eHealth and Ageing in Rural Areas: Transforming Everyday Life, Digital Competences, and Technology. (Finland, Italy, Sweden)
Summary and overall aim
Digital health and social care, so-called eHealth, is an emergent phenomenon which is portrayed as a way of managing societal challenges like demographic ageing, relocation from rural areas and increased demands for availability. But yet, there is a lack of research on the real impact and consequences of eHealth, especially in relation to old age users in rural areas. In this collaborative and transnational project, we will explore the changing dynamics of health and social care by empirically and theoretically examining old age users’ use and non-use of “virtual health rooms”, virtual health and social service centres, digital care applications – care apps – and health and social care information online, in rural regions. Using an ethnographic approach, we try to understand (a) the impact of ICTs in the everyday lives of older people; (b) the role of (rural) place; and (c) the relationship between technology and digital competences in relation to older people’s use of eHealth in three different countries: Finland, Italy, Sweden. The final goal is to provide relevant information for policy-makers, to develop eHealth projects that go beyond a technocentric and deterministic approach and consider the real and cultural context of use of digital technologies among elderly.
Project details
HARVEST participated in the third joint call on ‘Ageing and place in a digitalising world’.
Project duration and budget
Project duration: 36 months
Project costs: €635.000
Consortium
- Umeå University, Sweden.
- University of Lapland, Finland.
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy.