Digital Aging
MORE YEARS BETTER LIVES
Being Connected at Home:Â Digital Infrastructures of Health and Healthism in Later Life
Joint Programming Initiative, a collaboration with Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. Canadian work plan funded through CIHR MYB 155188
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Barbara L. Marshall, Principal Investigator
Stephen Katz, Co-Investigator
About this Project
This multinational project investigates fundamental changes in the contemporary experiences of later life, at the intersection of digital infrastructures, place and the experience of ‘being connected’. Researchers associated with the project are exploring and theorizing the role of a variety of digital communication devices in later life. The research also has a practical goal of making findings actionable, involving older people, policy makers and other stakeholders in processes of co-design.
In addition to contributing to cross-national research on the use of digital devices, the project based at Trent focuses on ‘smart’ mobile, interactive and home-based digital health and fitness technologies, such as mobile blood pressure monitors; wearable activity trackers; technologies to record and track bodily measures like sleep and heart rate; apps that track characterological routines based on diet, drinking, mood and behavior; and digital apps and technologies that promise cognitive improvement. We develop the theme of ‘being connected’ by exploring the connections between people, these devices, and discourses of expertise as these shape aging embodiment, and focus on ‘home’ as a significant site of engagement between consumers, biomedical expertise and discourses of responsible and ‘healthy’ citizenship (‘healthism’).
