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Metaphorical Narratives in Dementia Discourse

Project description

Shaping responsible, respectful dementia discourse

People living with dementia often face stigmatisation and social exclusion due to metaphorical narratives that negatively shape scientific, journalistic, and caregivers’ discourse, leading to conflicts and misunderstandings. Increased awareness of ethical attitude and responsibility is needed. But we still lack deeper comprehension of the metaphorical narratives or scenarios used in dementia discourse. The EU-funded MeNDD project proposes an innovative interdisciplinary study based on a historical-epistemological approach, which incorporates corpus research and informant analysis to create an advanced model of social awareness of dementia. It aims to uncover existing differentiated risks, improve health professional training and public education, and reduce miscommunication, complying with EU H2020 healthy ageing goals.

Objective

Research on dementia discourse has shown how our attitudes, views and words have a positive or negative influence on the well-being of People Living With Dementia (PLWD). In 2013, Alzheimer Europe’s report underlined worrying ethical risks of metaphor use in dementia narratives, including stigmatisation, stereotyping and social exclusion. Yet we still do not have an adequate understanding of these potential risks and of the ethical responsibility needed when ‘metaphorical narratives’ (MNs), or metaphorical scenarios, are used in dementia discourse between scientists, journalists, caregivers and PLWD. This may increase risks of conflict and misunderstanding between these different social agents. It also hinders developing a responsible (i.e. respectful) use of MNs in dementia discourse, complying with the EU H2020 emphasis on Responsible Research and Innovation and healthy ageing.
MeNDD develops an innovative interdisciplinary approach combining the experienced researcher’s historical-philosophical work on MNs in the biosciences across times and in responsible health communication with the supervisor’s new model of metaphor in discourse. It joins together a historical-epistemological approach, corpus research and informant analysis to build an innovative model of ‘social awareness of dementia MNs’. It shows how science, the media, professional caregivers and PLWD use two-major dementia MNs of ‘cognitive decline’ and ‘brain plasticity’ while balancing the potential risks and the ethical responsibility in differentiated, occasionally diverging ways. The model reveals the major patterns of social awareness of the two MNs in dementia discourse, highlighting potential risks of conflict and misunderstanding between the different groups. It is designed for utilisation in enhancing a responsible dementia discourse: it can be applied in health professionals’ training, in healthcare and in public campaigns to reduce risks of miscommunication in practice.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 175 572,48
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 175 572,48
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