Re-socialising sound: investigating sound, selfhood and intersubjectivity among people living with dementia in long-term care

Abstract

ABSTRACTOver the last decades, an increasing amount of attention has been given to the acoustical environments of health care settings. Through innovative multi-disciplinary research and practice, sound in health care is being conceptualised as an object to be measured, controlled and minimised to improve individual well-being and health outcomes. Among the settings and populations being addressed are people living with dementia in residential long-term care. The trend toward acoustical separation between people overlooks the social possibilities of sound in care settings. This paper argues that we should resist narrow conceptualisations of sound as unwanted noise that must be reduced, and that sound should still be considered as a social tool. Drawing upon fieldwork in a Canadian long-term care facility among people living with dementia, ethnographic vignettes illustrate the significance of sound for selfhood and social relationship. Tensions between institutional control and acoustical agency are discussed, as well as implications for biomedical understandings of dementia as a loss of self. The paper concludes with a discussion of future research directions.