Digital and analogue spaces of care: How older adults are redefining care practices in the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 changed the way we care. Scholars have long argued that care often requires proximity, especially when it comes to care for, with, and by older adults. With lockdowns and the imposition of widespread public health guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, such as physically distancing and sheltering-in-place, in-person care practices became increasingly difficult. Yet, unlike disasters catalyzed by hurricanes or other natural hazards, physical and communications infrastructures remained largely intact during the pandemic. This situation opened the possibility for shifting care into digital spaces. In this paper, we study how older adults (ages 65 and up) in Canada and the USA navigated this abrupt turn towards digital spaces for care. Our findings are drawn from our larger mixed methods study investigating the everyday COVID-19 pandemic experiences of older adults, children, and teens, examining vulnerability, mobilities, and capacities. Not only are older adults frequently characterized as the recipients of care, but they are also typically (and erroneously) homogenized and stereotyped as vulnerable and tech-unsavvy. Exploring the ways in which older adults have provided, sought, received, avoided, and been denied care during the pandemic thus reveals the complex negotiations, contestations, and emancipatory possibilities of digital spaces of care. Our attention to the accessibility needs of diverse older adults serves as a vehicle for exploring issues of intersectionality in shaping digital care. We describe a range of digital care practices, ranging from telemedicine appointments and app-based communication to web-based volunteering and online social gatherings. We explore digital communication and connection between generations; the potential for such communication during the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, in part due to the massive uptake of digital communication options such as online video conferencing programs. We discuss the mismatch between the possibilities made available through digital architectures and care practices, relations, needs, and desires of older adults. Drawing on feminist theorizations of care, we situate older adults as both givers and receivers of digital care and unpack the intertwining of their agency and vulnerability. Their innovations, spurred in part by diverse experiences with the ageing process, the pandemic, loneliness, joy, and frustrations with care in the digital sphere, suggest radical practices and spaces for inclusive care during and after the pandemic. What is radical about such care is that it is based on everyday, even mundane, elements that often go unremarked, rather than any flashy (monetized) innovations developed by technology companies.