Dirty Linen, Liminal Spaces, and Later Life

Meanings of Laundry in Care Home Design and Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID2391969
AuthorsChristina Buse (0000-0002-0217-8238, University of York, corresponding author), Julia Twigg (0000-0003-2223-7116, University of Kent), Sarah Nettleton (0000-0002-5184-2764, University of York), Daryl Martins (0000-0002-5685-4553, University of York)
Year2018
Volume23
Issue4
Pages711-727
Publication date2018-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Research Online (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1360780418780037
OpenAlexW2806083107
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited39

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

Aesthetics · Art · Care work · Clothing · Epistemology · Ethnography · Laundry · Liminality · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Temporality · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Engineering · French Urban and Social Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Medicine · Nursing