Events:
WEBINAR
Date: 04. 11. 2025
Time: 12.30 pm to 2 pm
Technology, Market and Ageing in LMICs
Emerging technologies have a growing importance in reimagining and resolving care deficits in old-age. While these technologies are most often reified, being hailed as an enabler, and beacon of innovation there is a counter argument. Gerontechnology or technology for old-age is informed by a biopolitical ambition of foisting surveillance on elderly selves, disciplining bodies, making older people responsible for their own fate towards the end of life, and promoting AgeTech industry. Agetech pushes for the commodification of old-age and commercialization of what is presented as an emerging crisis of an ageing population’s pressure on resources. Further, ageism feeds into the construction of technology, and this in turn can lend cadence to technological paternalism (Voinea et al., 2024). It can project a reified image of older people as fragile and a problem-to-be-fixed. In a world of deepening social inequalities, including inequalities in accessing digital technologies, these entanglements between technology and ageing bodies may (re)produce newer hierarchies based on early adopters, accessibility and capital, and reinforce symbolic violence. It may also create an environment of technosolutionism whereby technology is sought out in meeting solutions.
Introduction to webinar by convenor
Dr. Sayendri Panchadhyayi, Assistant Professor of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, RV University, Bangalore
Time, Technology, and Care: Rethinking Ageing in Urban India
Dr. Ashwin Tripathi,Teach@Tuebingen Fellow, University of Tuebingen, Germany
This talk will explore the role of technologies in shaping practices of “successful aging” among urban middle to upper middle-class older adults in India. Based on the time-diaries collected from older individuals aged 55 and above, I will elaborate on their daily use of technology for both self-care and caregiving practices. Using the interdisciplinary insights from anthropology, feminist theory and critical gerontology, I elucidate on the tenets of successful aging that go beyond promoting independence and self-sufficiency in everyday technology use to how digital technologies help build relational models of care, maintain intergenerational bonds and support community-based initiatives.
Intergenerational Digital Literacy: The Role of Grandchildren in Supporting Grandparents’ Technology Adoption for Ageing in Place
Dr. Eucharia Chinwe Igbafe, Researcher, Department of Psychology, College of Human Science, University of South Africa (UNISA) Pretoria, South Africa
Abstract:
Digital technologies are reshaping how older adults engage with the world, yet many grandparents remain digitally excluded due to limited access, skills, or confidence. In many cultural contexts, intergenerational relationships, particularly between grandchildren and grandparents offer a powerful resource for bridging this digital divide. This study explores how these interactions contribute to digital literacy and support “ageing in place,” the ability to age safely and independently within one’s home and community. These findings inform future strategies for digital inclusion and ageing policies in increasingly digital societies.
Digital Divides Reconsidered: Social Networks and Technological Capital Among Kerala's Elderly
Biji Jacob Oommen, Pursuing PhD in Economics, Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam
This research challenges conventional understandings of digital divides by examining how social networks mediate technological engagement among Kerala's elderly living alone. Our study reveals how socioeconomic status interacts with social capital to create unexpected patterns of technological capability and exclusion. Our research reveals how some resource-constrained elderly leverage social connections to develop technological proficiencies that their wealthier but more isolated counterparts lack. By reconceptualizing digital inclusion through the lens of social capital, we advocate for technology development practices that strengthen community connections rather than assuming individualized device ownership as the primary pathway to digital participation.
Dichotomy of Care and Control: Surveilling the Elders in the Global South, an Indian Case Study
Dr. Aparna Vincent, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Indore
Dr. Shivani Sharma, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Indore
Technologies of care are capturing the public and political imagination. The deployment of surveillance, originally introduced as an element of imperialist expansion and control, has recently been normalised with the proliferation of ICTs and is increasingly legitimised on grounds of security in postcolonial societies like India. This study seeks to explore the increasing use of CCTVs in Indian middle-class families as security enhancements for stay-at-home elders. Used remotely, these devices and their usage are arenas of enormous ethical and emotional complexities. This study reveals that prolonged usage of CCTVs leads to desensitisation among both the caregivers and the elderly: caregivers experience an acute detachment from caregiving as an active responsibility and elders experience passive and limited agency as they are nudged towards self-regulation and limited risk taking. The monitored life of the elderly under surveillance becomes reflective of neocolonial systems that attempt to discipline, control and exploit the postcolonial subject through novel modes of market expansion and resource extraction.
British Society of Gerontology 54th Annual Conference
25th-27th June 2025, University of Surrey
Special Interest Group on Ageing in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Panels 5 and 6: Date and Time to be confirmed
Panel 5: Integrating Critical Disability Studies With Ageing Research: Insights from South Asia
Chair: Tannistha Samanta - FLAME University, Pune, India, tannistha.samanta@flame.edu.in
Symposium Abstract*
This symposium is premised on the contention that for the most part, critical disability studies and gerontology have followed parallel paths. This non-dialogue becomes acute, especially in the Global South where due to disciplinary and structural barriers, the understanding of ageing with and into disability remains outside the scope of scientific inquiry. The symposium will explore the possibility of “greying” disability studies by critically questioning the ontological burden of the Western gerontological tradition that has long shaped the field and associated neglect of embodied subjectivities of (dis)abled bodies. This symposium includes 4 papers that undergird new modes of thinking in disability studies while forging a South-South dialogue that has escaped much of decolonial scholarship.
Papers
Cripping Ageing Studies: What can gerontology learn from disability studies
Dr Vinay Suhalka, FLAME University, Pune, India, vinay.suhalka@flame.edu.in
Ageing With Disabilities And Ageing Into Disabilities: An Intersectional Analysis
Prof Renu Addlakha, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, India, addlakhar@gmail.com
Collaborative Care: On Ageing and Caregiving for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in India
DR MEGHANA RAO, Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India, meghana.rao@apu.edu.in
Urban heat stress and the mental health of older adults in Dhaka: Adaptation pathways in the context of climate change
Dr Md Shanawez Hossain1, Dr Selim Jahangir2, Dr Tanita Noor3
1Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies & Governance, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), Dhaka, Bangladesh, shanawez@iub.edu.bd
Panel 6: Gender and Caregiving for Older People in Brazil
Chairs: Peter Lloyd Sherlock/Penny Vera-Sanso – Northumbria University/Birkbeck, University of London, p.vera-sanso@bbk.ac.uk
Symposium Abstract*
These papers are derived from a connected set of research studies funded by the Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute, the Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo and the Brazilian Ministry of Health. These studies share a focus on family caregiving for highly dependent older people in poor urban neighbourhoods.
Papers
The Pros And Cons Of Framing Care For Older People As A Primarily Feminist Issue. Brazilian Policy Experiences.
Karla Giacomin, Brazil Care Association (Cuidadosa) kcgiacomin@hotmail.com
"I Don't Want Her To See My Thing". Gender Dynamics Of Bathing Older People In Poor Brazilian Neighbourhoods".
Roberta Goés, Federal University of Salvador robertapg@ufba.br and Renan Amaral Oliveira, University of São Paulo renan_aceber@hotmail.com
Gender Norms And Caregiving For Older People. The Views Of Paid Caregivers In Brazil.
Wanderson Bonfim, Federal University of Minas Gerais. wandersoncb10@gmail.com
The effects of Programa Maior Cuidado on the experiences of male and female family caregivers in poor Brazilian urban neighbourhoods.
Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Northumbria University peter.lloyd-sherlock@northumbria.ac.uk