Making a case for “Careful storage”: Dementia care in Denmark and China

Abstract

The word “storage” may initially seem antithetical to “good care,” evoking a sense of objectification and spatial othering. And yet, dementia care institutions empirically function as spaces that physically separate, or “store,” their charges as part of the care they provide. In this paper, we propose what we call “careful storage” as a way of analytically engaging with the interrelationship of care and storage in dementia care institutions. Drawing on ethnographic research at dementia care sites in Denmark and in China, we argue for the concept of “careful storage” (1) as a way of understanding how our ethnographic sites materialize as care institutions through the preservation of both those stored within their walls and the institutions in themselves, and (2) as a productive analytic tool for juxtaposing and studying care sites across cultural contexts, specifically in terms of the simultaneous processes of crafting personhood and institution-hood.