Dignity through touch for an ethics of care: pandemical tales

Six women came together to write this paper. Two from Norway, two from Italy, one from England, and one an Italian living and working in England. Their aim was to experiment with writing a collaborative auto-ethnography to share their personal stories about people whose life events at the time of the pandemic resulted in a loss of dignity. They attempt to reveal the importance of dignity, and of touching-non-touching in the lives of elderly and unwell people who lack the resources to demand the rights and respect they deserve and have earned. With varying academic backgrounds, the authors welcome the complexity this creates and learn to speak with a single voice, aware that differences will remain. The authors are feminists who lean towards a new materialist and post-humanist stance and they explore the importance of this in this text.