Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies
As a growing body of work has documented, digital technologies are central to the imagining of aging futures. In this study, we offer a critical, theoretical framework for exploring the dynamics of power related to the technological tracking, measuring, and managing of aging bodies at the heart of...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Linköping University Electronic Press
2022-04-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Ageing and Later Life |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ijal.se/article/view/3499 |
| _version_ | 1811330195363201024 |
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| author | Nicole Dalmer Kirsten Ellison Stephen Katz Barbara Marshall |
| author_facet | Nicole Dalmer Kirsten Ellison Stephen Katz Barbara Marshall |
| author_sort | Nicole Dalmer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
As a growing body of work has documented, digital technologies are central to the imagining of aging futures. In this study, we offer a critical, theoretical framework for exploring the dynamics of power related to the technological tracking, measuring, and managing of aging bodies at the heart of these imaginaries. Drawing on critical gerontology, feminist technoscience, sociology of the body, and socio-gerontechnology, we identify three dimensions of power relations where the designs, operations, scripts, and materialities of technological innovation implicate asymmetrical relationships of control and intervention: (1) aging bodies and the power of numbers, (2) aging spaces and the power of surveillance, and (3) age care economies and gendered power relations. While technological care for older individuals has been promoted as a cost-effective way to enhance independence, security, and health, we argue that such optimistic perspectives may obscure the realities of social inequality, agist bias, and exploitative gendered care labour.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T15:57:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-25db06063091407b9abce2ce19d4935a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1652-8670 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T15:57:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Linköping University Electronic Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Ageing and Later Life |
| spelling | doaj.art-25db06063091407b9abce2ce19d4935a2022-12-22T02:40:38ZengLinköping University Electronic PressInternational Journal of Ageing and Later Life1652-86702022-04-0115210.3384/ijal.1652-8670.3499Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies Nicole Dalmer0Kirsten Ellison1Stephen Katz2Barbara Marshall3McMaster UniversityTrent University Trent UniversityTrent University As a growing body of work has documented, digital technologies are central to the imagining of aging futures. In this study, we offer a critical, theoretical framework for exploring the dynamics of power related to the technological tracking, measuring, and managing of aging bodies at the heart of these imaginaries. Drawing on critical gerontology, feminist technoscience, sociology of the body, and socio-gerontechnology, we identify three dimensions of power relations where the designs, operations, scripts, and materialities of technological innovation implicate asymmetrical relationships of control and intervention: (1) aging bodies and the power of numbers, (2) aging spaces and the power of surveillance, and (3) age care economies and gendered power relations. While technological care for older individuals has been promoted as a cost-effective way to enhance independence, security, and health, we argue that such optimistic perspectives may obscure the realities of social inequality, agist bias, and exploitative gendered care labour. https://ijal.se/article/view/3499ageingcaredataficationembodimentgerotechnologypower |
| spellingShingle | Nicole Dalmer Kirsten Ellison Stephen Katz Barbara Marshall Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies International Journal of Ageing and Later Life ageing care datafication embodiment gerotechnology power |
| title | Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| title_full | Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| title_fullStr | Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| title_short | Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| title_sort | ageing embodiment and datafication dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies |
| topic | ageing care datafication embodiment gerotechnology power |
| url | https://ijal.se/article/view/3499 |
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