Shaping emotions in nursing homes
In France, the fight against loneliness among the elderly has recently become a major issue in public policies. This article examines how this struggle is articulated and implemented in one nursing home (Ehpad). Based on an ethnographic approach, it shows how the meal is constructed as the central activity in the fight against loneliness in old age. It focuses on the emotional work of professionals at the institution and their efforts to encourage residents to reinterpret their presence at the nursing home, not as isolation and the end of life, but as an opportunity to build new connections. It also describes daily tensions and the normalization of the sorts of conduct that this struggle brings.