From this grew Lee’s Phd: qualitative research in two care homes in southern England, which found that residents with dementia often moved in directly from hospital, without a chance to go home and select possessions. They were frequently excluded from the decision-making process and objects were even removed from their rooms without their knowledge or permission. In the risk-averse atmosphere of residential care, says Lee, few residents had access to functional objects, let alone freedom to use them as they wished. She concluded that a better understanding of “material citizenship” could “support a rights-based approach to dementia care by using functional objects as an enabler to balance protection and empowerment”.