Cargando…

Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy

Contemporary policy strategies frame welfare technologies as a solution for welfare states facing the challenges of demographic change. Technologies are supposed to reduce or substitute the work of care workers and thereby reduce attrition among their ranks, reduce costs, and at the same make elderl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Dahler, Anne Marie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6036800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30046493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3096405
_version_ 1783338225934270464
author Dahler, Anne Marie
author_facet Dahler, Anne Marie
author_sort Dahler, Anne Marie
collection PubMed
description Contemporary policy strategies frame welfare technologies as a solution for welfare states facing the challenges of demographic change. Technologies are supposed to reduce or substitute the work of care workers and thereby reduce attrition among their ranks, reduce costs, and at the same make elderly people self-reliant and independent. In this paper, it is suggested that this way of framing how welfare technologies work with elderly people holds an instrumental view of technologies as well as of bodies and needs to be challenged. Drawing on an STS (Science Technology Studies) understanding of the constituting role of technology in people's lives, the guiding question in this study is how autonomy is practised in the lives of elderly people using welfare technologies. The study is based on interviews with eight elderly citizens in a Danish municipality who have been provided with a wash toilet and often also other technologies as part of their welfare service package. The study shows how autonomy is practised in various ways, how autonomy is practised in specific areas of life linked to the specific life story and body of the elderly citizen, how autonomy is situational as it is practised in specific situations during the day/week, and how autonomy is relational as it is practised in relation to specific persons and things and with specific persons and things. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the implementation of welfare technology as well as forms of governance appropriate for embodied elderly citizens and technologies.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6036800
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Hindawi
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-60368002018-07-25 Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy Dahler, Anne Marie Rehabil Res Pract Research Article Contemporary policy strategies frame welfare technologies as a solution for welfare states facing the challenges of demographic change. Technologies are supposed to reduce or substitute the work of care workers and thereby reduce attrition among their ranks, reduce costs, and at the same make elderly people self-reliant and independent. In this paper, it is suggested that this way of framing how welfare technologies work with elderly people holds an instrumental view of technologies as well as of bodies and needs to be challenged. Drawing on an STS (Science Technology Studies) understanding of the constituting role of technology in people's lives, the guiding question in this study is how autonomy is practised in the lives of elderly people using welfare technologies. The study is based on interviews with eight elderly citizens in a Danish municipality who have been provided with a wash toilet and often also other technologies as part of their welfare service package. The study shows how autonomy is practised in various ways, how autonomy is practised in specific areas of life linked to the specific life story and body of the elderly citizen, how autonomy is situational as it is practised in specific situations during the day/week, and how autonomy is relational as it is practised in relation to specific persons and things and with specific persons and things. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the implementation of welfare technology as well as forms of governance appropriate for embodied elderly citizens and technologies. Hindawi 2018-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6036800/ /pubmed/30046493 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3096405 Text en Copyright © 2018 Anne Marie Dahler. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dahler, Anne Marie
Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title_full Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title_fullStr Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title_full_unstemmed Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title_short Welfare Technologies and Ageing Bodies: Various Ways of Practising Autonomy
title_sort welfare technologies and ageing bodies: various ways of practising autonomy
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6036800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30046493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3096405
work_keys_str_mv AT dahlerannemarie welfaretechnologiesandageingbodiesvariouswaysofpractisingautonomy