Materialities of Care

Materialities of Care addresses the role of material culture within health and social care encounters, including everyday objects, dress, furniture and architecture.

• Makes visible the mundane and often unnoticed aspects of material culture and attends to interrelations between materials and care in practice
• Examines material practice across a range of clinical and non-clinical spaces including hospitals, hospices, care homes, museums, domestic spaces and community spaces such as shops and tenement stairwells
• Addresses fleeting moments of care, as well as choreographed routines that order bodies and materials
• Focuses on practice and relations between materials and care as ongoing, emergent and processual
• International contributions from leading scholars draw attention to methodological approaches for capturing the material and sensory aspects of health and social care encounters

Christina Buse is a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of York, UK. Her research interests include embodiment, ageing, dementia, material culture and design. Recent research includes the Dementia and Dress project with Julia Twigg, and the Buildings in the Making project with Sarah Nettleton, Daryl Martin and colleagues.

Daryl Martin is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York, UK. His research interests are primarily located in the intersections of architecture, embodiment and health. Recent research includes a project on the use of architecture in Maggie's Centres, an organisation which supports those with cancer, their families and friends.

Sarah Nettleton is Professor of Sociology at the University of York, UK. Her research interests include embodiment, health and sleep, the construction of medical knowledge and medical practice, and most recently the sociology of architecture in the context of health and social care.