The bureaucracy of interpretation

Care and communication in Sweden and Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID6414518
AuthorsJoana Debelt (corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume19-4
Pages93-113
Publication date2025-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAlter (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1875-0672 • E-ISSN: 1875-0680
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/15ai7
OpenAlexW4417077154
LanguageEN
References cited37

The primary form of communication for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is embodied communication, tailored to individual forms of expression. Adults with PIMD often live in group homes and while it is their home, it is the workplace of their support workers. This tension is recognised in research related to group homes and this article aims to contribute to this literature by highlighting the tension between bureaucratic structures and responding to individual needs. Using an ethnographic approach and Swedish LSS and German BTHG as examples of European welfare policy, we show the impact of bureaucracy on the communication of people with PIMD in group homes and daily activity centres. With Tronto’s theory of feminist ethics of care and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of intercorporality, we highlight the suppression of mutuality in interactions between carers and people with PIMD through institutionalised contexts. Despite the differences in institutional and policy infrastructures, the barriers encountered by people with PIMD in terms of communication are remarkably similar in both countries. A bureaucracy that values individual bodily forms of expression as much as verbal communication is necessary to enable access to participation for people with PIMD

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