History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
ESA Conference: Ageing Societies, New Sociology
September 23-26, 2003 in Murcia, Spain
Two streams of sessions of the
Research Network 18: Sociology of Science and Technology (SSTNET)
Convenors:
Raymund Werle: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Köln, Germany (werle@mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de)
Marja Häyrinen Alestalo: Dept. of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland (marja.alestalo@helsinki.fi)
Luísa Oliveira: DINÂMIA/ISCTE, Lisboa, Portugal (luisa.oliveira@iscte.pt)
Maarten Mentzel: 38 Johan de Wittstraat, 2334 AR Leiden, The Netherlands (m.a.mentzel@planet.nl)
Second Stream: New Technologies in Ageing Societies
Friday Sept. 26
14.30 - 16.30 session 8 (Campus de La Merced)
Chair Luísa Oliveira
8.3. Author(s):Jaeger, Birgit
Institution: Roskilde University, Dep. of Social Sciences
Professional Category: Associate Professor, Ph.D.
City: Roskilde
Country: Denmark
E-mail: birgit@ruc.dk
TRAPPED IN THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Senior citizens are not the first group to start utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Thus there is a danger that they will be excluded from the growing information society. At the same time it is obvious that ICTs creates new possibilities for raising the quality of life for a lot of old people.
In a Danish program, financed by the Danish Research Agency, six local experiments are trying out the possibilities of utilizing ICT to fulfill the needs of old people. Many ideas are to be tested. Some of these experiments are dealing with e-commerce, others with democracy and others again with flexible work for the retired person. The experiments thus represent a variety of application areas for ICT and senior citizens.
The paper will present the program and the study of it. Finding solutions to difficult problems by making social experiments is a part of a Danish tradition. The paper will position the program for elderly and ICT in this tradition just like it will discuss the implications of the direct participation of the elderly in social experiments like this.
The experiments are supposed to have a long-term effect on the diffusion of ICT to senior citizens people in Denmark. The paper will discuss whether or not the Danish government gets "value for money" by financing a program like this.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006