Paper short abstract:

Care in the context of Parkinson's disease is grounded in and expressed through affective and relational practices. As neurodegeneration progresses, everyday care practices become increasingly intimate - and these intimacies are reflected through the preparation and sharing of food.

Paper long abstract:

Disabling and chronic conditions prompt transformations within individuals and between people. While a 'good life' is often sought, what constitutes this, how it can be achieved, and for whom it applies varies across cultural settings. This paper considers variance in these aspects in the context of Parkinson's disease, a common neurodegenerative disease. Practices of care are central to the 'moral laboratories' which comprise the everyday experiences of people living with Parkinson's. Participants in my study often spoke of soup - developing recipes, making the soup, and the shared experience of eating in the mobile Parkinson's body. Attending to soup allows an exploration of the phenomenological uncertainties that characterise everyday life, while simultaneously representing the search for a good life. In this paper, I explore the complex relations between people, with and between bodies, and shaped by broader contexts in creating an inhabitable world in which a 'good life' can be made possible by focusing on the relational, affective and contextual transformations of interpersonal encounters that arise as a result of chronic illness or disability.