Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling innovations for later life

Little arrangements that matter.

Rethinking autonomy-enabling

innovations for later life.

Daniel López Gómez

STS-b Research Group

Estudis de Psicologia i Ciències de l’Educació

1

López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling

innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

• 2009-2012: FP7 European Project: “Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies for

older people at home” (EFORTT)

• 2010-2014: “Value Ageing“ is a 48 month Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships

and pathways Action with the purpose of incorporating European fundamental values into

ICT for ageing.

Projects

2



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

• How ageing with autonomy is performed in real-life

contexts when autonomy-enabling innovations are

implemented,

• In what sense technologial innovation enabled or

disabled older people to live autonomously.

Main goals

5



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

Data

6

Installation After 1 year More than 3 years

12 users observed and interviewed at home



11 users observed at home during follow-up



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

Rosa

(Installation)

Montse (After 1 year)

"What if I do not answer

(to the teleoperator)?”

"And if I’m not at home,

what happens?”

So if I’m not at home it

doesn’t work, uff…

“So, if I forget to take it off

once (when leaving home),

this ... what happens?"

"But if that happens, if I

can’t get from here to

there, then it is all over

anyway."

“Taking the telecare pendant on

and off constantly would be

annoying and I don’t want to

wear it when I’m out on the

street. That’s why the telecare

pendant is usually hanging in the

kitchen, where I spend most of

the time. It’s near at hand. It is

obvious that I couldn’t reach it if I

fell down, I’m aware of that…”

“I remember when they rang me

for the first time: they wanted to

know if I was wearing the

telecare pendant. As I didn’t

expect it, I couldn’t come out with

a lie. Then, they told me off and

said: you must wear it! Since

then every time they ask about

the telecare pendant, my answer

is: ‘yes, yes yes!’ But you mustn’t

snitch on me! The truth is that I

do not want to wear it.”



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

• Security arrangement:

o Boundaries between indoor/outdoor as safe/unsafe

spaces

o The home is define as a container of threatening

events bounded by thresholds of reachability and

audibility. Users are free of these events depending

on these thresholds.

o In case of need, users rely on fast, efficient and

tested responses.

o Anonymous people, you trust the procedure:

teleoperators shift but they follow the same

protocol.

o Care as a response to an individual need that must

be explicitly asked for.

o Care giving and receiving is a matter of choice

o Care can be split in tasks that can be delegated to

different actors (family as emotional supporters,

teleoperators look after and migrant caregivers do

the bodywork)

o Ageing identity entails more self-monitoring and

better adjustment of lifestyle to risks

Interferences between security arrangements

and community and family arrangements

9

• Community and family arrangements.

o Communal and in-between spaces are key

element to create and maintain mutual support

and solidarity among neighbours and family.

o Home is a space defined by different social

activities and attachments

o These in-between spaces can be physical

(communal courtyards) or virtual (daily phone

chats)

o In case of need, you rely on who takes care of

you

o Known people, you trust specific persons for

specific tasks

o Care is an embodied burden that is usually

gendered-defined, entails unpaid carework, and

is hard to delegate to others without making it

meaningless, “cold”, and a source of guilt.

o Ageing identity is defined by being aware of an

increasing fragility but without entirely defining

who they are or what they do.



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

Autonomy is caring for those fragile arrangements that hold us and

enable us to think and act in a certain way

We should place the fragility of these arrangements at the centre of the

design of any technological innovation and generate collaborative

innovation processes that could adjust more easily and more effectively

the arrangements needed to confront the challenges of aging.

Autonomy and fragility / Care and autonomy-

enabling innovations

10



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

Gratiane de Moustier, Aging at Home: The Story of Odile (2008) available from: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/odile.html



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

“The very notion of her independence being

tampered with leaves her with an uneasy air of

discomfort. The high priority she places on what

others may view as menial tasks often leaves Odile

under pressure and in a panic, continually searching

for her next task. Odile's continual striving to

maintain, what in her view resembles her own

meaningful and necessary independence, is a

continual drain on her fragile frame”

G. de Moustier, Aging at Home: The Story of Odile,

URL: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/Resources/gdemoustierodilen.jpeg.



doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling innovations for later life

Healthcare

Transcript of Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling innovations for later life