Purpose: The aim of this study is to, in the Swedish media debate, explore the discursive constructions of challenges in human rights and freedoms following the national spatial strategy for health and survival during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The study, inspired by a critical discourse analytic approach, focused particularly on the issues addressed, subject positions, relations and rhetoric. Seventeen opinion articles published in Swedish national newspapers December 2019 - February 2022 were analysed.

Results: The main contents were threats to democracy, threats to the freedom and rights of specific groups, and threats to the debate itself. Contents were expressed through three discourse dichotomies: contribution vs interjection, documented vs alarmistic, and active on the stage vs commenting from the balcony.

Conclusions: Striking about the results is the absence of dialogue, the one-way communication, and the absent politicians. It seems that the analysed debate on the challenges of the Swedish COVID-19 pandemic strategy, based on its impact on overall freedoms and rights, has not been the focus of decision-makers during the pandemic. They have neither addressed the threats highlighted in the articles, nor contributed to the discourse. This is worrying for the long-term maintenance and development of a healthy democracy.

Purpose: This discussion paper aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the state of the art of research engaged with conceptual matters of space and place for health and care.

Method: The authors, who represent a variety of academic disciplines, discuss and demonstratethe conceptual recognition of space and place in research in health and caring sciences building upon own work and experience.

Results: To explore the concepts of space and place for health and care is a research pursuit of utmost importance, and should be made through transdisciplinary research collaborations,whereby spatial theories from various disciplines could be communicated to cultivate truly novel and well-informed research. Furthermore, engaging with relational and topological perceptions of space and place poses methodological challenges to overcome in futureresearch on health and care.

Conclusions: We argue that there is a need for accelerating spatially informed research on health and care that is informed by current theories and perspectives on space and place, and transdisciplinary research collaborations are a means to achieving this.

1 Aim

To explore the concept of home and its' expressed spatialities in current palliative care research.

2 Background

Home is a central environment for living, caring, and dying. However, pure investigations of the sets of ideas linked to the concept seemed missing. Although identified as an important location, spatial perspectives expressed through the concept of home appeared unexplored.

3 Design

Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis.

4 Data sources

Scientific articles published between January 2009 and September 2015.

5 Review methods

Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis. Resulting attributes were explored from two geographically informed spatial perspectives.

6 Results

As main results, six attributes were identified and explored: Home as actor—capable of acting; emotional environment—something people have feelings for; place—a part of personal identity and a location; space—complex and relational spatial connections and a site for care; setting—passive background and absolute space; becoming—a fluid spatiality constantly folded. Examples of attributes and suggestions for further concept development were identified.

7 Conclusions

The concept reflects various sets of ideas as well as expressing both relational and absolute perspectives of space. The most challenging for nursing research and practice seems to be investigation, operationalization, and testing the implementation of sets of ideas reflecting a relational thinking of space.