Reframing dementia : the social imperative

What we hope to achieve in this book is represented in its title, Dementia as Social Experience: Valuing Life and Care. We challenge the idea that we should fear dementia or that, once diagnosed, 'life' has virtually come to an end. This interdisciplinary collection examines how different knowledges and practices interact, such that they diminish or enhance the lives of those who have been diagnosed with dementia, as well as those who share their lives. It offers a critique of taken-for-granted ideas and understandings which are found in wider society, as well as in care practices, while envisioning what it takes to create a society in which vulnerability is a legitimate, well-supported life experience, and care is valued as central to all life.