Why here? Contextualizing care relocation of German-speaking seniors to the Czech borderlands

Based on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork combining participant observation in care homes and interviews with managers and local authorities, in this dissertation I examine the relocation of German-speaking seniors to private care homes in the Czech borderlands. Building on sociomaterial approaches and the anthropology of organization, it conceptualizes care relocation as a continuous and situated organizational process that both shapes and is shaped by broader structural conditions. Following the idea of contexting (Asdal and Moser 2012), I treat these conditions not as static backdrops but as actively mobilized through the activities of practitioners in the field and my own analytical practices that link processes, issues and practices in specific ways. I thus contextualize care relocation within historical, socioeconomic and policy conditions to show how the Czech borderlands emerge as a space where specific dynamics, once mobilized, enable the establishment of care relocation projects. This perspective moves beyond dichotomous understandings of East/West hierarchies and simplistic explanations such as “return migration” or cost differentials, contributing to debates on care relocation, sociomaterial care studies, and, more broadly, institutional care.