Ageing with technologies: a participative conference on care in Europe
23 June 2010 - 30 September 2010
Developments in telecare (the provision of health and social care at a distance) are rapidly evolving and information and communication technology (ICT) aims to cover an increasingly wide range of care practices and innovations. But these interventions are occurring, we argue, in an ethical and democratic vacuum, which makes it critical to explore and analyse the everyday ethical, social and gender implications of technological interventions for older citizens, caregivers and health-care systems. This conference provides an opportunity for practitioners, users, carers, policymakers and scholars involved or working on these issues to meet and talk. Over two days, we propose to exchange experiences and debate the actual and possible consequences of telecare developments, for all European stakeholders.
The EFORTT Conference programme is organized through three main topics:
•What counts as care?
The implementation of telecare seems to be part of a more general process of redefining caregiving in which care responsibility is being detached from caregiving work, and the set of activities and tasks that this work entails is being fragmented and redistributed among different human and technological services. Thus ‘giving care’ works on multiple fronts: providing security, giving social support, supplying hands-on care or just offering social contact depending on the needs of each individual and group. In this way what counts as care seems to be challenged by the introduction of new care technologies. So what counts as good care in this context? What are the implications of this redefinition of caregiving in terms of wellbeing, gender, social justice?
•Forms of participation: whose voices matter in system design?
How do telecare technologies work in everyday settings? And to what extent do users and carers negotiate and creatively reshape technologies as they become integrated into their daily lives? What are the roles and responsibilities of designers with regard to these daily forms of usage? These are the central issues that will be dealt with in this session. The aim is to draw awareness to design as an ethical issue. Implied in the notion of ‘design ethics’ is an understanding of telecare technologies not as finished entities being implemented into elderly care, but as social entities re/shaped by policy, design and everyday care practices. Hence telecare technologies have different meanings in different contexts. Further, the understanding of design in terms of ‘design ethics’ raises the issue of responsibility. What (new) responsibilities and vulnerabilities do telecare technologies bring about? And how are these dealt with in practice?
•Changing spaces of care
Telecare technologies are designed to help older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. They include real-time audio and visual contacts between ‘patients’ and healthcare workers; embedded technologies such as ‘smart homes’; the installation of monitoring and surveillance technologies and wearable devices to monitor care-recipients within, and even outside their homes. These developments may not only act to change the physical and experiential nature of care, they also enrol different actors, located in different places, to the care network. In this session we will discuss the extent to which telecare technologies affect the spaces in which care takes place and the implications this has for those involved. The aim is to draw out any ethical implications that arise as a consequence of these shifts in the place of care.
Each of the three plenary sessions starts with a brief presentation from the EFORTT Project's finding by members of the research Consortium to help frame the session theme and introduce guest-speakers.. These plenary sessions conclude with a general debate about the presentations and selected topic. These are followed by workgroup discussions in which participants can exchange more closely experiences and ideas. At the end of each day a summary will be offered with the help of rapporteurs. A concluding session will synthesise the different proposals and priorities for future action on telecare in Europe which have emerged during the conference.
Please register at
http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/efortt_conference/Efortt/Conference.html(opens in new window)
The EFORTT Conference programme is organized through three main topics:
•What counts as care?
The implementation of telecare seems to be part of a more general process of redefining caregiving in which care responsibility is being detached from caregiving work, and the set of activities and tasks that this work entails is being fragmented and redistributed among different human and technological services. Thus ‘giving care’ works on multiple fronts: providing security, giving social support, supplying hands-on care or just offering social contact depending on the needs of each individual and group. In this way what counts as care seems to be challenged by the introduction of new care technologies. So what counts as good care in this context? What are the implications of this redefinition of caregiving in terms of wellbeing, gender, social justice?
•Forms of participation: whose voices matter in system design?
How do telecare technologies work in everyday settings? And to what extent do users and carers negotiate and creatively reshape technologies as they become integrated into their daily lives? What are the roles and responsibilities of designers with regard to these daily forms of usage? These are the central issues that will be dealt with in this session. The aim is to draw awareness to design as an ethical issue. Implied in the notion of ‘design ethics’ is an understanding of telecare technologies not as finished entities being implemented into elderly care, but as social entities re/shaped by policy, design and everyday care practices. Hence telecare technologies have different meanings in different contexts. Further, the understanding of design in terms of ‘design ethics’ raises the issue of responsibility. What (new) responsibilities and vulnerabilities do telecare technologies bring about? And how are these dealt with in practice?
•Changing spaces of care
Telecare technologies are designed to help older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. They include real-time audio and visual contacts between ‘patients’ and healthcare workers; embedded technologies such as ‘smart homes’; the installation of monitoring and surveillance technologies and wearable devices to monitor care-recipients within, and even outside their homes. These developments may not only act to change the physical and experiential nature of care, they also enrol different actors, located in different places, to the care network. In this session we will discuss the extent to which telecare technologies affect the spaces in which care takes place and the implications this has for those involved. The aim is to draw out any ethical implications that arise as a consequence of these shifts in the place of care.
Each of the three plenary sessions starts with a brief presentation from the EFORTT Project's finding by members of the research Consortium to help frame the session theme and introduce guest-speakers.. These plenary sessions conclude with a general debate about the presentations and selected topic. These are followed by workgroup discussions in which participants can exchange more closely experiences and ideas. At the end of each day a summary will be offered with the help of rapporteurs. A concluding session will synthesise the different proposals and priorities for future action on telecare in Europe which have emerged during the conference.
Please register at
http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/efortt_conference/Efortt/Conference.html(opens in new window)
Keywords
Telecare