Articulating Interesting Subject Positions for People with Dementia: On Hanging Out in Dutch Nursing Homes

Abstract

In this article, drawing on ethnographic research on everyday life and care for people with dementia in Dutch residential care, I argue that researchers who work with people with dementia can contribute to the enactment of “interesting subject positions,” thereby enriching the ways in which life with the condition is understood. The crux, I propose, is to use “hanging out” as a method and to ask “interesting questions,” an approach that enables participants to let researchers know what matters to them. Researchers, in turn, are enabled to “say more” about dementia, and to bring to light interesting subject positions.