Negotiating Dementia Care: How surveillance technologies twist and intertwine with safety, dignity and privacy

TY - ABST

T1 - Negotiating Dementia Care

T2 - The 9th biennial Surveillance & Society conference of the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN)

AU - Albrechtslund, Anders

AU - Meyer, Astrid

AU - Aaløkke, Stinne Ballegaard

N1 - Conference code: 9

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The implicit ambiguity of surveillance as both control and care has been a key theoretical issue in social science research on surveillance practices and technologies since the foundational work of Michel Foucault. This issue also reflects a prevalent socio-technical perspective in which a central factor in considering technology’s effects on society and relationships is always contextual and situational. This paper will explore the ambiguities of surveillance in light of an ongoing research project focusing on the use of technologies for care and control in healthcare of elderly with dementia. Through this case study, we will emphasize how virtual (and sometimes actual) struggles lie in the ambiguities between care and control brought about by surveillance technologies. In doing so, this research project offers insights into how surveillance technologies twist and intertwine with the notions of safety, dignity and privacy that govern caring for a vulnerable group such as elderly with dementia. In the article, we examine how relatives and caregivers struggle with reconciling the use of surveillance technologies with the maintenance of a trustful and considerate relationship with those they look after.

AB - The implicit ambiguity of surveillance as both control and care has been a key theoretical issue in social science research on surveillance practices and technologies since the foundational work of Michel Foucault. This issue also reflects a prevalent socio-technical perspective in which a central factor in considering technology’s effects on society and relationships is always contextual and situational. This paper will explore the ambiguities of surveillance in light of an ongoing research project focusing on the use of technologies for care and control in healthcare of elderly with dementia. Through this case study, we will emphasize how virtual (and sometimes actual) struggles lie in the ambiguities between care and control brought about by surveillance technologies. In doing so, this research project offers insights into how surveillance technologies twist and intertwine with the notions of safety, dignity and privacy that govern caring for a vulnerable group such as elderly with dementia. In the article, we examine how relatives and caregivers struggle with reconciling the use of surveillance technologies with the maintenance of a trustful and considerate relationship with those they look after.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

Y2 - 1 June 2022 through 3 June 2022

ER -