Justifying the arts in health and care in Finland: A discourse analytic inquiry

Abstract

Arts-based initiatives have been increasingly introduced into elderly care in recent years in Finland. Consequently, there are more and more reports and dissertations that address such initiatives: their rationale, practices and impacts. Located at the interface between arts educational research and cultural health and well-being research, this article explicates the interpretative repertoires and discourses used to justify arts in elderly care in such documents. The article describes the discourse analytic approach used in the study. Text excerpts are introduced to illustrate the key interpretative repertoires and discourses identified from the data, including discourses on (1) physical and mental health, (2) meaningful life, (3) cultural rights, (4) care ethics and (5) employment. It is argued that how the role of the arts in elderly care is articulated depends on the particular interpretative repertoires and discourses that provide justification statements for their argumentative leverage in the contexts where they are addressed.

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