Network members

Roser Beneito-Montagut, PhD Senior Lecturer, Cardiff School Social Sciences, UK Researchgate Webpage Twitter

I see myself mainly as a sociologist, especially engaging with media, communication and technology studies. I am a senior lecturer in the Cardiff School Social Sciences (UK) and a member of the research group CareNet at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). My current research focuses particularly on the topics of social connectedness and social media, digital later life, the digital ageing body and care in the networked society. I am interested in relations, emotions and affects. I have written about the socio-cultural and material dimensions of “being” and interacting online; emotions; methodological innovations in relation to the availability of digital data; and about digital later life and ageing.

Recent publications

López-Gómez, D., Beneito-Montagut, R. and García-Santesmases, A. 2020. No future for care without new digital media? Making time(s) for mediated informal care practices in later life. International Journal of Cultural Studies (10.1177/1367877920951818)

Beneito-Montagut, R., Cassián, N. and Begueria, A. 2018. What do we know about the relationship between Internet mediated interaction and social isolation and loneliness in later life?. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults 19(1), pp. 14-30. (10.1108/QAOA-03-2017-0008)

Beneito-Montagut, R., Begueria, A. and Cassian, N. 2017. Doing digital team ethnography: being there together and digital social data. Qualitative Research 17(6), pp. 664-682. (10.1177/1468794117724500)

 

Clara Berridge, PhD, MSW Assistant Professor, University of Washington, School of Social Work Researchgate Webpage

Clara’s research focuses on the ethical and policy implications of digital technologies used in elder care. She’s interested in value tensions in the use of monitoring technologies and predictive analytics and asks questions about how to promote sociotechnical practices in ways that do not marginalize, isolate, or diminish their participants, including care workers. Clara is Core Faculty of the University of Washington’s Disability Studies Program. Currently, she’s developing a free online tool to help families engage people with mild dementia in informed decisions about technologies used in their care (funded by the U.S. NIH) and examining the ethical aspects of using artificial companions to address loneliness. Her training includes an MSW, PhD in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research at Brown University. Her first research job involved standing at intersections in Philadelphia counting drivers on their cell phones back when we weren’t sure if it was a problem.

Recent publications

Berridge, C., Wetle, T.F. (2019). Why older adults and their children disagree about in-home surveillance technology, sensors, and tracking. The Gerontologist, doi:10.1093/geront/gnz068

Berridge, C., Halpern, J., Levy, K. (2019). Cameras on beds: the ethics of surveillance in nursing home rooms. AJOB Empirical Bioethics

Berridge, C. (2018). Medicaid becomes the first third-party payer to cover passive remote monitoring for home care: policy analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(2) e66. doi: 10.2196/jmir.9650

 

Andreas Bischof, PhD Chemnitz University of Technology Twitter: @analog_a Webpage

With a background in media communication, sociology and cultural anthropology, Andreas Bischof engages in interdisciplinary collaborations researching society and technology. Currently, he serves as Assistant Professor in Sociology of Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology and principal investigator in research projects. In 2019, he co-founded the „Network for Integrated Research“, which is part of the German Federal High Tech Strategy. As an advocate for transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, he aims to sensitize research policy and public funders for the chances and challenges of integrating people in technology development.

Recent publications

Bischof, A., Lipp, B. (2023, in preparation). The co-constitution of ageing and technology in the making. The case of PARO the care robot. Frontiers in Sociology. Research Topic: Socio-Gerontechnology – New Perspectives on the Digital Transformation of Later Life.

Hornecker, E., Krummheuer, A., Bischof, A., Rehm, M. (2022). Beyond dyadic HRI: building robots for society. interactions 29,3 (May – June 2022), 48–53.

Maibaum, A., Hergesell, J., Lipp, B., Bischof, A. (2022): A Critique of Robotics in Health Care. AI & Society 37: 467–477.

Hornecker, E., Bischof, A., Graf, P., Franzkowiak, L., & Krüger, N. (2020). The Interactive Enactment of Care Technologies and its Implications for Human-Robot-Interaction in Care. In Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society (pp. 1-11). https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3419249.3420103

 

Elena Comincioli, DA Student Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design, and Architecture Linkedin

My research aims at investigating how to improve the way design practitioners and researchers design interventions, case studies, products, or services aimed at an aging society. I am actively interested in understanding how positive emotions can pose a pivotal element in the design process and how they can help to overcome implicit ageism while designing. My published works focus on how to improve our everyday language and use storytelling to address and overcome ageism in the design process.

I am a doctoral student at Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. I graduated in Design from the University of the Arts London, at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. I am a member of the Swiss Doctoral School in Affective Sciences (CISA) at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society in the Program for the Medical Humanities, at the University of California Berkeley.

Recent publications

Comincioli, E., Hakoköngäs, E., & Masoodian, M. (2022). Identifying and Addressing Implicit Ageism in the Co-Design of Services for Aging People. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(13), 7667. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137667

Comincioli E, Chirico A, Gaggioli A and Masoodian M (2021) The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Approaching Ageing-Related Design Research and Practice. Front. Psychol. 12:750178.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.750178

Comincioli, E., Chirico, A., Masoodian, M. (2021). Improving the Language of Designing for Ageing. In: , et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12933. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_24

 

Michela Cozza, PhD Institutional affiliation Twitter: @MichelaCozza ResearchGate Webpage

Michela Cozza is a sociologist and STS scholar interested in analyzing the implications of digitalization on care practices and health infrastructures. She holds a doctoral degree in Information Systems and Organization. She is trained in practice-based approach and qualitative methodology to study processes of organizing that develop within an ecology of social, economic and sociomaterial relationships. Michela Cozza has experience of interdisciplinary research specifically focusing on feminist technoscience, inclusive design, art-based learning and knowing. She is a certified Lego Serious Play facilitator and is also trained to apply the Open Space Technology method. Michela Cozza’s research is also characterized by collaborations with territorial stakeholders working on welfare technology, and sustainable and responsible innovation.

Recent publications

Cozza, M., Cusinato, A., Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, A. (2019). Atmosphere in Participatory Design’, Science as Culture. doi:10.1080/09505431.2019.1681952

Cozza M., Crevani, L., Hallin, A., Schaeffer, J. (2018). Future ageing: welfare technology practices for our future older selves. Futures. The journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 109, 117-129. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2018.03.011

Cozza M. (2018). Interoperability and Convergence for Welfare Technology. In J. Zhou & G. Salvendy (Eds.), Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Applications in Health, Assistance, and Entertainment. ITAP 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 13-24). Springer, Cham. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92037-5_2

 

Marjolein E.M. den Ouden, PhD Institutional affiliation LinkedIn Researchgate Webpage

Marjolein den Ouden is a professor Technology, Health & Care at Saxion University of Applied Sciences and at ROC van Twente (vocational education). She has a background in Human Movement Sciences (University of Groningen, MSc) and epidemiology (University of Utrecht, MSc). In 2013 she defended her PhD thesis on ‘disability in activities of daily living: a multifactorial approach’. In de past two years her research interest focusses on making the optimal match between humans and technology in the field of health and well-being. In interdisciplinary teams of professionals, researchers and technology developers we work on complex societal challenges, focusing on user-centered technology development and the adoption, acceptance and implementation of technology in health and well-being.

Recent publications

van Het Bolscher-Niehuis, M. J., den Ouden, M. E., de Vocht, H. M., & Francke, A. L. (2016). Effects of self-management support programmes on activities of daily living of older adults: A systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 61, 230–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.06.014

de Vocht, H. M., Hoogeboom, A. M., van Niekerk, B., & den Ouden, M. E. (2015). The impact of individualized interaction on the quality of life of elderly dependent on care as a result of dementia: a study with a pre-post design. Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders, 39(5-6), 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1159/000371874

 

Annette Franke, PhD Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Annette-Franke/research

Prof. Dr. Annette Franke is Professor of Public Health, Social Gerontology and Methods and Concepts of Social Work at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg. Her research focuses on social construction and heterogeneity of old age, social cohesion, old age wellbeing, transitions in the life course and senior entrepreneurship. She is also interested in long-distance caregiving and how family carers can be supported by different technologies and social networks.

Recent publications

Stypińska, J.; Franke, A. & Myrczik, J. (2019): Senior Entrepreneurship – The Unrevealed Driver for Social Innovation. Frontiers in Sociology, 4 (2019), DOI=10.3389/fsoc.2019.00030

Franke, A. (2020): Pflege aus der Distanz: Emotionale Herausforderungen und psychosoziale Bedarfe bei „Distance Caregivers“, Psychotherapie im Alter, 17 (2), 177-196. DOI: 10.30820/1613-2637-2020-2-177

Franke, A.; Kramer, B.; Jann, P. M.; van Holten, K.; Zentgraf, A.; Otto, U. & Bischofberger, I. (2019): Aktuelle Befunde zu „distance caregiving“. Was wissen wir und was (noch) nicht? Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 52 (6), 521-528.

 

Simone Anna Felding, PhD candidate German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE-Witten) and Witten/Herdecke University Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate Webpage

Simone Anna Felding is a PhD candidate at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE-Witten) and Witten/Herdecke University specializing in health, technology and dementia. She is a social anthropologist carrying out research into the implementation of social robots for people with dementia in nursing homes as part of the Marie-Curie ITN programme DISTINCT. Besides working at DZNE Witten, she is also collaborating with the Karolinska Institute, Alzheimer Europe and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen in her PhD

Recent publications

Koh, W.Q., Felding, S.A., Budak, K.B. et al. (2021). Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of social robots for older adults and people with dementia: a scoping review. BMC Geriatr 21, 351. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02277-9

Felding, S. A. & N. Schwennesen (2021). Bag skærmen på en digital platform: Kunstfærdigt Integrationsarbejde og nye samarbejdskonstellationer. Tidsskriftet Antropologi 82:19-36.

Felding, S. A. & N. Schwennesen (2019). Når omsorgen udliciteres: En analyse af den konfliktfyldte omsorgstrojka mellem mennesker med demens, pårørende og plejepersonale på et plejehjem i Danmark. Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund 16(30):123-149. https://doi.org/10.7146/tfss.v15i30.114771

 

Vera Gallistl, MA University of Vienna Twitter: @gallisv Webpage Webpage – ACT project

Vera Gallistl is a sociologist who works in the field of critical and cultural gerontology. In her work, she focuses on the theoretical and empirical exploration of ageing with digital technologies. She is an affiliated student in the ACT (Ageing+Communication+Technologies) project, where she is involved in the cross-national longitudinal study “Older Audiences in the Digital Media Environment” and a member of the DFG-funded early-career researcher network “Material Gerontology”. Theoretically, Vera Gallistl is concerned with introducing practice and cultural theories in ageing research. She currently works on her PhD project in which she explores the cultural field as a topic for (critical) gerontology (Working title: “Orchestrating Ageing – Doing Age in the Field of Cultural Production”) as well as several national and international research projects at the Department of Sociology at the University of Vienna.

Recent publications

Gallistl, V. & Wanka, A. (2019): Representing the “older end user”? Challenging the role of social scientists in the field of “active and assisted living.” International Journal of Care and Caring, 3 (1): 123 – 128. https://doi.org./10.1332/239788218X15411705865226.

Gallistl, V., Rohner, R., Seifert, A. & Wanka, A. (2020): Configuring the Older Non-User: Between Research, Policy and Practice of Digital Exclusion. Social Inclusion, 8, 2. doi: 10.17645/si.v8i2.2607.

Wanka, A. & Gallistl, V. (2018):  Doing Age in a Digitized World—A Material Praxeology of Aging with Technology. Frontiers in Sociology 3: 6. Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00006.

 

Miguel Gómez-Hernández, PhD Candidate Monash University (Australia) LindedIn Researchgate

I am a PhD candidate at the emerging technologies research lab at Monash University. I am interested in the intersection of ageing and the role of technology in older adults’ lives. My methods are often ethnographic including digital ethnography, participatory observation, gaming, co-creation, etc. My interests also lie in Russia, political systems and history.

I tend to apply my studies in real life’s scenarios and bridge my work with engineers, that’s why I studied the MSc Techno-Anthropology at AAU, after finishing the dual BA in sociology and political science at UC3M (doing 9-months exchange at JYU).

Recent publications

Gomez-Hernandez M, Adrian SW, Ferre X and Villalba-Mora E (2022) Implicit, Explicit, and Structural Barriers and Facilitators for Information and Communication Technology Access in Older Adults. Front. Psychol. 13:874025. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.874025

Gomez-Hernandez, M., Villalba-Mora, E. and Ferre, X. (2020) Use of Mobile Phones and Tablets amongst Spanish Seniors: Barriers and Motivations. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and E-Health, 50–58. Prague: SCITEPRESS. https://doi.org/10.5220/0009570400500058.

Gómez Hernández, M. (2020). Redes sociales en el país de origen y el trayecto migratorio. Gestión y formación audiovisual para crear contenidos en las redes sociales (pp. 701-718). McGraw-Hill Education.

 

Carla Greubel, MA Utrecht University LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-greubel-4a22901b3/ Webpage: https://www.uu.nl/staff/CSGreubel?t=0

Carla Greubel is a Ph.D. candidate at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Age Studies, working at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. In her dissertation, she studies enactments of ‘good ageing’ in and across three different but interrelated contexts: (1) the European ageing and innovation policy discourse, (2) two digital innovation projects in the context of health and ageing (GATEKEEPER, a H2020 large-scale implementation pilot on smart living environments, and VinclesBCN, an initiative of the city of Barcelona promoting social connectedness), and (3) the everyday lives of older citizens participating in these projects in Italy, the UK and Spain. Drawing on empirical ethics of care, in particular, she investigates how among different ideas about and practices of living a ‘good’ ageing life, some come to (temporarily) matter more while others are marginalised. Her methods include policy discourse analysis, qualitative interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork. Together with her team at Utrecht University, Carla is responsible for coordinating the co-creation line of activities in the GATEKEEPER project, including the design and preparation of two cycles of stakeholder engagement workshops organized in nine pilot regions across seven European countries. Carla is the secretary of the Socio-gerontechnology Network.

Recent publications

Greubel, C.; Moors, E.H.M.; Peine, A. (2021) From Mattering to Mattering More: ‘Goods’ and ‘Bads’ in Ageing and Innovation Policy Discourses. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18, 7596. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147596

Greubel, C. (2020). Caring through Sound and Silence: Technology and the Sound of Everyday Life in Homes for the Elderly. Anthropology & Aging 41:1. Link: https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2020.229

 

Alisa Grigorovich, PhD Postdoctoral fellow Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate

Alisa Grigorovich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University (St Catharines, Ontario, Canada).  She has a PhD in Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies from York University and training in social theory, qualitative and quantitative methodologies, policy analysis, and arts-based methods. Her research program focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of aging, with particular attention to wellbeing, social inclusion, and the use of technology across home and institutional care settings (e.g. smart speakers, real time location systems, cameras, personal alarms). Her research is theoretically informed and primarily conducted in collaboration with older adults, formal and informal caregivers, and other community-based stakeholders. She is currently engaged in research projects across two interconnected areas: 1) Technology for aging well and caregiving; 2) Arts and leisure in dementia care.

Recent publications

Berridge, C., Grigorovich, A. (2022). Algorithmic harms and digital ageism in the use of surveillance technologies in nursing homes. Frontiers in Sociology (Sociological Theory), 138. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2022.957246

Grigorovich, A., Kulandaivelu, Y., Newman, K., Iaboni, A., Khan, S., Iaboni, A., McMurray, J. (2021). Factors affecting the implementation, use, and adoption of Real-Time Location System Technology for persons living with cognitive disabilities in long-term care homes: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(1). https://www.jmir.org/2021/1/e22831

Grigorovich, A., Kontos, P. (2020). Towards responsible implementation of monitoring technologies in institutional care. The Gerontologist, 60(7), 1194–1201. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnz190

 

Kate Hamblin, Dr KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Twitter LinkedIn Researchgate Webpage

Research Fellow at the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities, University of Sheffield. She joined the University of Sheffield in 2018 to work on the Sustainable Care programme. She currently leads the Centre for Care’s Digital Care research theme and is the Geographical Lead for the North/ East and the UK Networks lead for the IMPACT Implementation Centre.

Kate’s research has focused on technology and its role in and implications for care systems and relationships in the UK and further afield. Kate has also used qualitative methods to explore the experience and perspective of people with complex conditions (e.g. dementia, cognitive impairment, dual-sensory impairment), unpaid carers and care workers of using technologies in care arrangements. She has also conducted research with commissioners and providers of care services and designers and manufacturers of technology-enabled care devices.

Latest publications

Hamblin, K. A. (2022). Technology in care systems: Displacing, reshaping, reinstating or degrading roles?. New Technology, Work and Employment, 37(1), 41-58.

Hamblin, K. (2022). Sustainable Social Care: The Potential of Mainstream ‘Smart’ Technologies. Sustainability, 14(5), 2754.

Hamblin, K. (2020), Technology and social care in a digital world: challenges and opportunities in the UK. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 14 (2), 115-125.

 

Agnete Meldgaard Hansen, PhD. Roskilde University Twitter Webpage

My research focuses on care work and how new ideals and approaches to care transform especially eldercare practices. I have a background in sociology of work and primarily work with qualitative methods, especially interviews, ethnographic field studies and document analyses. My theoretical inspiration is drawn from critical sociological approaches to work, feminist care theories, and socio-material understandings of bodies and technologies in working life.
Since beginning my PhD in 2011, my research has focused on how active ageing and ‘reablement’-ideals change the bodywork of care, and care professionals’ identities and understandings of ‘good care’. In close relation to these changes, I have also explored how the use of new technologies in eldercare contributes to this development, studying how technologies such as wash-and-dry toilets, sensor-flooring, tele-care and virtual homecare change care practices. My current research focuses on how dignity and dignified care is articulated and pursued in eldercare policies and practices, and how new care technologies are related to these pursuits

Latest publications

Hansen, A. M. (2022). Dignity equals distance? Pursuing dignity in care for older adults. Ageing and Society, FirstView. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X21000891

Hansen, A. M., & Grosen, S. L. (2022). New Choreographies of Care: Understanding the Digital Transformation of Body Work in Care for Older People. In H. Hirvonen, M. Tammelin, R. Hänninen, & E. J. M. Wouters (Eds.), Digital Transformations in Care for Older People: Critical Perspectives (pp. 166-185). Routledge. Routledge Studies In The Sociology Of Health And Illness https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003155317-10

Grosen, S. L., & Hansen, A. M. (2021). Sensor-floors: Changing Work and Values in Care for Frail Older Persons. Science, Technology & Human Values, 46(2), 254-274.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243920911959

 

Lily Haopu Ren, MHLP, BSc. Roskilde University Twitter LinkedIn

I graduated from Master of Health Leadership and Policy (MHLP) in Seniors Care at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance (Honours) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. After graduation from MHLP, I received academic training in the fields of sociology, public health and business at UBC. Currently, I am the Knowledge Translation Lead and Telepresence Robot Project Manager at the UBC IDEA Lab-Innovation in Dementia and Aging Lab, and in charge of Knowledge Translation at the Dementia-inclusive Streets and Community Access, Participation and Engagement (DemSCAPE) Project.

My research is focused on understanding co-constitution of technology in facilities that provides digital care (for example, hospital) from an interdisciplinary approach.

 

Satu Heikkinen, PhD, Sociology Karlstad University, Sweden LinkedIn

Satu Heikkinen is associate professor of sociology at Karlstad University. Her research has focused on age and ageing in relation to topics such as mobility, sustainability, emotions and leisure. Her dissertation was a discourse analytical study on the categorization of older drivers in Swedish transportation policy. Later she became interested in bodily movements and dance, and has written several articles in the subject. She has recently become involved in research on digitalisation, ageing and care. She has worked as a research coordinator on ageing at the Department of Social and Psychological Studies in 2021 and later started the research group CriAgeing (Critical Studies on Age and Ageing) at Karlstad. She is a member of Digital Well research group, co-founder of E-MigrAgeing network (focusing on digitalisation, ageing and migration) and The EMER-network (Exploring Everyday Resistance in the Nordic Welfare State).

Recent publications

Heikkinen, S. & Wilinska, M. (2022). Dancing my age: Emotions, interactions and bodily sensations. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.804888
Heikkinen, S. (2021) Dancing through life in a changing world: life course, historical time and serious leisure, Leisure/Loisir, 45(2): 301–330, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14927713.2021.1874833
Heikkinen S. (2021). Om ålder i ålderism-debatten [On Age in the Ageism Debate]. Jönson, H. (red). Perspektiv på ålderism. Social Work Press. https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/publications/perspektiv-paa-aalderism(638e0b58-dd3c-4076-8bdc-3f7aebb45e05)/export.html

 

Lillian Hung, PhD School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Canada Twitter LinkedIn Researchgate Google Scholar

Dr. Lillian Hung is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her research examines how technology and the environment impact older people’s care experiences, especially those living with dementia. She engages her work in issues of social justice, diversity, and inclusion. She brings connectivity between academia and practice, working collaboratively with older people, decision-makers, and interprofessional practitioners to find technological solutions to pressing problems in care practice. Her recent project includes social robotics, iPad on Wheels, Silent Disco Headphones, and a Mobile App for Dementia Education. By researching with people with lived experiences together, she explores the science of coproduction for change.

Recent publications

Hung L & Mann J. (2020). Virtual special issue – Using touchscreen tablets for virtual connection. Dementia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220924578

Hung L, Chow B, O’Neill R, Wallsworth C, Horne N, Berndt A, Gregorio B, Mann J. Chaudhury H. (2020) The use of touchscreen tablets to support social connections and reduce responsive behaviors among people with dementia. Dementia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220922745

Hung L, Leitch S, Hung R, Phinney A. (2020) Creating dementia-friendly community for social inclusion: a scoping review protocol. BMJ. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035028

 

Picture by Beate C. Koehler

Juliane Jarke, PhD University of Graz Mastodon Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate Webpage

Juliane is a Professor of Digital Societies at the University of Graz, Austria. Her research attends to the increasing importance of digital data in the public sector, education and for ageing populations. Theoretically and conceptually, her research is situated in the areas of critical data studies, new materialism and feminist STS. Between 2014 and 2022, Juliane worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen, Germany where she co-founded the university’s Data Science Center. Juliane received her PhD from Lancaster University, UK and worked there as research associate at the Centre for the Study of Technology and Organisation (2013/2014). She was a visiting research fellow at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (February/March 2018) and the University of Bristol, UK (April/May and August/September 2022).

Recent publications

Manchester, H., & Jarke, J. (2022). Considering the role of material gerontology in reimagining technology design for ageing populations. In: International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 15(2), 181-213. → full paper (open access)

Bischof, A. & Jarke, J. (2021). Configuring the Older Adult: Instances of Shaping Age and Ageing through Digital Technology Design. In: Peine, A., Marshall, B.L., Marting, W. & Neven, L. (Eds.) Socio-Gerontechnology – Interdisciplinary critical studies of age and technology. Routledge. Open Access → full paper

Jarke, J. (2020). Co-creating Digital Public Services for an Ageing Society. Evidence for User-centric Design. Series: Information Technology and Public Administration. Springer. → Open Access ebook

 

Lucia Landolfi, PhD Student Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) & Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen LinkedIn

She is a PhD student in Social Theory, Digital Innovation and Public Policies at the Department of Political and Social Studies of the University of Salerno. Sociologist with a master’s degree in Sociology, and a master’s degree in Social Informatics obtained at the University of Ljubljana.
She does research on aging, specifically on the relationship between doctor and elderly patient with Parkinson’s in the digital healthcare, considering the impact of digital healthcare on patient empowerment, which allows daily care and self-management of symptoms, and at the same time relieving their suffering and those of caregivers.
Her research interests include sociology of health, gender and generation studies and science and technology studies, qualitative research methods.

Recent publications

Cersosimo G., Landolfi L. and Marra P. (2022) “Socialità e benessere nell’universo dei bambini. Frammenti di vita quotidiana al tempo del Covid19” [Sociality and well-being in the children’s world. Fragments of daily life in the time of Covid19]. Ledizioni, Milano

Cersosimo G. & Landolfi L. (2021), “How social media maintained sociality in the pandemic”, Social Sciences, Law, 14(63) 1: 99-112, doi.org/10.31926/but.ssl.2021.14.63.1.10.

Csesznek C., Cersosimo G., Landolfi L. (2020) “New challenges for the elderly. A note on socialization to ICT’s as an opportunity in the time of the COVID-19.” REVISTA ROMÂNĂ DE SOCIOLOGIE. XXXI, (1-2): 49-58, https://www.revistadesociologie.ro/content/nr-1-22020-2

 

Matthew Lariviere, PhD MPH Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Bristol Twitter Linkedin ResearchGate Webpage

Dr Matthew Lariviere is Lecturer in Social Policy in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Matthew is a social anthropologist whose teaching, research and scholarship examines the sociomateriality of digital technology and AI within futures of care and ageing. From 2018 – 2021, he held an ESRC Innovation Fellowship in the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities at the University of Sheffield. In 2020, Matthew received a New Research Pioneers Award in recognition for this research on emergent technologies to support ageing in place awarded by the N8 Research Partnership, a consortium of the eight most research-active universities in the North of England.

Deeply committed to interdisciplinary and non-academic engagement, Matthew has presented his work to academics, policy and practice partners, and the public across the UK, Europe, Australia, and North America. He is the Chair and EU representative for IDIH Global’s Inclusive Living Expert Group, an international consortium and fora for digital technology and healthy ageing, and a Co-Convenor of the European Association of Social Anthropologists’ Age and Generations Network.

Matthew is an elected Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Association.

Recent publications

Lariviere M, Poland F, Woolham J, Newman S & Fox C. (2021). Placing assistive technology and telecare in everyday practices of people with dementia and their caregivers: findings from an embedded ethnography of a national dementia trial. BMC Geriatrics 21, 121.

Nicholas, L., Donnellan, W., Lariviere, M., and Lewis, M. (2021) Lessons from lockdown: What next for online carer support? Mobilise Care Ltd: London.

Gathercole R, Bradley R, Harper E, Davies L, Pank L, Lam N, Davies A, Talbot E, Hooper E, Winson R, Scutt B, Montano VOrdonez, Nunn S, Lavelle G, Lariviere M, Hirani S, Brini S, Bateman A, Bentham P, Burns A, Dunk B, Forsyth K, Fox C, Henderson C, Knapp M, Leroi I, Newman S, O’Brien J, Poland F, Woolham J, Gray R & Howard R. (2021). Assistive technology and telecare to maintain independent living at home for people with dementia: the ATTILA RCT. Health Technology Assessment 25(19):1-156.

 

Dr. Karin van Leersum Open Universiteit Linkedin Researchgate

I just started as a postdoc researcher of Alexander Peine on the theme artificial intelligence, in particular AI and old age (agism) and AI in healthcare. The project is still under development, but will explore how AI shapes and is shaped by new forms of practicing health, providing care, and remaining socially connected as we get older.

I was involved in the TOPFIT CitizenLab program at the University of Twente. This was a research and innovation program with a focus on citizen science. In addition to researching citizen science methodologies, I have researched how diverse groups of citizens integrate innovations and new forms of information and data into their daily lives.

In September 2021 I defended my PhD at Maastricht University. “What matters to me” – Research into preference elicitation for clients in need of long-term care. In 2015 I completed two masters at the University of Twente, Technical Medicine and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society. Before I started my PhD, I was a research assistant in marine biology (project in the Seychelles) and cognitive neuroscience (at the University of Twente).

Recent publications

Bults, M., van Leersum, C.M., Olthuis, T.J.J., Bekhuis, R.E.M., den Ouden, M.E.M. (2023). Mobile health apps for control and self-management of Diabetes type 2: A qualitative study on users’ acceptability and acceptance. JMIR Diabetes. 8, [e41076]. http://doi.org/10.2196/41076.

van Leersum, C.M., Bults, M., Sloof, M., Pouwe, F., van Manen, J.G., Konijnendijk, A. (2021). Patiëntparticipatie bij de ontwikkeling en toepassing van e-health: Bereidheid en voorkeuren van mensen met diabetes mellitus type 2. Tijdschrift voor gezondheidswetenschappen. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12508-021-00313-y.

van Leersum, C.M., Moser, A. , van Steenkiste, B., Wolf, J.R.L.M., van der Weijden, T. (2021). Clients and professionals elicit long-term care preferences by using ‘What matters to me’: A process evaluation in the Netherlands. Health and Social Care in the Community. 00, 1-11. http://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13509.

 

Annette Leibing, PhD, Professor Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University of Munich Webpage

Annette Leibing is a medical anthropologist (PhD U Hamburg, Germany), who had her first academic position at the Institute of psychiatry at the Federal U Rio de Janeiro. There she founded and directed, during five years, the CDA – a multidisciplinary centre for mental health and aging, with a special focus on dementia.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University (Dept. Social Studies of Medicine), she is now full professor at the Nursing faculty at Université de Montréal. Her research focuses on issues related to aging, by studying – as an anthropologist – Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, aging and psychiatry, pharmaceuticals, elder care and, stem cells for the body in decline, among others.

At the moment, her research focuses mainly on the prevention of dementia in different national and social contexts – undertaken in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland (and, part of a different project, also in Brazil). One focus of this project are digital biomarkers and preventive technologies.

Recent publications

Leibing, A. and Virginie Tournay (eds.). Les technologies de l’espoir: La fabrique d’une histoire à accomplir. Québec: PUL, 2010.

Leibing, A. and Silke Schicktanz (eds.). Preventing Dementia? Critical perspectives on a new paradigm of preparing for old age. New York/Oxford, UK: Berghahn, 2021

Leibing, A., Tournay V, Aisengart Menezes R et RF Zorzanelli – How to fix a broken heart: Cardiac disease and the ‘multiverse’ of stem cell research in Canada. BioSocieties 11(4): 435–457, 2016.

 

Yongjian Li, PhD, Professor Department of Media & Communication, Erasmus University Twitter Linkedin Researchgate Webpage

Yongjian Li is a PhD candidate at the Department of Media & Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His work focuses on the theoretical and empirical exploration of ageing with digital technologies. His research focuses on how communication technologies shape mobility and sociocultural lifestyles from a critical gerontology perspective. Yongjian is currently working on his PhD project in which he explores elderly place-making and mobility in the current digital era (working title: ICTs for integration: Digital Media and Internal Migration in Contemporary China). Moving beyond the ‘global north’ intersectional context of ageing and migration, he investigates the interactive practices of elderly migrants’ adoption of digital technologies, and how they engage with new forms of possibilities and mobilities enabled by ICTs to pursue active and healthy ageing.

Recent publications

Li, Y., & Alencar, A. (2022). A tale of two cities: digital place-making and elderly Houniao migration in China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2115630

He, G., Leurs, K., & Li, Y. (2022). Researching Motherhood in the Age of Short Videos: Stay-at-Home Mothers in China Performing Labor on Douyin. Media and Communication, 10(3), 273-289. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i3.5510

Li, Y. (2023). Book Review: (Im)mobile Homes: Family Life at a Distance in the Age of Mobile Media. New Media & Society, 25(1), 252–254. https://doi-org.eur.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/14614448221128034

 

 

Dr. Benjamin Lipp, Postdoc Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University of Munich Twitter ResearchGate Webpage

Benjamin is a sociologist by training and holds a doctorate in Science and Technology Studies from the Technical University of Munich. His research focuses on the manifold interconnections between information and communication technology (ICT) and healthcare. He is motivated by a conceptual interest in the techno-political condition of contemporary society, marked by attempts to ever more intimately interfacing technology and society, ICT and ageing. In his doctoral thesis, he has critically engaged with the European ageing-and-innovation discourse as well as with the techno-scientific practices of robotics innovation. From this, he has developed a conceptual framework of techno-politics that focuses on the relation between technology and contemporary political life. Many of today’s issues around ageing are thus configured by a new, overarching, decidedly techno-political rationality that views ICT, care, and older people as compatible. Enquiring into such claims is thus crucial in order to challenge and potentially re-wire the contemporary politics of ageing – and innovation. Motivated by this critical perspective, Benjamin engages the technical sciences on issues around responsibility, reflexivity, and co-creation. For example, he currently teaches within the MSc Programme on Neuro-Engineering and is part of the EU-funded research project SCALINGS, where he explores co-creative innovation processes in healthcare robotics.

Recent publications

Lipp, B. (2019). Interfacing RobotCare. On the Techno-Politics of Innovation. Doctoral thesis. Technical University of Munich.

Lipp, B., Maasen, S. (2019). Roboter in der Pflege als sozio-technisches Verschaltungs-problem. Theoretische Angebote der Technikforschung an die Pflege(wissenschaft). Pflege & Gesellschaft 24(3), 206–218.

Lipp, B. (2017). Analytik des Interfacing. Zur Materialität technologischer Verschaltung in prototypischen Milieus robotisierter Pflege. Behemoth 10(1). Freiburg, 107–129.

 

Magdalena Kania Lundholm, PhD Dalarna University, Sweden Researchgate Webpage

Magdalena Kania Lundholm is sociologist currently employed as Senior Lecturer at the School of Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Sweden. Her research combines sociology of communications and media, cultural sociology, critical internet studies, social theory and qualitative methods. Of particular interest are questions pertaining to digitalization as social change, digital inclusion and ICT (non)use among older people.

Recent publications

Kania-Lundholm, M. (2020, forthcoming). “The waves that sweep away: older ICT (non)-users’ experiences of digitalization”, in: Pentzold, C.Lohmeier, C., Kaun, A. (eds.), Beyond Chrono(dys)topias: Making Time for Digital Lives, Rowman & Littlefield.

Kania-Lundholm, M. (2019). “Slow side of the divide? Older non-users discussing social acceleration, social change and digital exclusion”, Special Issue on “Inequalities and Divides in Digital Cultures”, Digital Media & Society, 5(1):85-104.

Kania-Lundholm, M., Torres, S. (2018). “Ideology, power and inclusion: using the critical perspective to study how older ICT users make sense of digitization”, Media, Culture & Society, 40(8):1167-1185.

 

Doris Lydahl, PhD University of Gothenburg, Sweden Twitter: @DorisLinnea Webpage

I am a researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Department of Sociology and Work Science, with an interest in questions regarding care practices, technologies of care and medicine, and the home as a place of care. My research interest lies in the intersection of sociology and STS. Currently, I lead a 3-year research project about welfare technologies, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Welfare technology is the latest buzzword in Nordic health and welfare policy. It is imbued with hope to solve what has been called a twofold crisis of a rapidly ageing population on the one hand, and a care deficit on the other. In my explorative and ethnographic project I aim to explore the introduction of welfare technologies in Swedish municipal elderly care, with the aim to discern how care personnel and elderly persons interact with welfare technology, and what values and expectations about welfare, care work and technology are articulated.

Recent publications

Lydahl, D., Holmberg, S., Günther, K., & Ranta, J. (2020). Doing data together–affective relations and mobile ethnography in home visits. Qualitative Research, 1468794120917913.

Lydahl, D., & Hansen Löfstrand, C. (2020). Doing good: autonomy in the margins of welfare. Sociology of Health & Illness, 42(4), 892-906.

Lydahl, D. (2019). ‘It is not a pill’. Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 7(2), 4-14.

 

 

Wendy Martin, PhD Brunel University, UK LinkedIn Research Gate Webpage

Dr Wendy Martin is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences, Brunel University London. Her research focuses on ageing, embodiment, the digital and everyday life. She is Co-Investigator for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) international partnership ‘Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT): experiencing a digital world in later life’ and Collaborator for the SSHRC Insight Grant ‘Digital Culture and Quantified Aging’. Wendy is Co-Convenor of the British Sociological Association Ageing, Body and Society study group, member of the Executive Committee of the British Society of Gerontology, Co-Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology and a Founding Board member of the Socio-Gerontechnology Network (SGN).

Recent publications

Peine A, Marshall B, Martin W and Neven L. (2021) ‘Socio-gerontechnology – Key Themes, Future Agendas’ in Peine, Alexander, Marshall, Barbara, Martin, Wendy and Neven, Louis (editors) Socio-gerontechnology Interdisciplinary Critical Studies of Ageing and Technology. Abingdon. Routledge

Peine A, Marshall BL, Martin W, Neven L. editors (2021) Socio-gerontechnology Interdisciplinary Critical Studies of Ageing and Technology Abingdon. Routledge

Pilcher, K and Martin, W (2020) ‘Forever ‘Becoming’? Negotiating Gendered and Ageing Embodiment in Everyday Life’ Sociological Research Online. 25 (4) 698-717

 

Hannah R- Marston, PhD Open University, UK LinkedIn Research Gate Webpage

Hannah R. Marston conducts interdisciplinary research and holds a PhD from Teesside University, UK in virtual reality and gerontology. Since 2010 Hannah has worked in Canada and Germany as a researcher, prior to moving back to the UK in 2015. She has published over 40 peer reviewed journal papers, and most recently she was part of the ‘The Smart Homes and Independent Living Commission’. Her research areas include gerontechnology, UX of technologies and videogames, gender, age-friendly cities, and communities and in 2020 Hannah led an international, multi-site COVID-19 research project focusing on technology use.
Hannah is the lead author of a forthcoming book ‘Transgenerational Technologies and Interactions for the 21st Century: Perspectives and Narratives’ and is co-produced with Age Northern Ireland, and Spektrum (Barcelona, Spain).
Hannah’s publications include gender and videogames, digital health, technology use and adoption from both national and international perspectives. She is the author of the critical paper ‘Who Doesn’t Think about Technology When Designing Urban Environments for Older People? A Case Study Approach to a Proposed Extension of the WHO’s Age-Friendly Cities Model’, in which she and van Hoof propose a new framework in a bid to move AFCC discourse forward into the future.

Recent publications

van Hoof, J., Marston, H.R., Kazak, J.K., & Buffel, T. (2021). Ten Questions Concerning Age-Friendly Cities and Communities and the Built Environment. Building and Environment; 107922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107922

Marston, H.R., Niles-Yokum, K., Silva, P.A. (2021). A Commentary on Blue Zones®: A Critical Review of Age-Friendly Environments in the 21st Century and Beyond. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health; 2021, 18, 837. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020837

Marston, H.R., Shore, L., & White, P. (2020). How does a (Smart) Age-Friendly Ecosystem Look in a Post-Pandemic Society? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 17, 8276. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17218276

 

Prof. Dr. Anne Meißner University of Hildesheim LinkedIn Research Gate Webpage

Experienced scientist and practician in nursing and care with a demonstrated history of clinicial experience, academic research, higher education, and in the health care industry. Skilled in geriatric care, palliative care, technologies in care, and healthcare research. Strong operations professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in Nursing Research from University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.

Anne’s research focuses on the implications of technologies in nursing and care. She’s interested in how technology is supporting nursing and care and asks questions about what part of care is technology able to complement in a sensible and pioneering path and how. Currently, she’s developing a MOOC for nurses to ensure digital competencies and enable 1.2 MIO nurses in Germany integrating technology beneficially in the service mission – or reject technology in justified cases. The MOOC innovatively uses badges, micro-learning units and AI (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, funding code 21INVI09).

She is interested in new ideas regarding research and teaching projects, creative collaboration, (to) discuss, find, create solutions for the challenges of today and of the future.

Recent publications

Meißner, A.; McNair, S. (2021): Ageing and technologies – Creating a vision of care in times of digitisation. Results of a fast-track process of the Joint Programming Initiative “More Years; Better Lives”. A paper for policy makers. https://doi.org/10.25528/060 (Open Access)

Meißner, A., & Kunze, C. (Ed.) (2021). Neue Technologien in der Pflege. Wissen, Verstehen, Handeln. Kohlhammer

Meißner, A. (Ed.) (2020): Ageing and technologies – Creating a vision of care in times of digitization. Results of a fast-track process of the Joint Programming Initiative “More Years, Better Lives”. https://dx.doi.org/10.25528/051 (Open Access)

 

Naonori Kodate, PhD University College Dublin, Ireland Twitter: @NaoKody LinkedIn Researchgate Webpage

Nao is not a robot (https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/nao) but an Associate Professor in Social Policy at University College Dublin, Ireland (UCD) and founding Director of UCD Centre for Japanese Studies (UCD-JaSt)! He holds a BA (International Relations) and LL.M from the University of Tokyo, MSc in European Politics and Policy, and a Ph.D in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research covers comparative public policy, and science, technology and society (STS), particularly in the use of eHealth (e.g. home care robots), patient safety, and gender equality in STEM.
He is currently the Principal Investigator of a two-year, Toyota Foundation-funded international research project “Harmonisation towards the establishment of Person-centred, Robotics-aided Care System (HARP: RoCS)”. The project compares policies and cultural aspects around the use of robotics-aided care for older people in Europe and East Asia. Nao is a founding member and on the Board of Councillors for the multidisciplinary group, Future Technologies for Integrated Care Research Network (FTIC), Japan. Nao is also affiliated to la Fondation France-Japon (FFJ), l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Education and Innovation in Health Systems (IRIS), and the Universal Accessibility & Ageing Research Centre in Japan.

Recent publications

Obayashi, K., Kodate, N., & Masuyama, S. (2020). Can connected technologies improve sleep quality and safety of older adults and caregivers? An evaluation study of sleep monitors and communicative robots at a residential care home in Japan. Technology in Society, online first, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101318.

Obayashi, K., Kodate, N., & Masuyama, S. (2020). Measuring the impact of age, gender and dementia on communication-robot interventions in residential care homes. Geriatrics and Gerontology International 20(4): 373-378. DOI: 10.1111/ggi.13890 PMID: 32077237

Suwa, S., Tsujimura, M., Ide, H., Kodate, N., Ishimaru, M., Shimamura, A., & Yu, W. (2020). Home-care Professionals’ Ethical Perceptions of the Development and Use of Home-care Robots for Older Adults in Japan. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 36 (14): 1295-1303. doi:10.1080/10447318.2020.1736809.

 

Sanna Kuoppamäki, PhD Technology in Health Care, Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Twitter LinkedIn Researchgate Webpage

Dr. Sanna Kuoppamäki is an Assistant professor in Technology in Health Care, Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She has a PhD in sociology and experience in interdisciplinary research in medical engineering and Human-Computer Interaction in the design and development of user-centric digital technologies for health and wellbeing.

Her research interests include the adoption, use and implementation of digital technologies in the everyday life of older adults, with a focus on understanding user’s needs, skills and intentions and detecting the mechanisms of care provision to optimise care delivery in a patient-centric way. Recently, she has investigated Digital Home Care systems supporting the wellbeing and ageing-in-place for older adults, and the design on Digital Kitchen Technologies from the user-centric perspective as a part of Human-Robot manufacturing.

Recent publications

Kuoppamäki, S., Östlund, B. (2020). Digital mobile technology enhancing social connectedness among older adults in Sweden. In: Gao Q., Zhou J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technologies, Design and User Experience. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12207. Springer, Cham.

Kuoppamäki, S. (2018). Digital participation in service environments among senior electricity consumers in Finland. Technology in Society, 55 111-118.

Kuoppamäki, S., Taipale, S., Wilska, T-A. (2017). The use of mobile technology for online shopping and entertainment among older adults in Finland. Telematics and Informatics, 34(4), 110-117.

 

Gabrielle Lavenir, PhD candidate Concordia University Twitter: @GabrielleLaven1 Webpage

Gabrielle Lavenir is a PhD candidate in Concordia’s Social and Cultural Analysis program. Her research focuses on older people who play videogames, with an interest for what happens at the intersection of ageing and play, particularly in terms of subjectification and normativity. Her research also looks at the strategies of older adults who, stuck in the middle of several normative enterprises, still manage to make room for games.

Recent publications

Perks, M. E., Parker, F., Whitson, J. R., Simon, B., Lavenir, G., Yolgörmez, C., Browne, P., & Schram, B. (2019). Autonomy, Integration, and the Work of Cultural Intermediation in Indie Games. Media Industries Journal, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.3998/mij.15031809.0006.202

Lavenir, G., & Bourgeois, N. (2017). Older people, video games and the European French-language press : A topic model approach on a study about deviance, discipline and self-improvement. MedieKultur: Journal of Media & Communication Research, 33(63).

 

Daniel López, PhD Open University of Catalonia Twitter: @dlopezgom Webpage

Daniel López is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University of Catalonia. His work is placed at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Age Studies and Care Studies. His work is mainly devoted to the study of infrastructures and practices of care in later life, ranging from ICT-based systems such as telecare to community-led infrastructures such as senior cohousing or mutual-care initiatives. Theoretically, his work explores the biopolitics of aging and draws on Actor-network theory, poststructuralism and feminist technoscience. More recently, he got interested in self-tracking technologies, participatory sensing projects as well as maintenance and repair practices as infrastructural care. He is currently a board member of the Catalan Society for Geriatrics and Gerontology and senior researcher of the group CareNet at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3/UOC).

Recent publications

López Gómez, D., Estrada Canal, M., & Farré Montalà, L. (2020). Havens and Heavens of Ageing-in-Community: Home, Care and Age in Senior Co-housing. In B. Pasveer, O. Synnes, & I. Moser (Eds.), Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life (pp. 159-181). Singapore: Springer Singapore.

López Gómez, D. (2019). What if ANT wouldn’t pursue agnosticism but care? In A. Blok, I. Farías & C. Roberts (eds) The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory, London; NY: Routledge.

López Gómez, D. (2015). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 93, 91-101.

 

Helen Manchester, PhD University of Bristol Twitter: @helenmanchester Webpage

Helen Manchester is a Reader in Digital Inequalities and Urban Futures at the University of Bristol, UK. Helen is interested in digital exclusion, material cultures and re-imagining ‘care’. She develops methodologically innovative approaches to research, including co-design and co-creation, often working in interdisciplinary teams with artists, technologists, civil society organisations and policy-makers. Helen has led a number of Research Council UK funded projects, working with older people, including Tangible Memories: Community in care and Tangible Memories: Parlours of Wonder.

Recent publications

Manchester, H. and Barke, J. (2020) Regulating for careful knowledge production: researching older people, isolation and loneliness. In Mcdermont, M., Cole, T., Newman, J., & Piccini, A. Imagining Regulation Differently: co-creating regulation for engagement. Bristol: Policy Press.

Bates, V. L., Hickman, C., Manchester, H., Prior, J. & Singer, S., (2019) Beyond Landscape’s Visible Realm: Recorded sound, nature and wellbeing. Health and Place. (Available online 27 December 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2019.102271)

Manchester, H. (2018) Objects of Loss: Resilience and Continuity in Material Culture Relationships in Newman, A., Davenport, B. & Goulding, A. (2018) Creative Practice in the Resilience of Older People. Connected Communities Series: Bristol: Policy Press.

 

Louis Neven, PhD Avans University of Applied Sciences Linkedin Webpage

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist whose main interest is studying the relation between ageing and technology. I currently lead the Active Ageing research group at Avans University of Applied Sciences. In the past I have worked on the relation between ageing and robotics, nanotechnology, telecare and sustainable heating technologies. Along with the researchers of the Active Ageing “kenniskring”, I am currently involved in several projects which are all related to (practical) issues around innovations for older people. As such the Active Ageing research group serves as a hub between research, teaching and organisations and companies involved in care and innovation for older people. Questions that interest me are for instance how the ageing process is constructed and mediated by technologies; How gerontechnologies are designed and which (implicit) ideas are written into these technologies in this process; How older people respond to these technologies; How they (creatively) use or do not use these technologies and what practices and identities result from such (non-)use; How the needs, wants, roles and identities of older people can be understood in relation to technological design; And how we can translate such knowledge into various formats which are both useful and attractive for a design audience and for audiences of (future) professional care givers.

Recent publications

Bergschöld, J.M., Neven, L. and Peine, A. (2020), DIY gerontechnology: circumventing mismatched technologies and bureaucratic procedure by creating care technologies of one’s own. Sociol Health Illn, 42: 232-246. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.13012

Peine, A., Neven, L. (2018) From Intervention to Co-constitution: New Directions in Theorizing about Aging and Technology. The Gerontologist. 2018-5. (online ahead of print).

Neven, L., Peine, A. (2017) From Triple Win to Triple Sin: How a Problematic Future Discourse is Shaping the Way People Age with Technology. Societies, 7-3, 26.

 

Burcu Özdemir Ocaklı, PhD Social Work, Ankara University Linkedin Researchgate

Burcu Özdemir Ocaklı is an assistant professor of social work at Ankara University, Turkey. She has multiple degrees in social sciences including Political Science and Public Administration (BA), Social Work (MSW), Comparative Social Policy (MSc) and Sociology (PhD), which of the latter two are obtained from the University of Oxford in the UK. Her research interests include sociology of ageing, social policies for older people and gerontological social work. She is currently leading a research project on “Digital Inequalities and Techno-stress in Turkey: Understanding Socio-Demographic Factors”, funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK-122K021). Objectives of the research project include identifying socio-demographic factors that aggravate digital inequalities and technostress among older people and understanding the lived experiences of digital inequalities and technostress among older people. In addition to this project, currently she is leading a qualitative research on digital violence against older people to understand lived experiences of digital violence against older people and their management strategies to prevent/deal with such violence. Furthermore, she recently participated in a project (European Agenda for Adult Learning Project 6) led by the Turkish Ministry of Education where improving older adults’ digital skills was one of the main objectives.

Recent publications

Özdemir Ocaklı, B. (2022). Age Discrimination in Employment: Age Discrimination in Employment: Lack of Legislation in Turkey. In Gözde Yılmaz (Ed.), Non-discrimination in Turkey: From Europeanization to Policy Transfer. Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, 145-164.

Yalçın, B. & Özdemir Ocaklı, B. (2021). Old Age Poverty in Turkey in the Scope of Income, Purchasing Power and Solvency. Old Age Poverty. Ed. Prof. Dr. Cem Ergun. Türkiye Gerontology Series. Nobel Yayınevi.

Özdemir Ocaklı, B. (2019) “Empowering Older Women: Social Work Intervention with the Survivors of Violence” Violence Against Older Women, Vol. II: Responses. Hannah Bows (Ed.) Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 165-185.

 

Alfonso Otaegui Moulins, PhD, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, Pontifical Catholic Twitter Webpage 1 Webpage 2

I did long-term fieldwork among indigenous populations in South America and completed my Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the EHESS (2014). I spent a year as a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, and then two years at Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany).

In 2017 I joined the research team Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing (ASSA), coordinated by Daniel Miller at University College London. I conducted 16 months of fieldwork among late-middle-aged Peruvian migrants, focusing on communicative practices related to aging and healthcare in new digital environments.

I also conducted fieldwork among Chilean older adults adopting new technologies by teaching smartphone workshops in cultural centers. I am currently participating in digital alphabetization initiatives for older adults (designing step-by-step guides, Senior Hackaton challenges, etc.). Besides, I am also conducting UX research for a foundation dedicated to the digital inclusion of lower-income older adults.

Anthropology provides a vision of the whole rooted in everyday experience. I observe at all levels, from how older adults touch the device’s screen and how the UI responds, to their life story, ailments, frustrations, fears and accomplishments, struggles, and desires. I hope to contribute to socio-gerontechnology with an anthropological approach to tech adoption by older adults.

Recent publications

Miller, D., L. Abed Rabho, P. Awondo, M. de Vries, M. Duque, P. Garvey, L. Haapio-Kirk, Ch. Hawkins, A. Otaegui, S. Walton, X. Wang. (2021). The Global Smartphone. Beyond a youth technology. UCL Press. Free download at: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/series-ageing-with-smartphones/products/171335

Otaegui, A. (in Press). Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Chile. The Experience of Peruvian Migrants. UCL Press.

Otaegui, A. (2021). ’In those times she was strong’. Singing the grief among the Ayoreo from the Paraguayan Chaco. Death Studies 45(1): 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1851886

See my ASSA blogposts at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/assa/category/chile/

 

Alexander Peine, PhD Utrecht University Twitter: @AlexanderPeine LinkedIn ResearchGate Webpage

I am a Full Professor of Culture, Innovation and Communication at the Open University of The Netherlands. My research links two pertinent societal developments – (i) population ageing, including the challenges it allegedly poses for care and health systems, and (ii) technological change, including the push towards more interactive and “smarter” technologies. In simple terms, one could say I study what population ageing means for the way we organise and direct technology and innovation, and, vice versa, how technology and innovation have come to shape how we age and how we imagine the future of health and care. My work has expanded the usual drive in this area to think of technologies as interventions, and has developed instead a unique line of research that thinks of ageing, care and health as being co-constituted with technology. Before joining the Open University NL, Alexander was an Associate Professor at Utrecht University, the laureate of a prestigious Max Weber post-doctoral fellowship at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, and a Principal Investigator at Berlin University of Technology.

Recent publications

Lipp, B., and A. Peine (2022). Ageing as a Driver of Progressive Politics? What the European Silver Economy Teaches Us About the Co-Constitution of Ageing and Innovation. Ageing and Society, forthcoming,  1-13.

Peine, A., B. L. Marshall, W. Martin, and L. Neven, (eds.) (2021). Socio-Gerontechnology — Interdisciplinary Critical Studies of Ageing and Technology. London: Routledge.

Peine, A., & Neven, L. (2020). The Co-constitution of Ageing and Technology – A Model and Agenda. Ageing & Society, 41 (12), 2845-2866.

 

Arianna Poli, MA Ph.D. student in Ageing and Later Life at the Division Ageing and Social Change (ASC), Linköping University, Sweden Twitter: @Arianna__Poli LinkedIn ResearchGate

Her research lies in the field of social gerontology, particularly at the intersection of ageing, inequality, and new technologies. Arianna investigates digital technologies as possible contributing factors to increased risk of exclusion and social inequalities among older people. In her Ph.D. work, she aims at understanding the link between inclusive participation of older people in research on digital technologies and the inclusiveness of new digital-based services among older people. Before joining Linköping University and ASC, Arianna worked at the Italian National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing (INRCA), at the Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing where she had worked in European research projects, like INNOVAGE (GA 306058). Arianna has been a member of the ROSEnet COST Action (CA 15122) Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion (2016-2020). She is currently affiliated to the Swedish National Graduate School on Ageing and Health (SWEAH) and involved in the Communication Committee of the Socio-Gerontechnology Network.

Recent publications

Poli, A., Kelfve, S., Klompstra, L., Strömberg, A., Jaarsma, T., Motel-Klingebiel, A. (2020). Older People in Digital Health Research: What Predicts (Non-)Participation in an Exergame Intervention Study. J Med Internet Res (forthcoming). doi:10.2196/17884.

Allemann, H. & Poli, A. (2020). Designing and evaluating information and communication technology-based interventions? Be aware of the needs of older people. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. doi:10.1177/1474515119897398.

Poli, A., Kelfve, S. & Motel-Klingebiel, A. (2019). A research tool for measuring non-participation of older people in research on digital health. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1487.

 

Gražina Rapoliené, PhD Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences LinkedIn Researchgate

Gražina Rapolienė is a research fellow at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. She was a member of the civic exclusion working group of the COST action ROSEnet aimed at reducing old-age exclusion (CA 15122, 2016-2020) and a national representative in the Management Committee of the COST action on ageism (IS1402, 2014-2018).

Her doctoral dissertation “Is Old Age Stigma? Ageing Identity in Lithuania” was awarded as the best dissertation in social sciences and humanities in Lithuania in 2012.

09/2007 – 02/2017 Gražina was teaching several subjects in sociology: Sociology (in Lithuanian and English), Social theory, Classical sociological theories, Sociology of health and illness, Sociology of ageing. 06/2016 – 07/2017 she was leading the Office of Strategic Planning at Vilnius University.

Her research interests are ageing identity, ageism, representations in media, social (and digital) exclusion, childlessness, consumption, care, and loneliness. Currently, she is leading the research project „Digital inclusion of older people“, S-MIP-21-58, funded by the Research Council of Lithuania.

Recent publications

Ayalon, Liat, Rapolienė, Gražina (2022). Changes in attitudes toward aging, older people and elder care from the perspective of former migrant home care workers. Research on Aging 0 (0) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275211069605

Ayalon, Liat, Rapolienė, Gražina (2021). The disruption of the care chain: Why do Lithuanian migrant home care workers return to their home country? Ageing & Society 1-17. https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X21001562

Rapolienė, Gražina, Aartsen, Marja (2021). Lonely societies: low trust societies? Further explanations for national variations in loneliness among older Europeans. Eur J Ageing.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00649-z

 

 

Arlind Reuter, PhD Lund University Twitter LinkedIn Researchgate Webpage

Arlind Reuter is a postdoctoral researcher at the Applied Gerontology research group at Lund University (Sweden). She holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Digital Civics from Open Lab (Newcastle University, UK). Using participatory action research to explore the intersection of ageing and digitalisation within a civic context, her work is grounded in the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction and Gerontology. Arlind’s current projects focus on digital citizenship in later life and how older adults engage with digital content creation activities for activist purposes. As part of her own research activism, she is a co-founder of the Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative, a growing international network of older radio show hosts, age-inclusive radio stations and organisations advocating for ageing issues. Arlind is the current chair of the British Society of Gerontology’s Emerging Researchers in Ageing group.

Recent publications

Reuter, A., Scharf, T., & Smeddinck, J. (2021). Content Creation in Later Life: Reconsidering Older Adults’ Digital Participation and Inclusion. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(CSCW3), 1-23.

Reuter, A., Liddle, J., & Scharf, T. (2020). Digitalising the age-friendly city: insights from participatory action research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), 8281.

Reuter, A., Bartindale, T., Morrissey, K., Scharf, T., & Liddle, J. (2019, May). Older voices: Supporting community radio production for civic participation in later life. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).

 

Katja Antonia Rießenberger Bavarian Research Centre for Digital Care (BZPD) at University of Applied Sciences Kempten, Germany LinkedIn

Katja Antonia Rießenberger is a doctoral student at the Dept. of Science Technology and Society (STS) at Technical University of Munich (TUM). As a former research associate at the Institute for Ageing Research (IAF) at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST), she is now working at the Bavarian Research Centre for Digital Care (BZPD) at University of Applied Sciences Kempten, Germany. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Social Work, specializing in intergenerational Social Work, in Germany and Finland. She then proceeded as a Fulbright scholar with her M.Sc. in Social Work, specializing in Gerontology, at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, USA. Here she received inter alia the Profiles in Leadership Award 2019, the Dean’s Citation Award, as well as the Honor’s Graduate Award.
Since 2019, Katja A. Rießenberger is involved in research projects using participatory design, qualitative research methods as well as co-creation methods to develop Gerontechnologies. In 2022 she was awarded with the Best Position Paper Award at the ICT4AWE conference. Her research interests include inter alia ethical, technical, and social challenges of age(ing) in the field of Gerontechnology, intersectionality with a focus on age and gender aspects, and topics of public health.

Recent publications:

Rießenberger, K. A., Hüsler S., Bruggmann A., Eicher S., Stulens L., Misoch S. (2022). WisdomOfAge: Developing a Seniors Digital Platform for Knowledge Transfer through Participatory Design. Position Paper accepted at the ICT4AWE conference. [Best Position Paper Award]

Mucha, H., Correia de Barros, A., Benjamin, J., Benzmüller, C., Bischof, A., Buchmüller, S., de Carvalho, A., Dhungel, A., Draude, C., Fleck, M., Jarke, J., Klein, S., Kortekaas, C., Kurze, A., Linke, D., Maas, F., Marsden, N., Melo, R., Michel, S., Müller-Birn, C., Pröbster, M., Rießenberger, K., Schäfer, M., Sörries, P., Stilke, J., Volkmann, T., Weibert, A., Weinhold, W., Wolf, S., Zorn, I., Heidt, M. & Berger, A. (2022). Collaborative Speculations on Future Themes for Participatory Design in Germany. i-com, 21(2), 283-298. https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2021-0030

Pisla D., Nae L., Vaida C., Oprea E., Pisla A., Gherman B., Antal T., Riessenberger K., Plitea N. (2021). Development of a Learning Management System for Knowledge Transfer in Engineering. Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, ACTA TECHNICA NAPOCENSIS, 64-3.

Rießenberger, K. A. (2021). Participatory Design and the Divide between Developers and Older Adults. In: Wienrich, C., Wintersberger, P. & Weyers, B. (Hrsg.), Mensch und Computer 2021 – Workshopband. Bonn: Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. DOI: 10.18420/muc2021-mci-ws06-249

 

Javiera Rosell, PhD School of Psychology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Twitter: @JavieraRosell LinkedIn Researchgate

Javiera Rosell is based in Santiago – Chile and actively participates in the field of psychogerontology, focusing her work on the psychological aspects of aging. She is a professor in the School of Psychology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) and sub-director of the Senior Citizens Program PUC.
Currently, she is working on a project about technology use by older caregivers as a postdoctoral researcher at the Millennium Institute of Caregiving Research (MICARE).
Javiera is a visitor at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and member of the Latin American Research Network of the Institute (LARNA).

Her research interest is the impact of technologies on older persons’ well-being, especially related to depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction. Also, she studies the topic of ageism and how this influences the quality of life of the older population, particularly its effect on Internet use..

Latest publications

Rosell, J., Vergés, A., Miranda-Castillo, C., Sepúlveda-Caro, S., & Gómez, M. (2022). Predictors, types of Internet use, and the psychological well-being of older adults: A comprehensive model. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac054

Rosell, J., & Verges, A. (2021). The Impact of Ageism on the E-Leisure of Older People in Chile. In Q. Gao & J. Zhou (Eds.), Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology Design and Acceptance. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 12786, pp. 228-239). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78108-8_17

Rosell, J., & Vergés, A. (2020). The Relationship Between Social Participation and Internet Addiction in Older Persons. In Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology and Society (pp. 301–311). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_21

Rosell, J. (2018). Cognitive stimulation for healthy older adults through computer-based programs: a review of the literature / Estimulación cognitiva para personas mayores sanas mediante programas computarizados: una revisión de la literatura. Estudios de Psicología, 39(2–3), 407–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/02109395.2018.1494678.

 

Tomás Sánchez Criado, PhD Open University of Catalonia Twitter: @tscriado Webpage ORCID

Ramón y Cajal Senior Researcher Fellow at the CareNet-IN3 group of the Open University in Catalonia. Working at the crossroads of Anthropology and STS, he has developed a particular concern around how bodily diversity – paying special attention to disabled and older people – comes to matter in the knowledge, material and care politics of participatory city-making. He is currently working on a book project on these topics, drawing from ethnographic and archival materials from the city of Barcelona as well as his experiments in architectural design studio projects in Germany, tentatively titled “An Uncommon City: Bodily Diversity and the Activation of Possible Urbanisms”. In his work he has also been experimenting with different forms of public engagement, ethnography and pedagogy. He has recently co-edited Experimental Collaborations: Ethnography through Fieldwork Devices (Berghahn, 2018) and An Ethnographic Inventory: Field Devices for Anthropological Inquiry.

Recent publications

López, D. & Criado, T.S. (2021, forthcoming). Civilising technologies for an ageing society? The performativity of participatory methods in Socio-gerontechnology. In A. Peine, W. Martin, B. Marshall & L. Neven (Eds.), Socio-gerontechnology – Interdisciplinary critical studies of ageing and technology. London: Routledge.

Duclos, V., & Criado, T.S. (2020). Care in Trouble: Ecologies of Support from Below and Beyond. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 34(2), 153–173.

Criado, T.S. (2019). Technologies of Friendship: Accessibility politics in the ‘how to’ mode. The Sociological Review, 67(2): 408–427

 

Emese Schiller  Institute of Adult Education and Knowledge Management, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Linkedin Researchgate

Emese Schiller works as an assistant professor at the Institute of Adult Education and Knowledge Management, which belongs to the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Her research line concerns adapting the method of one-to-one counselling for autonomous learning to the specific needs and interests of older adults. This solution-centered approach of learner autonomy development focuses on the enhancement of learner self-awareness with the help of individualized learning strategies, as well as the improvement of digital skills-and readiness of this particular age group through the promotion of their independent interaction with technology-supported learning resources. Currently, she is focused on unlocking the potentials of intergenerational learning programs that are based at higher education institutions within the framework of an Erasmus+ cooperation partnership project. Besides that, as a member of the Organizational and Work-integrated Learning Research Group, she also deals with the possibilities of supporting adult learning through researching the integration of university, theory-based training, and work-based learning.

Recent publications

Schiller, E.; Dorner, H.; Szabó, Z. (2020). Developing senior learners’ autonomy in language learning. An exploratory study of Hungarian adult educators’ support strategies. Educational Gerontology, 46, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2020.1813974

Schiller, E. & Dorner, H. (2020). A multi-perspective analysis of adult learner differences in foreign language learning: motivation, autonomous and learning self-regulation. Konin Language Studies, (4), 295-318. https://doi.org/10.30438/ksj.2020.8.3.4

Schiller, E. & Dorner, H. (2021). Factors influencing senior learners’ language learning motivation. A Hungarian perspective.Journal of adult learning. Knowledge and innovation. (1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1556/2059.2020.00003

Schiller, E., & Dorner, H. (2021) Learner autonomy, motivation, and self-regulated learning. How do these factors interrelate when senior adults learn English as a foreign language? Konin Language Studies, (3),337-355. https://doi.org/ 10.30438/ksj.2021.9.3.

 

Nete Schwennesen, PhD Department of Anthropology, Copenhagen University Webpage ORCID

Nete Schwennesen is an Associate Professor working at the Department of Anthropology, Copenhagen University, Denmark. She did her MA at Lancaster University, UK and her PhD at the Center for Medical Science and Technology Studies, at Copenhagen University. Her work is situated at the intersection between STS, care studies and medical anthropology and explores processes through which technologies reconfigure care arrangements, focusing particularly on the intersection between technological imaginations, epistemologies and practical care work. She is the PI of the research project StayConnected (2018-2021) which is an ethnographic exploration of the integration and use of a digital platform designed to connect persons with dementia in residential care, care workers and relatives. Her current theoretical interests centres on materiality, affect and ageing as an ongoing socio-material transition. She has done ethnographic fieldwork in empirical sites such as diabetes, physical rehabilitation and dementia.

Recent publications

Schwennesen, N. (2021, forthcoming) Between bricolage and repair: Digital entanglements and fragile connections in dementia care work in Denmark. In A. Peine, W. Martin, B. Marshall & L. Neven (Eds.), Socio-gerontechnology – Interdisciplinary critical studies of ageing and technology. London: Routledge.

Schwennesen, N. (2019). Algorithmic assemblages of care: Imaginaries, epistemologies and repair work. Sociology of health & illness, 41, 176-192.

Schwennesen, N. (2019). Surveillance Entanglements: Digital Data Flows and Ageing Bodies in Motion in the Danish Welfare State. Anthropology & Aging, 40(2), 10-22.

 

Alexander Seifert, PhD University of Zurich and FHNW Twitter: @aseifert1981 LinkedIn ResearchGate Webpage

Dr. Alexander Seifert is a sociologist and gerontologist interested in the contextual factors of aging. He is a division manager of the Research Department at the Centre of Competence for Gerontology at the University of Zurich. Furthermore, he works at the School of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland in Olten. His research interests include social science approaches to the topics of age (aging), housing, technology/digitization, and lifestyles. For example, he conducted the Swiss national studies “Digital Seniors” (2010, 2015, 2020) in Switzerland and explored the subjective feelings of social exclusion regarding the non-use or less-use of modern technologies and the internet within a Swiss National Science Foundation-funded national study. He is competent in both qualitative and quantitative methods with a focus on mobile data collection with smartphones in recent years. Alexander Seifert is accustomed to working in interdisciplinary and international projects and has been involved in numerous successful project proposals. He has been a member of the Socio-Gerontechnology Network since 2018.

Recent publications

Schlomann, A., Seifert, A., Zank, S., Woopen, C., & Rietz, C. (2020). Use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices among the oldest-old: Loneliness, anomie, and autonomy. Innovation in Aging, 4(2), igz050. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz050.

Seifert, A., Hofer, M., & Rössel, J. (2018). Older adults’ perceived sense of social exclusion from the digital world. Educational Gerontology, 44(12), 775–785. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2019.1574415.

Seifert, A., & Schelling, H. R. (2018). Seniors online: Attitudes toward the internet and coping with everyday life. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 37(1), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464816669805

 

Jacob Sheahan, PhD University of Edinburgh Twitter LinkedIn Webpage

Dr Jacob Sheahan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Design Informatics and Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC), University of Edinburgh. Supporting the ACRC work package on Understanding the Person in Context, his work explores the value of informal care in later life, and how it could be supported through emerging technologies. As an interdisciplinary design researcher, Jacob is interested in collaborations that engage with socially complex contexts, such as ageing and safety, with a sensemaking skillset that employs design ethnography and interaction design methods. He recently completed his PhD at RMIT University in Melbourne, exploring socially engaging technologies with older Australians, where he was embedded into the interdisciplinary Shaping Connections program, which focuses on connectedness and technology use among older Australians.

Recent publications

Sheahan, J., Hjorth, L., Figueiredo, B., Martin, D. M., Reid, M., Aleti, T., & Buschgens, M. (2022). Co-Creating ICT Risk Strategies with Older Australians: A Workshop Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 52. MDPI AG. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010052

Sheahan, J. (2022). Gaining Resolution when Creating Imagery of Aging. Frontiers in Sociology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2022.957491

de Vere, I., Dim, W., Sheahan, J. (2022) Enabling an Ageing Workforce: Using design to innovate the workplace & empower older workers. RMIT University. ISBN: 978-0-6454642-0-7

 

Randi Stokke, PhD University of Edinburgh Twitter LinkedIn Researchgate

I am a registered nurse and pedagogue with a PhD in public service innovation.  My main area of interest comprises ageing and technologies in municipality caring services. Other areas of interest are service research in caring services, welfare technology, telecare, public service innovation, healthcare, caring, and learning in higher education with a special focus on simulation in learning.

I am trained mainly in qualitative methodology and has experience of interdisciplinary research with an interest in the intersection of care research, service innovation research and Science and technology studies (STS).

I am the leader of the research group at NTNU in Gjøvik: Service research, innovation and technology in care.

Recent publications

Stokke, Randi. (2018) Older people negotiating independence and safety in everyday life using technology: Qualitative study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. vol. 20 (10).

Stokke, Randi. (2017) “Maybe we should talk about it anyway”: a qualitative study of understanding expectations and use of an established technology innovation in caring practices. BMC Health Services Research. vol. 17 (1).

Stokke, Randi. (2016) The personal emergency response system as a technology innovation in primary health care services: An integrative review. Journal of Medical Internet Research. vol. 18:e187 (7).

 

 

Věra Suchomelová, Th. D. Department of Education, University of South Bohemia LinkedIn Researchgate

Věra Suchomelová, Th.D. finished her master’s degree at the Faculty of Theology at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (Czech Republic). In 2015, she finished her doctoral studies in theology, specializing in pastoral theology. Her research focuses on spirituality and spiritual needs in old age, aging, and pastoral care in nursing homes. She is the author of the monograph “Seniors and Spirituality: Spiritual Needs in Everyday Life”. Currently, she is a main researcher in the multidisciplinary project VIREAS (Virtual Reality in Keeping the Elderly Active). In the Faculty of Theology, she works as a senior lecturer at the Department of Education. She teaches both theoretical and practical courses related to well-being in old age and spirituality in social work. She also participates in courses within the University of Third Age and lifelong learning for social workers. As a certified memory coach, she leads courses for older adults.

Recent publications

Suchomelová, V., Tetourová, R., Lhotská L., Husák J., Kotek M., & Stejskal J. (2022). Virtual reality and its use in care homes and beyond.
Suchomelová, V., Lhotská, L., Husák, J. (2021). Virtual Reality as a Tool for Keeping the Elderly Active: Selected Issues. In H. Georgi (Ed.), Ageing 2021: Proceedings of the 5th Gerontological Interdisciplinary Conference (pp.160-167). Prague College of Psychosocial Studies.https://www.konferencestarnuti.cz/files/Starnuti_2021_sbornik.pdf
Suchomelová, V., Moya Faz, J.F. (2021). Spirituality in Old Age in: Rainer B. Gehrig, Michal Opatrný, Nándor Birher, Klaus Baumann et al: Spirituality, Ethics and Social Work, FreiDok plus, s. 302 – 31.

 

 

van Hees, Susan PhD University of Utrecht Twitter LinkedIn ResearchGate Webpage

Dr Susan van Hees finished her PhD in 2017 at Maastricht University. In her dissertation she explored how an ageing-in-place policy in the Netherlands worked out in practice, focusing on the tensions between policy ideals, professional care and welfare practices, and experiences of older adults. As a postdoctoral researcher at Tilburg University, she investigated after her PhD study how older adults’ perspectives can be embedded structurally in a knowledge infrastructure, more specifically, i.e., how the co-construction of applied academic studies can be organized to mutually benefit older adults, care organisations and academia. Currently Susan works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. She studies valuation practices, by unpacking how values are being co-constituted in health innovations, more specifically in innovations related to the development of smart(er) living homes environments for older people throughout Europe. By facilitating the organizing of co-creation sessions with stakeholders, meanings of values and valuation dynamism are being studied. Co-creation, public engagement, valuation practices and meaningful ageing and citizenship, are some core concepts in her work

Recent publications

van Hees, S., Horstman, K., Jansen, M., & Ruwaard, D. (2017). Photovoicing the neighbourhood: Understanding the situated meaning of intangible places for ageing-in-place. Health & place, 48, 11-19.

van Hees, S., Horstman, K., Jansen, M., & Ruwaard, D. (2018). Meanings of ‘lifecycle robust neighbourhoods’: constructing versus attaching to places. Ageing & Society, 38(6), 1148-1173.

van Hees, S., Horstman, K., Jansen, M., & Ruwaard, D. (2015). Conflicting notions of citizenship in old age: An analysis of an activation practice. Journal of aging studies, 35, 178-189.

 

van Hoof, Joost Dsc,PhD, MSC (Eng), Eur Ing The Hague University of Applied Sciences Twitter LinkedIn Webpage ORCiD – 0000-0001-9704-7128 SCOPUS – Author ID: 57201607464

Joost van Hoof works as a full professor of Urban Ageing (Faculty of Social Work & Education, The Hague University of Applied Sciences). His research interests lie in the domain of age-friendly cities and the design of housing and (socio-)gerontechnology. He is the chairperson of the Knowledge Platform Age-Friendly The Hague. Since December 2017, he is also affiliated with the Department of Spatial Economy of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Poland. He has a background in Building Physics and Services (Eindhoven University of Technology, 2004) and obtained his doctoral degree (PhD) from the same university in 2010. In addition, he obtained the Eur Ing qualification from the European Federation of National Engineering Associations in 2007. In 2019, he gained his higher doctoral degree (DSc) from Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Van Hoof won various awards, including the 2017 EFID award for doing research with people living with dementia, and the REHVA Young Scientist Award 2011. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Habion (social housing association for older people) and the Board of Directors of Vastgoed Zorgsector. From 2011 to 2022, he served as the treasurer of the Herman Bouma Fund for Gerontechnology Foundation.]

Recent publications

van Hoof, J., van den Hoven, R.F.M., Hess, M., van Staalduinen, W.H., Hulsebosch-Janssen, L.M.T., Dikken, J. (2022) How older people experience the age-friendliness of The Hague: A quantitative study. Cities 124: 103568 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103568

van Hoof, J., Dikken, J., van Staalduinen, W.H., van der Pas, S., van den Hoven, R.F.M., Hulsebosch-Janssen, L.M.T. (2022). Towards a better understanding of the sense of safety and security of community-dwelling older adults. The case of the age-friendly city of The Hague. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(7):3960; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073960

van Hoof, J., Marston, H.R. (2021) Editorial. Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(4):1644. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041644

van Hoof, J., Marston, H.R., Kazak, J.K., Buffel, T. (2021) Ten Questions Concerning Age-Friendly Cities & Communities and the Built Environment. Building and Environment 199:107922. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107922

van Hoof, J., Yu, C.W. (2020) Editorial – Ageing communities, supportive housing and enabling built environments. Indoor and Built Environment 29(3):295-298. doi: 10.1177/1420326X20905916

van Hoof, J., Dikken, J., Buttiġieġ, S.C., van den Hoven, R.F.M., Kroon, E., Marston, H.R. (2020) Age-friendly cities in the Netherlands: An explorative study of facilitators and hindrances in the built environment and ageism in design. Indoor and Built Environment 29(3):417-437. doi: 10.1177/1420326X19857216

 

Anna Wanka, PhD University of Frankfurt Twitter: @WankaAnna Webpage

Dr.ⁱⁿ Anna Wanka is a sociologist and critical gerontologist interested in the social construction of age. Her areas of expertise comprise the social practices of doing age, life course transitions / retirement and the re/production of social inequalities across the life course, ageing and technologies, age-friendly cities and communities, ageing migrants, and lifelong learning. Theoretically, Anna Wanka is specialized in practice theories, in which she was trained in the postgraduate programme “Sociology of Social Practices”, as well as through several international research fellowships. She is competent in both qualitative and quantitative methods and has high expertise in mixed-methods research. Anna Wanka is used to working in interdisciplinary and international projects and has been involved in numerous successful national and project proposals. Currently, she works on her habilitation (docent) in the DFG-funded interdisciplinary research training group “Doing Transitions”, exploring the multi-sited, multi-agential process of retiring as a constellation of social practices.

Recent publications

Wanka A. & Gallistl, V. (2018):  Doing Age in a Digitized World—A Material Praxeology of Aging with Technology. Frontiers in Sociology 3: 6. Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00006

Gallistl V. & Wanka, A. (2019): Representing the “older end user”? Challenging the role of social scientists in the field of “active and assisted living.” International Journal of Care and Caring, 3 (1): 123 – 128. https://doi.org./10.1332/239788218X15411705865226

Wanka, A. (2019): Change Ahead—Emerging Life-Course Transitions as Practical Accomplishments of Growing Old(er). Frontiers in Sociology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2018.00045

 

Alice Willat, PhD School of Education, University of Bristol Twitter: @AliceWillatt

My research sits across the fields of Organisation Studies and Human Geography. I’ve worked on a number of co-produced research projects that tackle issues such as the impact of public sector austerity, underinvestment in the urban fringes of cities, social marginalisation, and civic participation and inclusion. Through feminist theory and practice, my research explores themes around care, ageing, belonging and solidarity. I currently work at the University of Bristol as a Senior Research Associate on a UKRI funded research project called Connecting Through Culture as We Age. On this project I work alongside ‘next generation’ older adults (aged 60-75) who are disabled, and/or socioeconomically and racially minoritized, to understand more about their participation in social, digital and cultural life as they age. I’m particularly interested in working with feminist theories of embodiment and life course approaches to understand how creativity and technology mediates their everyday lives. Over the course of the project I will be working with the co-researchers, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, community organisations, artists and digital technologists, to co-design digital cultural experiences that aim to support social connection and wellbeing..

Recent publications

Phillips, M., & Willatt, A. (2020). Embodiment, care and practice in a community kitchen. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(2), 198-217.

Willatt, A., Jones, D., Kyle, R. G., & Davies, A. R. (2020). Emerging Drivers of Vulnerability to Health Inequity in the Context of COVID-19. A Public Health Wales report is available here.

Willatt, A., Beadle, R., & Brydon-Miller, M. (2021). Reshaping the food aid landscape. Tomorrow’s Communities: Lessons for Community-based Transformation in the Age of Global Crises, 197.

 

Shuman Xie, PhD Student Sociology Department, Durham University Twitter Webpage

Shuman is a first-year PhD student in the Sociology Department of Durham University and joined the Department in 2022. She completed the MSc in Digital Society programme from the University of Edinburgh (2020-2021) and the MA in Political Science programme from Kobe University (2015-2017). She also has working experience at IBM as an IT specialist for three years.

Shuman’s research area is the impacts of digital technologies on later life’s well-being. She is interested in the use of social media by older adults. In particular, the impact of social media use on the well-being of third age people. She uses mixed research methods, combining visual and computational approaches to analyse social media data.

 

Daniele Zaccaria, PhD Research Fellow, Centre of Competence on Ageing, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) Webpage

Daniele Zaccaria is a sociologist and currently works as a researcher at the Centre of Competence on Ageing, Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI).

His research interests include the study of the well-being of older people, the role of everyday life technologies in relation to loneliness and social isolation, digital skills of older workers, and methodologies for surveying of older people. His research approach is mainly quantitative, but he also appreciates collaborating with colleagues who adopt qualitative methods. Currently, he is involved in two ongoing research projects: Swiss Centenarian Study (SWISS100) and ACTIVE ageing in changing societies. Older people’s social and digital resources in pandemic and postpandemic Italy (ACTIVE.IT).

Recent publications

Casanova, G., Zaccaria, D., Rolandi, E., & Guaita, A. (2021). The Effect of Information and Communication Technology and Social Networking Site Use on Older People’s Well-Being in Relation to Loneliness: Review of Experimental Studies. Journal of medical Internet research, 23(3), e23588.

Melis, G., Sala, E., & Zaccaria, D. (2021). Remote recruiting and video-interviewing older people: a research note on a qualitative case study carried out in the first Covid-19 Red Zone in Europe. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1-7.

Zaccaria, D., Guaita, A., Vaccaro, R., Casanova, G., Abbondanza, S., Pettinato, L., Cerati, G., Rolandi, E., & Sala, E. (2020). Assessing the impact of Social Networking Site use on older people’s loneliness and social isolation. A randomized controlled trial: The Aging in a Networked Society-Social Experiment Study (ANS-SE). Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 19, 100615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2020.100615

 

Li Zhang, PhD University of California-Davis Webpage

Dr. Zhang’s research concerns the social, spatial, and psychological repercussions of market reforms in postsocialist China. Her recent book explores how an unfolding “inner revolution” reconfigures selfhood, family dynamics, and modes of governing in an anxious China. Her current project examines the ethical and technological challenges of massive aging and eldercare by focusing on the problem ofan age-based digital divide. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of how senior citizens experience this digital divide and negotiate the increasing saturation of digital devices into their late-stage of life, as well as its social, cultural, and ethical ramifications.

Recent publications

Zhang, L. (2020) Anxious China: Inner Revolution and Politics of Psychotherapy. University of California Press (Honorable Mention, 2021 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association).

Susan Greenhalgh and Zhang, L. (Eds) (2020) Can Science and Technology Save China? Cornell University Press.

Zhang, L. (2021) Of Visceral/Somatic Practices in Healing, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 57 (3): 251-256.