The document discusses the implications of 'aging in place' policies, emphasizing the tension between promoting home life for seniors and their desire for independence, as shown through narratives of older people's experiences with telecare services. It highlights the social and emotional challenges faced by seniors in adapting to telecare devices that reinforce a domestic lifestyle, while they often seek to maintain an active, external life. The analysis reveals a negotiation process where seniors assert their autonomy against the expectations imposed by telecare professionals and the technologies.

1. Juan C. Aceros ○ Universitat Autònoma de Barcerlona
Jeannette Pols ○ Academic Medical Centre – UvA
Miquel Domènech ○ Universitat Autònoma de Barcerlona
STS and the socio-material constitution of later life
4S/EASST Conference ○ Copenhagen, Denmark ○ 2012

2. Although ‘aging in place’
policies aim to promote living
at home and community in
later life, in practice the
emphasis stands in domestic
settings.

3. Because I do not want to be
[at home] (...) I do everything
I can to go outdoors. Then, a
couple of months ago I left. I
knew that nobody would
come [home] for dinner,
lunch or snack that day. (...)
Then I thought, ‘You will go
to see your girlfriend who
was operated a long time
ago.’

4. I went to see my girlfriend,
but I did not tell anyone. My
God! When I got back home,
they were all [in the
household]! I mean the
whole family! (...) The
granddaughter was crying,
‘Where's Grandma? I don’t
find her!’

5. ‘Domestication’ of old peo-
ple is not a spontaneous
phenomenon.
Telecare services have their
role in the constitution of the
socially expected home-
based later life.

6. The technologies under
examination were first-
generation ‘social alarms’.

8. The man explains that at the beginning he did
not like it because it was like being sick. ‘We
were very scared,’ he says. ‘But now we use it
only when we take a shower or when we are
outside with the plants.’ (...) At this moment,
the volunteer tells them that they have to wear
the pendant always, ‘it is to prevent.’

9. Then the woman says no. She says they will not
wear it always. ‘Initially, we were very scared
but now we only use it when we believe there
is any danger,’ she says. (...) Then the volunteer
tells them that this is a mistake because it is
impossible to know when something bad could
happen.

10. Although the telecare service examined don´t
use to refer to their clients as ‘patients’, it is
prescribing a persistent concern on health to
their ‘users’. Recommending them ‘always’
wear the pendant, the service is asking the
older people to enact an uncertain and
threatening body (see also, López and
Domènech, 2009).

12. … they want you to call them once a month (...) it
is because they want to know if the device is
working. Then, of course, I call them (...) And they
also call me: ‘how are you? Please, remember to
call us once a month, ok?’, they say. (...)

13. It is the same at the end of every month (...) And, of
course, the first day I called them, one year ago, they
asked me if I use the pendant. Because I was not
prepared I could not lie! Then they scolded me, and they
told me: ‘you have to wear it!’ Now, when they ask me
if I wear the pendant I say ‘yes, yes, yes’. Please, do not
say anything to them about it!

14. The only way to press the bottom twice a day is
being at home! So, people have to inform the
telecare provider if they will be outdoors for a
period longer than 12 hours. That way the
‘extended service’ is making relevant the link
between the client and the household: Using it
remaining at home (or not) become an issue for
telecare users.

16. While the technician plans how he will do
the installation, the woman asks ‘what
happens if something happens to me
when I'm not at home’. The technician
explains her that the pendant only works
indoors. She should not go out with the
pendant.

17. ‘So in the street does
not help me’, she
says. Apparently, this
does not like to her.

18. The technician continues filling the forms
(...) When Montse returns to the room,
she looks restless (...). She doesn’t want
to sit down (...) Then, she leaves the room
again. ‘Where are you going?’ the
technician asks. ‘I’m going to the other
room’, she replies. ‘Stay here!’ he says
while she leaves.

19. The woman is going to change her clothes
because she plannes to go outdoors. She
says that the doctor advised her to walk
because she has cardiovascular
problems. (…) It seems that she enters a
small room in the corridor.

20. In a political context where active
participation in community life is
promoted, ‘social alarms’ require old
people to be at home if they want to age
safely.

21. Telecare professionals and volunteers constantly work in
the constitution of a home-based later life. They do it in
different ways, for instance,
(1) pushing an ‘acceptance’ of the necessity of constant
care at home,
(2) introducing and ensuring new home-based tele-care
routines, and
(3) implementing housebound technologies.

22. Telecare clients can reject the place the service
assign to them:
(1) using telecare devices only in specific
situations,
(2) lying about their actual use of the equipment,
(3) refusing their role as telecare users because it
does not fit their ‘active’ way of life.

23. The constitution of a ‘domesticated’ later
life become a challenging and, sometimes,
never-ending negotiation process.

24. Juan C. Aceros ○ juancarlos.aceros@uab.es
Jeannette Pols ○ a.j.pols@amc.uva.nl
Miquel Domènech ○ miquel.domenech@uab.es
Funded by:
European Commission ○ Seventh Framework Programme
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación ○ Programa Nacional de Proyectos de Investigación
European Social Fund and Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca (CUR), Generalitat de Catalunya
Images:
Nuria García ○ nuriagarciaarias@yahoo.es
Bambo ○ bamboridades@gmail.com
Stoke-on-Trent City Council ○ http://www.stoke.gov.uk
Lola ○ http://www.flickr.com/people/lolita8fotos/