Professional Meaningfulness in Elderly Care – Transnational Shared Knowledge in a Scandinavian Context

This paper focuses on the exchange of knowledge that stems from staff’s experiences of working with the elderly in Sweden and Denmark. The article will, on the one hand, focus on how work in groups consisting of representatives from different levels in the elderly care sector previously served as learning spaces and cultural encounters. On the other hand, it will focus on tendencies to narrow the diversity of perceptions of elderly people and their care. The empirical material takes its points of departure from interviews, a film, and the work of project groups from learning, caring, and political perspectives. One main conclusion reached is that by studying professional meetings in comparison, we can contribute to shaping access to knowledge, identity, and the position of the individual. When several professional voices are heard, it adds value when we want to understand the care of the elderly and the meaningfulness of the profession.