Dirty linen, liminal spaces and later life: Meanings of laundry in care home design and practice

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dirty linen, liminal spaces and later life

T2 - Meanings of laundry in care home design and practice

AU - Buse, Christina

AU - Twigg, Julia

AU - Nettleton, Sarah Joan

AU - Martin, Daryl

N1 - © The Author(s) 2018.

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - This article explores the design and practice of laundries and laundry work in care home settings. This is an often-overlooked aspect of the care environment, yet one that shapes lived experiences and meanings of care. It draws on ethnographic and qualitative data from two UK-based Economic and Social Research Council–funded studies: Buildings in the Making, a study of architects designing care homes for later life, and Dementia and Dress, a project exploring the role of clothing in dementia care. Drawing together these studies, the article explores the temporality and spatiality of laundry work, contrasting designers’ conceptions of laundry in terms of flows, movement, and efficiency with the lived bodily reality of laundry work, governed by the messiness of care and ‘body time’. The article examines how laundry is embedded within the meanings and imaginaries of the care home as a ‘home’ or ‘hotel’, and exposes the limitations of these imaginaries. We explore the significance of laundry work for supporting identity, as part of wider assemblages of care. The article concludes by drawing out implications for architectural design and sociological conceptions of care.

AB - This article explores the design and practice of laundries and laundry work in care home settings. This is an often-overlooked aspect of the care environment, yet one that shapes lived experiences and meanings of care. It draws on ethnographic and qualitative data from two UK-based Economic and Social Research Council–funded studies: Buildings in the Making, a study of architects designing care homes for later life, and Dementia and Dress, a project exploring the role of clothing in dementia care. Drawing together these studies, the article explores the temporality and spatiality of laundry work, contrasting designers’ conceptions of laundry in terms of flows, movement, and efficiency with the lived bodily reality of laundry work, governed by the messiness of care and ‘body time’. The article examines how laundry is embedded within the meanings and imaginaries of the care home as a ‘home’ or ‘hotel’, and exposes the limitations of these imaginaries. We explore the significance of laundry work for supporting identity, as part of wider assemblages of care. The article concludes by drawing out implications for architectural design and sociological conceptions of care.

KW - ageing

KW - architecture

KW - care homes

KW - care work

KW - clothing

KW - dementia

KW - design

KW - laundry

UR - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1360780418780037

U2 - 10.1177/1360780418780037

DO - 10.1177/1360780418780037

M3 - Article

SN - 1360-7804

VL - 23

SP - 711

EP - 727

JO - Sociological Research Online

JF - Sociological Research Online

IS - 4

ER -