Sensing space and making place: the hospital and therapeutic landscapes in two cancer narratives

Abstract

This article explores the role of senses in the construction and experience of place, focusing on patients’ experiences of hospital care. It compares two cancer narratives for their insights into the heterogeneous ways that hospital environments are made into therapeutic landscapes, arguing that they are a product of dynamic processes rather than something that is simply built. The article draws on a relational model of space and place, alongside literary analysis, to explore the making of un/healthy environments in embodied, affective and sensory terms. It indicates that sensory experiences in hospitals are made (un)therapeutic in relation to illness and recovery, as well as a range of social and human/non-human relations. These conclusions warn against making broad claims about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ hospital sensescapes, or against treating the hospital as a homogeneous space. They also offer new opportunities for medical geography and the medical humanities, by showing how illness and recovery are part of the relational making of space and place.

‘Re-socialisation' in isolated spaces: A case study on the social organisation of Fangcang shelter hospital patients under extreme spatial conditions

“…According to different studies, such shared spaces may either promote socialisation and be good for health, 21 or cause anxiety. 20,25 With hospital wards in particular, [26][27][28] some studies highlighted the merits of shared rooms, 17 while others remained sceptical 29,30 or even had negative opinions. 30 Moreover, the arrays of beds in Fangcang shelter hospitals were unlike hospital beds in ordinary shared wards.…”

‘The Internet Both Reassures and Terrifies’: exploring the more-than-human worlds of health information using the story completion method

“…The characters were frequently positioned as requiring in-person help to interpret online information or act on it. As previous scholarship on therapeutic places has demonstrated, place and space can be important enabling resources and contexts for health-related sense-making and recovery 31 70 71. Some of the stories highlighted the role of place and space in contributing to people’s feelings of safety and security, or alternatively, their feelings of discomfort, anxiety, distress or vulnerability.…”

“…Research has shown that storytelling can be a means of expression, interpretation and sense-making related to health and embodiment, a conduit to recovery, a resource for healthcare providers and physical educators. Storytelling can also be used as a research method for eliciting and understanding people’s experiences and the meanings and context of these experiences (see eg,24–31).…”

“…In my study, I departed from previous research using the story completion method by developing a method drawing on concepts derived from more-than-human theory and postqualitative inquiry. Medical humanities scholarship is beginning to engage with more-than-human theory, as evidenced by recent investigations into human-animal relations and health,42 the development of an ‘affective bioethics’ approach43 and narratives of therapeutic spaces 31. My current theoretical inspirations when conducting investigations into health-related and bodily-related knowledges and practices are drawn from perspectives that have been articulated in a range of literatures, including those discussing vital materialism, environmental humanities and the politics of care.…”

Valuing Nature for Wellbeing: Narratives of Socio-ecological Change in Dynamic Intertidal Landscapes

“…Lastly, participants were presented with 47 word-cards and asked to comment on anything that came to mind, with the view of prompting discussion on topics that they felt were important but had yet to be covered during the interview so far. Our open-ended approach to interviewing provided us with 'routes into the relational nature of space and place' allowing insights into 'the meaning, and the way that places are made' (Bates, 2019;11). Asking participants about their memories, experiences, feelings and embodied interactions with place also enabled us to explore their personal expressions of wellbeing, and how they may have changed over time (Bell et al, 2015).…”