Social Life of Dementia: Cultural Representations and Subjective Attitudes

The project focuses on the social representations of dementia, both in media and social policy discourses in the Czech Republic, and on subjective attitudes of older adults (people age 65+). The analysis focus on two main domains. 1) Using qualitative content analysis with a particular focus on the analysis of frames, the project analyses how dementia is represented in Czech media and social and healthcare policy documents. 2) Focus groups and individual in-depth interviews will be conducted to explore how the idea of what dementia means is constructed by older adults and the role of subjective representations of dementia in the way older adults conceptualise what ageing and old age mean. Particular attention is paid to the role of gender in representations of dementia and its possible impact on subjective attitudes to dementia. The project analyses dementia as an important framework through which the distinction between desirable “successful”, ageing and “failed”, “horrific” old is (re)constructed. It explores cultural values regarding normative expectations associated with ageing.

Project team of FSV UK (1)

doc. PhDr. Mgr. Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková, Ph.D.

Principal investigator

+420 267 224 215

jaroslava.marhankova@fsv.cuni.cz