• Being a doctoral researcher at the Research Unit

Un/Doing Ageing with ComAI – On everyday practices and performances of age(ing)

PhD project of Leonie Winterpacht

In an ageing society, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly seen as a solution to the social challenges posed by demographic change and its effects on the health and care sector. In particular communicative AI (ComAI) is gaining importance, especially in the context of ageing in place, in one’s own home environment. Communicative AI is intended to improve health and well-being, counteract loneliness and take over care tasks. In this context, age(ing) is often understood as a problem that requires a technological “fix”. Anticipations and ideas of ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ age(ing) define practices and performances of what is considered ‘successful’ ageing – a process of doing ageing shaped by socio-cultural discourses and (AI) technologies.

In my dissertation, I examine the integration of language-based, AI-supported (health) applications into the everyday lives of older adults. The focus is not only on how older generations appropriate and use these technologies, but also on the bodily, technological and spatial entanglements – so-called hybrid healthcare figurations – that emerge through their use. I am interested in how communicative AI shapes new practices and performances of health, care and ageing.

In order to do justice to the lived realities of older adults, I am following a mixed-methods approach. Participatory and ethnographic methods are particularly suitable for revealing the interconnectedness of actors, technology, socio-cultural discourses and socio-material practices. Therefore, the involvement of social actors as co-researchers is a central component of my dissertation.

References

Dalmer, N., Ellison, K., Katz, S., & Marshall, B. (2022). Ageing, embodiment and datafication: Dynamics of power in digital health and care technologies. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 15(2), 77–101.

Höppner, G., & Wanka, A. (2021). un/doing age: Multiperspectivity as a potential for an intersectional view of difference and inequality. Journal of Sociology, 50(1), 42–57.

Manchester, H., & Jarke, J. (2022). Considering the role of material gerontology in reimagining technology design for ageing populations. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 15(2), 181–213.

Wanka, A., & Gallistl, V. (2018). Doing age in a digitised world—A material praxeology of ageing with technology. Frontiers in Sociology, 3, Article 6.

Contact

• Leonie Winterpacht