Drawing in Ethnography: Seeing and Unseeing Everyday Life with Dementia in Sweden

Abstract

In this article, I present how drawing offers valuable ethnographic possibilities in care settings where verbal communication is challenging. The empirical examples derive from a study where I drew in situ in dementia care units to explore what residents and staff members found important in their everyday practices. I demonstrate how experimenting with the drawing process as well as the resulting drawings enabled diverse forms of participation to see and unsee matters together with residents and staff members. Treating drawings as steppingstones, meant that inquiries could be shaped together with interlocutors and that questions could be kept open and relevant.