2 results
nine - Fit for purpose
- Edited by Alan Walker, The University of Sheffield
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- Book:
- The New Dynamics of Ageing
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 09 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 28 February 2018, pp 169-192
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Digital technologies are becoming increasingly pervasive and integrated within society. Primarily through the medium of the internet, an ever-expanding range of information, goods, services, entertainment/leisure, educational and social networking opportunities are available. For those who choose and are able to access them, it has long been recognised that such opportunities can deliver a range of social and economic benefits and contribute to improved quality of life (Bradshaw, 2011). For providers, the internet is increasingly regarded as the most cost-effective way to market and deliver services to customers. In the context of global financial pressures, this applies to government as well as commercial service providers. For example, in the UK, the government's digital transformation policy has for some years included a ‘digital by default’ strategy for the delivery of benefits such as Universal Credit (Cabinet Office, 2012). There are far-reaching consequences of this accelerating progression towards online delivery of products and services. Although it offers significant potential for considerable cost savings in the public and the private sector and is delivering growth in profits and opportunities for businesses, for those people who face barriers to the internet, the consequences tend to be negative. The multiple barriers are proving difficult for many older people to overcome successfully. Thus much of this large and growing population is being significantly disadvantaged by the growing dominance of online delivery over traditional forms.
Demographic factors relevant to the ability to make use of digital technologies, including age, education and income, are trends that apply worldwide; the UK divisions are comparable to those of similarly developed nations. Older people represent a growing proportion of the world's population. By 2050, it is projected that a fifth (21%) of the worldwide population) will be over 60 (UN, 2006). The divide between those who are digitally connected and those who are not ‘is real and pervasive’ (Pew Research Centre, 2016, p 11). In 2016, 53.9% of the global population was not connected to the internet (Internet Live Stats, 2016), and in the UK 10.2% (5.3 million adults) had never used the internet (ONS, 2016).
The demographic change over recent decades and the number of people who are still not connected to the internet presents significant challenges for governments and society.
six - Participation and social connectivity
- Edited by Alan Walker, The University of Sheffield
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- Book:
- The New Science of Ageing
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 29 August 2014, pp 181-208
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Extending participation and social connectivity is now widely accepted as central to adding life to years as well as healthy years to life, while participation in the life of the community is seen as critical to well-being (Sen, 1992, p 39), and capable of addressing older people's rights, extending inclusion, reducing exclusion, easing demand on national budgets and building social cohesion. The central conundrums of increasing participation and social connectivity are, first, the intermeshing of personal, local, meso and macro level factors in shaping participation and social connectivity, and second, how the drive towards increased participation can be included in framing policy in such a way that participation is individually meaningful, social connectivity is enhanced and benefits flow to participants and to society in general. Underlying the application of the concepts of participation and social connectivity to older people is the idea that old age places people outside the mainstream: that older people's participation and social connectivity is wanting in scale or scope, that they do want or should want to participate more and that it is chiefly the impediment of old age that constrains their participation. Categorised as outside the mainstream, older people become defined by their age rather than those other salient aspects of their social identity, class, sexuality, ethnicity, education, histories and personal outlook that policy makers and implementers find difficult to respond to in relation to older people. This chapter examines older people's experiences of participation and social connectivity across a range of geographical and social locations within the UK and within low and middle-income countries, in order to test conceptualisations of older people's participation and social connectivity against experience, and to begin to trace the individual, local, meso and macro factors and linkages that need to be addressed to extend meaningful participation and engagement for people who happen to be older.