A sociological study of the significance of identity and ageing in a North Sami community

This article explored experiences of ageing from interviews with a sample drawn from a population living in a North Sami community. Our focus is on older adult's involvement in activities that emphasise and maintain them as participants in specific kinds of activities that require knowledge, skills and mentorship, and to what degree it provides them with social capital and ethnic identity. We present data from in-depth interviews with female and male inhabitants ranging from 29 to 75 years of age. Thematic analysis of the data indicates that social capital and identity are particularly apparent within three contexts: 1. family and social relationships, 2. reindeer herding and other traditional labour and 3. Sami language. We conclude that older people hold vital positions in the local community regarding these three contexts. They transfer and reproduce cultural competence, and they manifest their roles and positions as active and valuable cultural members and practical contributors to the community. Their cultural involvement is not performed for their own advantage but is a regular part of their everyday lives, benefiting their special position within this sociocultural context and creating social capital.

Exploring Participation and Interaction in a Bottom-Up Health Promotion Program for Migrant Women in Norway

In this article, we examine the participation and interactions of migrant women and experts who attended health parties. Based on data from participation observations and semi-structured interviews from participants of health parties, we examine how health parties may be considered an innovative bottom-up community program that could influence how migrant women focus, learn, and discuss health issues as well as interact with health care. Through a qualitative analysis, the article demonstrates two ways of organizing health parties and different approaches to the health expert role, and how this impacts the social setting and interactions of a health party. In the Norwegian setting, migrant women are considered by health authorities to be the most difficult group to reach due to cultural and language barriers. Health parties may represent an alternative for bridging these barriers and may create a useful context for active participation and learning about health for migrant women.

Maintaining ordinariness in dementia care

Drawing on data from fieldwork in a Norwegian care home for people diagnosed with dementia, the article focuses on how social ordinariness is produced by professional practices and co-operation with residents. Through the lens of ethnomethodological and other pragmatist approaches to ordinariness, social agency and identity, the article uses interviews and observations to explore how residents in a care home were given the opportunity to act as ordinary persons and maintain ordinariness despite their illness. The analysis shows that a social and moral norm of ordinariness was central for how professional care work was performed in the care home. To help residents maintaining ordinariness was an essential part of caring work and to accomplish this, residents were regularly involved in activities they recognised from their everyday lives. This helped them holding on to their identities. The activities were regulated by situational rules that avoided stigmatising behaviour and maintained the residents' dignity.

Gender, citizenship and dementia care: a scoping review of studies to inform policy and future research

Gender is a neglected dimension in public discourse related to people with dementia. Those living with this condition are typically portrayed in policies and strategies in gender neutral terms as 'people with dementia' and 'family carers' as if gender does not matter, when clearly it does. The purpose of this scoping review was to take stock of knowledge about gender differences in relation to dementia care to inform policy and future research. The work is grounded in a feminist perspective to citizenship, as this provide a lens with which to expose and examine gendered assumptions within dementia studies. A search of four databases, including CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline and Cochrane was conducted using systematic techniques between May and July 2014. A repeat search was conducted in February 2015. We found a significant amount of valuable research concerned with gender differences in relation to dementia care published from 1990 to 2014; the majority of which lacks a feminist citizenship perspective. Moreover, a disproportionate number of studies focused solely on caregivers rather than citizens with dementia. As such, questions about gender equality are not being raised and the voices of men and women with dementia are silent. Thus we argue for increased gender-sensitivity in policy making and recommend that social scientists inject a feminist citizenship perspective into their work.

Knitters in a Day Center: The Significance of Social Participation for People With Mild to Moderate Dementia

This article explores how people with dementia interact and solve problems while participating in social activities. The present article highlights social participation and interaction among elderly women with mild dementia who engaged in knitting as their main activity. The data were collected through participant observation at a day center in a Norwegian city, and the analysis revealed that the social activity of knitting facilitated conversations about different topics, required various forms of memory and problem solving, and involved different participant statuses. Being part of the knitting group appeared to help the participants maintain their skills and facilitated sociability.