Paper short abstract:

What are the moral meanings of aged care? Does dementia care imply additional moral responsibilities? In this paper I explore the moral landscape of care in contemporary society through an examination of current regulatory governance and its practical implications for aged and dementia care.

Paper long abstract:

What can official state regulation tell us about the moral meanings of dementia care in contemporary Australian society? Australia's aged care industry is subject to dense 'swarms' of regulatory intervention. Care has complex moral meaning, and morality is also implicated in governance 'in the public interest' and 'community standards'. Rarely, however, is regulation itself explored as a moral enterprise. Drawing on a national study of the effects of regulation on dementia care, I attempt in this paper to disentangle the convoluted relationships between care and morality, policy and practice. Regulation is variously understood as: a means of social control, an impingement on organisational and individual autonomy, and as a process of behaviour modification. As I advocate here, an alternative definition of regulation - as the formalisation of obligation - brings the undergirding moral enterprise into focus. This is a terrain often abstractly debated by ethicists, and its more concrete exploration poses significant methodological challenges for social scientists; I consider that an ethnographic sensibility provides a solution to these challenges. By examining current national regulatory arrangements for aged care, and taking insights from notable ethnographic engagements, I explore the moral landscape of care in contemporary Australian society, and further identify the specific moral concerns involved in dementia care.