Digitization of Aging-in-Place: An International Comparison of the Value-Framing of New Technologies

Barbara L. Marshall, Nicole K. Dalmer, Stephen Katz, Eugene Loos, Daniel López Gómez and Alexander Peine
Additional contact information
Barbara L. Marshall: Department of Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9L 0G2, Canada
Nicole K. Dalmer: Department of Health, Aging and Society McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M4, Canada
Stephen Katz: Department of Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9L 0G2, Canada
Eugene Loos: School of Governance, Utrecht University, 3511 ZC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Daniel López Gómez: Department of Psychology and Education, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Open University of Catalonia, 08018 Barcelona, Spain
Alexander Peine: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands

Societies, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Planning for aging populations has been a growing concern for policy makers across the globe. Integral to strategies for promoting healthy aging are initiatives for ‘aging in place’, linked to services and care that allow older people to remain in their homes and communities. Technological innovations—and especially the development of digital technologies—are increasingly presented as potentially important in helping to support these initiatives. In this study, we employed qualitative document analysis to examine and compare the discursive framing of technology in aging-in-place policy documents collected in three countries: The Netherlands, Spain, and Canada. We focus on the framing of technological interventions in relation to values such as quality of life, autonomy/independence, risk management, social inclusion, ‘active aging’, sustainability/efficiency of health care delivery, support for caregivers, and older peoples’ rights. The findings suggest that although all three countries reflected common understandings of the challenges of aging populations, the desirability of supporting aging in place, and the appropriateness of digital technologies in supporting the latter, different value-framings were apparent. We argue that attention to making these values explicit is important to understanding the role of social policies in imagining aging futures and the presumed role of technological innovation in their enactment.

Keywords: aging in place; technology; social policy; Canada; Netherlands; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/2/35/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/2/35/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:35-:d:758851

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().