Aging and the Digital Life Course

by David Prendergast (Editor), Chiara Garattini (Editor)

Overview

Across the life course, new forms of community, ways of keeping in contact, and practices for engaging in work, healthcare, retail, learning and leisure are evolving rapidly. Breaking new ground in the study of technology and aging, this book examines how developments in smart phones, the internet, cloud computing, and online social networking are redefining experiences and expectations around growing older in the twenty-first century. Drawing on contributions from leading commentators and researchers across the world, this book explores key themes such as caregiving, the use of social media, robotics, chronic disease and dementia management, gaming, migration, and data inheritance, to name a few.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785335013
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	06/01/2017
Series:	Life Course, Culture and Aging: Global Transformations , #3
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

David Prendergast is a social anthropologist based at Intel Labs Europe and a Principal Investigator in the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities with Imperial College and UniversityCollege London. He also holds the position of Visiting Professor of Healthcare Innovation at Trinity College Dublin.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Critical Reflections on Ageing and Technology in the Twenty-First Century
Chiara Garattini and David Prendergast

Part I: Connections, Networks and Interactions

Chapter 1. Social Media and the Age-Friendly Community
Philip B. Stafford

Chapter 2. Exploring New Technologies through Playful Peer-to-Peer Engagement in Informal Learning
Josie Tetley, Caroline Holland, Verina Waights, Jonathan Hughes, Simon Holland and Stephanie Warren

Chapter 3. Older People and Constant Contact Media
Rachel S. Singh

Chapter 4. Beyond Determinism: Understanding Actual Use of Social Robots by Older People
Louis Neven and Christina Leeson

Part II: Health and Wellbeing

Chapter 5. Designing Technologies for Social Connection with Older People
Joseph Wherton, Paul Sugarhood, Rob Procter and Trisha Greenhalgh

Chapter 6. Avoiding the ‘Iceberg Effect’: Incorporating a Behavioural Change Approach to Technology Design in Chronic Illness
John Dinsmore

Chapter 7. Supporting a Good Life with Dementia
Arlene Astell

Chapter 8. Home Telehealth: Industry Enthusiasm, Health System Resistance and Community Expectations
Sarah Delaney and Claire Somerville

Chapter 9. Analysing Hands-on-Tech Care Work in Telecare Installations. Frictional Encounters with Gerontechnological Designs
Daniel López and Tomás Sánchez-Criado

Part III: Life Course Transitions

Chapter 10. Caregiving in the Digital Era
Madelyn Iris and Rebecca Berman

Chapter 11. Digital Storytelling and the Transnational Retirement Networks of Older Japanese Adults
Mayumi Ono

Chapter 12. Digital Games in the Lives of Older Adults
Bob De Schutter, Julie A. Brown and Henk Herman Nap

Chapter 13. Digital Ownership across Lifespans
Wendy Moncur

Notes on Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

2016 CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE

“Editors Prendergast and Garattini have done an outstanding job bringing to the forefront what it means to age in a digital world. They have broken new ground inasmuch as they explore an everyday phenomenon as an extension of the life course. This text provides a clear path to considering and possibly understanding multiple ways of knowing and assigning meaning to aging… Highly recommended.” • Choice

“…a candid look at how technology can and is being used in our aging society. Taken as a collection, these essays make a powerful case for the potential of thoughtful technologies to improve the quality of life of older adults, whether they are aging in place independently or being cared for by family or a professional caregiver.” • Huffington Post

“…this book gives a powerful takeaway thought for future research in the aging field: People want to focus on what they can do. Nobody of any age likes to feel they are a burden.” • Anthropology Notebooks

“[This volume] is unreservedly recommended as a critically important addition to both community and academic library collections.” • Midwest Book Review

“Aging and the Digital Life Course provides an interesting and often thought-provoking read… The editors have succeeded in assembling an engaging and effective compilation from amidst the range of material that might have been included. The authors write clearly and accessibly about their subjects, allowing a wide range of readers (e.g. policymakers, practitioners and academics in engineering, health and social care) to get quickly to grips with a huge diversity of facts and concepts… The chapters are factually well-informed and also theoretically articulated, although some stand out.” • Anthropology and Action

“This book presents us with an interesting study of how various technologies, including web-based tools and information and communication technologies, are embedded in particular social processes and experiences of aging and the life course. Instead of taking the usual position that ‘technology’ is something that is consumed and thrust upon us… this book shows how technologies are themselves a set of relations and processes that are open to change.” • Philip Kao, University of Pittsburgh

“…a comprehensive view of a topic that is becoming increasingly important in health care but is often misunderstood and/or undervalued. It presents the actual/potential use of technology for enhancing the lives of older people and their caregivers.” • Catherine McCabe, Trinity College Dublin

From the Publisher