Aims & Objectives:
This field has grown considerably over the last 20 years and it is vital that all those who are working and interested in this domain share their experiences, knowledge, skills with one another. The approach shared by many members of this Special Interest Group is applied sociology but including multidisciplinary perspectives; such as geography, design and healthcare.
Joining the SIG:
If you wish to be part of the Technology & Ageing SIG, please contact: Neil Chadborn:
BSGtechnologySIG@britishgerontology.org
The SIG has a twitter account @BSGTechAgeSIG so please follow us and interact with The BSG Society is active on Twitter and you can follow via @britgerontology.
Events:
Past Symposiums
The SIG makes an important contribution to the annual conference, with a symposium including several presentations. We also hold a ‘meet the SIG’ where we encourage more people to join the SIG. The SIG welcomes people who are not BSG members. Also because the conference is online, it is convenient for people from overseas to join in our activities.
The purpose of the SIG is to support the work of it’s members, so please talk to us about how the SIG network could support your work. We hope to have three or four meetings through the year – which could include members presenting their research or ‘journal club’ type meetings.
Look forward to meeting you on social media and meetings!
Recent events
- 2020 - Symposium at first virtual conference (due to COVID19) - Technology, ageing and social relationships; using technology to facilitate communication across social and care relationships in later life. Chaired by Grant Gibson.
Within ageing policy discourse and practice, technology is increasingly being viewed as a means to support the well-being and quality of life of older people. Technologies research within gerontology (or gerontechnology) has largely focused on supporting older people with assisted living needs such as dementia to live at home or providing new opportunities to engage with health and social care services, with the associated assumed benefits of increasing care service efficiencies. Recent years have seen attention being paid to technology’s transformative impact on social and caring relationships among older people, by enabling ‘care-at-a-distance’, but also by facilitating new forms of social and civic relationships.
This symposium, presenting research by members of the BSG Technology and Ageing Special Interest Group, explored the burgeoning body of work investigating the potential and scope of technologies to transform older people’s social relationships; with each other, with their families and with the various elements constituting civic society. Dawson et al began by discussing current research which challenged the assumption that technologies inevitably lead to improvements in older people’s quality of life. Lariviere then explored the role of technology in shaping the experience and practice of care in later life. Llorenz-Dant and Freddolino then explored the experience of technologies among carers of people living with dementia. Tinker and Khera concluded the symposium with a discussion of the social and institutional dynamics which occur when older people introduce online sourced information to GP’s.
- 2019 - Symposium at BSG annual conference: Technology, resilience and ageing; critical perspectives. BSG Technology and Ageing Special Interest Group. Chaired by Grant Gibson.
This symposium illustrated how applying a critical gerontology perspective to the study of technology, resilience and ageing can foster more informed, nuanced understandings of technology use and resilience among older people. Topics explored in this symposium include the use of technology in relation to resilience among baby boomers (Tinker & Young), use of social robots to promote resilience with people living with dementia (Whelan), representations of people with dementia in relation to assistive technologies for dementia (Vermeer), co-design of technologies to promote resilience in dementia (Chadborn et al), and the impact of technology-supported care provision on organisational resilience (Lynch).
- 2019 - Adult education in a digital world event, 22nd Nov. Joint event with Educational Gerontology SIG, hosted by Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham
- 2018 – Mobile e-Health, insights from the Edited book (2017, Springer)
- 2018 – Mobile e-Health, insights from the Edited book (2017, Springer)