A1 Journal article (refereed)
Attunement as a practice of encountering dementia time in long-term eldercare work (2024)

Hämäläinen, A., Leinonen, E., & Era, S. (2024). Attunement as a practice of encountering dementia time in long-term eldercare work. Time and Society, 33(2), 170-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x231215945

The research was funded by Strategic Research Council at the Research Council of Finland.

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Hämäläinen, Antti; Leinonen, Emilia; Era, Salla

Journal or series: Time and Society

ISSN: 0961-463X

eISSN: 1461-7463

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 25/12/2023

Volume: 33

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 170-190

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x231215945

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/92742

Abstract

Discussing time and temporality in care work is becoming more central as societies with growing proportions of older persons with care needs strive to arrange cost-effective eldercare. As resources become scarcer, the efficiency of care work is emphasised, and care is increasingly sorted into cost-per-minute units. In our paper, we will analyse the different ways care professionals themselves describe their temporal experiences and practices concerning care interactions in long-term dementia care. Our data consists of semi-structured interviews with care professionals (n = 25) working in round-the-clock service housing in Finland. Using thematic content analysis to analyse the data, we show that, along with a holistic understanding of temporality, good dementia care necessitates understanding alterity, which is insufficiently regarded in linear or quantitative understandings of time. By using concepts of temporal duration (Bergson), crip time (Kafer) and dementia time (Yoshizaki-Gibbons), it is possible to understand another person's alter-temporal experience, into which care can aim to enter and towards which it can attune itself. We argue that a concept of attunement is needed to fully make sense of the ideal temporal practices of dementia care. Our analysis presents attunement as understanding dementia time, receptive practices, and expressive practices, and describes limitations of attunement as temporal discordance.

Keywords: memory disorders; dementia; care; sociology; phenomenology

Free keywords: care; phenomenology; crip time; care of older people; qualitative methods; dementia; memory disorders; sociology of time

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2023

JUFO rating: 2