ABSTRACT
Demographic change and the restructuring of healthcare systems mutually shape a “care crisis”. Under such circumstances, practices of caring and violence can blend, and boundaries between protection and violence blur. However, violence in later life is both under-theorized and under-researched. In this paper, we argue that this is partly because there is no shared understanding of what constitutes violence in later life – and no overarching debate to come to such a common understanding. The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual and methodological approach for mapping disciplinary and practical differences in knowledge about violence in elder care. Conceptually, we draw on Karen Barad's (2003, 2007) approach of agential realism while methodologically, we expand Adele Clarke's (2005, 2018) approach of situational analysis to include boundary-making practices, as “boundary-mapping analysis”. We conclude that care and violence are mutually shaping each other. Partly, this relational shaping of care and violence is achieved through the establishment of age-boundaries (as age-codings), as important indicators of who is caring (and who is in need of care) and what is considered as violent (and what is not). In the discussion, we outline how a linking ages approach can help us in drawing boundaries differently.
