title: Crafting citizen(ship) for people with dementia: How policy narratives at national level in Sweden informed politics of time from 1975 to 2013.
abstract: This article explores how policy narratives in national policy documents in Sweden inform associated politics on people with dementia. This is disentangled in terms of how people with dementia have been defined, what the problems and their imminent solutions have been, and if and how these have differed over time. Based on a textual analysis of policy documents at national level in Sweden, covering nearly 40 years the study shows how divergent policy narratives shape the construction of citizens with dementia as policy target groups. This study shows the temporal character of people with dementia as a political problem, the implications of policy narratives on people with dementia as a citizen group, and policy narratives as something being crafted rather than shaped by fixed pre-existing "facts". Dementia, and further citizens living with dementia, does not have a once and for all stabilised meaning. Instead, the meanings behind the categories continue to evolve and to be crafted, which affects the construction of citizens living with dementia, the space in which to exercise their citizenship and further belonging to the society.
authors.affiliation: Center for Dementia Research (CEDER) & National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL), Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Linköping University, S-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden. Electronic address: ann-charlotte.nedlund@liu.se.
authors.forename: Ann-Charlotte
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Nedlund
authors.affiliation: Center for Dementia Research (CEDER) & National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL), Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Linköping University, S-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nordh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000639:trends; D003469:Culture; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005192:Family Health; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000639:trends; D033262:Narration; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000639:trends; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011057:Politics; D011639:Public Opinion; D012933:Social Identification; D013548:Sweden
keywords: Citizenship; Dementia; Policy narratives; Policy-making; Social construction; Sweden