This anthology contributes to creating awareness on how digital ageism operates in relation to the widely spread symbolic representations of old and young age around digital technologies, the (lack ...of) representation of diverse older individuals in the design, development, and marketing of digital technologies and in the actual algorithms and datasets that constitute them. It also shows how individuals and institutions deal with digital ageism in everyday life. In the past decades, digital technologies permeated most aspects of everyday life. With a focus on how age is represented and experienced in relation to digital technologies leading to digital ageism, digitalisation’s reinforcement of spirals of exclusion and loss of autonomy of some collectives is explored, when it could be natural for a great part of society and represent a sort of improvement. The book addresses social science students and scholars interested in everyday digital technologies, society and the power struggles about it, providing insights from different parts of the globe. By using different methods and touching upon different aspects of digital ageism and how it plays out in contemporary connected data societies, this volume will raise awareness, challenge power, initiate discussions and spur further research into this field. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Explores the use of technology among Indigenous older adults living in rural and remote communities in order to address barriers to ageing in place and living with dementia. Source: National Library ...of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Ageing with Smartphones in Uganda is based on a 16-month ethnography about experiences of ageing in a neighbourhood in a diverse neighbourhood in Kampala, Uganda. It examines the impact of ...smartphones and mobile phones on older people’s health and everyday lives as part of the global 'Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing' project. In taking the lens of the smartphone to understand experiences of ageing in this context, the monograph presents the articulation and practice of ‘togetherness in the dotcom age’. Taking a ‘convivial’ approach, which celebrates multiple ways of knowing about social life, Charlotte Hawkins draws from these expressions about cooperative morality and modernity to consider the everyday mitigation of profound social change. ‘Dotcom’ is understood to encompass everything from the influence of social media to urban migration and lifestyles in the city, to shifts in ways of knowing and relating. At the same time, dotcom tools such as mobile phones and smartphones facilitate elder care through, for example, regular mobile money remittances. This book explores how dotcom relates to older people’s health, in particular their care norms, social standing, values of respect and relatedness, and intergenerational relationships – both political and personal. It also re-frames the youth-centricity of research on the city and work, new media and technology, politics and service provision in Uganda. Through ethnographic consideration of everyday life and self-formation in this context, the monograph seeks to contribute to an ever-incomplete understanding of how we relate to each other and to the world around us. Praise for Ageing with Smartphones in Uganda ‘Offering a fresh perspective on the lives of older people in Kampala, this book critically explores the intersection between aging, urbanism and technology, and acts as a clarion call for scholars, policymakers and researchers to understand the everyday lives of older people in Africa.’ Josiah Taru, Great Zimbabwe University
This book presents a typology that explains the diversity of ICT usage seen in older adults. It examines older adult use of everyday Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across multiple ...life contexts (work, family, leisure, and community) allowing readers to understand how the growing aging population will use ICTs in their daily lives. The author offers a useful framework to practitioners (both in community based and institutional settings) who work with older adults to fully understand how technological interventions will be taken up.
If we want to understand contemporary China, the key is through
understanding the older generation. This is the generation in China
whose life courses almost perfectly synchronised with the emergence
...and growth of the 'New China' under the rule of the Communist Party
(1949). People in their 70s and 80s have double the life expectancy
of their parents' generation. The current oldest generation in
Shanghai was born in a time when the average household could not
afford electric lights, but today they can turn their lights off
via their smartphone apps. Based on 16-month ethnographic fieldwork
in Shanghai, Ageing with Smartphones in Urban China
tackles the intersection between the 'two revolutions' experienced
by the older generation in Shanghai: the contemporary
smartphone-based digital revolution and the earlier communist
revolutions. We find that we can only explain the smartphone
revolution if we first appreciate the long-term consequences of
these people's experiences during the communist revolutions. The
context of this book is a wide range of dramatic social
transformations in China, from the Cultural Revolution to the
individualism and Confucianism in Digital China. Supported by
detailed ethnographic material, the observations and analyses
provide a panoramic view of the social landscape of contemporary
China, including topics such as the digital and everyday life,
ageing and healthcare, intergenerational relations and family
development, community building and grassroots organizations,
collective memories and political attitudes among ordinary Chinese
people.
This is an open access book Considers user competence, context, and mediating influences on ICT innovation in a developing country context Presents baseline data of older South Africans' ICT use, ...with templates and examples Ties together discussions on low-cost technology development with sustainability goals
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Technology is quickly becoming an integral part of care systems across the world and is frequently cited in policy discourse as pivotal ...for solving the ‘crisis’ in care and delivering positive outcomes. Exploring the role of technology in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, this book examines how technology contributes effectively to the sustainability of these different care systems, which are facing similar emergent pressures, including increased longevity, falling fertility and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers the challenges and opportunities of embedding technologies in care systems and the subsequent outcomes for older and disabled service users, carers and the care workforce.
With people living longer all over the world, ageing has been
framed as a socio-economic problem. In Brazil, older people are
expected to remain healthy and autonomous while actively
participating in ...society. Based on ethnographic research in São
Paulo, Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Brazil shows how
older people in a middle-class neighbourhood conciliate these
expectations with the freedom and pleasures reserved for the Third
Age. Work is what bonds this community together, providing a sense
of dignity and citizenship. Smartphones have become of great
importance to the residents as they search for and engage in new
forms of work and hobbies. Connected by a digital network, they
work as content curators, sharing activities that fill their
schedule. Managing multiple WhatsApp groups is a job in itself, as
well as a source of solidarity and hope. Friendship groups help
each to download new apps, search for medical information and
guidance, and navigate the city. Together, they are reinventing
themselves as volunteers, entrepreneurs and influencers, or they
are finding a new interest that gives their later life a purpose.
The smartphone, which enables the residents to share and discuss
their busy lives, is also helping them, and us, to rethink the very
representation of ageing.
