Within moments of becoming—everyday citizenship in nursing homes

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.Background: Humans are occupational beings. Our occupational choices depend on the opportunities available to us, and within nursing homes, institutional rules or structures may limit occupational engagement. An everyday citizenship lens acknowledges the importance of people’s rights as citizens as well as engagement in mundane aspects of the everyday, highlighting diverse expressions of agency. Aims/objectives: To show how older residents living with dementia in nursing homes can realize their everyday citizenship. Methods: A phenomenologically inspired ethnographic study was conducted in nursing home units in Norway, exploring everyday citizenship through narrative analysis. Results: Within everyday environments of care, the narratives of May, Janne and Camilla tell stories of spontaneous initiatives towards contribution and responsibilities, highlighting their continuous occupational natures. Conclusion: Becoming can be seen as constitutive of self and identity, through residents’ actions and contributions within the mundane and ordinary of everyday life, as an essential part of everyday citizenship. Significance for practice: A citizenship of becoming presupposes that institutional perceptions of activities being offered ought to be broadened towards supporting residents’ natural desires to do and act within the mundane and ordinary of everyday life.publishedVersio