Ageing Societies and Technological Innovation

Juliane Jarke
Additional contact information
Juliane Jarke: University of Bremen

A chapter in Co-creating Digital Public Services for an Ageing Society, 2021, pp 5-13 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Demographic ageing has been declared one of the main challenges for countries in the Global North by politicians, journalists, industry and academia alike. Many frame ageing as a problem that needs a technological fix and most digital technologies designed for older adults, reproduce images about old age defined by ill health, deficits and limitations. Digital public services are no different. However, scholars in critical and social gerontology argue that most of the alarmist rhetoric around demographic ageing and projected social implications are based on flawed assumptions about older people (e.g. their ability to contribute to their communities) and the ageing process (e.g. as solely described in terms of decline and long-term care needs). This chapter reviews dominant concepts about ageing societies, older adults and technological innovation. It argues, that engaging older adults in design processes, allows for alternative measures and attributes of “success” in later life and that participatory approaches can reconfigure how and which imaginaries and social practices are being scripted into technologies.

Keywords: Ageing society; Technology acceptance; Older adults; Gerontechnology; New materialism; Technological fix; Older users (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:paitcp:978-3-030-52873-7_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030528737

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-52873-7_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Public Administration and Information Technology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().