Paper Short Abstract:

In the absence of the possibility of doing away with power relations in participatory practices, how would ethically engaging with them provide new narratives of ageing in the context of assistive technologies?

Paper Abstract:

As assistive technologies (ATs) are incorporated into older people’s everyday lives more than ever, not only have they been criticised for reinforcing ageist stereotypes but also for contributing to certain narratives of desired ageing (e.g. successful ageing, active ageing, or independent ageing). To include older adults' voices, co-production and co-design activities are encouraged in research and practice. Such activities are meant to provide a space in which older participants can phrase their needs and co-shape solutions. However, such methods do not necessarily un-writies ageist stereotypes nor do they problematise the grand narratives of successful/active ageing which in this context interpellates older people as ATs users. Although participatory activities provide space for older adults to practice agency, they do not happen in a vacuum. These activities are situated in policies, narratives, and practices, hence already embedded in power relations. Questions would be: how is agency negotiated and practised when people meet? What subjectivities are welcomed and when? What are the pre-conditions for participation? Analysing ethnographic material from two participatory workshops in a nursing home in Sweden, we discuss power asymmetries connected to age as a co-constitutive part of such workshops. In the absence of the possibility of doing away with power relations, we ask what are the limits and promises of such workshops. How could “staying with the trouble” (Haraway 2016) of not dismissing power asymmetries but ethically reflecting on them provide new narratives of ageing in the context of ATs that go beyond the mentioned grand narratives?