Ashforth & Kreiner 1999). Workers in 'dirty' occupations face societal stigma, and consequently struggle to construct positive and 'esteem-enhancing' work identities in a variety of ways (Ashforth & Kreiner 1999.…”

Section: Understanding Technologically Assisted Care Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the toilets are considered to diminish occurrences of urinary tract infections and rashes in some cases, they might cause fungal infections in others, or might not clean the user sufficiently. Although often overlooked or silenced due to its relation to the transgression of normal boundaries of physical contact (Dahle 2005), post-toilet hygiene hereby becomes visible as a professional matter.…”

Section: Functionality Of Wash-and-dry Toilets In Professional Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Transforming Bodywork in Eldercare with Wash-and- dry Toilets

Hansen

Grosen

2019

NJWLS

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This paper addresses how the introduction of welfare technologies in Denmark makes the body- work of eldercare an object of public governance, and investigates how wash-and-dry toilets co-constitute professional care work. First, a theoretical frame is established for studying care, with an emphasis on bodywork as a sociomaterial and collective accomplishment. The paper then unfolds the great expectations tied to welfare technologies in general, and wash-and-dry toilets specifically. Turning to differentiated examples of situated uses of the toilets, the complexity of making the toilets work within the context of professional eldercare is illustrated. Some of the uses of the toilets in care work are in concordance with policy expectations. Other uses demonstrate difficulties in satisfying the great expectations and call for a more complex understanding of what it takes to achieve dignified, technologically assisted care without silencing the skills and profes- sionalism of care workers.

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Dignity equals distance? Pursuing dignity in care for older adults

Hansen¹

2021

Ageing and Society

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This paper explores how dignity is articulated and pursued by care workers in two currently prominent policy initiatives seeking to reform Danish care services for older people. Based on ethnographic case studies of ‘reablement’ practices and the use of ‘welfare technologies’, the paper shows how these attempts to create dignified care services transform interactions between care recipients and care workers. The analysis is inspired by a socio-material perspective on dignity as ‘crafted’ and ‘co-laboured’ in daily practices, in an interplay between multiple human and non-human actors. In the cases studied, dignity is articulated as closely related to older people's increasing autonomy and independence of formal care, and is pursued through enhancing care recipients’ self-care ability, and through technological automation of care tasks. However, these articulations and pursuits of dignity do not stand alone. When everyday care practices are closely examined, dignity is also pursued by care workers as increased co-operation and equality between care workers and care recipients, as de-objectification, and as promotion of enjoyment and quality of life. In these practices, care is ambivalently positioned as both a potential threat to dignity, and as a prerequisite to achieving it. The paper concludes by discussing the risks of policy agendas pursuing a narrow understanding of dignity as simply independence of care.

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Dirty Work in a Norwegian Health Context (The Case of Norway)

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

From Carers to Trainers: Professional Identity and Body Work in Rehabilitative Eldercare

From Carers to Trainers: Professional Identity and Body Work in Rehabilitative Eldercare

Transforming Bodywork in Eldercare with Wash-and- dry Toilets

Dignity equals distance? Pursuing dignity in care for older adults

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