Exploring How Nuanced Agency Enables Citizenship of People Living With Dementia in Their Home Gardens

An expanded view of agency as nuanced and embodied can help us recognise the agency of people with dementia as citizens in everyday life. Places such as gardens, with their sensory and material appeal, have potential to support this but how people with dementia experience gardens is not well understood. This study aimed to explore how people with dementia experience nuanced agency and citizenship in their domestic home gardens, and to identify enabling practices. The research involved conducting walking-with-video interviews with six participants in their gardens and producing narrative videos. A conceptual framework of agency was applied in analysis of visual and spoken data to explore participants' experiences of agency. Participants experienced nuanced forms of agency in their home gardens as they engaged seamlessly with the sensory aspects of their garden and mindfully with the cycle of life. Social connectedness was limited for some participants, who experienced citizenship in other ways, as embodied or envisioned. This research identified the potential for participants to experience new forms of citizenship and discourse. Further research to explore nuanced agency and citizenship in people with dementia over time and in other garden settings is recommended.