Grant: Team Grant: More Years / Better Lives

This project investigates fundamental changes in the contemporary experience of later life, at the intersection of digital infrastructures, place and the experience of "being connected". We address a research gap by exploring and theorizing the role of digital communication devices in relation to the modern life course, and aim to make our insights actionable through co-design by involving older people and other relevant stakeholders. The project is contextualized by debates around ageing in place, loneliness and social isolation. The potential of interventions to address these challenges has so far not been realized. To have impact, devices need to be based on a finer-grained understanding of how older people engage with the digital world and experience "being connected". As one of four international research sites, the Canadian workplan focuses on connections between people, digital devices and networks of health expertise.