Aging and the Digital Life Course - (Life Course, Culture and Aging: Global Transformations) by David Prendergast & Chiara Garattini (Paperback)

About the Book

• In recent years there have been many books about aging populations. This book is unique in that it not only focuses on the role and design of technologies for older people around the world but it aims to situate this within local context.
• It is comprised of a carefully balanced mix of empirical and conceptual chapters from leading authors across the field of aging research that have been selected to demonstrate key issues in how we sensitively design, install, and test independent living technologies from multiple perspectives from older adults, their networks, and communities.
• Material and insights from world class academic, public health, and industry studies.

Book Synopsis

• In recent years there have been many books about aging populations. This book is unique in that it not only focuses on the role and design of technologies for older people around the world but it aims to situate this within local context.
• It is comprised of a carefully balanced mix of empirical and conceptual chapters from leading authors across the field of aging research that have been selected to demonstrate key issues in how we sensitively design, install, and test independent living technologies from multiple perspectives from older adults, their networks, and communities.
• Material and insights from world class academic, public health, and industry studies.

Review Quotes

2016 CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE

"Editors Prendergast and Garattini have done an outstanding job bringing to the forefront what it means to age in a digital world. They have broken new ground inasmuch as they explore an everyday phenomenon as an extension of the life course. This text provides a clear path to considering and possibly understanding multiple ways of knowing and assigning meaning to aging... Highly recommended." - Choice

"...a candid look at how technology can and is being used in our aging society. Taken as a collection, these essays make a powerful case for the potential of thoughtful technologies to improve the quality of life of older adults, whether they are aging in place independently or being cared for by family or a professional caregiver." - Huffington Post

"...this book gives a powerful takeaway thought for future research in the aging field: People want to focus on what they can do. Nobody of any age likes to feel they are a burden." - Anthropology Notebooks

"[This volume] is unreservedly recommended as a critically important addition to both community and academic library collections." - Midwest Book Review

"Aging and the Digital Life Course provides an interesting and often thought-provoking read... The editors have succeeded in assembling an engaging and effective compilation from amidst the range of material that might have been included. The authors write clearly and accessibly about their subjects, allowing a wide range of readers (e.g. policymakers, practitioners and academics in engineering, health and social care) to get quickly to grips with a huge diversity of facts and concepts... The chapters are factually well-informed and also theoretically articulated, although some stand out." - Anthropology and Action

"This book presents us with an interesting study of how various technologies, including web-based tools and information and communication technologies, are embedded in particular social processes and experiences of aging and the life course. Instead of taking the usual position that 'technology' is something that is consumed and thrust upon us... this book shows how technologies are themselves a set of relations and processes that are open to change." - Philip Kao, University of Pittsburgh

"...a comprehensive view of a topic that is becoming increasingly important in health care but is often misunderstood and/or undervalued. It presents the actual/potential use of technology for enhancing the lives of older people and their caregivers." - Catherine McCabe, Trinity College Dublin